Labor Shortage: Find Employees For The Holidays and Beyond
Times are tough for small business owners; everyone is hiring and finding a quality candidate can feel next to impossible. With the unemployment rate being 4.6% in October 2021, employers are struggling to find employees. Many are pulling from an increasingly smaller pool of candidates. With Black Friday and Christmas just around the corner, many business owners are asking more and more “Where can I find employees on such short notice?”.
We’ll share a few of the best options for alleviating your staffing shortage during the holiday season. If you’re in urgent need of new employees, we’ll also explain how LendThrive can help you finance those hirings.
Tips for Finding Employees Quickly During the Labor Shortage
Unfortunately, placing a “Now Hiring” sign in your business’s window isn’t enough when you have to compete in this tight labor market. Placing a job listing on a site like Indeed isn’t much better, as there are literally hundreds of similar job listings in most major cities. These are some of the best things you can do to make your business stand out from the competition, something that’ll signal you’re the ideal employer to work for.
Adjust Salaries and Wages to the Cost of Living
This is both the most expensive way to attract new hires and the most effective. Twenty-twenty-one has seen inflation rise above 6%, and pay needs to keep up with it for you to stand a chance in this tight labor market. If you don’t raise your salaries, even your current employees will be searching for a new job.
Advertise Your Payscale
Everyone is hiring right now, but potential employees aren’t always sure who has the best offer. While you probably can’t give an exact salary number without knowing the candidate’s education or level of experience, you can provide them with a range that’ll let them know your opening is worth pursuing and how the pay stacks up against your competitors.
Define Your Covid Safety Practices
One of the reasons that many people are not returning to the workforce right now is that they don’t feel safe. Companies that stress their commitment to reducing the spread of Covid are more likely to attract these candidates. This commitment could come in the form of a mask policy, upgrades to the business’s ventilation system, rearranging offices to maximize social distances, or a work-from-home policy. These changes should be clearly laid out to attract new hires.
Offer a Signing Bonus
Many employers have been forced to raise their starting salary during the labor shortage to attract quality employees. While this can make your job openings more competitive, it’s a cost that will continue, even after the labor shortage has subsided. A good alternative is to offer a signing bonus, which is a one-time cost. This will also help to retain your employees as they will need to pay back their bonus should they quit before meeting the terms of their contract.
Utilize a Recruitment Agency
One of the best things you can do for your hiring process is to outsource it. Potential employees are drowning in job postings right now, and a highly-qualified one may not find your listing. When trying to figure out where to find employees, a recruitment agency may be your best bet. They can streamline everything, putting job-seekers in touch with the best employers for their skills and weeding out the resumes that aren’t worth your time.
Streamline Your Hiring Process
Are you currently doing three or more interviews with your job candidates? Is a month or more passing between when they apply and when you make them an offer? That schedule simply won’t fly in this labor shortage. Your candidates are interviewing with other businesses simultaneously, and the faster you can make an offer, the more likely you are to get a quality candidate. Look for ways to speed up the decision-making process and cut the interviews down to one or two.
Be Flexible
Everyone needs all hands on deck during the busy holiday season, but flexibility is still key if you want to attract quality employees. Many parents are dealing with school closures and lack of childcare services; to retain them, you’ll need to offer more flexible scheduling. Many job seekers report that they’re looking for remote work or at least a partial work-from-home schedule.
Fund Your Hiring with LendThrive
Most of the remedies for your staffing storage will require more money, which is where LendThrive can help. LendThrive is a member of the AVANA family of companies and offers fixed rate business loans up to $150,000. Loan terms are flexible, allowing you to decide how big and over what time span you’ll make your payments.
The current labor shortage is most likely temporary, but right now you may need extra capital to cover the costs associated with it. Apply for a loan with LendThrive and you can be approved in as little as 24 hours. Contact us today to learn about how we can get you back in business.
