Any business director or manager is aware of the stakes involved in recruitment. Indeed, one wrong choice and a whole team’s stability can be affected…
And when you’re a service company, and you’re selling man-hour, it is even more strategic not to make any mistake (even if it does happen).
Whether it’s our clients, our partners or even Furious itself, we are all confronted with this major challenge: finding the rare gem who will be a real asset to your team.
The ESN, communication and digital agency market is saturated: a significant amount of turnover (due to the lack of a proper employee/company collaboration?), a shortage of qualified profiles and, consequently, a race for obscene salaries to successfully recruit (and retain) the best elements.
However, salary is insufficient. We have already referred to this in our article on the good reasons to evaluate employee satisfaction.
And when we are competing with advertisers or market behemoths, we can’t always compete. And yet, the smaller the team, the more important it is to have an excellent profile!
Puzzle…
So how to recruit the best profiles in a highly competitive market?
Step into the shoes of your recruits
In the same way that personas are used to understand the ultimate consumer, it is important that as a recruiter you try to step into the shoes of your future recruits.
This allows you to discover alternative sources of motivation besides salary. Let’s talk about the exploding trend of Remote.
Oyster conducted a major survey among workers in professional occupations and service companies in North America (USA and Canada), the UK and Europe (including France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and Denmark).
The results indicate that flexibility in the working environment, location and working hours is a key factor in the choice of a new job. It is even the second priority for all age groups, with “the possibility of working from anywhere” coming in third place. Of course, the Covid effect has reinforced this demand.
In summary:
- 72% of respondents stated that they work remotely at least part-time.
- 59% expect to be able to work from anywhere
- 81% stated that remote working has become more important since the pandemic.
- 79% claimed that balancing professional and personal life has become more important since the pandemic.
- 44% stated that remote working is one of the three most important factors in choosing the most appropriate company.
According to a Forbes article on September 4, 2022, LiveCareer, which surveyed several generations of employees on their expectations, reveals that all of them now expect flexibility (76% of Millennials, 69% of Generation Z and 64% of Generation X expressing this expectation).
Furious is there to assist and manage teams on a daily basis, wherever they are, to anticipate needs and ultimately to lighten the mental load and give time back to those who do the work.
Indeed, the broadest sense, we believe that digital technology is at the service of people – rather than vice versa – and can improve everyone’s daily lives: more inclusive, less workload, fewer geographical constraints, better organisation of flows and the possibility of automating what is of less added value.
This conviction obviously applies to our own internal operations.
Furious is a FULLY remote company. Our employees can work from anywhere they want as long as they respect their clients’ / team’s time zone. This means they can do their best work from wherever they feel most happy, including our flexible offices all over the world. In fact, more than half of the teams do not live close to the office.
Because the real talents are not necessarily in the same field… Moreover, offering a balance between personal and professional aspirations is a major factor in recruitment. Flexibility in working hours is also an asset. At Furious, only results matter, not the time spent on the job.
Of course, this type of organisation involves several things:
- Firstly, you should keep in mind that working remotely is not for everyone. Junior profiles are more likely to get bored or have difficulties not being in daily contact with colleagues and managers. At Furious, we tend to target experienced profiles, who are likely to have a family life and the ability to be responsible and independent. We are therefore in line with “our target market” 😉
- Structural communication: regular team meetings, internal chat, proven onboarding/training programme. Remote working should not be synonymous with ” loneliness in front of your PC “.
- The ability to offer virtual and physical meetings throughout the year, which keeps the corporate spirit alive and strengthens ties.
- Having the ability to manage and monitor teams remotely. Spoiler: Furious is there for that 😉
Reconsider your employer brand
Similar to your marketing approach towards your business targets, it is obvious that in order to attract the right profiles, you need to communicate clearly with potential future collaborators to enhance your image.
This is why marketing has been integrated into the HR departments of companies: competition is fierce to attract the best talent and employer branding is a communication strategy in itself!
Your corporate values and the benefits of working with you should be clearly stated.
There are various platforms, from recruitment platforms to the career page of your website, and of course to your social networks, especially LinkedIn.
Like any other brand platform, the first question to ask is “could any of my competitors have said the same thing?”
If the answer is yes, biiiiiip, work on it again!
Your company’s image must be both attractive and distinctive.
Be careful, your employer brand is not only intended for the outside world: your internal populations will also be exposed to it and it is a support for HR management.
It is therefore essential that what you advocate externally should be a reflection of what you implement ‘in real life’.
Nothing worse than a great display but contradictory internal feedback on social networks!
In fact, employer branding is not only about attracting the best candidates, but also about the loyalty of those candidates.
In a competitive sector such as agencies, consultancies and start-ups, the opportunities for a job change are abundant.
The younger generation is particularly sensitive to the values and authenticity of the company they work for.
At Furious, for example, we wanted to go further in our social and environmental commitment and this really matters to the whole team. We donate 1% of our turnover each year to humanitarian or environmental causes via the onepercentfortheplanet.fr programme. Whether we make profits or not.
This initiative, which we had not systematically highlighted in our job offers, is now specified. . Because it is a distinguishing point in our market
Equip yourself with the right tools
If your mother used to tell you that we only work well with the right tools, she was right!
If you want to be efficient in your recruitment and HR follow-up, it is obvious that you need good dashboards to manage and monitor
Just as an effective, connected and ergonomic CRM is a plus for the performance of your sales representatives, so is your HRIS.
From our intelligent recruitment workflows, through HR quality management (employee onboarding, annual interviews, automatic assessment, one-click leave management, teleworking, automated collaborator satisfaction questionnaire), to team management and internal requirements, we have thought of everything to simplify your life.
On the recruitment side, Furious connects to your various contact platforms and enables you to automatically manage applications. You can sort, reply and follow the recruitment process directly within the system.
And for your collaborators, Furious helps you to monitor their careers: management of interviews, collection of client/team feedback, notes and comments from collaborators on their various projects, internal “mood” campaign, etc. You won’t forget anything!
Furious also centralises all absence management: with one click on the schedule, your collaborator can request leave or teleworking. It’s simple for them, and strategic for you: get unparalleled statistics and data cross-referencing. All this obviously connected to the payroll.
Furious also enables the connection between the needs of the teams (broken table? missing coffee?) and those able to respond to them. A workflow and notification system allows the follow-up of all requests and responses.
In short, what you need to bear in mind is that when your recruitment challenge is crucial in a tight market, it is essential to consider a real HR strategy, just as you would not consider conquering new markets without a powerful commercial strategy.
Beyond the salary, you need to think about the benefits that will appeal to your HR targets. Then communicate effectively on your employer profile, while remaining consistent with who you are. Finally, good tools like Furious exist to help you manage your recruitment and HR follow-up!
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