Finding skilled workers is a challenging but necessary part of business. You can only hire complete randoms for so long before you need someone who has a specific skill set. After all, your business is only as competitive as the work you do.
Over the years of dealing with the headache of hiring and firing workers, I have found that searching for qualified candidates is well worth the effort.
This article is all about how to find skilled workers who have the exact skill sets you need. Read on to learn how to find and attract your dream employees.
Why You Should Know How to Find Skilled Workers
Skilled workers make the difference between struggle and success. Whether you have an established business looking to expand or an entrepreneur who just needs a hand, your workers are the backbone of your company.
The Hiring and Firing Cycle
While you can get lucky once in a while and find a star player on happen chance, the reality is that employees could leave at any point. When faced with this dilemma, many business owners will scramble to find a replacement. They hastily hire someone else, the new worker struggles, and they end up firing and searching for another replacement.
This hiring and firing cycle continues on for months or sometimes years until another A-player comes along at random. You can imagine the cost and lost time associated with this ineffective hiring practice.
Hiring The Right Person from the Start
When you have the ability to find and attract skilled workers for various positions, you can have confidence that you’ll easily replace workers no matter what happens.
The key to growing a talented and capable workforce is to take the time to search for the right candidates.
Where to Find Skilled Workers
Skilled workers might seem like unicorns in your line of work, but when you look in the right places, they’re actually quite easy to find.
Traditional Hiring Channels
Traditional hiring channels can still be a source of skilled workers. Job boards, employment agencies, and newspaper classifieds have long been utilized by business owners to find potential candidates. These platforms allow you to cast a wide net, reaching a large audience of job seekers.
However, while traditional hiring channels can provide a volume of applicants, they often require sorting through many unqualified candidates to find the gems. So have patience and look carefully for applicants with potential when exploring these channels.
Outsourcing Platforms
Utilizing outsourcing platforms is one of the best ways to find skilled workers in the modern day. Outsourcing platforms allow you to access a global talent pool as well as sort workers by skill set.
Instead of taking a spray-and-pray approach with classified ads, you can post a detailed job description and invite qualified people to apply.
On top of that, I have found that the hiring process is much faster and easier than the traditional approach. In fact, I have personally posted a job description, hired someone, and got them working all in the same day.
Many platforms also integrate ongoing communication and payment processes into their workflows. So for a small fee, you can minimize the stress involved with managing workers across multiple systems.
The one downside is the remote aspect of this kind of digital hiring. Remote work is fine if you work in digital services, but not ideal if you work in construction.
Recruitment Agencies
When you’ve exhausted other options, recruitment agencies can be a valuable resource in your search for skilled workers. They have the advantage of having extensive networks of potential applicants and a deep understanding of the labor market, which can expedite the hiring process significantly.
Recruitment agencies have expertise in vetting and matching candidates to job requirements. This allows you to access a pre-screened pool of qualified applicants.
However, agencies typically cost a pretty penny – often a percentage of the hired candidate’s first-year salary. This can be a significant expense for small businesses or startups.
Additionally, I have found that recruitment agencies are often motivated to push their candidates over the “finish line” (ie. get them hired) to get paid. This can sometimes lead to misalignment between your needs and the applicants’ needs.
Ultimately, leveraging a recruitment agency can be a great way to find skilled workers, but the cost and the complexity of competing priorities can be more headache than needed.
How to Craft an Attractive Job Posting
Once you know where to find skilled workers, you need to make the deal nice and sweet to get them to work for you – that is where an attractive job posting comes in.
A good job posting should clearly articulate what the job entails, who the job is for (required skillset), the benefits offered to the employee, and a call to action.
Understanding What You Need
Before you start crafting your job posting, make sure you really understand what you need in a worker. How can you hope to find the right person if you don’t even know what you’re looking for?
Outline an employee “wishlist” which includes all the characteristics of a dream employee. Get really detailed and include items such as:
- Years of experience
- Specific skills
- Personality traits
- Work ethic
- Values
- Cultural fit
This “wishlist” will serve as a guide when crafting your job posting and help you narrow down the pool of applicants to those who are truly qualified for your specific needs.
Note: You probably won’t ever find the PERFECT candidate. However, you can shoot for the moon and end up among the stars. Aim to get someone that has MOST of the qualifications and minimize the amount of training needed.
Understand What the Talent Wants
When you’re looking to hire a skilled worker, what the employee wants is equally important to what you want.
The reality is that skilled workers have options. Because they have the qualifications that you want, that means they have the qualifications that others want as well. This means that you have to provide a good work situation to win them over.
In this article about how to get people to work for you, I explain how to make a good work environment where people want to work. Here are some of the things that workers look for in a good job:
- Meaningful Work
- Growth Opportunities
- Recognition
- Good Communication
- Fairness
- Respect
- Strong Values
- Good Pay and Benefits
Think about the job from the employee’s perspective when you’re writing your job description and watch skilled workers flock to it like flies to honey.
Clearly Define the Role
Once you know what you want and what the candidate wants, you need to articulate this into a well-formulated role.
The Power of Storytelling
The best way to attract skilled workers is by showing them what it’s like to work for you through storytelling.
A good story should paint a clear picture of what it would be like for the candidate should they get the job.
Here are the general steps of a compelling story:
- Where they are now – a quick outline of where the applicant is in life right now.
- The call to adventure – the general opportunity presented in your line of work.
- The roadblock – how many opportunities don’t meet the needs of the candidate.
- The Opportunity – how you structured your job differently.
- The end result – what life will be like working for you.
Combined together, a job posting story could look something like this;
Are you disillusioned with your current work situation? Working long hours for minimal pay without any opportunities to get ahead.
Many people are, and that’s why they start looking into getting a digital marketing job. Digital marketing allows you to work on your own time, use creative thinking to solve complex problems, and allows for tons of opportunities to move up in pay.
But many digital marketing jobs use the same old job 9-5 job structure – rigid processes, boring work, and minimal growth opportunities.
That’s why at XYZ Company, we are dedicated to providing highly dynamic roles for talented digital marketers. We believe that innovation and productivity happen when we have a team of focused and engaged individuals.
If you want to be part of a high-performing team of winners that are pushing the limits of digital marketing, getting recognized for hard work, learning and growing every day, and ultimately generating high compensation – make sure you apply for this position.
When you structure your job posting as a story, you can transform your description from boring drivel into an exciting new opportunity.
Include a Call to Action
After describing your job opportunity in detail, be sure to include a strong call to action (CTA). You want to make it as easy as possible for candidates to take the next step.
Your CTA could be to send an email, fill out a form, or click on a link (if you’re using a digital platform). Whatever you choose, always make it easy to see and tell people to do it RIGHT NOW.
Summary
Finding skilled workers is a tricky task that can plague many businesses for years. But don’t worry, if you follow the advice in this article, I can guarantee that you can set up a solid process that will serve you for the long term.
Whether you’re using traditional channels, modern outsourcing platforms, or hiring an agency to spoon-feed you candidates, don’t lose sight of the “attraction factor”. Remember, skilled workers have options. Make your position and job posting as attractive as possible and you’ll be well on your way to finding your dream employees.
