A LIFELINE is being handed to employers by NMS Recruit in a bid to stem the current tide of workplace talent shortages.

New working patterns created by two years of pandemic challenges have totally changed the face of attracting and retaining staff to meet future trading needs – job-seekers are now the ones steering the course of their chosen careers.

And the solution to keeping businesses buoyant as they embrace these changes, says NMS Recruit’s Operations Director Lisa Carew, is for employers to act swiftly in the hiring process.

She said: “It truly is a race against time for employers who are desperate to rebuild their workforce as the economy begins to bounce back.

“The whole face of recruiting has seen massive changes during the pandemic years and now, more than ever, it’s the job-seeking candidates who are in charge.

“If employers find the right one for a particular role, they can’t delay over a job offer. If they do, that person will, in the meantime, have already gone somewhere else.”

The past two years have seen radical changes in attitudes to working practices; with more time to analyse lifestyles, employees began to question their jobs and careers. Then, when businesses started to open up again, many realised they didn’t want the old routines, leaving in droves to pursue new ways of living and working.

The result has been a nationwide pattern of job vacancies and a shortage of talent to fill them, creating one of the biggest challenges ever facing employers.

Lisa continued: “All this has happened at a time when the economy is beginning to get back on its feet. The telecommunications sector – one of our main areas of recruitment – is a perfect example. It’s currently booming and is forecast to grow like we’ve never seen before.

“Office support and customer services, where there’s the flexibility of hybrid working and working from home, are also areas where people are very much in the driving seat in this candidate-driven market and therefore can pick and choose their jobs.”

A massive issue for employers, Lisa explained, is that in this current setting job-seeking candidates can sometimes have up to eight jobs in their sights. 

She said: “Once, candidates would be interested in one job and, if they didn’t get it, would then move on to another and try again. Now it’s a totally different story. They are almost completely in charge and can select whatever job they think best.

“Another interesting take on this is that many candidates want jobs in spheres other than those where they spent their previous working lives. They are choosing other skillsets, different operational areas and a wide range of salaries whereas in the past they would maybe stick to what they had done before.

“It’s a whole new set of experiences they’re after and they know exactly what they want to fit in with their lifestyles.”

She added: “There’s a whole new breed of workforce out there, talented people who have totally a different attitude to the jobs market to the one pre-pandemic.

“Speeding up the recruitment process is our key to solving the growing problem of this workplace talent shortage – knowing exactly what the candidate wants in terms of working day practices, career progression, salary and so on - so we can present employers with an even shorter shortlist to get them in place.

“It means they can then act swiftly and grab the right people for their business – before someone else does.”