The process of sourcing talent has become more competitive over the past few years. A confluence of factors including rising wages, skill shortages, and the demand for flexible work hours and location have led us to an employment market where hiring managers face real difficulty in finding the candidates they need.
A number of solutions to this problem have been slowly surfacing, but each requires trade-offs. As an example, many firms have chosen to make their job listings more competitive by offering unique or desirable benefits, such as unlimited PTO or a stipend for well-being. Though this method does increase applications, it also requires additional investment, and doesn’t ensure that candidates are qualified.
One way to effectively access the talent you need is by hiring those who have already proven themselves. Consultants who have previously completed assignments are largely overlooked when future roles become available, often returning to the job market and taking their experience with them. By tapping these consultants for continued deployment opportunities, businesses gain the advantages of candidate reusability, outlined below.
Transferable Skills
There are few things as important as relevant experience when searching for a candidate who can meet the demands of a role. In some cases, consultants may even have had prior engagement with your company, and gained process familiarity that will enable them to produce results from day one. Looking for those with demonstrable skills and industry expertise saves valuable time, and increases the chances that they will succeed.
Access to this information is much more easily obtained when their work record has been vetted and reported on, as with candidates who are eligible for redeployment. Even if they lack experience with your particular company, they may have similar experience in recent roles that will arm them with transferable skills you may not find from most of the candidates applying through a job board.
Cost Savings
Candidate reusability leads to less time spent onboarding and training, but this hiring strategy can also represent a large cost savings, as SIA notes. Those with demonstrated experience won’t need to be retrained from scratch, which makes investment in prior training a move with long-term dividends for candidates who work multiple deployments.
The lower cost overall is also seen in recruitment effort savings, leading to an easier and faster transition for all parties. Candidate searches that take longer than planned can have costly consequences, as projects wait to start and competitive edge is put at risk. With experienced consultants at your fingertips, you need only plan ahead to move talent where you need it, when you need it.
Lasting Relationships
Contract work is not known for inspiring long-term loyalty, but this doesn’t need to be the case. If you keep the talent that works well with your organization supplied with assignments, they can grow to trust and remain with you. As suggested above, nurturing your existing relationships with valuable candidates has quantifiable benefits as well.
Those consultants who are adaptable and responsible should have their effort recognized with new opportunities. When they are, this sets an example for new hires. Others will learn that continued work depends on learning and up-skilling themselves in each role, and by producing the desired results. When you build upon relationships with candidates and offer continued support, they can become evangelists who will refer their own contacts, so be sure to encourage this through a rewarding referral program.
Redeployment As A Hiring Best Practice
Setting up your own private talent pool requires planning and preparation. The first step is to be in contact throughout the duration of an assignment, learning how they have developed in the role, and what they are looking to do next.
If you’re just getting started, consider those on your roster who are already available, or coming available from a prior assignment. It’s important to have a process in place to plan for redeployment before assignments end, so you can give preference to those who have been successful, rather than allowing them to churn.
Whether you are hiring contractors directly or utilizing experienced staffing experts like Aditi, there are a number of cost-savings and efficiencies to benefit from by redeploying candidates.
Learn More
At Aditi Consulting, we utilize our Redeployment Program to pull from an existing pool of proven, qualified consultants when hiring for our clients. You can learn more about this program and what our candidates can do to drive your business initiative forward by contacting us.