How to make sure you know the top 5% of candidates in the market

With the current surge of candidates in the NZ talent market, it can be a somewhat overwhelming and daunting process for hiring managers.

Amidst this influx of opportunities, come skill mismatches, overwhelming choice, and the need for efficient hiring processes, not to mention a huge amount of time and resources being poured into the screening process, with a high percentage of ads being pulled after only a week on Seek due to volume of applicants.

A dream market for employers, you might say? Well, not necessarily. Amongst the overwhelming choice is often the oversight in ensuring you’re getting the best talent on the market. With ad response volumes sitting high, we’re finding employers hiring directly are only actually considering and engaging with as little as 22% of applicants, with the remainder possibly not ever even being seen and potential unicorn hires being overlooked, without a chance.

With most NZ businesses being SME’s, they often don’t have the luxury of having an in-house, full time recruitment specialist to ensure you’re getting a refined, elite pool of the best. We’re seeing a frenzy of screening taking place and an attitude of “they will do”, with hiring managers often only progressing with the first handful of candidates that look to be suitable amongst the overwhelm.

In an attempt to overcome the candidate frenzy, how can you really be sure that your short term decision isn’t affecting the bigger long term picture for your business? A permanent hire is something not to be taken lightly, and if you’re not choosing your next crucial hire from the entire talent pool, could you be missing out on somebody who could be a better fit for your business? The likely answer is yes.

This is where engaging with a highly experienced agency like Fred comes into play; your shortlisted candidates are a refined, rigorously screened pool of applicants from every avenue (Seek, Linkedin, database pools and professional connections/referrals). When you partner with an agency like Fred, it is our duty to ensure we’ve left no stone unturned. It is our full time job to screen and assess every applicant’s suitability, no matter how many, and the beauty of this is that at the end of it, you can be sure that you’ll be only spending time reviewing, interviewing and hiring from the top 5% of the market, every time.

So, whilst it might be tempting to ride the candidate wave to get those ‘need to fill’ roles filled quickly, the importance of bringing the right people into your business is as important as ever with great talent paying itself back in value tenfold, when we look at the bigger picture.

In a market full of talent, retain your recruitment integrity and ensure that you’ve been introduced to the elite top 5% of candidates. This is your opportunity to hire some of the best talent on the market. Food for thought.