Here is a case study for employing the remote job listing, social media outreach and recruitment services of Search Remotely. Recently, Gartner surveyed approximately 800 human resources leaders from 60 countries spanning all major industries to determine their projected 2023 human resources challenges.
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2023 Top Five Human Resources Challenges
They identified these top five challenges:
- Effectiveness of leaders and top managers
- Adept change management and organizational design
- Engaged employee experience and team dynamics
- Sound recruiting operations
- Capable prioritization of future work trends
Three Drivers of Business and Household Behaviors 2023
As with households, small and mid-sized businesses, the survey respondents indicated that these environmental, societal and business conditions were the primary drivers of the dilemmas for which they are faced:
- Rampant inflation
- Scarcity and increasing cost of top talent
- Global supply bottlenecks
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Four 2023 Employee Expectations of their Employers
The top internal challenges an employer faces are indeed chiefly impacted by internal operations. Coupled with the external pressures of inflation, scarcity of talent and global supply chain problems, employers are facing heavy headwinds. Finally, to throw into the mix are potential employees, or applicant pool who hold increasing high expectations. faced by major employers. Employer participants of the Gartner survey report that these new employee expectations have significant implications for recruitment, attraction and retention;
- Flexible work policies (remote work, hybrid options and work from home arrangements)
- Active engagement in special interests held by employees
- Health and well-being benefits
- Validation of the employee as a person, not just an employee
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We break down why these problems are particularly worrisome for corporate leaders.
Employers Lacked Experience in Remote Work Arrangements
Before Covid-19 by some estimates, approximately 80% of employers did not have a remote-work program before the onset of Covid-19
- In the past, it is estimated between 6% (7 million workers) to up to 12% of workers in the US worked from home at least one day (or more) per week prior to Covid
- The crisis forced companies to adapt doubling to tripling the number of workers working virtually at least one day/week
Changing Environmental Landscape
Ineffectiveness of Corporate Leaders and Traditional Organizational Processes not Suitable for Changing Environment
In the past, organizational development and traditional human resource models were designed to meet the needs of an in-person/in-office forms of supervision, motivation and employee engagement.
Please see the following landmark organizational development studies and how they impacted ways in which managers and supervisors engaged with their employees:
- In 1909, Frederick Winslow Taylor conducted organizational development studies and theories that companies are more profitable when workers are treated as widgets. In this case, each task should be completed as efficiently as possible without regard to the human element. This theory was coined the Scientific Management Theory.
- A few years later, during the period 1924 to1932, Elton Mayo coined the ‘Hawthorne Effect.’ In essence the Human Relations Management Theory turned the Scientific Management Theory on its head. This theory posits that when workers are given special attention from their supervisors:
- their productivity increased when under direct observation
- they completed their work tasks while exhibiting their best behavior
Please be mindful that prior to Hawthorne Studies, it was believed that money, salary, hourly pay was the greatest motivator for the individual worker.
- At the present time, we now see that workers will take an actual pay cut to participate in a remote work program. Recent studies demonstrate:
- 50% of US workers will take up to a 5% cut in pay to work from home
- Other data suggest that the acceptable cut can be as low as 1.7% and as high as 7.0%
This data is consistent with the results of the Gartner study, where it was found that corporate leaders are most effective when they exhibit the following characteristics:
- Authenticity
- Empathy
- Flexibility
Traditional Methods of Recruitment Misses its Mark
Traditional applicant sourcing, recruitment and onboarding practices have been upended
After the onset of Covid-19, the recruitment world turned on its end. The above data may contrast with earlier information. For instance, in 2019, prior to Covid-19, Harvard Business Review (HBR) highlighted the fact that business was booming and top talent was hard to find. HBR reported upon information to show that hiring was at a rapid pace and at the same time talent acquisition costs were soaring.
In spite of the intense focus spent on talent acquisition costs were soaring, after an analysis of HBR, that the value add may not have reflected the costs.
Peter Cappelli, in “Your approach to hiring is all wrong,” suggested that the traditional process of onboarding new talent consisted of:
- Conducting a job analysis by identifying required tasks and desirable attributes of the preferred candidate
- Evaluating the job as it relates to the corporate organizational chart
- Posting job listings after determining salary range in comparison with other jobs
- Sorting applicants based upon results of skills assessments, reference checks and intelligence inventories
- Conducting interviews to learn more about the applicants and to assess applicant fit
- Extending a job offer to the preferred candidate
Prior to 2019 and according to Korn Ferry, approximately 40% of US companies outsourced main functions of the recruitment process. It was indicated that subcontractors from India and the Philippines were used to scrape popular job search platforms and social media to find potential candidates.
Talent Retention Resumes Top Status
Talent retention is back in the forefront as corporations can not afford to dismiss its importance
According to HBR, employee promotion from within was the standard practice up to 1970s for about 90% of the companies in the most recent past. By 2019, less than 33% of American companies follow this practice. Basically, corporations have been known to poach top performing employees from their competition. This allows them to forego training and employee development costs.
In 2019, it was striking that less than 30 percent of recruiters reported that candidates were generally sourced internally for filling job vacancies. At the time, HBR rationalized that major employers spent less time and resources on internal development with less clear pathways for upward career advancement.
The lack of promotions and bleak opportunities for professional development creates a vicious cycle. LinkedIn data demonstrates prior to Covid-19, the main reason why employees jump ship to another firm is because their current employer fails to offer them chances at promotion, career advancements, lateral assignments for professional and leadership development.
That said, the reason why the retention is ever more difficult in 2022 and beyond says Gartner, is that remote work, hybrid and work from home arrangements make the difficult task of employee retention even more cumbersome.
Job Candidates Hard to Attract and Harder to Convert
Potential candidates are harder to attract and even harder to convert to solid applicants
Our CEO has personal and professional experience as a digital nomad. Her dissertation was written to help address the problems associated with an overseas assignment. Without reliable internet connections, device accessibility, fast internet speed, and e-tools necessary for document sharing, communication, team collaboration and project management; the early withdrawal from an overseas assignment was the norm.
Further, on account of the family stressors brought about by an overseas assignment. accompanying spouses of international executives experienced the loss of professional identities, lack of career opportunities and advancement were prevalent.
Covid-19 changed all of that. Remote work, working from anywhere and working from home has been normalized.
Use Case for Search Remotely
With these positive advancements, the scarcity of remote workers who are experienced in the surmounting the nuances of remote work challenges and our intimate connections to them is why major employers, small and mid-sized firms hire us for their sourcing, recruitment needs, and social media outreach.
We do the following:
- assists companies to scale up their remote teams effectively through recruitment
- post remote job vacancies
- talent pool of qualified remote work applicants (with experience working fom home; and if they lack the experience show that have been trained)
- skilled recruiters who have worked virtually, were/are digital nomads/ have experience leading remote teams
- have a team who source, interview our own pool of candidates, and then work closely with the employers to ensure they get the best hire for that position
- have alliance with international, global background screening companies for background services
- use visual storytelling to captivate audience
- social media images
- social media platforms
- helps individuals to be able to tele-commute
- thousands of remote job listings
- expand an online funnel of capable young people interested in apprenticeship programs (remote light product assembly, carpentry, crafts, graphic arts, video, gaming design, building trades)
- online academy for upskilling
- co-work, co-living, mobile friendly hotspots
- conducts corporate, group and individual training on specific remote work challenges
- provide consultations and professional development
- digital literacy and soft skills
- remote work policies
- prevention of employee misconduct
- setting up an administrative investigations program
- complaints and whistleblowing systems
Search Remotely is the premier remote job search platform, providing a plethora of services to assist the remote first employer. We hope you will try us today!
