What we are witnessing in the world of recruitment is something which generations haven’t witnessed. It is a no brainer that the trust which SMEs and Startups in the country have built in the last five to seven years have taken a major jolt, thanks to the pandemic storm. 

Startups and SMEs were becoming the hottest place in the employment space and things were red and rosy but 2020 has surely turned the color pale and dark.

The COVID-19 pandemic has just opened up the entire recruitment landscape, from a time of hiring freeze to a time of incessant hiring. From a time, when LinkedIn feed was one of the most depressing feed to a time when SMEs are calling back their people. 

The trust rebuilding from the potential employees will take major efforts from the organizations and there will always be a question, “What If ?” 

Having said that, NOW is the ideal time to revisit those hiring strategies, Interview strategies, employer branding initiatives, policies and procedures. Now is the time to make the amends where the organisation can really become Employee first and set the tone for coming years. 

To begin with, building the talent pipeline for SMEs is always very tricky and now with plenty of resources available in the market, it is very difficult to find the right candidates. However, here are few ways in which you can build a strong talent pipeline for SMEs:

Create powerful Internship and Live Project Programs 

Internships and Live Projects are critical part of your pipeline as they have the power to solve most of the talent pipeline challenges. These projects help the managers to have ample time to find the right fit for the team by understanding the candidate’s behaviour, their approach to solve problems and culture fitment. In other words, mangers are getting the test-drive before actually driving the car. These are especially beneficial when you are hiring freshers. Further, the programs help in increasing your visibility among your potential employees and giving the leg up against your competitors.

Building a strong and incentivised referral network 

Referrals are one of the best quality hires because they are directly coming from the people (your current / ex-employees ) who believe in your organization. A continuous referral system is also a very positive sign from a lot of perspectives like engagement, happiness at workplace and attitude of employees towards the employer. 

Career site Experience 

Career site is often an ignored platform because employers are too reliant on job boards and platforms like LinkedIn, Naukri etc. However, an informed candidate will do a deep research before applying and would like to visit the career page to understand the basics of the organizations and if your career page is not up to the mark then you may end up missing out on a talent. Further, with Google for jobs growing exponentially, candidates are more likely to visit your career pages rather than the job boards. Here is how, candidates might search “Social Media Manager jobs in south delhi or near me ” If you can’t get jobs from your company listed on Google for job search results, you are definitely going to lose a lot of traffic coming your way. The way Google can find a list of job openings in your company is by visiting your company career page. Further, a company career page reduces the cost of hiring significantly. 

Building a strong Employer Brand

Employer branding is the favourable reputation among the potential employees of the organization which will always be the distinct advantage when the employer is attracting employees. Money is not always the deciding factor anymore, employees want other considerations such as a good work-life balance, job security, career progression, flexibility, diversity in the workplace and a pleasant work environment. All these aspects play a part in their choice of a workplace. 

Further, understanding the gap between what employees want and what they think employers offer provides valuable insights into building an employer brand. 

A simple 3 pronged approach to create a telling Employer Brand is:

• First: Conducting research to identify expectations
• Second: Formulating the employer value proposition
• Third: Communicating the EVP to internal and external stakeholders

While the Talent requirement for SMEs and startups are skewed, employers must focus on optimizing the resources on hand by leveraging right methods to continuously engaging with active and passive candidates. The three steps for any candidate to become an employee involves: Awareness, Consideration and Decision. 

2021 is dubbed to be the year of comebacks from a long list of setbacks. Let’s get our talent pipeline sorted.