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How to Attract & Hire Top Talent in a Recession

June 5th, 2023 | 1 min. read

By Keith Edwards

How to attract and hire top talent in a recession - New Mexico HR Services

If you’re finding it difficult to hire employees, you’re not alone. In today’s economy, hiring new employees has become more costly and difficult for many companies. Bloomberg reports that many businesses are struggling to find people who currently want to work - in fact, 42 percent say they have jobs they can’t fill. The number of people quitting jobs right now is also higher than average.

In order to attract and hire quality talent, companies need to show prospective hires the benefits of working for them and their advantages compared to their competitors. This article discusses tips for employers to attract and hire top talent in a competitive market under recession.

Tips for Attracting Talent

Emphasize on Benefits

A job provides not only a paycheck, but also opportunities for employees to do meaningful work, contribute to their community, make friends, develop skills, receive training, advance their careers, and fund their retirement. Employers may be able to leverage these benefits to appeal to those who have removed themselves from the workforce. By providing attractive benefits packages and structure, employers can attract more quality talent and recruit more employees quickly. 

Provide Flexibility

Flexibility is a key component for many potential applicants, much more so now that in-person school and childcare have become scarce. Since younger children cannot be left to fend for themselves while their parents are at work, something has to give. Employers that provide flexibility - either through the initial scheduling of shifts or the ability to rearrange working hours on the fly - will likely receive more applicants and have a lower rate of turnover.

Offer Competitive Pay

Other potential employees may be willing to work if they feel the pay is competitive and sufficient to cover the costs of working (transportation, childcare, insurance premiums, etc.). Of course, most businesses don’t relish the idea of paying employees higher-than-usual wages, but there’s good reason to believe that increased pay is a good investment, especially for people in traditionally lower-paying jobs. When people are preoccupied with bills, debts, and other forms of scarcity, they tend to be less productive and make more mistakes. But, when scarcity isn’t taxing their mental bandwidth, they’re able to be more productive, make fewer mistakes, and increase business profitability.

Final Thoughts on How to Attract Talent

Employers can also reach out to our HR consulting experts to get guidance and support on how to hire top talent more efficiently. 

To learn more about how Payday's HR Consulting Services are helping businesses around the country stay compliant, contact us today.

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Keith Edwards

Keith Edwards is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a former U.S. Army Captain. He has over 34 years of leadership experience in government, financial services, manufacturing, retail, and non-profit organizations. He assists businesses in improving the bottom line through increased efficiency in payroll processing, time and attendance, employee benefits, and human resources. His goal is to allow your business to focus on revenue-producing activities instead of non-revenue-producing activities to allow business leaders to sleep better at night knowing they are protected from threats related to compliance and tax/financial issues in the areas of payroll and HR.