City employers, like many public and private employers, have had trouble filling open positions over the last several months. Here we offer background information on the current labor market and some tips and tricks for recruiting during the “Great Resignation.”

The “Great Resignation”

Employers are struggling to fill open positions as organizations recover from the initial waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some economists and media sources have referred to this period of turnover in the labor market as “the Great Resignation,” referring the unusually high number of workers who are quitting their jobs or are refusing to return to jobs they had prior to the pandemic shutdowns of 2020. Studies have shown that resignation rates remain high in fields like technology, healthcare (especially nursing), and most service industries.

The current tightness in the labor market has been caused by a number of factors that were either exacerbated or laid bare by the pandemic. Many of these factors existed long before the pandemic but were accelerated or intensified by the COVID-19 disruptions. One thing that appears to be clear is that the more generous unemployment benefits offered during the first year and a half of the pandemic (and expired in early September) were not the driving force behind the current labor market conditions and that a larger shift may be underway.

Many workers, especially in low wage service jobs (food service, retail, customer service, etc.) are opting not to return to low wages/benefits and often stressful working conditions. Several of these industries had been experiencing decades of wage stagnation in the years leading up to the pandemic. Workers have also cited continuing fears over contracting COVID-19 as a reason to either stay home or look for jobs that allow the flexibility to work remotely. In some hard-hit sectors, especially healthcare and retail, many employees have experienced burnout due to demanding and inflexible jobs in pandemic conditions. Mid-career workers have also said that a continued lack of affordable childcare has kept them or their parenting partner from returning to work. Some lower-wage workers were also able to use the pandemic driven shutdowns to “skill up” and become qualified for higher paying jobs. Jobs that offer work-from-home flexibility tend to be higher paid.

All these factors have also contributed to the long-brewing retirement wave of Baby Boomers, especially in the public sector, many of whom are now likely out of the job market for good.

Recruiting

As cities look for ways to manage these recruiting challenges, active recruitment efforts are more and more important. The Office of Financial Management recently held a two part seminar offering tips to public sector recruiters on how to recruit and fill positions during the current labor market. The sessions were hosted by Jose Dominguez. He is a former public and private sector recruiter and HR manager, and is currently a recruiter supervisor at the Washington State Health Care Authority. The materials and recordings of the sessions are available here.

Part one of the series focuses on some of the lessons Mr. Dominguez has learned about recruiting in general and how to apply them to the current job market. One key lesson for employers is to understand what top job candidates want and to “always be recruiting,” not just waiting until your organization has an opening to fill. This includes recruiting with a sense of urgency, being proactive, making recruitment a whole team effort, and building a network with partners in the larger community. He also shared his favored candidate sourcing methods, including using past job candidate lists from pervious searches, referrals, returning former employees, Worksource Washington, colleges, and social media. Finally, Mr. Dominguez discusses how he conducts candidate research and offers tips and tricks for using social media for candidate sourcing, research, and outreach.

Part two of the series took place on Dec. 7 but was not recorded, though the PowerPoint presentation was made available at the link above. The session includes Mr. Dominguez’s tips and tricks for “hacking” Linkedin messaging to contact candidates, using social media for candidate searches, and more. Here are a few notes from the session:

• The free version of Linkedin has a limited number of profile searches, views of unconnected profiles, and messages to unconnected profiles per month. Premium accounts eliminate many of those limits but can be expensive. However, recruiters can use other methods to get around these limits.
• One way to make sure a job notice reaches potential candidates is to exploit social engagement within your own network. Mr. Dominguez used an example of a recruiter posting a job notice to her public profile, and in her message including a number of commonly searched terms. She also included a short quiz or challenge to capture a reader’s interest, using popular hashtags to show up in job seekers searches, and encouraged her existing contacts to share, comment, or otherwise engage with her post to ensure that their contacts would see the post.
• Use Linkedin’s free search features to actively look for potential candidates. Recruiters can search an organization’s profile page for their employees using the “People” tab on the organization’s profile. The search can even be narrowed by location or job title. You can perform similar searches in the “People” tabs of Linkedin groups that the recruiter is a part of or events that the recruiter is invited to on Linkedin. None of those searches count against a person’s monthly searches, views, or messages mentioned in the first bullet.
• Refine your online searches using Boolean search language. Mr. Dominguez provides a list of basic Boolean commands and examples.
• Finally, some do’s and don’ts for messaging potential job candidates:
  • Don’t spam the contact.
  • Always send a note when connecting on Linkedin to make the connection more personal.
  • Make it clear that the intent of the message is to move the prospect to the next step. Don’t try to complete the hire in one move.
  • Give prospective job candidates the information they need to take the next step.
  • Don’t mislead and don’t make promises or guarantees.
  • Be honest about any open competitive process, especially for public jobs.
  • Make it easy for the candidate to apply.

In addition to the above techniques, our interview with professional recruiter Greg Prothman (you can listen to that interview here) makes clear that there are other considerations for recruiting in this tight labor market. Regardless of your city’s past recruitment process, you need to be able to move quickly on potential job candidates. In the current environment, making a candidate wait too long before a job offer allows other organizations the opportunity to scoop them out from under you. Cities should also be prepared to pay top dollar to stay competitive and attract the best candidates. Given the potentially high costs of recruitment, cities should not overlook the cost effectiveness of efforts to retain existing staff or promote from within. The labor market is driving wages and benefits up, so giving existing employees a pay bump and/or additional schedule flexibility to stay competitive can help keep current employees on staff and avoid the costs of recruiting and hiring someone new.