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Apr 29, 2015

Finding the best talent for your organization isn’t always easy, and in today’s job market, it can be downright difficult.

According to Bullhorn recruiting firm’s 2015 North American Staffing and Recruiting Trends Report, 75 percent of the 1,285 agency recruiting professionals surveyed reported a “skills shortage” in the industries they recruit in.

In an effort to bridge the widening skills gap, employers and hiring managers need to take down the hiring barriers and move their search for talent outside of their own backyard. That means re-evaluating the typical arguments against national, even global hiring in order to develop a long-distance candidate search that will help organizations connect with the best talent available.

Is your organization’s local hiring strategy keeping you from finding the best talent? If so, here are four reasons your organization should consider looking for talent outside your own backyard:

1. Hiring outside your backyard expands your talent pool

When you look outside your local area for candidates, you are expanding your talent pool.

With more potential talented candidates to choose from, your odds of finding a candidate with the right skills to fit your needs increase dramatically. Yes, you may have more resumes to review and more candidates to interview, but spending a little extra time on these tasks is better than missing out on great talent.

2. Candidates are more open to relocation than you think

One of the bigger arguments against a long-distance hiring strategy is that organizations don’t want to waste time recruiting candidates who probably won’t relocate.

Recent research, however, paints a different picture.

In May 2014, TheLadders found that 35 percent of job seekers were actively looking to relocate in order to find a new position. In order to find these candidates, your organization should build a candidate-search strategy that focuses on skills, not geography.

If you want to increase your chances for attracting top out-of-town talent, consider helping candidates by defraying or covering their relocation costs.

3. Long-distance interviewing is easier than you think

Another common misconception about long-distance recruiting strategies is that they are expensive.

In the past, interviewing promising candidates from different states or countries meant paying for transportation, lodging and sometimes meals. Do this for several candidates, and things get expensive.

Today, technology makes interviewing out-of-town candidates much simpler. With the emergence of video interviewing, video conferencing and other software that allows for face-to-face employer-candidate interactions, organizations can now easily communicate with candidates from all over the world, at little cost to either party.

4. Not all employees need to step foot in the office

If you still aren’t sure about taking your talent search outside your backyard, consider your company’s remote working policies. Does your organization employ remote workers?

If yours is like many of today’s top organizations, you may already have some employees that you manage from home. If not, consider incorporating remote work policies into your organizational framework. Not only will it create more opportunities for your current employees, but remote work opportunities and virtual workplaces are good ways to attract top talent, from outside your talent pool.

Looking outside your own backyard

Expanding your talent pool by looking outside your own backyard is the best way to attract top talent and find candidates with the skills you need. In order to connect with the best talent, think about how your organization can implement these long-distance candidate search strategies in 2015 and beyond.

Does your organization hire from outside the local candidate market? What strategies do you use to connect with talent outside your state or country?

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