Skilled Talent Shortage Impacting Creative and Financial Industries

The pesky skills gap continues to be a challenge for many recruiters and hiring managers in the creative and financial industries. Add in the tight labor market, because of low unemployment, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster … well, not really “disaster,” but it’s definitely not helping your hiring teams. In fact, these challenges may be slowing down your overall hiring process.

Longer ‘Time-to-Fill’ Impacting Financial Industry

In a new Robert Half Finance & Accounting survey of chief financial officers (CFOs), more than nine in 10 (93%) said it’s challenging to find skilled candidates for professional-level positions. As a result, respondents said their search could take a month or more—4 weeks, on average, to fill a staff-level accounting or finance position and 5 weeks to hire for a management-level role.
As we know, candidates hate waiting, and previous Robert Half research drives this point further home. As it found 69% of workers lose interest in a position if they don’t hear back from a company within 2 weeks of an interview.
Robert Half offers some suggestions on how to speed things up, but saying, “Ways to accelerate the hiring process include prioritizing the most critical attributes for the job rather than trying to find someone who checks every box, and working with a recruiting firm. Employers also must maintain communication with candidates to keep them engaged.”
Having a speedy hiring process is great for any industry, and especially more so for creative professionals—who are in high-demand.

5 Trends Impacting Creative Teams

From technological developments to shifting working dynamics, there’s no question that today’s creative teams are challenged by constant and speeding up change, according to The Creative Group.
In collaboration with the professional association for design—AIGA—The Creative Group surveyed over 1,000 workers in the creative and marketing industries to find out how they feel about their jobs, companies, and career prospects.
The research uncovered the following five trends impacting these industries:

1. Technology is both a blessing and a curse. Forty-five percent of industry professionals feel advances in technology will create greater employment opportunities for them. However, a majority (88%) said that keeping their skills up to date will be difficult.
2. Digital improvements are needed. Forty-five percent of respondents said their company is slow to adopt new technology, and 70% rated their employer’s efforts to prepare them for such adoption as fair or poor. When asked what technical skill they’d most like to develop, the top response among creatives was web and user experience design.
3. Workers crave more flexibility. Nearly seven out of 10 professionals (69%) wish they could work remotely more frequently than they currently do. Respondents also ranked in-person meetings as the most effective communication method.
4. Creatives are eager to make a career move. Sixty-one percent of industry practitioners said they are more confident in their professional prospects compared to 1 year ago. In addition, 60% said it’s likely they’ll look for a new job in the next 12 months. The top reason creatives are considering leaving their current company is limited career growth opportunities.
5. Freelance hiring is heating up. Thirty-seven percent of creative teams expect to rely more heavily on project professionals in the next 3 years, mainly to help with heavy workloads. Graphic design, web design, video production, and photography are the top areas of freelance hiring.

“Creative teams are under increasing pressure to innovate and use new technology to solve business problems and deliver improved customer experiences,” says Diane Domeyer, Executive Director of The Creative Group. “To meet growing demands, companies are relying on a mix of talent, from full-time employees to project professionals. This flexible staffing approach offers many benefits, including cost savings and access to a broader talent pool.”
Domeyer adds, “To recruit and retain top creative talent in today’s competitive environment, it’s no longer enough to offer attractive pay. Companies must also foster a positive workplace culture where employees have access to the latest tools to do their best work and opportunities to grow their careers without leaving the firm.”

7 Tips for Streamlining the Hiring Process

If you’re looking to recruit financial and creative professionals, you can streamline the hiring process using these seven tips from Robert Half:

1. Sharpen the job description. Accurately describe the skills needed for the position but focus on three or four crucial responsibilities that top applicants must have.
2. Reconsider rigid requirements. A laundry list of needed skills and credentials risks eliminating excellent candidates who might require only a little additional training.
3. Seek soft skills. Communication, attention to detail, and enthusiasm for ongoing learning are attributes that help indicate long-term potential and an organizational culture fit.
4. Predetermine hiring parameters. Make sure all approvals for the position are in place with a flexible compensation range so an offer can be made quickly to a top candidate.
5. Consolidate Coordinate schedules with internal interviewers. If you need to bring back the candidate for a second round, aim to do so the next day.
6. Stay in touch. Candidates can lose interest in the position if kept waiting. Be proactive when providing updates and respond promptly if they have further questions.
7. Work with a recruiting firm. Recruiters can help with time-consuming aspects of the hiring process and present skilled candidates for consideration in a timely manner.

Bonus tip: Always remember to keep the candidate experience top of mind!