Organisations need to invest more effort into attracting and retaining candidates as the talent market is transcending from employer-driven to candidate-driven. The findings of a report by Talent500 and ANSR reveal that organisations need to have novel recruiting strategies that fit the current demands.

The study offers a comprehensive analysis of how India’s technology professionals view the job market in 2023 and beyond.

Here are the five key takeaways of the study that received responses from more than 10,000 professionals

A surge in the number of active candidates looking for jobs despite recessionary fears

Around 60% of the participants admitted that they are actively looking for a job due to rumors of recession, fear of getting fired and a possible economic downturn. Twenty eight per cent of those surveyed have no plan to look for a job while 12% are open to exploring new opportunities.

Employees turn up to social media to gather information

In an increasingly virtual world, an organisation’s online reputation carries a tremendous amount of weight. Candidates today research everything online - from company culture to compensation benchmarks.

Linkedin has emerged as the most sought-after social media platform to gather information about any company. According to the findings, 93% of participants rely on LinkedIn when looking for a new opportunity.

Besides strengthening their presence on Linkedin, companies are advised to build a strong employee brand online using multiple channels such as YouTube, GitHub and Instagram.

Amid the war for talent, paying attention to how candidates perceive your company is more crucial than ever.

Clarity in the recruitment life cycle is necessary to attract top talent

Candidates today are extremely cautious and seek relevance and transparency to be better prepared as they go through the hiring process. There is a clarion call for upfront access to information - ambiguity at any stage of the recruitment process is seen as a red flag. Most candidates find multiple stages of the recruitment process challenging - whether it is finding referrals, negotiating salaries, or even the first step of finding a new job opportunity itself.

Engagement between offer acceptance and join date is critical

Hiring good talent is competitive, hard, and often, a lengthy process. Hence, the process of candidate retention starts right after the acceptance of the offer. Today, the onus to retain candidates once an offer is made and accepted lies with the employer. The period between offer acceptance and start date is crucial -this is where constant engagement with the candidate becomes necessary to dissuade from post-acceptance dissonance. Fifty seven per cents of the respondents continue to look for more opportunities despite an offer in hand.

Flexibility is a must to retain top talent

With the recent worldwide churn and mobilisation of the workforce, there came a massive demand for distributed talent. In order to acquire and retain top talent, organisations rolled out offers to outbid their competition. It comes as no surprise that workplace flexibility is still the no 1 ask for most candidates and often, the deciding factor between offers. According to the survey, a dominating 89% of professionals prefer to work in flexible, hybrid work cultures.”

Vikram Ahuja, Co-Founder and CEO Talent500, said, “In a highly uncertain global market scenario, organisations need to double down on attracting and retaining top talent. In a post-pandemic world, agility, flexibility and speed are crucial and our survey highlights what it takes to build and scale top teams as a competitive differentiator.”