Faced with the talent shortage, Softcom reinvents the rules of recruitment
For the past six months, the company has been strengthening its personal branding and relying on referral to recruit the twenty additional talents it will need in 2021 to ensure its growth and meet the challenges of its sector. A successful strategy
Selling yourself. This is an art in which we are not equal. It has been a constant for decades. An obligatory passage in the search for a job. Until now, the codes and the path were clear: cover letter, curriculum vitae, copy of diplomas, reference and first interview. In 2021, writing these words is like writing an obituary. The good old ritual of postulation smells like naphtalene. This is due to an increasingly fierce war for talent and an extremely mobile and globalized labor market. Another factor is the technological emancipation of recruitment techniques.
All these factors – and many others – ended the CV and traditional job boards. The consequence of this agony is a complete rethinking of the application and recruitment principles. On the side of candidates and companies, the era is one of personal branding. The reason is quite simple: companies are struggling to recruit talent for very specific positions. Many of them are faced with candidates who are no longer necessarily looking for a salary, but for an employer with a vision and projects.
The importance of personal branding
Companies are therefore adapting and now consider their employees as their customers. The foundation of the personal branding is what will make the company successful. A company that really cares about its employees and future candidates will create a team spirit because it transmits values that are not marketing. Let’s not forget that man is a social animal. He needs to belong. Softcom quickly understood the importance of personal branding to attract – and develop – the talent it will need to meet the present and future challenges of an ultra-competitive market.
In order to recruit THE right people, Softcom made a reckless bet in the middle of the pandemic by completely abandoning recruitment platforms: “We carefully analyzed the applications from these platforms. We were getting a lot of them The quality of the profiles and the commitment of the candidates were not extraordinary » says Anne-Emmanuelle Blum, headhunter at Softcom. So we stopped everything in January 2021 to choose only the referral, targeted actions on social networks but also the organization of networking events.” The results are not long in coming: “We have fewer applications, but the quality is there.”
Mobilization of employees
Softcom is facing several recruitment issues: “We are evolving in a sector – IT – that is booming and very competitive,” continues Anne-Emmanuelle Blum. Our competitors recruit the same profiles. Moreover, our headquarters are located in the canton of Fribourg, on the border of languages and cultures. We are therefore looking for bilingual profiles. Softcom found the solution by motivating its employees.
Several months ago, the company has decided on different bonuses. There is the “light” bonus for which an employee will recommend a person for a position: “It is then up to me to gibe a name or sell the job”, explains Anne-Emmanuelle Blum. Then there is the “pro” bonus, for which the employee commits to meeting the potential candidate to answer questions about the company as well as introducing him to Softcom: “It’s a bigger commitment, but worth it.”
Softcom, which has 70 employees, plans to hire about 20 additional people in 2021. Among them, developers, project managers, architects and account managers: “If we find a star, we will hire him even if there are no open positions. You should never miss out on a talent,” says Anne-Emmanuelle Blum. In addition to referral strategy, we hold targeted networking events several times a year. Like the “InRisottowetrust” in French-speaking Switzerland and the “InGipfeliwetrust” in German-speaking Switzerland. These are moments of exchange, where potential candidates can discover Softcom over a plate of risotto or a coffee-gipfeli. A friendly way to find the rare gem.
