Due to increasing skill shortages and competition for cutting-edge candidates, recruiting talent in the engineering market can be challenging. According to several studies from Manpower Group and Forbes, 75% of employers worldwide report difficulty filling roles, up from 54% in 2019.
This figure represents the second-highest level of talent shortage since surveys began in 2006
We understand that finding engineering professionals with a highly specialised skill set and the right attributes to thrive in your team can take months. Companies need to reach a wide audience of applicants and carefully scrutinise their potential for a role.
This is where specialised recruitment and staffing companies come into play. They know how to tap into diverse talent pools, thoroughly evaluate candidate potential, and support organisations towards the right hiring decisions.
Let’s take a look at how recruitment specialists overcome the challenges of niche recruitment.
The Evolution of Niche Recruitment
The hiring landscape has grown increasingly complex in recent years, thanks to new technology innovations and changing market trends. Increasingly, employers are looking for candidates with specific and niche skills and capabilities.
In a niche engineering market, it takes effort to find professionals with specialised qualifications, deep knowledge of the sector, and rare technical abilities. In emerging niche markets, companies need to find candidates who require a wide range of skills and certifications that may not always overlap.
While niche recruitment is complex, it’s also extremely valuable. The ability to find niche talent doesn’t just help emerging startups and market innovators to thrive in their industry. Knowing how to source niche talent can help broader engineering companies recruit team members that support continued growth, expansion and innovation. Access to specialised talent can help companies of all sizes stay one step ahead of the competition and market trends.
The Specialised Recruiter’s Edge
Sourcing talent for niche markets requires more than just general recruitment support, and many recruitment agencies today may still rely on the same resources to find talent, paying attention to transferrable skills and general job fit rather than prioritising engineering expertise and opportunities.
Specialised recruiters, on the other hand, focus exclusively on cultivating engineering talent. They understand their industry and the unique challenges that hiring teams face. They know which emerging skills and attributes matter most to evolving businesses and guide business leaders on how to grow their teams effectively.
With a specialist recruitment company, organisations gain access to:
1. Advanced Techniques for Talent Discovery
Specialist engineering recruitment teams invest significant time, effort, and resources in finding talented niche professionals. These recruiters spend time building rapport with professional networks and communities, connecting with talented teams through forums, industry-specific events, and conferences.
These companies also forge connections with academic and research institutions, helping engineering companies recruit new graduates with unique skills.
Specialised recruitment agencies go beyond evaluating “active” job seekers in the engineering market. They forge connections with “passive” candidates, allowing themselves access to a much larger talent pool. (Reports show that up to 70% of job seekers are “passive”).
Additionally, niche recruitment experts leverage cutting-edge technology when searching for potential job seekers. They also use Boolean search techniques on professional platforms to identify candidates with valuable traits and skills.
2. Engaged Talent Ecosystems
Specialised recruitment companies excel at forging ongoing relationships with engineering employees who possess valuable skills and traits. They create dynamic databases filled with information on candidates who have specific experience or expertise that can benefit their clients in the future.
Importantly, they cultivate long-term relationships with those candidates. Engineering recruitment companies help to keep candidates engaged and informed about niche job opportunities and market trends. They assist business leaders by developing comprehensive talent pools, which are individuals they can reach out to as their staffing needs change.
Through continuous engagement with niche candidates, specialist recruiters help to strengthen the talent pipeline of engineering companies, making it easier for them to fill gaps in their teams or source valuable staff members for future projects.
3. Optimised Screening Techniques
One of the largest challenges of niche recruitment is figuring out how to evaluate candidates effectively. Relying on CVs is not enough, as these documents only offer brief insights for each candidate.
In a niche engineering market, business leaders require a more comprehensive way to analyse each candidate’s potential. Specialist recruitment companies can help with this by employing advanced screening techniques, like creating tailored technical tests for potential team members to assess their abilities and knowledge of the engineering industry.
Recruitment companies bring an insider’s perspective to candidate evaluation, review work samples, participate in technical interviews, and offer guidance on structuring interview questions.
We evaluate crucial technical and soft skills and cultural alignment with a specific company using screening techniques. This makes it easier for companies to choose candidates that deliver the most value to their team.
4. Unique solutions to Niche Recruitment Hurdles
Recruiting talent in niche markets isn’t always straightforward. The talent pool is smaller, and the competition for candidates is fierce. This is where specialist engineering recruitment teams can help by introducing intuitive ways to overcome various hurdles.
Many specialist recruiters use proactive talent cultivation strategies and extensive networks to help overcome talent shortages. They guide team leaders in making job offers and roles more appealing to specialists.
With salary benchmarking tips, they also help businesses navigate salary expectations in high-demand and low-supply markets.
5. Support for Intuitive Employer Branding
Specialist engineering recruiters understand the priorities of candidates searching for new roles and opportunities.
These experts get to know the top talent in their field, and they can identify what matters most to them, from diversity, equity, and inclusion to unique benefits like flexible work. Using this knowledge, recruitment companies can guide businesses on how to improve and optimise/optimize their employer brand to attract attention from more candidates.
With insights into what candidates are looking for in a niche market, companies are more effectively positioned as the ideal employers for the professionals they need.
Mastering Niche Market Recruitment
Niche market recruitment can be extremely challenging. As the world continues to evolve, companies throughout the engineering industry increasingly need access to specialist candidates with a unique variety of skills and attributes.
While tools like AI-powered talent matching tools are continuously emerging to support niche recruitment processes, these solutions cannot consistently deliver excellent results.
Specialist recruitment companies offer the most effective way to streamline talent acquisition in a complex market, with access to industry insights, unique technology, resources, and expertise.
All the best
Steve
At Coalesce we have been partnering with engineering clients for over 28 years; if you would like our input in how to unearth rare talent, then give us a call on 07512 821708 or email us here.