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Why the Great Resignation Just Gave Your Small Business a Big Boost Four techniques for creatively attracting and recruiting today's career-changers

By Jeff Mazur Edited by Chelsea Brown

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When mid-career teachers are leaving the classroom to become data scientists and scrum masters, you know something big is happening in the job market. And that big phenomenon has a rather intimidating name: The Great Resignation.

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you may be inclined to fret about the massive number of employees who are resigning from their positions. Yet, if you're trying to fill open positions, there's a silver lining to this cloud. According to research from Harvard Business Review, the majority of people engaged in The Great Resignation are knowledge workers between ages 30 and 45.

This makes them both seasoned and trained — and probably just hedging their bets that there's something better over the horizon. In other words, they're not necessarily fleeing due to the anti-work sentiment (likely led by younger workers), but they're seeking improved flexibility and greater work-life balance, per a McKinsey deep dive.

Basically, they're just a group of career-changers searching for a more fulfilling role. Could that be at your company?

Wooing the world-weary worker

At my company, a nonprofit organization that provides free training for people to enter and succeed in the technology field, we're working with countless professionals like the aforementioned teachers who want to use their experience and transferable skills in a new career. They're interested in moving into fields that have always interested them, and they're putting their heart and soul into gaining as much training as they can. What they want is a fresh start.

Unfortunately, many larger companies are structured too rigidly to satisfy the needs of these employees. Remember: EY survey results show about 90% of job shifters want flexibility in where or when they work. These figures are echoed by Future Forum, which indicates that 71% of professionals working for companies with inflexible work arrangement structures would entertain moving to a different organization within the coming year.

You're not at the head of a big corporation, though. You're guiding a smaller ship and maybe even a startup or a small nonprofit. This means you aren't mired in red tape. You can get more creative with your recruitment practices, hiring perks, onboarding processes and everything else that matters to job hunters. Plus, you can more easily diversify your team and attract candidates from an ever-widening pool.

Related: How Your Company Can Keep Pace in 2022

Perhaps you've never considered how valuable your organization could be to a worker on the hunt for a new career path. Now's the perfect moment to focus on switching up your recruitment, hiring and retention tactics to take advantage of a flood of solid performers eager to pivot occupationally. Here are four techniques for creatively attracting and recruiting talent looking for a career change:

1. Search for talent in new places

Expand beyond looking for recruits at colleges and universities. Yes, educational institutions are great options for finding early-career workers. But more experienced knowledge workers won't be at campus or online events.

They will, however, probably have LinkedIn or other social media profiles. According to research from CareerArc, social media and social recruiting software was employers' top technology investment in 2021. Why? Because 86% of job seekers search for new jobs, apply directly and engage with career-related content via social media. By expanding recruiting efforts and mixing up your sourcing locations, you'll get a better cross-section of talent.

2. Highlight your business's unique aspects during recruitment

Don't be afraid to name and acclaim what makes your business different from others, particularly in recruitment messaging. Consider We Are Rosie, a clearinghouse of independent marketing experts. We Are Rosie offers a special #RosieRefresh retreat as a perk for its core employees. Instead of keeping #RosieRefresh internal, the company has used its Instagram account to illustrate the value of this benefit.

Not sure what your company highlights should be? Talk it over with your team. If you can't think of anything special about your organization, consider making low-cost, high-impact improvements to your benefits package.

Related: How to Successfully Implement a 4-Day Workweek Even if You're a Fast-Growing Startup

3. Offer candidates more on-the-job learning and development

Although classic apprenticeship models aren't right for every company, they can work well even if they're simply modified into learn-on-the-job processes. Our team has seen many smaller businesses and startups benefit from apprenticeships.

Balto Software, a St. Louis-based AI startup, is one of many companies that found success with LaunchCode apprentices. Balto started with a few apprentices from LaunchCode to help expand its development, and now, most of its software development team is made up of LaunchCode graduates who were offered full-time roles with the company following the apprenticeship's completion. Utilizing apprenticeships allowed the company to find talented, entry-level talent in the Midwest and mold them to the company's needs.

4. Create an attractive career trajectory for your employees

A recent PwC report shows that 77% of workers surveyed wanted upskilling opportunities. In other words, job candidates today value opportunities to learn and develop their skills on the job. Offering relevant upskilling opportunities is an excellent way to present yet another unique and valuable element of working at your organization.

Related: Why You Need to Prioritize Upskilling Your Workforce

Amazon, for example, started its mechatronics and robotics skilling program to give current employees the opportunities to train for roles as mechanics and robotics technicians in the company, enabling them to earn more and have more career opportunities.

Career-changers like the reassurance of knowing that they're not jumping from the frying pan into the fire when it comes to limiting their growth horizons. When you present them with the chance to plot out a career path within your company, they'll be more comfortable planting roots.

The Great Resignation may sound scary when you look at it at face value. When you dig beneath the surface, however, you begin to see how valuable it could be for the future of your small business. Right now, millions of workers are exercising their right to be happier and more fulfilled at work. All you have to do is attract the attention of a few to make your company stronger.

Jeff Mazur

Executive Director, LaunchCode

Jeff Mazur is the executive director for LaunchCode, a nonprofit aiming to fill the gap in tech talent by matching companies with trained individuals. Mazur lives in St. Louis with his wife and twin girls.

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