Many companies do not want to hire career changers. However, they have recently been discussed frequently as a solution to the shortage of skilled workers. We show you how you as a recruiter can get decision-makers to open up to career changers.
Many companies do not want to hire career changers. However, they have recently been discussed frequently as a solution to the shortage of skilled workers. We show you how you as a recruiter can get decision-makers to open up to career changers.
More and more recruiters are realising that in times of Skilled labor shortage vacancies could be successfully filled with motivated career changers. However, most HR managers are reluctant to suggest this solution because many companies are opposed to it. Below you will find out how you can convince decision-makers that career changers are often the best option.
For some time now, Career changers as a solution to the shortage of skilled workers discussed. But: "Explain that to our specialist department," many recruiters reply, and then prefer to look for classic model candidates. The concern is too great that the career changer approach will be met with rejection or at least involve laborious persuasion.
But why do so many decision-makers dismiss this issue?
For most people, it is probably mainly due to the Fear of making wrong decisions The induction phase for a lateral entrant often costs more and takes a little longer than for normal candidates. What if the induction fails? The risk of wasting time and money on extensive onboarding seems too great for many specialist departments. In addition, the current recruiting process would have to be reconsidered and adapted to lateral entrants, which would also involve effort and additional costs.
A general problem also seems to be that many decision-makers no clear idea of what a career changer brings with him and what he still has to learn. The definition of career changer is often negatively associated with attributes such as "not a specialist" or "without required training".
With the rather negative definition in mind, some companies believe that Career changers difficult to invoice It is simply easier to present to the customer an expert with degrees and awards in his field than a career changer who has "got into" the field without any presentable qualifications.
How can you convince decision-makers to open up to career changers? We show you 5 ways.
Aren't career changers just failures who weren't successful in their field and are now fleeing to other areas in the hope that they'll have more luck there? Such negative thought patterns are unfortunately still widespread in many companies today. It's important to counteract this.
A lateral entry is not an escape, but a change. It is important to emphasize that these people are motivated to familiarize themselves with new specialist areas, have the necessary soft skills to quickly acquire the missing skills, and possibly have other talents that can further enrich the company.
In addition to a fundamentally wrong understanding of what a career changer actually is, there are also many myths surrounding lateral entry.
One of them is that career changers are always inferior to other candidates who have training and professional experience. This assumption massively overestimates the importance of specialist knowledge. After all, specialist knowledge is often easy to acquire, but soft skills such as creativity or the ability to work in a team are difficult.
Another myth is that career changers are only considered for jobs that require a short training period - for example, cleaning staff or parcel delivery. That's nonsense, because changes to jobs that you didn't originally learn happen in every field of work and at different levels of the hierarchy. There are many examples of this, including prominent ones, for example in politics.
Many decision-makers look critically at the CV and past of career changers. However, with this type of applicant in particular, it is less about what they have done or learned in the past than about what they will be capable of in the future.
The view of the future must be holistic: hiring people from other fields will lead to a change in the entire team in the long term - it will become more heterogeneous and diverse in the sense of diversity management. In doing so, new perspectives will be gained and the company's innovative strength will increase.
According to study According to meinestadt.de, 41.5% of 2000 skilled workers with vocational training said they had already switched to a field of activity for which they had not completed any training. A total of 58.5% did not make a lateral entry, but half of them could imagine doing so. Many skilled workers are therefore willing to change careers and there is great potential to recruit them from other sectors.
Another aspect: The World Economic Forum (WEF) stated in 2018 that 65% of all children who start school today will later work in jobs that do not yet exist. Professional fields are changing and new ones are emerging due to technological progress. In this modern, fast-moving job market, career changers are becoming the norm. As a progressive company, you can already target your recruiting at this target group.
Many fears can be taken away from decision-makers. To adapt recruiting to career changers, you can, for example, use potential-oriented tools such as flynne that simplify or even completely eliminate many steps in the application and selection process. With the right prioritization and tools, even Quickly train career changersWhen it comes to billing, career changers offer particular potential – if they do convincing work, they are virtually figureheads for an internal training facility with a high level of quality.
"That's all well and good," you might think. "But if there is a shortage of staff, the specialist department will still not agree to such a time-consuming approach." Here, too, recruiting must address the concerns. The onboarding process, for example, will place a great deal of pressure on the specialist department. External coaches who take care of the career changer's training and additional self-learning offers are ways of relieving the specialist department of this burden.
If the company decides to recruit lateral entrants, internal commitment is important. Everyone - from HR to specialist departments to the executive floor - must be behind the approach so that it can lead to success. The entire company goes through a change process in which the business and the candidates are coordinated and prepared. The focus on good onboarding as a key key to success must be clear to everyone involved.
Do you need help recruiting career changers? Whether it's establishing a mind-change in your company or specifically searching for suitable candidates: our consultants will support you with their many years of experience in the field of career changer recruitment. You will also benefit from our modern, AI-supported tools, which were specially designed to track down career changer talent.
Source cover image: fizkes – Shutterstock.com
