How can businesses position themselves strategically in a competitive labor market?

Given the current trends and increase competition in labor markets, organizations must create strategies to retain scarce talents and remain attractive for potential hires. To become successful, organizations need to adopt resourcing strategies that enable them to attract the right employees to their work teams and differentiate themselves from competitors (Taylor and Woodhams 2016). First, organizations must understand the competitive landscape before deciding on what strategy to use. Obtaining information about all players within a competitive environment, their brand image, market share, positioning, strengths, weaknesses, and target group in the labor market is key to developing effective strategies to attract more talents. For example, organizations can look into aspects like base pay offered by competitors, employment benefits such as flexible working, level of differentiation for various job roles, quality of the working environment, employee recognition strategies, personal and professional development opportunities provided, and employment security, among other factors. While undertaking such assessments, it is important to focus on strategies adopted by competitors to remain competitive now and in the future. Performing a competitor’s analysis enables organizations to make informed decisions on the best resourcing strategies that can help them differentiate themselves in the competition and gain a higher share of the labor market.

Additionally, organizations must identify the best practice initiatives that can help them attract more talents and create high-performing and motivated work teams. However, best practices may not apply to all organizations. This implies that organizations must implement best practice initiatives that best fit their strategic goals and objectives. Some of these initiatives may include providing employee security, creating self-managed teams, flexible work schedules, offering training and development opportunities, incentive pay, internal promotions, effective job evaluation procedures, information sharing, selectivity in hiring processes, and empowerment and cross-training. Organizations are more likely to become more attractive to potential candidates in competitive labor markets by adopting such practices. Employees tend to seek employment in organizations that seem to care about their welfare and provide the best work conditions.

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