Darlington et al (2009) says that surplus labor markets are also characterized as easy buyer oriented labor markets. This is where the supply of available people exceeds what is actually required by the company. For example if company generic Sugar company in South Africa wanted to recruit 15 people , but when it advertised its Job vacancy it got 500 responses, this could be seen as the example of a surplus labor market. In contrast, you also have the shortage labor market. The shortage labor market on the other hand is a very challenging one for the business.
If this same business Generic Sugar company wanted to recruit 15 people but because either the economy was doing well, or there was a shortage of people available to work and they only got for example 3 responses this could be seen as a shortage labor market. Shortage labor markets are more problematic for companies. They need to focus on attracting candidates and putting all their effort In. You could say that they need to work extra hard to attract people, keep people and also focus on retention, people development and talent management.
Example of things impasses do during the shortage labor market Include this generic sugar company can work hard to offer flexible work arrangements, they need to advertise In a lot of places, not Just normal print advertisement but also maybe branch out to magazines, social media. They will also need to build up their brand. Because there Is so much competition for people then other companies will be competing for the same resource. So this Sugar company needs to make Itself unique. The term Is differentiation.
So If they make themselves as a unique employer brand maybe they an gain advantage over the other employers In the market. They must attract, then select, and then make sure they retain their workers. People resources are one thing the generic sugar company cannot easily replace, though they can replace all their assets, machinery etc. In conclusion, we can say that this generic sugar company has to develop Its recruitment policy to keep up with the competition. The other employers are all racing to find this talent. So If they allow themselves to lose this race they will lose their best asset which Is their people.
