For many years, Bermuda employers could rely on a reasonably familiar recruitment equation. For many roles, there would be a pool of local candidates. For specialist positions, there was generally strong overseas interest in relocating here. A competitive salary, a recognised employer and the opportunity to live in Bermuda carried considerable weight. That equation has changed.

The numbers help explain some of what employers are experiencing. Bermuda’s May 2025 Labour Force Survey reported overall unemployment at just 1.7 per cent, with Bermudian unemployment at 2.1 per cent. That is positive news for the economy, but it creates a very different recruitment environment. Most of the people employers want to hire are already working. Recruitment today is increasingly less about finding someone who needs a job and more about persuading someone to leave the job they already have.

Applicants are not the same as candidates

“We’ve had applicants, just not the right ones.” This has become a familiar conversation, particularly for mid-to-senior and specialist roles. Bermuda is competing for experienced actuaries, underwriters, compliance professionals, accountants and other technical talent in a genuinely global market. Many of the strongest candidates are not actively looking. They are already employed, often well compensated and increasingly able to consider opportunities that do not require relocating at all.

Strong candidates are assessing leadership, reputation, career opportunity, flexibility, culture and whether making a move will genuinely improve their professional and personal lives. Employers now need to ask a different question. Not “Why should we hire this person?” but “Why should this person choose us?”

Relocation has become a household decision

“We lost a strong candidate at the offer stage. The numbers just did not work for the household.” For Bermuda, this may be one of the biggest shifts. Relocating here has always required careful consideration, but remote and flexible work structures have changed the economics considerably.

Families are looking at housing, schooling, healthcare, travel, a partner’s career and the overall cost of living. A salary that looks attractive in isolation may look very different when considered as part of the economics of an entire household.

Employers cannot solve every part of that equation, but they do need to understand it. Organisations who are recruiting successfully are having these conversations earlier and more realistically.

When the recruitment problem is retention

“We train them, then lose them to something better.” This is particularly visible in hospitality, but it is not confined to hospitality. Sometimes an organisation does not have a recruitment problem at all. It has a retention problem that keeps creating vacancies.

If employees repeatedly leave for more predictable schedules, better management, clearer advancement or increases in pay, recruiting replacements will not solve the underlying issue. It simply restarts the cycle. This matters even more in Bermuda because our labour market is so small. Employers are recruiting from the same limited pools of talent. Retention, therefore, needs to become part of the recruitment strategy.

Returning Bermudians will not wait indefinitely

“We had a very strong Bermudian candidate planning to return home. We moved too slowly.” There remains a valuable pool of Bermudians overseas who have built strong careers and may be open to coming home for family, lifestyle or professional reasons. Returning home however, cannot mean stepping backwards.

These candidates bring international experience, established careers and expectations shaped by larger markets. They also tend to be speaking with several prospective employers simultaneously.

I continue to see organisations lose strong candidates for surprisingly avoidable reasons: too many interview stages, long gaps in communication, internal uncertainty about the role and delays in getting an offer approved.

In a competitive market, speed does not mean lowering standards. It means removing unnecessary delays.

The market is exposing decisions employers have deferred

“We know the role is underpaid. We just haven’t dealt with it yet.” Most organisations have something they know needs attention. It may be a salary that has fallen behind the market. A job description that no longer reflects the actual role. A recruitment process which requires too many approvals. A manager with a history of losing good people. Or a position structured the same way for ten years despite the market around it changing considerably.

In an easier recruitment market, organisations could sometimes live with these issues for years. Today’s candidates have more information, more choices and, in many cases, less reason to accept an opportunity that requires compromise without a compelling reason to do so. Recruitment pressure has a way of exposing organisational decisions that have been postponed.

The question has changed

Recruitment in Bermuda has become more competitive. Organisations that will recruit well are those that understand what they are genuinely competing against; move decisively when they find the right person; address known retention issues and clearly articulate why someone should choose them. For years, recruitment largely asked: can we find the right person for this job? Today we need to ask: are we the right opportunity for the person we want?

• Kelly Francis is founder and managing director of Performance Solutions Ltd. She advises boards, business owners and leadership teams on the people decisions that shape organisational performance. Kelly can be reached at 441-232-5270 or kelly_francis@psolutions.bm.