Attracting top Talent to Your Team - Part 1 of 4 on Hiring
The Smart Approach to Recruitment
A company’s success often depends on the people who build and drive it. Whether your company is in the business of knowledge work or manufacturing physical items, the people who do the work make the difference in how well it is done.
Finding and retaining quality employees is getting tougher due to many factors. That's why you need to sharpen your hiring process to make sure you can attract the right talent for your team.
Let’s go through some of the lessons companies have learned for attracting top talent, and their approaches to recruiting (and keeping) that talent to help drive success.
Define your company culture and values
The Greatest Generation (World War II vets) returned home from their overseas deployments and were simply happy to find jobs. A generation that was well-inculcated for institutions, they were happier with staying busy and working towards a greater overall objective than putting too much focus on what the company stood for.
Just a few generations later, workers are now more picky about who they want to work for, often seeking positions or companies that align with doing something they find personal value in or are aligned with.
Culture and values can be slippery subjects in today’s world which is becoming more divisive and partisan in terms of politics. However, not having or stating any values may make your company seem like a bland and generic brand that is unappealing to modern workers.
Don’t be divisive and certainly stay away from politics, but your company culture and values should be a point of pride for your company, and attributes that will draw potential employees who will fit into the culture that your company wants to nurture internally.
Create a compelling & accurate job description
Much like the need to have and promote your company culture and values, a bland job description likely won’t “hit the mark” with most of the best potential talent in the employee marketplace these days.
Fair warning, however: be honest and transparent, and do not lie in the job description, perks, or benefits of working with your company.
Consider this theoretical experience based on many real-world examples lately. Michelle is a 32-year-old single mother of two who applied to a job that was listed as a fully remote or hybrid position.
She went through two rounds of interviews before she was informed that the job was actually in the office full-time. She was so angered by the bait-and-switch that she told everyone in her personal social circles and on social media that the company in question should not be trusted and uses deceptive practices.
This has been happening to more and more people in the real world. As some companies transition from remote work back to the office setting, HR staff and recruiters realize that many don’t want to go back to the office.
For those in Michelle’s situation, the costs of child care may not make the position even worth taking. Current polling done of HR networks has found that these deceptive job descriptions are used to draw a larger pool of job applicants.
Some of these applicants feel so deceived that they post negative reports about the company’s hiring practices across all of the online hiring boards, which is not a good situation to have to deal with when trying to attract top talent.
Create a compelling job description that will help to attract top talent to your company, but be honest.
Utilize your network and employee referrals
Nepotism gets a bad name in the corporate world, but making use of your network and current employees to find and attract the best talent can be wise. Labor laws and regulations limit the background research that can be conducted and questions that can be asked of job applicants, so seeking “known quantities” can help to avoid the potential pitfalls of poor hiring choices.
Some hiring managers may be worried that the friend dynamic will disrupt the workplace or reduce the efficiency of both employees.
However, this is most likely not the case.
Most employees will be hesitant to refer a candidate who is not a good fit for the company. When a new team member comes on board who can’t keep up with the necessary output, the referring employee would likely have to do more work to make up for them. In a small-to-medium-sized company, it wouldn’t take long for word to spread that the new addition who is making the rest of the team’s work harder was referred by the employee in question.
In short, companies often find that internal referrals from existing employees are their best source of quality talent to fill their open positions.
Leverage social media and online platforms
Social media and other online platforms can be an effective way to reach the masses, but not all companies understand the value they can deliver for attracting top talent. LinkedIn is not the only, nor is it always the best place to attract top potential applicants. If your company has a compelling offer based on your company culture, other social media platforms may be a better fit.
Many companies have a section of their website dedicated to open jobs, but those will only be found by people who already visited the site, are already interested in joining your company, and job board aggregators. If your company has and promotes a vibrant corporate culture, finding unique, interesting, and fun ways to highlight that on social media can be a way to catch the attention of today’s top talent and lead them to your door.
Another fair warning, however. Today’s online youth culture can be especially critical of “cringe” corporate videos that seem too dry and forced. If you choose to use video format for this strategy - which is wise because social media platforms give greater reach to video-based content - user-generated employee content that is organic (not scripted) and highlights the positive aspects of your work environment typically does very well.
Beyond the salary: creative perks can pay dividends
There is a portion of the job-seeking population who will respond to high-salary job offers and good benefits packages, but many of the top workers today are looking for more than just numbers. Top talent can often be more choosey today than in the past.
One way that companies can be competitive is to ensure their hiring process operates in a timely manner. Some firms today still may take months between an initial interview and a hiring offer, during which time a competitive applicant may have already received offers from other companies. In the same respect, it shouldn’t take several months for HR to determine which applicants to bring in for an interview.
Some companies are using rather unique benefits to attract their desired talent pool. Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO) seems like a risky gambit to some old-school employers, but the numbers show that it works for many who offer it - and the amount of time off taken isn’t typically very high, anyway. Others offer paternity leave and extended maternity leave if they are seeking young and family-oriented workers.
One highly successful marketing agency even offers a company-paid sabbatical to employees after 10 years if they learn a new skill and teach it to the rest of the company when they return or go on an adventure and bring pictures and videos to share with everyone.
There are numerous examples of what other companies offer in terms of unique perks and benefits, but they should be customized toward the types of top talent that your company wants to attract.
Here are some examples that may be worth considering:
Understanding the personality types that you are looking for can help you understand the types of benefits that will attract them.
Highlight growth opportunities within your company
The jobs that today's top talent want to avoid at all costs are those that may be considered “dead end” or “no growth potential” jobs. Everything in business is an exchange, and while employers may see the paycheck or benefits package as the exchange for work performed, employees see it as their potential future.
Previous generations were replete with employees who worked their way from the mailrooms or “bottom floor” to the executive suite, but those examples have become rare today. Upward mobility is still an attractor for those who realize they are top performers, but it’s often seen as a luxury that most don’t expect to find within the modern workplace.
From a business perspective, it’s a wise and shrewd move for employers. Many companies have moved to selecting specialists who have spent their entire careers in a single field or discipline. Promoting internally with people who already know your company, have been inculcated into your corporate culture, and understand the dynamics better than an outsider can pay far greater dividends.
If your company is wise enough to utilize internal promotions over outside hiring, highlighting that practice will attract those who don’t want to spend their lives job-hopping to find promotions or career opportunities. Those types will also have more of a vested interest in your company’s long-term success.
