How to Attract Talent to Your Business

Your business would be nothing without outstanding talent on your team. No matter the industry you’re in, attracting and retaining the right talent can be a minefield. Especially, if you are competing with large organisations that can offer more attractive employee benefits and, therefore, are able to cherry-pick their talent from a large pool of applicants. But don’t worry – through careful employer branding and optimising your recruitment process, you can soon become the envy of your competition.

Work backwards from your ideal candidate

Who is your ideal candidate? What qualifications, skills and experience do they have? Most importantly, what are their personality traits and what kind of person would gel with your existing team and fit with the company ethos? Might they have some particular types of hobbies that could help identify that type of person? Start by creating the profile of your desired employee, in a similar way that you would create a customer avatar or profile. You want to identify who your ideal candidate is, what their challenges are, what they are hoping for and ensure that your employer branding speaks to that person.

Don’t forget to think about your employer branding in your marketing

Don’t focus solely on marketing your business to your customers! Your company needs to come across as an attractive place of work for candidates and encourage them to show interest in working for you. You may not realise it, but having a strong employer brand is vital for a successful recruitment process. You need to ensure that this is visible at every touch point that a candidate might have with your business. It is definitely worth spending time on.

Make sure that you have a careers section within your website that gives a clear idea of the workplace environment you have created. Your company ethos should be clear and inspire your ideal candidate to join your mission. However, you shouldn’t stop there. Your whole website should be appealing to both your candidates as well as your customers. This includes not only what you say but how you say it.

• Are there videos with current members of staff appearing?

• Does your language choice appeal to the target candidate you are trying to attract?

• Do you talk about culture or identify what makes your business a great place to work.

• Have you looked at Glassdoor and what reviews there are about your business?

You need to know everything that is being said about your brand. If you are trying to fix things, then let your candidates know. Be transparent. If your website is having an overhaul, then tell them. Candidates have a lot of choices right now, so they are going to be carrying out more research and be more reflective about your company.

Be clear on your expectations and your offer

It is surprising how many businesses still don’t get this right. Your job advert should accurately reflect what is expected of the potential employee, as well as the benefits you’re able to offer. You need to spend some time on curating your job profile and don’t copy and paste. Pay attention to the content and words that you are using. Does your job description make sense? Is it easy to understand what it is you are looking for, not necessarily the list of tasks that the person will be doing.

Make sure you carry out some prior research to ensure that the salary and employee benefits are competitive for the role that you are looking to fill and what might be really attractive terms for an employee to join you.

Be honest

Don’t promise flexibility and the ability to work from home, if that is only a temporary measure or not something that the wider business supports. Only recently have we heard about candidates who has been told that they could work from home one or two days a week, to have that flexible offer retracted suddenly via email. Needless to say, they are already looking for new opportunities and that will end up costing their employer in recruitment fees and lost time. A bad hire is expensive and it really isn’t worth telling a candidate something that doesn’t materialise. There are plenty of candidates who are happy to travel to an office, so don’t feel that you have to offer something that your business doesn’t support. If a candidate wants flexibility and you cannot offer it, then be transparent. That candidate isn't for you, but there are others that will be.

Create an engaging recruitment process

Many companies miss out on outstanding talent because their recruitment process is too long or doesn’t engage the candidates. This can have a detrimental effect on the reputation of your business and encourage potential employees to withdraw their application. This is particularly true of small businesses and startups who feel that they need to match the enterprise recruitment model; you don’t.

Key to attracting talent is to keep the candidate engaged, get them through the process as quickly as possible and meeting with 1-2 key stakeholders. Don’t make it an endless process. If by the time you have met with them twice, you aren’t ready to recruit, don’t expect your potential candidate to be interested or even available to return to you for a third time. Bake in enough time for decision making and reflection but don't wait too long; candidates are being snapped up and won't wait for you.

Ensure you are consistently providing feedback and communicating with your candidates at each stage, no matter if they are successful or not. Eliminate unnecessary elements in your recruitment process and focus on effective strategies that will save time and help you find the right professional. This will create a positive hiring experience for yourself and your potential candidates, and improve your reputation in your recruitment processes and build a strong employer brand reputation.

Provide a thriving workplace environment

Outstanding talent won’t be satisfied with a decent salary and the odd office party or lunchtime yoga sessions. Think of personal development opportunities you can offer and how you can create an environment where your candidates will feel respected and valued.

As well as hiring the right talent, you need to think of ways to retain them and ensure they are dedicated to your company. So don’t just focus on how to attract talent to your business – develop a workplace environment that creates committed employees, a thriving workplace culture and plenty of opportunities for further development.

Perhaps you give back locally to your community and enable employees to be part of these initiatives with a day out of the office giving back. Ensure your team is fully behind the company ethos and dedicated to being a part of your collective success. If there are problems in your workplace, identify them, understand whether this is just an aggrieved employee or something that needs changing.

Be transparent about it and identify ways you are going to address it.

For help on how to structure your employer brand or if you are looking to partner with an experienced recruiter that can work as an extension of your business, get in touch today. We’re Auxeris, we grow with you.