The Crucial Steps to Attracting Talent This Year

We frequently hear how competitive the market is when it comes to attracting business critical employees.
I am sure you have heard the phrase; “A war on talent”. Well in the bigger scheme of things I am not sure a ‘war’ is what I would call it. However, of the many things Rob and I have learnt during our careers and building Recruit Zone is that there are specific actions that employers can take to put themselves in a position to attract the quality of talent, they need to deliver projects and grow their business.

While what I am about to share may not be a big surprise, what differentiates those companies who are successful at attracting talent from those who struggle is this: Acting and implementation!

If you implement the following seven strategies, I am convinced you will notice a difference in your company’s ability to attract the talent your business needs this year.

1. Know Who Are Your Best Employees

Firstly, be clear who the best employees are for you. It does not matter what role they fill. All too often when we are helping organisations craft their role descriptions, we discover this critical information is missing.

What this means is you must know the exact competencies and personal characteristics your company are looking for.  

Remember, what is ‘right. ‘for company A would not necessarily be right for company B.
 

When you are looking to attract new applicants to your organisation, it is essential to understand what motivates and inspires candidates to invest their career in a company. When you are actively promoting your company culture, vision, values and opportunities potential employees get a flavour of what it is like to work for you will notice a shift in your recruiting results.
 

2. Have a Streamlined and Thorough Recruitment Process.

The recruitment process can vary from a ‘come and see me for a chat and coffee’ to a more formal process involving a first stage, assessment centre and final interview; all designed to ensure the business employs the right candidate. The former approach too often leads to new hires not lasting the distance, and yet the latter can drag on for a few too many weeks. Usually, this means you risk losing out on the talent you wanted to employ.

People respond positively to a company when there is a streamlined process and where you get back to interviewees quickly, even if they did not get the position. Remember too in today’s market, moving quickly gives you a significant competitive advantage over your competition
 

3. Use The Latest Technology And Nail Your Candidate Experience

Attracting and recruiting top-quality employees, regardless of the size of your organisation is dependant on the candidate experience throughout the process – how they are treated and how they perceive the entire hiring cycle.  

Candidates have highlighted communication as being key to a great experience.  Using the various types of recruitment software and applicant tracking systems will enable you to automate and personalise emails to candidates, informing them of your hiring process and the next steps that will be taken.
 

4. ‘Advertise’Your Vacancy

Logical I know, especially coming from ourselves who provide this as a service and yet our research into the market led us to develop the Candidate Wizard system because of the need our clients where voicing.  

We live in a busy and distracted market. Google says that the web now has 30 trillion unique individual pages. That up an astonishing 30 times in five years: Google reported in 2008 that the web had just one trillion pages. Imagine if you are ‘trying’ to get your vacancy noticed you need to work smarter.  

With today’s job boards and the ability to advertise on social media in detail, this is a channel that the savvy employers will leverage. 

For instance, did you know that if you were a company based in Marlow, you could advertise to individuals only in that area that had liked your company page or visited your website? Fascinating
isn’t it.