Winning the talent war – how to attract the best talent
Right now, across many sectors and industries, there’s a shortage of skills and available talent. Good candidates are in high demand. And as we emerge from the pandemic, businesses are looking to grow. In this challenging environment, how can you make sure you get your recruitment right and to attract the best talent?
Focus on your existing staff first
Your current employees are the best advocates for your business as a place to work. So before you start hiring, check-in with them to see if there are any issues you need to address. Make sure they’re happy, feeling motivated and want to work for you. Surveys or simply talking to people can help you to understand current feelings and morale. After all, there’s little value in hiring if the people you’ve got working for you are unhappy or start to leave.
Don’t panic
Despite the current competition for talent, keep to good recruitment processes. Don’t rush into a hire because you’ve got open vacancies, or you’re worried about losing out. The people you hire need to fit in with your broader people and business strategy. Are they a good fit? Do they make long-term sense? What do you want them to do, and how are they going to develop? A bad hire can be costly and disruptive, so be thorough and focus on what’s essential to your business and its culture.
Create an excellent recruitment experience
Good candidates are going to be interviewing with your competitors too. And if they’re already in a role, you’ve got the risk of them receiving a counter offer. So you’ve got to give as many reasons to join you as possible. It’s not all about money. Having a smooth process, great communication, and good experiences throughout the recruitment process can demonstrate the value you place on your people.
Understand what people want
To attract candidates, you’ve got to know what they want. Some trends can be broad. If you know most of your candidates want flexible working, you also know you’ve got to offer it to be competitive. But it also helps to treat candidates as individuals and to discover what specifically motivates them. If you widen your search to different regions or even overseas, do you know what’s important to people in other locations? Use interview time wisely, not only to assess skills and fit but to understand what people want. Then use that information to build knowledge and to influence what you offer.
Avoid a salary war
It’s not just about money and day-one benefits. By connecting recruitment up to broader people and business strategies, you can have a clearer idea of what the development and growth opportunities are going to be for individual candidates. Let that come through in your hiring process. If a candidate is offered a role with similar pay and benefits by two different companies, the one committed to personal development and growth will likely win out. Having structured training and development programmes shows candidates that you do invest in your people.
Get help
Having a coherent people strategy that informs all your hiring decisions makes both short and long-term sense. But getting it up and running can be challenging if you don’t know where to start. Our Talent 360 service can help you get a thorough understanding of your people, laying the foundation for a people strategy that drives your business forward.
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