When searching for a job, applicants will consider various factors, including working hours, salary, and benefits. If you want to attract and retain talent, develop a strategy for building a hospitable working environment, engaging company culture, and take employee growth potential into accountability are essential.
Over the past few pandemic years, workers worldwide have been through a lot: uncertainty, risks, and hardship. It's important to keep the applicants' needs in mind if you're trying to attract talent to your business. Once you offer a desirable workplace, you'll naturally attract talent to your business, saving you time and effort in recruitment. Attracting and retaining talent in your organization will also help your company grow and succeed.
In this article, we'll share the top recruiting strategies that can be applied across all industries. Let's have a look right now!
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What does talent attraction mean? Similar to 'recruitment,' talent attraction refers to the ability to attract skilled individuals to your business. Talent attraction can occur during active recruitment but also involves proactively maintaining a pool of qualified candidates. The best way to attract talent is to be a company that applicants want to work for.
There are many benefits to attracting and retaining top talent. Adopting a talent-attraction attitude can result in skilled professionals being drawn to your organization. Talent attraction strategies are also more passive, meaning you can attract talent without actively recruiting and maintaining a pool of candidates for future positions.
You might also run into term like ‘talent acquisition’, but what does it mean? And how is it different from talent attraction?
The answer is simple: talent attraction is passive, while talent acquisition is more active, which means you acquire talent if you have a vacancy. This is a more reactive approach to your recruitment needs. In contrast, talent attraction is a more passive, bottom-up approach to hiring and attracting people by being a desirable workplace.
You might not know where to start if you’re new to the talent attraction. There is no one-size-fits-all hat for human resources management, but you can consider the right approach for your business. Here are ten ways to build an effective talent attraction strategy.
One way to attract talent to your company is by developing your brand. A solid brand will passively but effectively attract talent to your organization by carving out your niche.
If you’re not sure about attracting and retaining top talent via branding, try these tips:
To attract talent, you should know what type of applicants you are looking for. Create a profile of your ideal candidate so you can understand their needs and learn how to draw them to your company. This persona should include skills, experience, education, goals, and attitude.
Talent attraction is best achieved using data, which is more objective.
Collecting and analyzing data on your talent attraction strategies will help you refine your approach. Gather information on basics like number of applicants you have, but also look at more complex data, like their qualifications.
Another way to elevate your talent attraction strategies is to focus on the whole recruiting experience. What is it like to go through your hiring process? If candidates are getting discouraged by an exhaustive hiring (process), you may need to make some changes to enhance your talent attraction.
Remember that if candidates are coming away from recruitment with a negative experience, that word will travel, and will become a part of your brand, making talent attraction even harder.
An employee referral program is a great way to attract talent passively. If employees are referring people in their network to your open positions, it saves your time and effort on talent attraction. Employee referral programs incentivize this process by using rewards like bonuses or gifts after the successful hiring of an applicant.
An often-overlooked aspect of talent attraction is the job description. You can only attract talent if your job description has precise details of what the job vacancy requires.
Remember to include things like responsibilities and expectations besides benefits and salary. If you’re working on attracting and retaining talent, remember to focus on what you have to offer the applicants, not just what you need.
Email marketing is another talent attraction strategy to consider. Whether you keep an email list of past clients or contractors or have a regular brand newsletter, you can easily attract talent by email. Consider writing a personalized email calling for top talent or include a hyperlink to your careers landing page.
Career fairs are important networking events and a straightforward talent attraction strategy. When you join a career fair, you will interact with hundreds or even thousands of job seekers with varying skill levels. You can end up with many applicants, and while it can be daunting to sift through them, it’s a great approach to talent attraction because you can meet people quickly and get a feel for who would be a good fit.
When attracting talent, you need to be mindful that some applicants may require accommodations. Providing accommodation to needy people will make your workplace more equitable, positively impacting your brand. Having a diverse team and an accommodating recruitment process will only help you with talent attraction.
If you are working to enhance your talent attraction strategies, a great place to start is with your existing team. They can provide the best insight into what it is like to work for you and what you can improve on. Considering their feedback will make your company a better workplace and ultimately help you attract talent.
When working on talent attraction management, you need to examine your current practices and look for areas of improvement. Understanding what already works and what does not is the key to learning how to improve. It’s crucial, therefore, to measure your existing talent attraction strategies.
There are a few factors to consider when measuring your talent attraction strategies.
One thing to consider when examining your talent attraction strategy is the cost. How much does it cost you to attract talent at the highest level? Examine your use of employee referral programs and email marketing to see what saves you money.
Adopting a more passive approach to attracting talent is potentially less costly than actively recruiting in a time of need.
Another factor to consider in your talent attraction is how many applicants you have. This can be applicants for open positions as well as cold inquiries. A higher number of applicants could mean that your talent attraction strategies are effective, provided that your applicants are the kind of employees you are looking for.
Applicant quality is another factor to consider when looking at talent attraction. Are the applicants at the top in their field? Are they right for the position? If not, your talent attraction approach may need some tweaking. If you are attracting talent that isn’t the right fit, you might have to review your job description or even examine your brand message.
When attracting talent, it’s common for some applicants to lose interest in the position. If, however, you have many applicants who are not responding to your follow-up, you may need to re-examine your talent attraction approach. It could be that your recruitment process is too daunting or that your job description failed to capture the reality of the position.
Another thing to consider as you measure your talent attraction strategies is the response time for your applicants. Candidates should be excited at the prospect of working for you, which will be reflected in a short response time.
Talent attraction is vital to your success as a brand and your growth as a company. Moving from reactively recruiting to passively attracting talent takes time. Try talent attraction strategies like email marketing, referral programs, and career fairs. Focus on building your brand for a more bottom-up approach and attracting talent by being an exciting and desirable workplace. In time, with a strong, recognizable brand, you can attract talent to you and grow your company exponentially.
At CakeResume, we understand the importance of having a strong employer brand in attracting top talent. Our team has helped numerous enterprises establish and promote their employer brands, and we would love to do the same for your company. By working with us, you can build a strong employer brand that sets you apart from the competition and attracts the best candidates. Our consultants would be happy to discuss how we can help you achieve this goal. Contact us to learn more about our services and start building your employer brand today.
— Originally written by Tiffany Quinn —