Businesses working to hire people with skill sets that are in high demand and short supply need to do more than just post jobs online and cold call potential candidates at their competitors. They must turn their organisations into "talent magnets" - so that highly desired talent continuously seeks employment opportunities at their organisation, because word is out that people love working for the company.
Of course, many companies have focused on creatively attracting employees for years by marketing strong benefits packages, unique work cultures and competitive pay packages. But being a "talent magnet" goes far beyond that. So, what does it really entail?
Corporate "talent magnets" view their company like a highly desired product that potential employees would do anything to own or have a relationship with. In other words, you need to create a diversified and on-going marketing approach to create buzz and intrigue around an "employer of choice" brand image designed to attract the best talent.
Companies who earn this label believe in having high touch internal recruiting capabilities and efficient processes that treat all people, including current and future potential job candidates, as valued customers.
Next, they maintain their core, traditional recruiting strategies, focused on job board postings, advertising, resume mining and cold calling. They gain top-down executive support to invest time, money and resources doing many intangible things that cannot directly be tied to filling an open job today, but lay the essential ground work to build long-term relationships with top talent for future needs.
The goal of these long-term activities is to ultimately motivate passive candidates to seek out information about being on the inside of your organisation.
If you want to get your company on the path to becoming a "talent magnet", here are six immediate steps you can take to get started.
- Assess, fix and automate broken recruiting processes: Start by fixing your foundation, remembering that a high-touch approach will always differentiate your organisation. Many companies overlook the power of the candidate's network because the result of executing a high-touch recruiting effort does not get reported back.
Ensure every candidate, regardless of whether they are offered a job or rejected, leaves the recruiting experience with positive messages to pass along to other potential candidates.
- Survey your current employee population: Understand how best to target, recruit and retain the employees you want by REALLY knowing the employees you have. Ask your workforce to identify the strengths of your employer brand. Ask for feedback on the recruiting and on-boarding processes. Understand what motivated them to join your company and why they stay. Gain in-depth insights into their hobbies, non-work related interests and professional affiliations.
Bottom line: Talk frankly with your employees, because no one has better recommendations on how your company could become a "talent magnet".
- Turn everyone into a recruiter and brand advocate: Equip employees, vendors, clients and partners with the full information, a quick elevator speech and written materials (e.g. brochure, employer-branded business cards) to exploit every opportunity for marketing your organisation. In this regard, a small investment of time and money goes a long way.
- Meet regularly with your marketing and public relations leaders: They are the experts and can link corporate branding initiatives (and budgets!) to help you make your employer brand strategy multi-dimensional and more effective.
They can also help you better prioritise and execute your short- and long-term goals, including creating a media blitz or more brand awareness in the marketplace.
- Conduct a brainstorming session around "doing something different": Again, the wisdom on how to attract employees to your company is inside your company. More specifically, the knowledge is in the minds of your hiring managers, employees, key executives and HR team members.
Generate new ideas by periodically bringing these people together and brainstorming. Be sure to get perspectives from a diverse perspective and not just from HR or staffing practitioners.
- Build a solid relationship with top talent in advance of need: People want to work with people they know or have some personal connection to. Pay special attention to those thousands of "second choice" candidates in your database that you have already interviewed and rejected for today's opportunities - they may be the perfect hire for tomorrow's needs.
Identify top performers at key competitors and invite them to company events where they can meet your hiring managers or peers. When you do have a need, it will be easy to ask them if they are interested.
Turning your organisation into a "talent magnet" need not require heavy investment. The key is to identify and leverage the many resources already within your organisation. And, it is also important to remember that creating a business case for employer branding may involve intangible benefits and results that cannot be measured against today's hires, but will certainly impact your cycle time and costs in filling future open jobs.
When executing on these ideas and your overall marketing plan, here are some quick tips for success:
- Shift from reactive to strategic. As part of that, establish a baseline measurement before you initiate new programs. Be patient. These strategies take six to 12 months to generate measurable return on investment.
- Commit to investing consistently for the long term. Conducting too many "pilots" can be a waste as they are often not executed with the same attentiveness - and ultimately produce fewer results.
- Proactively invest in using multiple forms of media. The Internet must be part of most organisations' strategy today. Consider investing in new employment communications materials, and don't be afraid to look at how radio, television, direct email / mail and search engine keyword optimisation could quickly boost your overall employer brand in the eyes of highly targeted audiences.
- Get support from leadership at all levels. It is essential to the success of your efforts from two perspectives. First, leadership is often the face of your employer brand. Leaders need to be talking the talk in the marketplace. In addition, they need to fully support your efforts to create ownership of the brand within the company.
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