One topic that comes up a lot when engaging with new clients is the challenge around attracting and retaining top talent for their business.
In a recent survey, 41% of companies said that hiring the wrong candidate cost them at least $25,000 an additional 25% spent at least $50,000 in the last 12 months. Hiring the wrong person can set your business back quite a lot of money wasted time on training and dramatically reduce your productivity. Other areas of your business it could affect is your team morale and harm your clientele.
With unemployment rates at an 18 year low and more jobs available than ever, competition for top talent is fierce, quite often larger employers with more generous benefits are snapping top talent up. LinkedIn recently reported that 50% of candidates applying for roles are not even turning up for interviews. It now appears to be the other way around with regards to candidates ghosting employers more now than ever before.
So why is this happening? What strategies can you implement to try to minimize these issues?
Holding on to low-quality employees is one of the biggest challenges for businesses when trying to attract top talent. Retaining an employee that continues to drain you, other employees, and your resources won't give you the push you need to find the right person for that role.
To attract the right candidates set clear expectations of the role requirements, aims, objectives, and responsibilities of the role. If you don't make it clear you may risk turning off great talent or attracting the wrong talent. If you can't articulate the day to day duties of the role, research other ads or position descriptions, note what the day to day duties involve. However, highlighting this is not enough to attract the best talent, being able to articulate what sets you apart from other employers who are competing in the same talent pool is vital.
Ensure your ad is written professionally and represents your company in a positive light. Poor spelling punctuation and attention to detail could deter top talent from making an application. Double-check the ad by getting a colleague to proofread it before making it live. Ensure you check the live ad straight away for any formatting issues or if the text doesn't match up. Ensure your ad does not include any discriminatory language examples include using words such as young, mature, salesman, a waitress. A recent survey confirmed that top talent wants to work for non-discriminatory inclusive workplaces that are diverse. If you can include an overview of your company history or a video explaining your company that may attract top talent to apply.
Avoid being inflexible or unrealistic in your expectations highlight the must-haves be flexible with the areas you can train. Avoid placing too much importance on degrees if they do have demonstrated experience it might be worth exploring their application further. If overqualified try not to assume that their not the right fit for the role perhaps try prompting further as it could explain the reason they were interested in your position. Try not to let prior bad experiences cloud your judgment because it has happened before doesn't always necessarily mean it will happen next time around.
Make sure you are using as many outlets as possible to get the job opportunity out there to source the perfect candidates some sources could include; advertising via job boards, searching via cv search databases, utilizing social media accounts, using hashtags, source candidates via LinkedIn, set up google alerts for recent layoffs in the industry, attract candidates from your competitors, set up a landing page on your website, have internal referral offers.
A recent poll released found that almost 80% of candidates will research a company before applying, for the position, this demonstrates that the employer brand is more important now than ever. Some organisations are working hard not only to develop their brand for consumers but also to attract current and future talent.
Some of the larger brands are using innovations to enable them to source the best talent some of these tools include applicant tracking systems to assist in the process and enhance the candidate experience by automating a lot of the ongoing contact. More and more companies are incorporating artificial intelligence as part of their recruitment process understanding that the best way to get results is to use both AI and human interaction together. Some organizations are incorporating videos to sell the job role to the candidate as well as incorporating video interviewing as part of their recruitment process.
Hiring the best talent involves investing the time, setting clear expectations, efficiently selling your USP's, and, moving through the hiring process quickly. If you can't deliver on these, the likelihood of finding the best talent becomes much harder.
Sweven Talent Management specialises in Sales & Marketing and Management positions within the Community Service, Healthcare & NFP sector to register your interest in upcoming roles (which are often exclusive to our internal community) register your job preferences and interest to receive job alerts via our opportunities page on our website.