Simple Tips on How to Attract Top Talent to Your Company

As an employer, you often wonder how to attract top talent. You value your company and you want to surround yourself with top talent that reflects your same values. Simply posting a job online can draw in too many applicants (who may or may not be qualified) to appropriately sift through and looking at all the resumes can quickly feel overwhelming.

It can be worrying to think that you're missing out on a great applicant in a big pool of job candidates, but imagine if you could ensure that you're attracting talented individuals that would meet your needs.

This would simplify your hiring process. How can you do this? Some strategies include solidifying your employer brand and demonstrating your selling points. Read on for a few strategies and examples of how they might be implemented.

Define your company culture

Company culture refers to the formal manner in which you complete tasks in your business and the informal attitudes and behaviors of all employees. From the lowest employee to senior leaders, what does an average day as an employee look like at your company? Does your company advocate for a healthy work-life balance? Do you have employee engagement in day-to-day happenings, and are you collectively working towards your company goals while helping each other feel valued?

Consider the examples below of both formal and informal company culture.

Examples of formal company culture

Think about the hierarchy at your company and how one climbs the corporate ladder. Do you allow for room for growth, and are those steps clear, straightforward, and fair?

Now think about policies and procedures. Do employees know how to submit work or ask questions? Are your policies public and fair and do they help your employees feel protected and supported? Do the procedures they follow as they work make sense, and are they streamlined, or are you holding too much to antiquated traditions?

If you have a company mission statement, use it as a guiding ideal for your formal company culture.

Examples of informal company culture

Many of the formal culture aspects help your employees to feel supported as they complete work for you. Similarly, informal company culture applies to the social aspect. This could mean lunch programs or employee engagement in extracurricular programs. Helping your employees enjoy their free time and establish a healthy work-life balance can fall into this category as well.

If you notice a sense of toxicity amongst employees, consider redefining your company culture to build relationships healthily as you search to expand and attract talent. If you already feel proud of your culture, consider advertising how you support your employees. Have you set up avenues for your people to give feedback about processes that work and ones that don't? Ask yourself if they feel comfortable sharing mistakes along with successes. Your employees should be able to collectively and positively describe the culture you espouse.

Having a defined company culture helps potential employees know what to expect and know the scaffolding present to help them achieve work and personal goals. It gives clarity to employees and clients in a consistent message. Whether they're coming to you from a recruiter, as a contract employee, or any other avenue, having this first impression of you gives them a foundation on which to build their expectations.

Create a talent pipeline

Talent acquisition can be passive and active. Creating a simple way for those who want to apply to reach out to you cuts your active work and gives you more time to focus on sifting through top talent.

One of the simplest ways would be to list job openings on your company website. Your website gives a feel for your company and culture, as mentioned above, as it portrays your goals and mission statement. This helps those who visit your site with interest in joining your team to initially gauge themselves against you.

A pipeline requires having good relationships with employees inside your company along with candidates in your community. These relationships relay much about your company. People want to work where they're valued, and top talent often has a lot of businesses vying for their attention. Stand out by representing yourself well.

Consider advancements within your company. As you build positive relationships with your employees, help them feel valued and prove their necessity to the company by letting them climb your company's ladder. As you bring in new employees, they can learn from the leadership you've set up because these leaders are tried and tested and have proven themselves to match your goals.

Using a recruiter or looking for contract workers, like with Talentcrowd, takes that initial filtering of candidates out of your hands and into the capable hands of another. These people work with you to identify the characteristics you're looking for, and they are trained to recognize your target audience and relay your core values to those candidates. They can use a more strategic approach to draw talent to you since it is the core of what they do. They can help you decide if you want a contract worker and find traits in candidates they're working with that would benefit your company. Delegating this job takes the pressure off of you and allows you to use your energy elsewhere.

Sometimes you can identify qualified candidates and make good connections from attending job fairs, which we'll address further down.

Use current employees to your benefit

Along with professional recruiters or a careers link found on your website, consider the people your employees know. If you have a culture that helps your people thrive, they'll want to bring people along. Ask your employees who would fit the role and fit your culture. From there, encourage them to help their friends to apply.

As you encourage these conversations, consider setting up a bonus system so your employees can receive an incentive based on if their friends get hired from their referral. This demonstrates the value you hold for their opinion and the spirit they bring to your company. You want others like them, and as an employee, that can be flattering and encouraging.

Current employees can help portray what your business stands for. Using employee testimonials on your website and social media draws positive attention to your business. People appreciate working for those who value their work and show it.

As you put the effort in with current employees, this will attract top talent. Word of mouth and the court of public opinion can go a long way in drawing others to you.

Advertise what sets you apart

As a company, your employer brand should be strong. Look at your culture and look at your product. What sets you apart? Why do your clients need you and how can you relay that to employees to attract talent to keep those clients? People like feeling needed and fulfilled, and as you hire new people, it's helpful to show how their work will stand out against others in your field.

Allow your organization's selling points to do the heavy lifting. Setting up definite examples of the impact you have in your field and in your community helps potential hires see what they might be able to accomplish if they were to join your company. This again would take some of the pressure off of you in the long run as your reputation will precede you.

Let social media speak for you

Advertising on job boards or careers sites isn't the only way to get your name out there. A top talent acquisition strategy includes taking your name to the digital streets of social media. Everyone interacts with social media in one way or another daily. Social media casts a wider net and reaches those who might not have known about your business otherwise.

Creating brand awareness through social media platforms can give the right talent good ideas on what to expect from you and your company. Along with advertising your selling points, social media highlights your company's best aspects.

Contract workers or recruiters can also see what to expect when considering your company. Using Talentcrowd helps narrow top talent, and using social media can better inform their decision to agree to work with you and give them an idea of your culture and expectations. Let them know what you value before they even start working.

With the use of the internet, you are able to interact with candidates outside your company's vicinity. In the world of remote work, many business leaders use social media for their recruitment process.

Take into account your company culture and use that as you advertise your workplace. Display what a typical day looks like in an Instagram reel, or perhaps take advantage of cool transitions to demonstrate some of your employee benefits!

Advocate for education

Whether you're partnering with local schools or helping community projects, having a hand in bettering the lives of your employees and the community reflects well on your company. Consider the benefit in regards to future employees along with those currently working for you.

Connecting with prospective employees

The right talent will want to be a part of your company if they can see how they can get more education or be a bigger part of their community. More education creates more opportunities and room for professional growth, but higher education can sometimes seem off limits due to cost. If you portray your willingness to help with this concern, this makes future hires feel empowered and your business becomes more desirable.

The right talent can be rare, but working with an educational institution can ensure that you are helping to mold the potential employees that the school produces. You can have internship opportunities or institute job shadowing.

Most colleges have job boards or sites to point students in different employment directions. You could even talk to specific departments about internships.

Investing in your current team

Consider what was mentioned above in regards to a talent pipeline. As you help your employees gain more education so they can advance in your company, they can gain more skills that would benefit your business.

Invest in quality benefits

Top talent requires top benefits. Aside from the culture and the advancement opportunities at your company, are you giving your prospective employees the right tools to live well? Look at your employee value proposition. What benefits are your employees receiving for the work that they give you?

Whether you're hiring a full-time, part-time, or contract worker, there should be benefits in place that help them feel welcome and that you value their time and work. Yes, you pay a salary, but that extra step in showing care for their personal or home lives through medical insurance or PTO goes a long way.

Attend job fairs

Job fairs take many different forms. Whether it's with the schools you may partner with or in the community you aid, bringing yourself to candidates lets them know that you want them.

School-based job fair

Remember those educational institutions with which you've established a positive relationship? Go to them and attend a job fair on campus with a catchy flier and some candy.

Company-based job fair

Company events can be opened to the public, allowing others to see what makes you worthwhile. Opening the door and allowing others to job shadow or see how you do business in real-time.

Virtual job fair

Job fairs can be virtual, as well. Especially in this new world post-COVID, many see the benefit of meeting others online. This takes away distance as an inhibitor of attending a fair. If applicable to your company, virtual meetings can give an idea of what it would be like to work for you virtually, too.

Takeaways

Consider these techniques to hire new talent for your company. There are many avenues for you to go down, so don't feel stuck in one way if it's not working for you. Use social media and your current workers to your benefit as they portray your culture and values. Consider the relationships you have in the community, too.