How to recruit the best
Building a great team is high on the priority list for nearly every company. But employers no longer have the upper hand when hiring. Today’s most talented professionals have their choice, with companies fighting for their attention and services. Attracting that talent to your organization is a challenge that must be met head-on, in innovative ways.
The experts all agree that there are several basic strategies that will bring the best and brightest to your door, and make them want to work for you instead of the competition. Keep reading below to check them out.
1. Expand your search: While it may be tempting to keep your search narrowed down to your city, or even state, don’t be afraid to expand that search even further. There might be a programmer somewhere itching for the opportunity to build their experience and move somewhere that their skills can be better utilized. While this method may take longer to find someone, remember that every single person you hire is an investment and the best investments take time
2. Share the vision: Employees need to be part of something bigger than themselves. It keeps their morale high and their energies focused. Experienced business leaders say that when a company has a dynamic company vision, which clearly states its goals for growth and commitment to excellence, potential employees become very excited about being part of the bigger picture. Conversely, if your company uses a snoozy boilerplate statement, you can pretty much forget about attracting the top ten percentile.
3. Filter your candidates: Having a plethora of candidates isn’t always a good thing. If a majority of these candidates are under qualified, uninterested, or a poor fit in another way, then their candidacy is a waste of everyone’s time. Be strategic with your filtering, and take full advantage of online tools to do this.
4. Benefits and perks: A company can pay less in salary if the difference is made up in benefits and perks. Some employees get fixated on salary, but well rounded benefits like access to a gym (or paid gym membership), great health insurance, and the like will draw in great talent as well. You also need to consider that if someone is so focused on money, all it takes is a slightly bigger check elsewhere to encourage them to leave your firm.
5. Check references when recruiting employees: The purpose of this section is to keep you out of trouble with the candidates you are seeking and selecting and the employees you currently employ. You really need to check references carefully and do background checks.
In the litigious society in which we live you need to pursue every avenue to assure that the people you hire can do the job, contribute to your growth and development, and have no past transgressions, which might endanger your current workforce.
As part of attracting top talent, you need to be going where the top talent is. Not the job boards, but social media like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Posting jobs online is a start and will build up a candidate base, but a majority of individuals are not actively looking for work. Most people find their next job through networking, so you want to try to plug into the networks of qualified candidates whenever possible.
