4 Tips to Land Top Talent for Your Company When it comes to recruiting the best of the best, businesses need to be creative to attract and retain employees.
By Amy Blackburn Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The economy is showing several positive changes and more and more businesses are recruiting top talent from a pool of highly qualified candidates. This is a vast improvement from several years ago when jobs were hard to come by and top-talent candidates were difficult to recruit.
According to LinkedIn's annual recruiting trends report for 2015, hiring volume's increased for the first time in four years. The report shares promising news and serves as a good indication that the economy is on the upswing as many companies are growing in size and looking to add to their ranks.
But with that surge in hiring comes a challenge for those involved in the onboarding process. Whether you're a business owner or part of the hiring team in your organization, be prepared to offer more than just competitive monetary compensation in order to acquire top talent.
When it comes to recruiting the best of the best, businesses need to become more creative in their efforts to attract and retain employees. Here, a few ways to start thinking outside the box.
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1. Build an online presence that attracts candidates
In the digital age, it's become common practice for prospective hires to review a business's website and social media profiles prior to submitting an application.
Consider posting employee photos and sharing information about team building events, training seminars and other company gatherings to your social media channels. This will allow your positive company culture to speak for itself. Projecting a progressive and relevant presence online will attract others to your company culture and make a memorable first impression on potential recruits.
In addition to practicing these tips on social media, evaluate your website and make sure it's user friendly. Any available positions should be clearly posted and easy to apply for. Work with your marketing team to create an attractive website optimized for a positive user experience.
2. Make the most of Internet job boards and social professional networks
The first step to hiring top talent is finding top talent. Job boards and online professional networks (like LinkedIn) can help you target and connect with people who have the knowledge and skills sets you're looking for. Rather than cast the net wide, zero in on the talent that has the specific credentials and qualities you want to attract. Consider becoming active in LinkedIn groups to meet other like-minded professionals. One of these individuals may just be your next employee.
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3. Put more thought and energy into nurturing your 'talent brand'
According to the LinkedIn report, "Talent brand is what talent thinks, feels and shares about your company as a place to work." It goes on to say that a strong talent brand decreases cost-per-hire by more than 50 percent and lowers turnover rates by 28 percent.
It's important to make sure that your employees speak highly of their time with you. Take the time to get to know all new hires and continually improve upon relationships with seasoned workers. This will give you insight into what these individuals are really looking for in regard to company culture, leadership, compensation, workplace flexibility, perks, benefits, vacation, etc. Additional perks for employees to consider include cell phone reimbursement, complimentary gym memberships, gift cards and entertainment related extras such as tickets to local sporting events.
4. Recognize the potential within
Top talent doesn't always come from outside an organization. When you invest in the development of your internal talent and promote from within, you reap the benefits of not only having capable talent but also highly loyal talent. Another advantage is those employees will know your organization at a deeper level than a brand-new hire. That can be a big advantage when it comes to communicating and working with staff from different departments or different levels within your company.
Ultimately, there's no magic bullet or secret formula to landing top talent in the competitive hiring environment we're facing. But there are ways to attract these candidates with unique employee perks and a positive company culture. This will help to attract and retain ideal candidates from outside -- and within your company for years to come.
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