Over the past year, I have talked and met with hundreds of employers with one thing in common: hiring. Conversation usually begins with me asking what pain points they are having inside their organization. Not surprisingly, attracting talent is at the top of their pain points. All of my experiences have led to a conversation about what and how they are currently doing to attract talent. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you’re doing some of the good ‘ol standard tactics… write a job description, post to job boards, hang a sign, email current employees, sign up for a premium trial on Linkedin…etc.
To understand a bit more about their pain points, I ask about traffic from those tactics. Usually traffic is not the problem, it’s the right traffic they are having a hard time getting. When the labor market begins to improve, unemployment rates drop, finding A-Player candidates gets more and more challenging. They shift from active job seekers during high turnover, to passive job seekers. Meaning, the ideal candidate for this position is happy where they are, but if the right opportunity landed in their lap, they’d take it.
The common follow-up question I get is ‘How can my company attract more passive A-player candidates?’
It’s simple, yet very time consuming. When done correctly this formula will not only attract more and better candidates, it will encourage and motivate your current A-players to perform at their highest capacity and expose the B, C and D level performers. Here are my 3 most common tips to start a talent attraction/retention program inside an organization.
Within a few short years, Millennials will out number all other generations in the workforce. As fast as technology inside your organization has changed the way you look at business, so should your communication and interaction with employees. Millennials as far different to attract than employees you may have recruited over the past 10-20+ years ago. Their priorities and desires have shifted.
I recently spoke to a large association of business owners about this very topic. To get a feel of my audience, I asked by a raise of hands to identify what they feel is most important to job seekers applying to work in their organization. Without hesitation, 90% of the crowd responded to compensation. That right there made it clear. They have no idea about their audience. Collegefeed recently surveyed 15,000 Millennials. 60 percent still in college and 40 percent recent graduates. When asked, ‘What are the top three things you look for when considering an employer?’ compensation did not make the top 3! Know your audience!!
Advertising jobs on a job board is not the only place to advertise your hiring needs (What?? The owner of a job board seriously just said his business isn’t the best fit? Yup!) There are many tools you need to have in your tool-belt. There are many times specialized roles will require some out of the box attention.
Recently I consulted with a healthcare organization having a challenge hiring for a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. The challenge? They had not received a qualified candidate in almost 4 months. Their response to where they’d been advertising and promoting their jobs included, Craigslist, twitter and their own careers page. Seems like a good set of places when hiring for a customer service role, but I can’t think you’re ideal candidate is cruising through used goods, then decides to apply to a new job. When looking into their twitter account (with 12 followers) I noticed hundreds of posts promoting the job. No #hashtags, no associations tagged, no link to their posting! You need to be visible to your ideal audience. Go where they are. Go where they’re going and get their attention.
Very rare (they’re out there…I know) do I find companies with terrible company culture. For the most part, companies are a few steps away from making their company culture awesome. Now, I’m not talking Zappos level. I’m talking about happiness in the workplace. People enjoying coming to work.
Building company culture is an art. It’s not a science of x influences leading to y outcomes. It’s art. It’s crafting trust within your organization. Knowing when and how often to engage with your employees. Most times I see a lack of clear communication. The quickest way to gain trust with employees is to have clear and honest communication. Sharing the values and mission statement on your lobby wall just isn’t enough. Teach to those values. Hold management accountable to those standards in a public way.
Once the culture is sailing in the right direction, publicize it. Use it in your correspondence on social media. Social media is a great way to interact with your employees. Tag them in posts during the team building exercise photo. Chances are their friends will see the picture. You have the culture…use it!
In closing… there is one important point most companies tend to forget. Job seekers are applying to work for an organization. They are not applying to tasks you wrote on the job description. Millennials want to feel like they are a fit with the company more so than with the position. If the company doesn’t have the right fit with the candidate, chances are they won’t care what you write in your job description.