As the world is finally getting back to work and economies slowly show signs of recovery, there’s still uncertainty regarding whatever our new normal will become. Which is why many of the most successful names in business have prioritized engaging and retaining talented employees more than anything else. So with competition for brilliant and capable team members increasing almost exponentially, how exactly can you ensure your business follows suit? Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all method for attraction and retention of highly talented candidates. Instead, you need to create your own hiring strategy using a combination of the elements below:
Sell Them On Your Company Culture
Company culture. Sure, it sounds like just another all-encompassing buzzword that doesn’t really mean anything, but it’s actually the most important part of your business. The employee culture of your company plays a massive part in all aspects of the job for them, from daily productivity to overall satisfaction.
Brian Chesky, Co-founder and CEO, Airbnb, has this to say on building the right culture within his company – “Why is culture so important to a business? Here is a simple way to frame it. The stronger the culture, the less corporate process a company needs. When the culture is strong, you can trust everyone to do the right thing.”
By developing a positive company culture which your current employees enjoy, admire, and are proud to be a part of, you’ll end up attracting similar talent. How? Well, company cultures are like high schools in the same area, and word of mouth is everything. When there’s positivity surrounding your business, it will always attract the attention of more talent.
Ensure They’re A Good Fit
When recruiting great talent, it’s extremely important that they’re a good company fit. You really want to add people who will mesh well with both the culture and the team as they will be the ones most likely to flourish and excel. Besides, you want candidates will also succeed in their own endeavours as well, right? Because that is how you create a healthy and happy company.
Scott Butlin, director of Australian Scaffolds, Australia’s largest multiuse scaffolding manufacturer, spoke of hiring slow and having processes in place to finding talent.
“To stay competitive, a lot of our success has been because of our team. The ability to attract and keep great talent is essential for any business that wants to operate at the top of their industry. Whenever someone new joins our team, we not only want to show them what they can do for us, but we need to educate them on the importance of their role in our company and the impact it creates to our customers.”
Once you’ve decided on the skills required by the ideal candidate, assess their personality during the interview and compare them with the rest of your team. Remember you’re your employees are the real asset of your company, no matter what you do. And great talent always attracts more great talent. So you basically want candidates that fit so well, they wish they already worked for you as they’re leaving your business.
Create An Employee-Focused Environment
Employees want to get paid, sure. But it’s never been more vital to make them feel part of a team like they belong. That’s why the best employees also want appreciation and acknowledgment whenever they go the extra mile or produce great work. And they don't always need to be given monetary rewards to feel that. Just by discussing their efforts around their peers is often enough to show them they truly are valued.
Lauren Sommer, director of Moi Moi Fine Jewellery has this to say on creating meaningful work for her team – “if you want your team to be engaged in their work, they need to understand the value of their outputs and have their work acknowledged by others so their efforts don’t go unnoticed.”
She goes to say “we create an environment that is innovative that our staff are proud to be part of. It’s also important to create a supportive team culture that builds up each other’s talents and that is non-competitive to create a positive workplace for our staff and our clients”.
As an employee-focused company, you should provide support for your staff, challenge them, and give them all the development opportunities they need. Which will allow your highly talented team members to innovate, grow, and succeed by setting their own career goals. By coupling this with access, autonomy, and vision, you’ll be able to offer candidates a meaningful working life filled with opportunity and purpose.
Offer Employee Flexibility
It’s become increasingly well-known over recent years that businesses with strict work schedules are more likely to have much lower staff retention rates. And it’s not hard to work out why. If you don’t give your staff enough downtime to recharge and pursue their own dreams or passions in life, eventually they’re going to burn out. And whenever that happens, the next thing most employees will do is quit.
Hiten Shah, co-founder of Crazy Egg, has this to say on the perks of remote work – “The whole conversation is about how remote work is different, instead of being about the amazing tools we have at our disposal that remote teams and non-remote teams are able to use at any time. We have this opportunity to have a lot more freedom in our environment compared to when we had to be in an office, or even in school, 40 hours per week.”
Businesses really need to have open communication with their employees and trust them to complete their workload without the old 9 to 5 over their heads. Especially if you ever expect them to work overtime. By offering employees a little flexibility and allowing them to set their own schedule, not only will it help reduce their stress, but it will actually improve productivity and increase output for a much higher level of job satisfaction.
Research The Market & The Competition
Start by ascertaining where the most highly talented potential candidates are most likely to be seeking work. Then you can spend some time actively looking at current markets as if you were a job seeker. Would you work for your company? If you don’t, then you need to look at where you need to make changes. By making the right changes, you will ultimately be able to increase your share of the right candidates.
After looking at the job market, you should also research your competition. You especially need to learn everything about them, like their company culture, their employee turnover, and what they offer candidates both financially and non-financially. If you want to attract similar talent to your competitors, make necessary like extending value propositions or offering better company rewards.
Final Thoughts
Despite economies starting to improve, there’s been a massive disruption and displacement of skills over the past year. Even if your business was one of the lucky ones to remain open in some capacity, retention of existing talent is a pressing issue for us all over the next few years. That’s why all businesses should be developing strategies to attract the best new candidates while also minimising the risks of losing talented employees.
Guest post courtesy of Felix Yim
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