The best talent on the market will likely not find you on their own. You must find a way to find them and court them into joining your team and organization! Check out the video below that our Sr. Partner Lance Winsaft put together about finding talent.
The market is competitive and it’s critical you do whatever is needed to get a competitive edge.
1) Clarity, 2) Culture, 3) Speed – The top 3 things you need to have FLAT if you are serious about hiring the best talent.
*CLARITY – You need to be clear about what you need in the role, what the person will do, what their personality will be like, and what you will expect of them.
*CULTURE – Your company and team should have a defined culture that you can speak to and get people excited about. Find out ways to interview for culture.
*SPEED – In this market, there is no time for drawn out interview processes. Don’t compromise on what you need to do to hire the right people and be sure to move fast with the people you like – they are most likely being courted by other companies!
Are You Missing Out?
We see too many clients miss out on great talent because of missing one more of the above items. When you miss out on that great candidate, guess what? They are going to your competition! That is usually not a good thing. Every industry and vertical is competitive, you can’t afford to lose talent to your competitors.
On this same note, the above points apply to current employees as well. Employees stay with companies that have a clear vision, companies that move fast, and companies with a well defined culture.
If you are able to retain the talent you currently have while also attracting and retaining other top talent, you will have an undeniable edge over your competition. The slightest edge in any game is what separates the winners from the losers.
You Are Being Interviewed As Well!
Every candidate you interview is also interviewing you and your company – and remember, if they are good, they aren’t desperate, and someone else is likely after them as well!! It’s so critical you find ways to sell both the opportunity of the role and the opportunity of joining your team and company. Putting even a little bit more effort into candidate experience can have big payoffs in terms of giving you a competitive edge.
Top talent must be hunted in this current market. If you are serious about adding the best people to your team, you can’t rely on them finding you in time. If you are unable to hire a headhunter, find a way to hunt the talent on your own. This can be tricky but must be done! The best talent is waiting for you to find them and court them. 🙂
This holds true the most if you are hiring executives or upper management – especially if they are currently working with one of your competitors. It isn’t enough to “build it and they will come.” So you have a great product or service, a great future for the company ahead of you, that is great, but not enough to lure over the superstars.
Be Willing To Court Them
Superstars need a little coaxing. Add in a dinner as part of your interview process, make your interview process is slick with very high communication. Your internal HR teams should be on the spot with scheduling and communicating with these folks. Give them a great tour of the office, sell them on your vision the perks, etcetera. Find out what really matters to them, what are their motivations, why are they interested. More importantly, find out their concerns!
Too many employers avoid asking what the candidates concerns are and therefore they never get addressed. Only when you find out what they are concerned about can you dress it. This is a critical interview strategy that most employers miss. What happens then is the candidate has a concern, they make things up in their head about the concern, it never gets addressed, and then they make a decision based on the made up thoughts they have about the concern! Most of the time the concern was something easy to address that likely would have resulted in a positive outcome. Don’t fall in to this trap.
Never stop improving your process. The way you find talent and retain them should be ever evolving. Outside recruiters are an amazing resource because we work with many different clients and we see what works and what doesn’t work. We strive to be that sort of partner for our clients – not just a talent mill.
Recruiters also help to manage those communications and set expectations. The last thing you want is to leave a candidate “hanging” out there at any point in the process. This happens WAY too much! Especially if they are hot, you can’t leave them on hold. Recruiters are great for setting expectations and taking that load away from you.
Conclusion
There are many ways to give yourself a competitive edge to attract and retain the top talent in the market. You owe it to yourself to invest in HR and recruiters. Invest in have a great candidate experience that motivates and inspires candidates. Court the people you really like, make them feel special, make them feel wanted, and keep this up for all employees. Millennials especially want to contribute and be apart of something. Give your employees that chance!
Feel free to reach out to us if you want to improve in any of these areas. We are a true business partner and can provide you with not only the top talent but also insight and advice into your process. To attract the best you have to be the best and work with the best. If you offer peanuts you get monkeys. or if you do the bare minimum with candidates and think they should be happy to be interviewing with you, you will get mediocre talent. You have an amazing company, an amazing product/service, now do whatever it takes to have the best people.
Happy Hunting!
