It is widely known that the current recruitment landscape is a challenging one for UK businesses, with phrases like ‘War for Talent’ and ‘Candidate Driven Market’ being thrown around left, right and centre. It is more important than ever to have a solid strategy in place for talent attraction and recruitment if you are seeking ‘Top Talent’.
Look no further for 6 top tips to get your strategy ball rolling:
1. Candidate Experience is key
With candidates holding the power position, you cannot afford to let your standards drop one bit as your competition will swoop in before you realise you are behind the curve.
There are 2 main elements to consider here;
- Keep your process streamlined – The longer the time-to-hire and the more hurdles you give candidates to jump over, the more likely you are to lose their interest
- Communicate! – The simplest, yet most forgotten tool in life (not just recruitment) is key in keeping your candidates engaged and excited about your business. If you have a delay, tell them. If you have a timeline, tell them. Transparency is key! It really is that simple…
When creating, delivering and evaluating your strategy, every decision you make should be considered from the candidates’ point of view. Always be thinking questions like; How will this look to our candidates? Will this make the process easier for candidates?
2. Utilise Your Current Workforce
If you think of your business as a product or service that you are selling to candidates, your employees are your best salespeople! No one knows the company, culture, positives, negatives and USP better. Employee testimonials go a long way to establishing your business as an ‘Employer of Choice’. You can use testimonials on your website and careers page, on job adverts, social media pages, to name just a few.
Another powerful option is to include team members in the interview process. More and more businesses are adopting a ‘Meet the Team’ stage in their interview process which is great because it gives candidates a more tangible feel for the business and working environment.
Personal profiles are also a great tool for personalising the company website – Even something as simple as a photo with a job title and a strapline is effective! This is a great chance to showcase the personalities in your business, after all your people are your biggest asset, right?
3. Do Your Research
This sounds simple but is often overlooked and seen as just another part of the process we don’t have time for! You need to know what the market looks like for any given role, from salary, to flexible working options, to qualification and experience requirements. It is always surprising how many businesses just say, ‘The last person was on £30k, so that’s our budget’. What if that person was hired 5 years ago? What if they’ve been promoted 4 times and actually started on £18k?
You need to do your research! In order to remain competitive and to make sure you are not underpaying, or even overpaying, make sure you do your homework each and every time a new vacancy comes about.
4. Don’t Expect A Unicorn
Yes, Unicorns are perfect in every way and we would all love to have one and yes, we should always strive for perfection. However, this can be completely impractical and in the business world no one is perfect, EVER! We all have our areas for development, and we all need to be moulded to suit a particular environment or culture. Therefore, as hirers we need to make sure we are offering enough flexibility to allow candidates and employees to thrive and grow, we can’t expect them to be the full ticket from day one!
You may think that your candidates need to have 17 qualifications, 9 years industry experience, have the right star sign and be an expert in MS Publisher, but in practice this isn’t true. Everyone is adaptable and everyone can learn so cut your candidates some slack and be open minded, give them the opportunity to surprise you…
5. Don’t Lie…
As simple as it sounds, DON’T LIE! Yes, it may help you to attract the best talent and yes it may make your life easier when recruiting, but this WILL come back to bite you. Your retention will plummet, and you will only find yourself in the same position of recruiting to the same role(s) over and over again… Enough said on this matter…
Conveniently, HR Revolution can help you out with all of the above… Get in touch to find out how we can help you! talent@hrrevolution.co.uk / www.hrrevolution.co.uk
