Eighteen months ago, I was talking to the recruitment head of an organization. He told me, “to fill 20 open positions, we released 100+ offers last year, and we managed to onboard only 6 of them.” He added, “People go around shopping with the offer that we give and negotiate better pay.” This is the reason why they don’t show up. I wondered aloud whether the reason could be this simple. We’ve all been there before. You’ve been looking for new talent for your company. It seems like you’re spending a lot of money on people who aren’t interested in your opportunity.
So what can you do to attract top talent?
I offered to do the heavy lifting of recruiting talents for his organization. He agreed. We needed to reboot their recruitment process. Last things first, we helped them close the 14 open positions within six months.
What did we get right?
Let us look at some of the challenges. You need talent – top talents, and not any talent. The challenge is top talents are not looking to change jobs – you have to attract them. How do you make them know that you are one of the best options for them? Simple. You help them decide. These are the things that we did to help them decide before we began the process of recruiting.
#1 Organization values
We understood the organizational values in depth. We created short videos of values-in-action within the organization. We got internal people to speak about it.
#2 Case studies
We built some of the organization’s best case studies that brought out the depth of work they do. We brought them out in multiple formats – blurbs, one-slider, three-sliders, full-blown presentations, and a comprehensive pdf document. We had quotes from people who worked on those projects and from customers who benefitted from that project.
#3 Employee experience journey
We got employees who have been with them for more than ten years, five years and those who have spent about a year narrating their journey in the organization. We covered things like – what attracted them to the organization, what keeps them in the organization, and what propels them to punch above their weight daily. This revealed how the work culture supports career growth and development while creating a positive environment.
#4 Glassdoor reviews
We pulled out all the reviews their current and former employees wrote on Glassdoor and other similar places. We compiled everything together without sugar-coating any of it. This brought out the organizations’ values as well as their strengths to the fore.
#5 Compensation package
The organization was doing a great job here, but it wasn’t coming out. They weren’t communicating about it. We thought the best way to bring that out was to show how it is being done. The benefits included health insurance, life insurance, vision, and dental insurance, retirement plans, a signing bonus, and a performance bonus. These were a given. Besides these, they had very creative things – gym memberships, club memberships, professional development memberships like subscriptions to online learning platforms and public speaking forums, on-site child care, flexible and hybrid working, casual dress code, annual family trips, group outings, and bonus vacation time. They also had ESOPs, and Phantom equity as a part of the compensation. We got them to shoot short videos of these benefits in action. This gave an idea of the kind of environment and the organization’s culture. We helped them split the large signing bonus into three parts – one at the time of joining, one on completion of 6 months, and one on completion of the first year. This not only acted as a compensation tool but also as an employee retention tool.
#6 Internal PR
The organization was doing a lot of PR outreach focused on their customers, not their employees. We impressed them to do internal PR as well to attract talent. All of these videos, testimonials, and collaterals that we helped them create started appearing on various online and offline platforms. Their communication team also started sharing them on their website and social media. This brought in a lot of energy and enthusiasm within the organization. Besides, it built the brand of the organization.
#7 Streamlining the hiring process
We completed the entire recruitment process from anywhere between 8 hours to 72 hours for all levels of candidates. We ensured that everyone participating in the process was available in person, via call, or video before bringing in the candidates. We made sure that an offer was released within this timeframe, or we communicated to the candidates that we didn’t find them suitable for our needs. We do not believe in wasting our time and the candidates’ time on a lengthy process. In fact, this got them to refer some of their friends to our organization.
Conclusion
Be likable. Be memorable. Be passionate. Be smart. Be honest. Be genuine. Be approachable. Be someone they want to be around. Be somebody they would like to work with. Be someone they would like to learn from. Be somebody they would like to help. Be somebody they would want to share ideas with. Be somebody they would like to get to know better. Be somebody they would like to work for. Show your appreciation. Did we accomplish all of this? I guess so. These allowed us to showcase the organization as cool, fun, and appealing. I hope you’ve found this article valuable to your organization and that you take these tips and run with them to attract top talent to your organization.
Thank you for reading. We are always excited about providing helpful information.
