How do you Acquire Best Talent
Two questions to ask yourself about attracting the best talent is: Do employees enjoy working here? And, who knows about this company? Take Google for example. Thousands of applicants apply to Google every month. They know the company Google and they know that Google is a great place to work because they have a positive culture that supports its employees. Companies such as Forbes and Fortune have ranked Google for their company brand.
There are strategies to improve employer brand image. Begin with reviewing your company’s vision, mission, and core values and replacing or updating them as necessary. This sets the direction for your company and provides clear communication to your employees. Participation in the process by employees helps to build a positive culture.
Take a look at how you promote your business to your employees, customer base, and community. Participate in your local community events or sponsor events. Become a member of the local Chamber of Commerce. Volunteer to be a guest speaker, participate in a school career fair, or provide internships for students to experience working in your company. Allow employees to participate in these activities as your ambassadors. Soon, your community and potential candidates will learn who your company is and what they do.
Diversity and inclusion are critical elements of recruitment and retention. This is a good time to review your current policies that support them. Diversity includes varying ages, race, gender, sexual orientation, personality, culture, religion, and social status. Having a diverse workforce provides a greater range of talent leading to a more successful and effective organization and resulting in more profits. Inclusion, also important, is fair and equitable treatment and access to opportunities and resources for all employees. Building a diverse and inclusive workforce leads to a positive culture and a desirable place to work.
Now you’re ready to address your hiring process, which includes building a talent pool, and creating a process to hire the best talent. A talent pool is an important tool that is maintained so candidates are readily available to hire when needed. Some important sources to keep in mind include your current employees. If they are consistently being developed, they are a ready source to draw from. Also, they are a great source of referrals. Consider creating an employee referral program and offering an incentive if their referral is selected. Your website is another source for candidates to apply for positions. If you are an internship site, you have a group of candidates to select from for entry-level positions. Apprenticeships are another way to grow your own employees and funding is usually available for on-the-job training and related instruction. This is a cost-saving for both the employer and employee and a benefit simultaneously. LinkedIn is another source to draw from. It is a great “B to B” tool and candidates seeking jobs can get recognized on-line. Of course, there are several paid sources to advertise for candidates as well. These are just a few suggestions on building your talent pool.
Next, is the hiring itself. This begins with a well-developed job description that clearly defines the duties, responsibilities, skills, and knowledge for the job as well as the qualifications. One way to determine the best talent for the position is to assess the candidate’s skills and knowledge to perform the job as defined in the job description. All too frequently, the job description is not well defined, which leads to hiring a mismatch for the job. To assess the candidate, a rubric, assessment tool, can be utilized in the hiring process. Using the rubric for each candidate interviewed helps to flush out the best candidate for the organization. This process is a structured interview and treats all candidates equitably. Other processes can achieve similar results. The increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) can analyze resumes and interviews to weed out the number of candidates to interview and identify critical elements during an interview. Finding the right person for the job leads to greater retention as well as increased productivity and profitability.
