Picking Top Talent: How to Lure the Best Professionals

Searching for the right people for the job isn’t easy, let alone hiring them to work at your company. The people you need will definitely have strong talent and commitment to their work and are usually employed at a different organization, making it hard to land star employees that excel in what they do.

If you’re a part of a big organization, you would most likely already be doing this. In fact, a study was able to establish that, among more than 600,000 politicians, athletes, entertainers, and researchers, top performers were 400 times more productive than the rest of those studied. In addition, it was able to find that as the job gets more complex, this gap rises significantly. In highly-complex tasks and positions, high performers were over 800 percent more productive than their peers. This makes hiring top talent all the more important for small to medium businesses. Let’s look at some tips on how you can get the best professionals to join your team.

Identify your preferred competencies and qualifications

As with any other project or initiative, knowing what your end-goal is just as important in recruiting. Make it a point to identify the key competencies and personality traits that you want to find in your potential employees. You can also ask them about what aspect of the job they value the most: Is it a sense of purpose? Growth opportunity? Inclusiveness at work?

See to it that you have identified which professional qualities, qualifications, and expectations are required to fulfill the job. Give emphasis on the incentives and growth opportunities in your organization, as well as current strategies in place so they know what to expect. This will also help you gauge whether they know what you are talking about, and how deep their knowledge is about systems and techniques your organization is currently using.

Create attractive compensation packages

While some would argue that the job’s salary and benefit are not highly regarded, it is in fact cited as one of the most important factors across different generations, genders, and education levels. Additionally, it was also established that 35 percent of employed individuals are so dissatisfied with their current position at work that they are willing to undergo a new job hunt in search of better compensation. Therefore, maintaining a competitive compensation package is vital for both existing employees and prospective candidates for the job.

While undercutting employees with salary packages that are below industry-standards will help you save money at first, it may hurt your business in the long run. Remember that your competitors are also seeking the best of the best and that you might be turning top talent away from your business by providing them with unattractive compensation.

Incorporate branding in your recruitment

Most companies only look at their brand from a customer’s perspective. It’s usually an aspect that a company only considers critical to attracting and retaining customers. However, your organization’s branding can also play a role in your recruitment efforts. Listen to what people are saying about your company and its culture: Are people inclined to work at your company? Are your employees deemed to be experts in your industry?

These days, it’s becoming easier for job seekers to know what it’s like working inside any company. As job portals aim to give more value to their users, online platforms, such as Glassdoor, are becoming areas of discussion as they provide channels for reviews and feedback from former or current employees anonymously. This is very useful for job seekers in knowing about a company’s work culture, salary range per position, and other employment aspects relevant to them.

Your company’s recruitment brand must embody how your company values your employees, what it does to ensure inclusive growth, and in what way your company provides an employee-centered work environment.

Involve your leaders in recruitment

More often than not, the burden of recruitment is considered a simple business demand that is usually handed over exclusively to the human resource department of an organization. However, as leaders strive to become the biggest champions of a company’s culture, senior leaders are in a better position to connect with their peers and former colleagues and present opportunities your business provides – whether through online connections or personal interaction.

This goes to show how important it is to build a respectable professional profile online. Although the hospitality industry isn’t part of the 5 most represented industries on LinkedIn, its importance in recruitment has even changed how recruiters find top talent in the UK.

“The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths
to hire the best people in the world”

– Steve Jobs

Ultimately, organizations and businesses must not look at recruitment as just a task for the human resource department. When aiming for top talent, every aspect of the office must be considered. These factors must work towards creating a successful cohesion between company goals and an employee-centered principle that develops the organization and engages your employees.