While employers
often feel that it should be easy to attract great candidates it is not always
the case. Top candidates always have options, and they can generally
afford to be picky about which jobs they explore, let alone which offers
they accept. This means that employers who truly care about attracting top
talent need to put special thought into how they recruit candidates.
Since the best
candidates have options, they’ll interview and evaluate employers right back.
Employers who assume that the assessment process only goes one way and forget
to care about how they’re coming across to candidates will generally turn off
great candidates.
Over my years in
recruiting within the insurance industry, I’ve found the below strategies
particularly helpful in attracting and securing the best candidates:
- The hiring
company needs to understand the difference between an active job seeker
and a truly “recruited” candidate. It is up to the recruiter to make
certain the client company knows who is who, too. Not that the process
should necessarily be any different between the two types of candidates,
but it can be helpful to know the difference in how each is considered
within a hiring process.
- I
am presently working with a client that volunteered, during our initial
discussion about the project, that the hiring manager would be very open
to speaking with any prospective candidate prior to them officially
allowing their credentials to be submitted as an actual candidate.
When recruiting on particularly difficult searches where the potential
pool to draw from is very shallow, this can be a very effective strategy.
- If
you, as a hiring company, have a good story to tell, then you should tell
it! A recruiter certainly serves as a valued resource during searches, but
no one can tell the story like the hiring manager. I’d even suggest
that a talent acquisition professional or human resources recruiter,
while very knowledgeable certainly, still is not as equipped to talk to a
potential candidate about the department culture and why it is great to work
for that company and that department.
- Once
you have identified a candidate you are truly interested in bringing on
board, offer to bring them and their significant other (if they have one)
out to your community for a couple days. Set them up with a rental
car, a non-aggressive real estate agent and someone on your team that can
show them the highlights of the area. I’ve seen this as a very
effective way to seal the deal with the person you want to join your
company.
The competition
for talent is tough. Why not utilize whatever advantages you can to help
separate you from your competition?
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