Build Your Dream Team: 10 Tips for Finding Talent

10 Tips for Finding Talent

1. Build brand awareness and loyalty

One of the first ways to find talent is to make it so people want to work for you. A lot of potential talent—especially your Millennial hires—want to work somewhere where their work means something and is meaningful. If people know what your brand stands for, they’ll know if that aligns with their own goals. Building your brand and your organizational culture allows you to create the kind of workplace that people will seek out and stay at. Sixty-five percent of employees decide to stay at a job based on the culture. Creating the kind of culture that encourages people to stay creates the kind of environment that brings people to your company. 

2. Offer competitive benefits

Employees are more likely to choose a job that offers a great benefits package and compensation strategy. Keep your benefits competitive, and you’re staying ahead of the hiring crowd to draw in the best talent around. 

3. Build a talent pipeline

Don’t wait to start finding talent until you’re desperate. A talent pipeline is a vetted list of candidates who have the qualities you need that you can use to fill a position quickly. To build a talent pipeline, consider changing your recruitment strategy to include inbound recruiting and outbound recruiting. 

Inbound recruiting is when people come to you. You post a job listing, they find it, and they apply. Hiring complete, easy peasy. Outbound recruiting is when you as the company actually reach out to someone to apply. You’ve got the ideal candidate in mind, so why wait around? Ask them to come work for you.

Hiring today requires using both inbound and outbound recruiting. You need to use inbound recruiting when it’s advantageous to draw talent to you, and you need to use outbound recruiting to reach out directly to the top tier talent you want right at your company. Keep both types of recruiting in mind as we go through tips when you look for talent. 

4. Write job postings strategically

The way you write a job description is going to determine who’s going to apply for the position, so thinking about the posting is key. Specifically, the way you word your job posting can determine whether or not women feel comfortable applying. Seriously. Using typically masculine traits in a job description won’t bother a man, but it does deter women from thinking that position fits them. Carefully wording your postings to avoid gender bias can make sure you’re finding a great fit. Inclusive postings bring in diverse candidates which brings you the best talent out there.

5. Offer a flexible work environment

Your work environment needs to get with the times. Right now 61% of people working from home are working from home.  Not because the office is closed, not because the pandemic is raging where they are. They want the flexibility. So a great way to bring in the best of the best to your company is to offer flexibility that makes your company an appealing place for people to work because you let them work how they need to. 

6. Create a referral program

Employee referral programs are a classic approach to finding talent, but there’s a reason for that. Using employee referral programs can actually boost retention by 46%. Basically, having your employees find you great hires helps everybody involved want to stay at your company. It’s the ultimate win. Create a program that works for your company, but the basic idea is that you want to reward employees who find you great hires. Rewards can take any shape, but make sure they’re worth something to really incentivize your employees to find the best talent around for you. 

7. Try internships or apprenticeships

Depending on your industry, you might find your company is suited for internships or apprenticeships. These programs allow students or recent graduates to gain experience at your company, and you get the chance to train them up and try out if they’d be a good fit for you. Then when you have openings, you get to hire internally among people who are already good fits for your company and culture. Internal hiring saves you time, money, and keeps the learning curve brief. Internships and apprenticeship programs give you all of these benefits, and help you find good talent early on. 

8. Recruit young professionals from schools

Speaking of recruiting talent early, recruiting from schools is a great way to hire. More CEOs are hiring right from the schools to find talent young. It’s hiring right to the source. Hop on over to the universities, colleges, and trade schools to find talent that’s actively looking for jobs. 

9. Adopt new interviewing approaches

Sometimes the trick in the hiring process is actually with the interview. So how can you shift your interviewing tactics to boost hiring? Here are a few ideas to get you started: 

• Group interviews
• One-on-one interviews
• Team interviews

Getting your interviews to be creative and unique can help you stand out from the crowd of recruiting companies. 

10. Connect your company to something greater

Like we mentioned earlier, people want to make a difference in the world, and they want their work to be meaningful. Connecting your company to something greater, a bigger purpose, meaningful progress makes your company somewhere people want to work and somewhere people want to stay. 

The Bottom Line

Looking for a little guidance? Talk to a wellbeing specialist today, and we’ll help you get started boosting your benefits, so you can boost your hiring strategy.