4 Ways To Attract (And Keep) Top Talent In A Competitive Market

Hiring the right person for the job is one of the most important jobs a company leader has — after all, great companies are made of great people.

But, it takes forever just to narrow your pool of potential candidates — and that’s before you even start the interview process. When you’re flooded with a number of similarly qualified applicants, it can be really tough to separate the wheat from the chaff.

And it’s particularly difficult in today’s market.

The current job market leans heavily towards candidates, and applicants know how in-demand they are. In this climate, it’s crucial for employers to differentiate themselves from other companies and show top talent how you can help them reach their career goals. This requires being rigorous throughout the recruitment process.

If employers don’t market themselves, sell their company culture, and stay selective, they’ll surely lose their dream employees to a competitor.

Here are four strategies to help company leaders get the right person for the job:

1. Create an ideal employee profile.

It’s common practice for companies to create ideal customer profiles, but not enough organizations go that extra step to build out the profiles of their ideal employee.

When you’re on the hunt for your ideal employee, figure out exactly what this person looks like and how they work. It’s equally as important to focus your recruitment efforts on the candidates that will succeed in your company, and that means understanding your own organization’s culture and hiring to fit the bill. If you have a set of “musts” up front, your recruitment team will be one step closer to finding someone who will thrive in your company. This extra step will help you avoid time and energy reviewing endless candidates who won’t gel.

Beyond the recruitment phase, you should continue to be selective throughout the entire interview process.

Use your ideal employee profile to inform the types of questions you ask potential candidates, and craft highly targeted scenarios to see how they respond. You should also ask questions to determine the candidates work style and behavior.

Here are some examples:

• What would be the ideal company culture for you?
• How do you define success?
• If you could change three things about yourself, what would they be?
• Do you have any role models? If so, who are they, and why are they role models?

My golden rule is to always hire first for attitude, then for aptitude.

2. Leverage your team to find like-minded employees.

There’s a reason companies use recruiting agencies to find top candidates — it’s extremely time-consuming to wade through resume after resume.

But while recruitment agencies can be helpful, they can also be really expensive. On top of that, recruiters just don’t have the institutional knowledge to find candidates the mesh with your specific company culture.

That’s where your team comes in.

Your employees can attract top talent by creating talent ambassador LinkedIn profiles, reaching out to potential candidates, conducting reviews on platforms like Glassdoor and Indeed, and helping generate content that reflects the organization’s culture. They know the culture, the vibe, and what exactly is needed to do the job well. Their network might not be as big, but birds of a feather flock together.

When you can, use your employees to recruit for you.

That said, the last thing you want is to attract candidates that fit only one mold. Diversity is the key to an innovative and adaptable company, so make sure that your hires are bringing something new to the table.

3. Market your company to appeal to your perfect candidate.

The interview process is as much about selling your company and you as it is about the candidate selling him or herself.

A big part of this is promoting a workplace that will attract the type of people you want to hire. Let’s say, for example, you have an outdoor gear company. You want to bring on outdoorsy people who will be passionate about your product. Offer perks to attract those sorts of people, like sponsored camping trips or free access to national parks.

A lot of startups, especially in Silicon Valley, got caught up with offering the same types of perks Google does — free meals, free laundry, free massages, etc. But these perks are becoming a bit passe. Everyone wants something different, and free lunch has been done to death.

You have to create a unique environment of benefits rather than just offering the same things as everyone else.

For example, I’ve seen companies that take the whole team on a two-week working vacation once a year, where they can work anywhere from their laptops in a remote and idyllic location. Offering educational opportunities — like advanced degrees or continuing education courses — is another great way to entice people to stick around for the long run.

The point is to craft benefits to fit your unique office environment and help your employees grow.

4. Hire slow but fire fast.

No one wants to fire an employee or admit they made a hiring mistake.

But if things aren’t working out (and you’ll probably know pretty early on if that’s the case), it’s better to let that employee go. This is especially true if you have a small team and everybody has to pull a hefty weight. Make the tough decisions as soon as you can, and you’ll have a more efficient team.

I’ve made hiring mistakes in the past that cost me time and money, so it’s worth it to do things right. It may seem insensitive, but there are several reasons that “hire slow, fire fast” is the right approach:

• It doesn’t serve society to create bloated companies that will slowly die. We need healthy, growing companies capable of sticking around for the long run to keep the economy strong.
• On the best teams, everyone trusts one another to do a great job. Consider how harsh it is to allow a whole team to be held hostage by someone who should not have been hired in the first place.
• Trying to force someone to be something they’re not is not sustainable. It doesn’t serve people to keep them in the wrong role, giving them the same negative feedback over and over.

Even if it takes you a while to fill a position, it’s worth the wait. Don’t lower your standards, and don’t panic.

The right person is out there, and you’ll find them if you hire with intention.