Any organization is only as good and as efficient as the people working for it. As a leader, one of your responsibilities is to find and attract the best talent to your organization. It has become increasingly difficult over the past decade or so. With shifting generations in the workforce, hiring and retaining talent isn’t what it used to be.
Finding the right people is no longer about offering them competitive salaries, good benefits, or promises of permanent employment. Today’s workforce has other interests in mind. Statistically speaking, today’s workers change jobs roughly 12 times throughout their careers.
This trend has led many companies to adopt some borderline desperate and disastrous measures in their attempt to get the best talent in the market before the competition does.
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How NOT To Attract the Best Talent
Some companies have adopted a strategy where they’ve created an endless stream of applicants being hired and fired consistently. The hope is that, with such a high influx of candidates passing through their doors, some of them will be worth keeping. But more often than not, this strategy only ends up increasing the costs associated with high turnover rates as well as generating low morale rates throughout the organization.
Others, on the other hand, have adopted the complete opposite approach. They consider every hire to have the potential to provide top performance as long as enough time and investment is made in that candidate. However, this results in precious time and resources wasted on employees that don’t have the capabilities or willingness to improve.
While these strategies may make some sense on paper, they rarely, if ever, pay off in the long run.
How to Attract the Best Talent
To have the most success when looking for top talent, leaders shouldn’t focus on what skills and experience applicants need. Instead, they should be focusing on the wants and needs of the ideal candidates and what they’re looking for in a job.
And while this may take some time and effort, they pale in comparison to the examples presented above. What’s more, the results of this targeted approach will be far more effective than the alternative.
So, what is today’s top talent interested in that trumps over salary and benefits? Below is a framework that will give you a general idea into what aspects you should be focusing your attention on.
To have success when looking for top talent, focus on the wants and needs of ideal candidates and what they’re looking for.
A Good Employer
Today’s millennial workforce is on the lookout for a great boss. They look for someone who cares for their employees and looks at them as human beings, not just cogs in a machine. They also want someone who takes an active role and is engaged in the day-to-day operations – not one that only makes sudden appearances in the office during the monthly meetings.
Future Opportunities
Nobody wants to work in a dead-end job. As a leader, you should always champion the growth for both the company and your employees. It implies providing them with challenges that will enable skill development, as well as an environment that leverages those new skills.
Purpose and Vision
Today’s millennial generation wants to work with purpose and feel like they’re making a difference with their work. To that end, you should foster connection so that each individual sees the role they play in the vision you all wish to create. You should also ensure that there’s alignment so that you can harness the collective energy of the organization.
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All of these will help make your company be a place where people will be standing in line to work. By using the best possible practices and changing your approach to the hiring process, you will no longer have difficulty in finding new talent. For complimentary advice, call me +1 (604) 943-0800 or book an appointment at https://go.oncehub.com/GregNichvalodoff.