It’s not enough to just announce you are hiring, you have to make sure enough people (and the right people) are listening through smart marketing and ensure the deal is good enough that prospects will “take the bait” by sweetening that deal with the perks and benefits top industry talent will be looking for.
Acquiring and retaining top talent is one of the key pillars of any company’s long term success. But how do you do it?
Here are 5 approaches to consider:
1. Help Your Talent Relocate.
Over 40 million Americans relocate each year, many of them for employment reasons. For many businesses, it’s worth enticing top talent to come to you instead of just hiring only those already local. But if you want to increase the scope of your talent pool geographically, there are some perks you should not overlook offering new recruits.
Offering to pay for a moving service, professional auto shipping service, one-way airline ticket, and airport transport (prearranged online) is huge. Obviously, this kind of perk can only be offered to your most prized prospects, but offering it may well make the difference between landing a new employee and losing him or her.
2. Emphasize Your Benefits Package.
New recruits starting a new career with you want to know that, not only will you help them move to get started, but that there are valuable ongoing benefits as well.
You simply can’t compete it today’s market for top-tier talent without a great health insurance plan, a decent pension plan, and other benefits like carpools, child day care, life insurance or accident insurance, steep employee discounts on products/services, and other key benefits.
But don’t let your benefits package fall short of its drawing and keeping potential because nobody knows about it!
3. Referral Rewards.
On average, new employees referred to you by existing employees last longer, are more productive, and fit better into the company “culture.” Therefore, it only makes sense to encourage current employees to do some of your recruitment leg work for you.
A simple cash reward for referred new hires that stay with you a designated period of time, awards like gift cards or iPads received immediately when the new employee is hired, or even paid days off are all more than sufficient to motivate employees to become employee-recruiters.
4. Clever Online Advertising.
Instead of always the straightforward ads, it can also pay to place some more creative variants on social media sites and elsewhere online.
Why not have a current employee share why he or she loves working for your company in a short article/ad? Or, start Facebook Groups centered around what your company does and make job offers to participants.
Another idea might be to start conversations on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, or Instagram on topics to do with the value of your products/services or with the problems that they can solve. This will bring you talent that is interested in your company’s goals and vision – which is likely to yield better employees.
5. Rent a Billboard.
One final thought. Have you ever considered renting a billboard by a busy highway nearby your company’s physical location? It’s sure to get a lot of attention, and including a phone number, address, and website URL will facilitate converting interested parties into actual job applicants.
This approach has proved effective to others, and using a creative, attention-grabbing visual and short, memorable text in the billboard ad will also help.
“Ordinary” recruitment methods aren’t going away, and they may form the backbone of your efforts. But going the extra mile with “alternative” recruitment approaches can often make the difference between a “good” campaign and a “great” one.
