Behind any successful business lies an efficient team; this is true for large corporations as well as startups. A strong team, consisting of skilled and motivated employees will help your company grow and thrive, but the problem is, finding such employees is not as easy as you might think. Where should you look? What tools should you use to make the hiring process easier?
These 6 crucial factors will help you stand out from the competition and find top talent in your industry.
1. Present Your Company in the Right Lighting
Finding the perfect employees often starts with an ad or job posting. Be sure to revise, review, and polish your job description before you actively start searching for new employees. This will let the candidates know exactly what the position entails, but it will also allow you to identify your target audience and, as a result, focus your efforts on the methods that will help you reach that audience best.
When creating your ad, it’s important that you focus on your company’s culture and identity. So, start by answering the following question: “Why would people want to be part of your company?”
However, bear in mind that today’s job seekers aren’t interested in long job postings. If completing an online job application takes longer than ten minutes, you might miss out on half of the qualified candidates. And if your application process is too complicated, most of them will simply get frustrated and decide to try their luck elsewhere.
2. Get Organized
Organization plays a very important role in a successful hiring process and can help you reduce time inefficiencies in each interview.
Using tools like Google Docs and Google Forms or Google Forms alternatives, for instance, can improve your hiring process drastically. Instead of taking handwritten notes on every applicant’s resume, these tools allow you to take such notes in a digital format and share them easily with others.
This will prevent candidates from being asked the same questions by various people involved in the hiring process, while at the same time allowing you to learn enough new information about a candidate that could demonstrate whether they have the necessary experience and background to succeed in the position.
3. Use an Applicant Tracking System
Businesses that don’t take advantage of cutting-edge tools and recruitment strategies are very likely to fail to achieve their recruiting objectives. Creating the perfect recruitment strategy largely depends on whether companies are able to implement more agile and streamlined processes that enable recruiters to focus on engaging with top talent.
In today’s job market, businesses that use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) are more than able to attract, identify, and hire the best employees. Digitizing and centralizing candidates’ information in a single location, and performing an initial screening of the incoming job applications to select the best prospective employees are just some of the benefits an ATS can offer.
4. Consider Hiring Remote Employees
Focusing on looking for talent only in your geographical area will significantly limit your options. For this reason, many companies decide to hire remote employees, opening up the opportunity to have the most qualified join their teams for much less than they would spend to hire in-house workers. Many businesses have discovered that a flexible workforce enables them to stay within their budget during slow times without sacrificing the quality of work.
According to statistics, more than 35% of employees would choose the option to work remotely over a salary raise, and about 70% of workers consider the ability to work from home very important when choosing their next job. Millennial employees, who are known for being tough to recruit and retain, also rate flexible work arrangements as an eight on a scale of ten for impact on job satisfaction.
5. Offer Something Unique
If you want to attract the best of the best, you need to offer something highly attractive that your competitors currently don’t have on the table. One of the best ways to do this is to have a solid benefits package.
Research has found that about half of workers in the US would leave their current job for a position that offers better benefits. The benefits you offer don’t have to set you back financially, but they should certainly be unique, attractive, and appeal to different generations of workers. Some examples include paid time off, monthly team outings, pet insurance, free ice cream on Fridays, etc.
6. Celebrate Your Employees
While extra perks and financial compensation are certainly important, employees want to know that their efforts are noticed and valued. In fact, a recent survey found that employee recognition was most important to nearly 40% of employees. In addition, workers who receive recognition are 7x more likely to stay with the company, while on the other hand, the lack of recognition is driving nearly 45% of employees to switch jobs.
Employee recognition doesn’t have to be anything expensive or elaborate. It can be a simple thank you for a job well done or celebrating professional and personal milestones – showing that you care can go a long way.
Final Thoughts
Hiring the best employees is the key to long-term business success. These 6 tips will help you find and hire the best, avoid the most common recruiting pitfalls, and create the team of your dreams.
