Talent Attraction Strategy: Find Quality Candidates Without a Giant Salary
In today's ever-evolving job market, attracting quality talent isn't solely about offering the highest salary. If you're working with a budget, you might be wondering how you can compete. Rest assured, there are effective strategies you can implement that don't rely on a giant paycheck.
In this article, we will explore various talent attraction techniques that emphasize more than just financial compensation. You’ll also learn the difference between talent acquisition and recruitment and why having a cohesive talent acquisition strategy is so important.
Let's dive in.
Why Talent Attraction Strategy is Important for People-Oriented Businesses
People are the lifeblood of any business. Marketing agencies, professional service providers, B2B SaaS companies, your local coffee shop—they all rely on the skills, creativity, and dedication of their employees to maintain growth and success. A talent attraction strategy is vital for these people-oriented businesses because it helps:
Acquire top talent
Drive employee retention
Cultivate a strong organizational culture
Drive customer satisfaction
In short, all of this adds up to a competitive advantage over any business that fails to attract talent.
Talent Acquisition vs Recruitment
The difference between talent acquisition and recruitment is subtle, but important: recruitment is about filling roles; talent acquisition is about building teams.
Both are important, but they are not the same. Here's a more detailed breakdown:
Recruitment: This process is reactive. It focuses on filling immediate vacancies. When a role opens, the recruitment process kicks in to fill it. It's more about responding to the immediate needs of the company.
Talent Acquisition: This process is proactive. It involves strategic planning to find, attract, and nurture potential candidates before a role becomes vacant. It's not just about filling roles, but about anticipating future needs, developing a talent pool, and creating a strong employer brand.
Recruitment is like finding a quick snack when hunger strikes. It's immediate, targeted, and designed to fill a gap that exists right here, right now. Think of it as a shopping trip where your list only includes what's needed for tonight's dinner.
Talent Acquisition, however, plays a longer game. It's less about satisfying an immediate craving and more about laying out a meal plan for the week ahead. It's about identifying future needs, appreciating where you want to be, and understanding the people who can help you get there, long before the need arises. It's the difference between impulse purchases and a well-planned shopping list backed by a week’s worth of carefully considered recipes.
These two are not interchangeable, they're complementary—the equivalent of satisfying your hunger now, while also ensuring a well-stocked pantry for tomorrow's meals.
Recruiting Top Talent
There is a lot that goes into recruiting top talent, especially for B2B and professional service firms. Let’s look at the best ways to recruit top talent for your people-oriented business.
Employer Branding in Recruitment
Before you begin recruiting, you need to consider the strength of your employer brand. This is your company's reputation as a place to work. It's what people think and feel when they hear your company's name.
Why does it matter? Here are a few reasons:
Attracting Top Talent: People want to work for companies that are known as great places to work. If your employer brand is strong, you'll attract more (and better) candidates.
Reducing Hiring Costs: When you have a great employer brand, you spend less time and money convincing people to work for you. They already want to!
Keeping Great Employees: A strong employer brand can also help with employee retention. If people are proud of where they work, they're less likely to leave.
So, if you want to attract and keep the best people, investing in your employer brand is a smart move. It's like the curb appeal of your company. And just like a well-kept yard can make all the difference in selling a house, a strong employer brand can make all the difference in selling your company to potential employees.
How to Write a LinkedIn Job Description
According to the Hinge Research Institute, 84% of active job seekers in professional service industries use LinkedIn to search for career opportunities. So how do you write a job description that stands out on such a crowded platform? Consider the following out-of-the-box ideas:
Start with a blank sheet of paper. Don’t copy and paste from existing job posts, and don’t use AI. This will just get you bullet point soup.
Write like a human would talk. You do want to hire humans, right?
Consider what a potential employee really wants to know. What are some specific examples of things they will be doing? How might they describe this job to other people? (For example, check out a few of the sections we include in our job description for HR Generalists.)
How to Evaluate Interview Candidates
When evaluating interview candidates, it's easy to fall into the trap of conventional wisdom, like prioritizing the smooth-talker who answers questions swiftly. But, as Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross point out in their book Talent, the best hire may not be the most obvious choice.
You might need to dig deeper. These are the folks who might not stand out in a crowd, but they're the ones who can make a real difference.
Here’s how you can go beyond the basic search criteria to find a quality candidate for your company:
Value stamina and energy above all else. Ask for examples of repeated, demonstrated success, not just “one hit wonders".
Seek out unique individuals. Consider overlooked demographics like late career women, non-obvious misfits, and career pivots.
Attempt to figure out a candidate’s “weekend personality”. Ask them about their hobbies, because these downtime-revealed preferences are where their true nature lies.
Don’t be afraid to ask challenging questions. Think Which of your beliefs are you most likely wrong about? but not silly brain teaser questions like How many golf balls would fit inside the Empire State Building?
Focus on actual life activities and achievements. These are the most reliable source of information about an individual.
Lastly, remember that ethics are non-negotiable. No matter how talented they may be, a candidate with less than stellar ethics is a ticking time-bomb.
Acquiring Quality Candidates
Okay, so now you know what to look for in a candidate, but how do you find those candidates? That’s where Talent Acquisition comes in.
Talent acquisition involves proactive strategies to identify, attract, and engage with potential candidates who have the skills and qualities needed for your organization's future needs. Think of it like building a strong pipeline of talented individuals before you even have a specific job opening.
We recommend focusing on the following Talent Acquisition Skills:
Sourcing and Networking. Attracting quality candidates requires you to build and maintain a robust network of potential fits. Consider outside-the-box areas to connect, like Facebook groups and Slack channels. (As an example, we’ve found great success hiring fractional HR professionals through military spouse Facebook groups.)
Communication and Relationship Building. You should be able to effectively communicate job requirements, organizational culture, and growth opportunities to candidates.
Talent Pipeline Management. Building and maintaining a talent pipeline is essential for future hiring needs. You must proactively identify potential candidates, nurture relationships, and keep candidates engaged for future opportunities. If you don’t use an Applicant Tracking System already, consider building a simple one in tools like Trello, Monday, or Notion.
Diversity and Inclusion. Understand the importance of sourcing and attracting diverse talent, mitigating biases in the hiring process, and promoting inclusive recruitment practices. The Diversity Gap offers a book, podcast, and coaching that helps talent acquisition specialists in this arena.
Continuous Learning. The field of talent acquisition is constantly evolving. Adopt a mindset of continuous learning, staying updated on industry trends, recruitment best practices, and new technologies to ensure you remain effective and innovative in your approach.
Build a Talent Attraction Strategy For Your Business
As your business grows, human resources become more important. At a certain point, you’ll need support but can’t quite justify a full-time hire. Same Page offers fractional HR support that your business can afford. Request a proposal for fractional HR support, or schedule a call with us to learn more.