Attracting and retaining talent are among the very top concerns of companies, because people are fundamental to the success of any organization. Everything your company does each day and any big wins it accomplishes start with your people – including their knowledge, experience, vision, teamwork and commitment to their job.
You have to be able to bring in the best talent possible – and then keep them for as long as possible.
This is all another way of saying that you need an effective and well-executed talent acquisition and retention strategy that puts your business in a position to meet its current and future workforce needs, achieve its goals and grow.
In this blog, we’ll review everything you need to build a solid talent management strategy that keeps the employees who will help move your business forward.
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The importance of talent acquisition and retention
Your talent acquisition and retention strategy isn’t just about getting the right people in the right roles at the right time – though that’s critically important. It’s also about doing the right things for your people at the outset – creating an outstanding employee experience, becoming a great place to work, and attracting future talent with ease as positive word of mouth travels fast. Before you know it, you’ll have a team of dedicated people who feel excited about being part of your company and want to perform outstanding work and provide exemplary service.
The result of all this is that your business benefits through:
- Higher productivity
- Better engagement and satisfaction
- Improved culture
- Positive reputation
- Increased innovation
- Less time and money spent on recruiting and hiring
- Reduced turnover
What are today’s challenges in attracting and retaining talent?
But let’s be honest – attracting and recruiting talent isn’t always easy, especially for small- to mid-sized businesses with fewer HR personnel and resources.
What can make attracting and recruiting talent so difficult? There are a few key drivers behind this that should inform your talent acquisition and retention strategy.
1. Worker shortages
There just aren’t enough people active in the full-time workforce to fill all available jobs – much less highly qualified candidates that align with the needs and requirements of certain roles. The population is aging, birth rates are declining, the gig economy is booming and, for various reasons, certain demographic groups are withdrawing from the labor force. This means the right people aren’t necessarily easy to find.
2. Increased competition
Not only are fewer workers available, but more companies are vying for top talent. This is a recipe for an extremely competitive market – more like a war for talent.
Generally, the more specialized a role, or the more niche knowledge and extensive experience that is required, the greater the difficulty in attracting and hiring these purple squirrels over your competitors. And when it comes to negotiating salary and benefits, these highly skilled and sought-after professionals know their worth and won’t settle for less.
The competition doesn’t end at the time of hire either. Companies must not only stand out and get noticed by desired job candidates, but must also convince their current workforce that they’re a better option than competitors. Your employees are likely contacted regularly by recruiters seeking to sell them on a new job – even if they’re not actively looking!
3. Reduced tenure
Once you’ve managed to land great talent at your company, the next obstacle is keeping them there for as long as possible. But recent trends aren’t in employers’ favor.
Unlike workers of previous generations, who tended to stay put at a single company for decades, it’s not uncommon for today’s workers to change jobs every few years. In fact, job hopping is entirely accepted now.
Often, employees’ decision to leave is motivated by:
- Increased pay
- Better career opportunities
- Quicker advancement potential
- Management style
- Culture and employee experience
- Work-life balance and flexibility
4. Shifting workplace dynamics and employee expectations
Employees want options for remote/hybrid work (for remote-capable roles) and greater flexibility in their day to day, along with workplaces that prioritize their wellbeing and work-life balance. If your company is significantly out of step with what most employees are looking for, you’re less likely to be able to compete for the quality of talent you want and the recruiting process may take longer than you’d like. You’re also at greater risk of turnover and gaining a reputation as an undesirable employer.
At the same time, remote/hybrid work has erased geographical barriers, giving recruiters access to a much bigger talent pool. At the same time, it’s possible that candidates can join your team without having to relocate. This is a win for both parties!
5. Skills gaps
Many career fields are undergoing major changes, with technological advances in particular rendering some skills insufficient or obsolete. Over the next decade, the majority of workers will require training and development to keep pace with new knowledge, remain successful in their current roles or transition into new roles or career fields.
As a result, access to training and development opportunities isn’t just an employee preference – it’s also a real necessity for companies to remain competitive and continue fostering innovation. As such, employees’ capacity and desire to learn skills is an important consideration.
Best practices for your talent acquisition strategy
Now that you know what you’re up against, how are you going to outshine your competitors and convince top talent to join your company? Here are some of the most effective things you can do to set your organization apart and underscore your status as an employer of choice.
1. Employee value proposition
Every organization needs an employee value proposition (EVP). This is a statement that explains to prospective employees the benefits they will gain by becoming part of your company. In other words, what’s in it for them?
When crafting your EVP, imagine that candidates are asking you these questions:
- What makes your organization unique and appealing to workers?
- Why does working at your company matter?
- How do you serve employees’ needs?
Your EVP messaging should carry through to all your interactions with candidates during the recruiting process.
2. Job postings
To be effective, your company’s job postings have to go beyond the generic verbiage we’ve all seen online. Remember, job postings aren’t simply a boring, formal description of the job itself. Job postings are an external-facing marketing piece that sell both the role and the company, and they have to grab attention immediately.
Before you get started writing, consider these questions. If you were an in-demand, highly skilled professional:
- What would you want to know about a prospective employer?
- Which words would grab your attention and signify that a company “gets it?”
- Which qualities would attract you to a potential employer?
- What will your life be like working for a certain employer?
- What type of benefits and compensation would make you sit up and take notice?
With this in mind, your job postings should include the following elements:
- A search-friendly job title
- Mention of your company’s EVP along with your mission, vision, values, culture and anything else that makes working at your company a good experience
- An overview of the role’s primary responsibilities and who you’re looking for
- The technical skills and softer competencies your company considers to be most important
- Where the role sits in the organizational hierarchy
- Competitive salary range
- What else your company commits to doing for employees, including benefits and perks and opportunities for growth and development
Like most great marketing, it’s focused less on you and more on what you can do for others – and, even further, what you can give them that they’re not already getting.
Plus, it should be mobile friendly and not novel length – most people are reading these on their smartphones.
3. Savvy recruiting strategy
An outstanding job posting is only the battle. Now you have to get it front of the right people. This calls for smart and, when needed, creative strategy. You can’t just post a job on a few major job boards and expect to get tons of applications – let alone the qualified candidates you seek.
This is because many of the candidates you’re targeting may not be active on all the usual job boards. They may be happily employed or casually browsing every so often. You’ll miss out on lots of people by only focusing on a few major job boards.
Instead, you’ll need a passive candidate strategy.
- Post on niche job boards dedicated to specific industries and roles.
- Search LinkedIn and reach out to prospective candidates with personalized messages.
- Join social media groups for specific types of industrial professionals.
- Ask your network, employees or industry trade groups for referrals.
- If you have the budget and limited HR personnel, a third-party recruiting resource can help.
Of course, don’t overlook a group of people who already know about your company, are trained and crave growth opportunities: your own employees. An internal talent marketplace is another tool in your recruiting arsenal.
Additionally, it’s highly beneficial to proactively open and maintain lines of communication with great candidates, even if you don’t currently have an open position to suit them or it’s not the right time for them to make a move. This is called building a talent pipeline, or having a roster of people who are interested in your company and meet your requirements ready to go when the need arises.
4. Excellent candidate experience
Treating people courteously and not giving them a hassle might seem like intuitive concepts. And yet, you’d be surprised at the extent to which delivering an outstanding candidate experience will set you apart and put you at significant advantage.
- Make your application process fast and convenient. Candidates should be able to apply directly from the job posting. Completing the application shouldn’t involve jumping over multiple hurdles or take more than a few minutes. Don’t include cumbersome forms that ask applicants to retype information from their resume.
- Embrace technology to benefit the process, but don’t forget the human touch. Technology like applicant tracking systems can be really helpful in making the recruiting process more streamlined and efficient, automating tasks, improving communication and helping HR professionals keep track of candidate status – but it can never replace the people who engage with candidates directly. The convenience of technology should never outweigh a warm, personal candidate experience.
- Communicate with applicants in a timely manner. Give them feedback, let them know where they are in the process and advise of next steps. If there are internal delays, explain why. If they’re not the right fit, notify them as soon as possible. From the perspective of job candidates, lack of updates is frustrating and insulting.
- Prepare well for interviews to demonstrate that you respect candidates and value their time. Don’t ask candidates to regurgitate basic information from their resumes – you should have already studied this document and crafted follow-up questions to elaborate on the information provided there. Also ask compelling questions targeted toward assessing softer skills and any other factors you consider relevant to thriving in today’s workplace dynamics.
- Don’t ask candidate to come in for an unreasonable number of interviews – two to three interviews, max – or take too long to make a decision. The majority of candidates are currently employed and can’t risk their position to engage in a lengthy, multi-step hiring process with your company. You don’t want to inadvertently give the impression that your company is indecisive or lacks respect.
- Stay in touch with candidates who may not have been right for one role, but may be ideal for another one in the future. This is another aspect of building a talent pipeline.
5. Onboarding
It’s a common misconception that onboarding is all about taking a few minutes on the first day of work to fill out employee paperwork before sending new hires on their way. It’s time to rethink this.
Onboarding is your opportunity to set new hires up for success. Beyond administrative tasks, this is your chance to:
- Provide a comprehensive introduction to your company and align new hires with your culture, values and goals.
- Introduce new hires to key people at the company and help them feel like they’re part of a team.
- Connect new hires with any other resources that can assist them in performing their work.
- Discuss individual goals.
Critical elements in your employee retention strategy
Here’s a list of the most important employee must-haves that should guide improvements to your employee experience and inform your retention strategy. This list will give you an idea of how competitive your company currently is – and where you may fall short and need to make adjustments to encourage employees to stay.
What every item on this list shares in common is that they are all are directly linked to stronger employee engagement, satisfaction, morale and productivity, and contribute to an exceptional workplace culture.
1. Competitive compensation and benefits
Salary and benefits are among the most important factors to employees. Together, these are the two most basic reasons why people work at all.
What makes a salary competitive?
- Alignment with market rates in your area, taking into consideration local factors like cost of labor and cost of living. (If your company hires remote, distributed workers, consider adjusting pay depending on where they live and work.)
- Alignment with industry peers and competitors.
- Consideration of a candidate’s unique qualities and how eager you are to hire them.
Conduct compensation benchmarking to understand what competitive pay means in your area and help you establish a salary range for each position at your company. Where an employee falls within the range can depend on factors like their experience, knowledge, skills and education. Keep pay equity laws in mind.
To attract a truly exceptional candidate and lure them away from their current employment, you should be prepared to pay higher than the market rate. Review your budget to determine what’s feasible and whether you need to make any concessions in the type of candidate you’ll consider.
What makes benefits competitive?
A great benefits program communicates to employees that you care about them and prioritize their wellbeing. The more comprehensive, the better.
Employees are well-versed in standard benefits (think: 401(k), health insurance and two weeks of PTO). Think outside the box – consider how you can enhance more common and unremarkable benefits offerings or even expand your offerings to support each aspect of employee wellness. This includes:
If possible, give your employees options that cater to personal factors like age, family status or health history. Benefits aren’t one size fits all – some options will suit certain employees’ circumstances better than others, and employees like choices.
2. Flexibility and work-life balance
The vast majority of people in remote-capable roles expect some degree of workplace flexibility, particularly remote/hybrid work opportunities. Some employees won’t even consider working for a company that doesn’t offer any flexibility. This is because today’s workforce considers work an important part of their life – but not their entire life.
If your workplace is on the fence or hasn’t fully embraced workplace flexibility, talk to your employees and find out what types of flexibility would be most helpful or meaningful to them. This could include:
- Remote/hybrid work for certain roles, for each day or a set number of days per week
- Flexible scheduling
- Increased personal days (paid or unpaid)
Remember to establish a flexible workplace policy to define rules and set expectations, and encourage open lines of communication between leaders and employees about accommodating personal needs without neglecting work obligations.
3. Training and development
Rather than staying in the same position for years, doing the same things repeatedly, most people want to advance in their career. This could mean:
- Getting promoted
- Shifting into new roles or teams
- Expanding their scope of responsibilities
- Earning greater professional respect
- Increasing their salary
But such growth requires new knowledge and skills.
One of the big reasons people leave their current job is because they don’t understand the growth opportunities available to them or the plan for how to achieve such growth. In the absence of that information, they assume their next great opportunity is at their next job outside the organization – not within it. Having a formal training and development program, along with personalized career growth plans, keeps employees engaged and excited to stay at your company.
For companies, training and development also brings value to the organization by helping employees to perform at a higher level and closing skills gaps.
So, make your workplace one that promotes continuous learning. Beyond training programs:
- Communicate with employees individually about their goals, growth potential and available opportunities.
- Encourage mentorships between employees with greater and lesser experience or knowledge.
- Offer an internal talent marketplace to make employees aware of open opportunities within the organization.
4. Recognition and rewards
Everyone wants to feel appreciated and valued, and receive assurance that they are delivering on their work and making a positive impact. Don’t just assume that your employees know how much you appreciate them—but not tell them.
Instead:
- Acknowledge employees’ big wins and daily contributions.
- Say “thank you” and “I appreciate you” often.
- Ask employees how they prefer to be recognized and which rewards are most meaningful to them.
5. Positive manager-employee relationships
You’re probably familiar with the old adage that employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Because it’s true!
Management style is one of the biggest influencers on the employee experience. For employees, their manager is often the person with whom they work the closest and the person who can impact their performance and growth the most. No one wants to dread every single interaction with their manager, right?
To that end, the management style that employees prefer has undergone a dramatic shift. The traditional boss of yesteryear, an authoritarian figure that flexes their power and control over others and assumes a business-first mindset, is out.
The human leader, a figure that’s more akin to a coach, is in. Human leaders are defined by their:
- Empathy and EQ.
- Active listening abilities.
- Understanding of how culture, environment and team dynamics impact an employee’s performance and progress.
- Willingness to remove obstacles and assist with challenges.
- Ongoing, constructive feedback.
- Ability to connect employees to the bigger picture, helping them to see how their role supports .organizational goals and makes a broader difference.
- Respect for work-life balance and willingness to accommodate personal needs.
Humans first and managers second, they’re the ultimate servant leader, seeking to support and empower employees to do their best.
Train your managers to be the leaders that employees want and expect.
Summing it all up
Attracting and retaining top-tier talent are critical objectives for any company – and they offer many incredible benefits. In many ways, they’re the vital engines that fuel business success and growth. In this discussion, we covered best practices for attracting the right type of talent, as well as retaining these hires and transforming them into committed, engaged, long-term employees.
Want to learn more about how to attract and retain today’s best talent? Download The real-world guide to attracting and keeping top talent.