Winning the talent war in any climate

Many businesses, regardless of size, type or industry, have found themselves in the trenches of today’s talent war, and the future of recruiting seems complicated and murky. Today, attracting and retaining top talent is one of the most pronounced challenges that leaders face.

Why is there a talent war?

• Employees have a wider range of career options than they ever have before. With remote and hybrid work arrangements now the norm, employees are no longer constrained by geographical factors that previously dictated where, when and how they work.
• There are roughly 10 million job availabilities in the U.S. and only about half the available qualified workers to fill them, resulting in a massive talent shortage.
• Wages are rapidly increasing.
• Demands for greater workplace flexibility have risen.
• The Great Resignation continues.
• The balance of power seems to have shifted away from the employer toward the employee.

Compounding the uncertainty of the current workplace, it’s unclear whether these trends will persist if an economic downturn occurs.

With this in mind, how can today’s business leaders:

• Re-evaluate their recruiting approaches?
• Compete successfully against other companies?
• Build a brand that drives loyalty and innovation among their employees?
• Become an employer of choice?

Strategies to successfully recruit and retain top talent

The answers to the questions above are found in solutions that businesses can use to compete for talent in a time of unprecedented uncertainty.

1. Know and promote your employee value proposition

Every organization needs a clearly defined company brand — specifically a value proposition or brand promise — that articulates the benefits that customers will gain through the client relationship. Once realized, a value proposition transforms customers into brand advocates.

Similarly, businesses need an employer brand — their employee value proposition — to compete and win in today’s increasingly complex job market.

Your company brand focuses more on products and services (what your company delivers), while your employer brand is about why employees want to work for you. The employer brand is what attracts and retains employees for the long term.

It’s all selling — it’s just that the audience, their needs and how you communicate with these groups differ.

2. Align recruiting and marketing

It’s critical that your recruiting team partners with your marketing team to promote your employer brand and implement an effective recruiting strategy.

Your company should have consistent messaging across channels, from the careers page on the company website to your social media accounts. Via these channels, emphasize the employee experience, values and culture at your workplace.

Social media has become the primary vehicle for engaging with candidates, especially with posts, pictures and short videos that cover topics such as:

• Culture and values
• Employee spotlights
• Client interactions or major successes
• Volunteerism and other community or philanthropic initiatives

Job candidates — especially those who are younger — want to be able to hop on their phone to easily access information about your company and, within a few minutes, understand what’s appealing about it and what it’s like to work there.

The good news is that you don’t need million-dollar budgets or several weeks to put together slick marketing videos. This is actually a continual, quick and low-cost way to:

• Polish your brand as an employer 
• Get your recruiting message out
• Engage with prospective and current candidates

3. Embrace nonlocal recruiting

Remote and hybrid work practices have broken down geographical barriers, serving as a powerful tool in the war on talent. No longer limited to candidates in their local area, recruiters can take a more national approach to recruiting without forcing candidates to relocate.

There are tremendous advantages in this newly “opened door” for companies struggling to find and hire qualified talent:

• The opportunity for more diverse candidates, with a broader range of skills and experiences
• Potential for employees to better represent the customer base — and even the possibility to add new clients or expand into new areas
• Increased language and cultural awareness among employees
• Ability to recruit within pockets of the U.S. in which candidates with certain skill sets tend to be concentrated because companies of the same type or industry have clustered in that location

All of these advantages lead to less groupthink and more innovation, higher-performing teams and improved financials.

This condensed article was originally published on the Insperity blog. Read the full article here.

Related Resources

Future-proof talent: What matters to tomorrow’s workforce matters today [Webinar on demand]

How to make DEIB a part of your talent strategy

Gaining top talent with an employee value proposition

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