Attracting talented staff

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This week's post focuses on recruiting, and ways to bring the best possible potential candidates to your organisation. Recruiting can be a bit of a minefield, and if you are growing quickly, can create lots of growing pains for your staff, and numerous unintended consequences. I hope the information and articles linked here give you some useful food for thought, and ideas for you to implement in your organisation.

5 Suggestions for finding and keeping your talented staff

Finding and keeping talent is a common issue with growing companies – and can take a lot of time and energy away from getting your paying work done. In an increasingly global market for talent, where people can work from anywhere, you may need to be more creative about how you attract top talent to your organisation, and keep those exceptional staff you already have. If the way you have been finding your staff isn’t working as well as you would like, here are 5 suggestions for finding the best quality staff you need to grow your organisation.

1. Does your website and other communication appeal to your target staff?
If the way you communicate to your customers isn’t relevant or it doesn’t show a commitment to values that resonate with your potential staff, it will be a lot harder to convince them to work for you. Make sure your website reflects the personality of your organisation, and the values behind the products or services you provide. Check out http://careers.socrata.com/ to see an example of an inspiring careers page (disclaimer: my daughter works there.)

2. Does your current staff know you are looking for more talent?
Are there incentives for them to refer people they know to your company? Reminding staff that you would love to have more great people just like them working at your company is always a great place to start. Small hiring bonuses can go a long way as well to encourage referrals. Bonuses can be cash, vouchers for nice restaurants, or other benefits that make sense for your business and staff interests.

3. Do you have a presence where your target hires are?
If you hire University graduates, do you attend career fairs on campus? In addition, developing relationships with professors in the disciplines relevant to your skill needs may lead to interesting collaborations and projects, as well as give you an inside track with soon to be graduating staff. If you hire computer engineers, do you go to Meetups and conferences where your potential staff spend time?

4. Is your workplace appealing to your target employees?
Does your staff have flexibility in where they work based on the type of work they are doing (e.g., small conference rooms for meetings versus quiet space for heads-down concentration)? Can they work from home? In general, the more autonomy and flexibility your staff enjoys, the more likely you will be able to attract and keep top quality employees.

5. Do you offer industry-leading perks for your current staff?
Perks don’t have to be extravagant – we can’t all provide Google-level benefits. The more benefits you offer that are tuned to the needs of your staff and reflect the character and brand of your organisation, the more unique and personal your offer to all staff will be. Free healthy snacks, event tickets, periodic free lunches, outside or inside game breaks, continuing education opportunities…use your imagination, and better yet, ask your staff! At one company I worked for, staff were given 20 hours paid time each year to work on journal publications, as this was an important professional achievement in our industry, and of course benefited the organisation as well.

Some additional resources & reading for you

Who do you need on your staff?
This article from IDEO offers up some types of talent you many want to consider including in your suite of on-staff expertise. As mentioned in the article, the brilliance of these roles is that they can be embodied by anyone in the organisation.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3059062/from-ideo-7-people-you-need-to-create-a-culture-of-innovation

Job Crafting
This article looks at some of the factors that lead to employee satisfaction as a method for creating better, more motivating and satisfying jobs for current and your future staff.  
http://www.impacthub.net/2016/01/08/a-closer-look-at-employee-engagement/

If you hire university graduates
This Harvard Business Review Article provides some surprising strategies for how to reach the university graduates you want to recruit. (note: I wrote the article above listing my 5 strategies before I read this!)
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/how-companies-can-attract-the-best-college-talent/

​Fun Friday Workplaces

What is the first impression people get walking into your office?
Be sure your reception area sets exactly the right tone for your organisation. Your staff and your visitors will walk through that portal every day and it is a great opportunity to send a very personal message that reflects your brand. Hopefully that message includes making people feel welcome and inspiring everyone who enters to do their best work. What else will you include? (photo from www.inspirationde.com)​

Do you have any other strategies for recruiting that helps your organisation find stellar candidates? Any surprising ways you have learned helps you keep interesting candidates coming to you? Let us know in the comments!

Also, I include a few other strategies for the hiring process in my free PDF book '18 ways to improve staff engagement' (you can find the link at the bottom of the page)

Meantime, have a brilliant weekend everyone! - Sabrina