How to enhance recruitment and attract skilled candidates for your company
Managing a business enterprise is far more than shrewd market manoeuvres and economic nous. Indeed, every successful business trading today is only truly there with thanks to the brilliant body of employees keeping it ticking over on a day-to-day basis. From talented top-level management to fresh blood on the ground floor, the success of your company is contingent on the quality of your staff.
This is why recruitment is such a massive industry, and goes some way to explaining the £43 billion said industry contributes to the UK economy each year. Businesses that fail to properly reckon with their recruitment strategy are hastening their demise – and if you’re concerned about your own recruiting practices, there’s no better time to address them than now. But where do you start?
Craft clear and compelling job descriptions
As good a place as any to start would be with the positions themselves – or, more accurately, what it is that you’re presenting to potential candidates. If the job description you send out into the world is vague or broad, you aren’t giving yourself the opportunity to attract the most talented candidates on the market; conversely, precise job postings enable suitable candidates to better sniff you out.
Further to this, including some character in your job description can go a long way to communicating your company culture – a hot topic for candidates in today’s market. Even if your office is a far cry from the oft-lampooned table-tennis-and-yoga environs of Nathan Barley fame, stating as much in the description will naturally narrow your audience to candidates that better fit your culture.
Offer competitive compensation and benefits
Unavoidably, one of the major factors impacting the onboarding of skilled and talented employees to the average business is salary. Between heightened household costs and long-stagnant wage inflation rates, skilled candidates are more aware of their own worth than ever – and will not necessarily be swayed by perks alone.
This is where businesses need to take caution, though. Times aren’t much easier for businesses, and employment costs can weigh heavily; you should use an employment cost calculator to ensure you understand the maximum affordable rates for the positions you intend to fill; this will give you a clear idea of your own ‘red line’, and enable you to offer more equitable wages for a more competitive staff cohort.
Implement an efficient screening process
Recruitment trouble is by no means limited to outreach, though. There are extensive issues to tackle in the hiring and onboarding process too, where high staff turnover can contribute to high employment costs and ‘brain drain’. A common cause for this is a slow approach to screening, hiring and onboarding – with paying attention to onboarding alone improving employee retention by up to 83%. If your time-to-hire is short, your skilled candidates will not be won away; if your onboarding is sound, they are more likely to stay.
