Employers: Five Magnetic Strategies to Attract the Best

Guest blog, by John Capon.

There is an art to attracting the right candidates for your roles and it's not as difficult as you might think. Here are some simple strategies you can use to ensure that you are attracting the right people to your organisation.

1. Know the Profile of Candidate you Want to Attract

An often ignored, yet crucial step, in the recruitment process is creating a detailed candidate profile. Before starting your search efforts, be sure to take the time to clearly define the attributes, knowledge, skills, abilities and experience that a candidate needs to be successful in the position and in your organisation.

2. Know Your Employer Brand

It is essential that you create a perception that the organisation will be a rewarding and enjoyable place to work.

Employer branding has become synonymous with the HR buzzword “Employee Value Proposition” (EVP). Your EVP is "the package of functional, economic and psychological benefits provided by employment and identified with your organisation". Your success in attracting the right talent is dependent on you being able to understand and deliver against your EVP.

It sounds simple, but ask around and you will find that every person will have (or will know someone who has) joined an organisation only to find things were not quite as they seemed…

3. Marry the Two: Candidate Profile & EVP

Create messages that accentuate the components of your EVP (“pull factors”) that are most attractive to the profile of the andidate you want to attract. These “pull factors” may be very different for the different roles within your organisation. You need to clearly state what it is about your organisation that makes it a great place to work (when compared to your competition). This applies equally to written advertising as well as the messages you send during the interview and selection process.

4. Pinpoint Your Search Efforts

We are quickly returning to a candidate short market, so your ability to identify to tap networks and markets that contain these individuals who are not actively looking is vitally important.

Use a targeted mix of proactive strategies (building a talent base both internally and externally and using your networks) and reactive strategies (employee referrals, advertised search, agency search etc.) to ensure that you have access to the right markets, at the right time and in the right place.

5. Deliver on your promises…

Easier said than done I know, which is why my next blogs will focus on what you can do as an employer to ensure that you are delivering on the promises you make during the recruitment process.

I welcome any comments and look forward to hearing your point of view.