As an entrepreneur, one of your main responsibilities is to recruit workers who will take the business to the next level. Employees are the lifeblood of the organization, and it’s your job to ensure that only the most talented and experienced are offered a role at the company.
It’s no small task because securing incredible candidates involves more than interviewing applicants and scrolling resumes. Among other things, you must consider the company culture and how a person’s character will fit in. Will it be seamless, or will it require hard work? The words off the page are more important than the ones on it, in many respects.
This is especially true when you realize that the best workers have their pick of job roles. Therefore, it’s not only about what you can offer but about what they believe is the perfect position for their career growth. In short, you’ve got to provide the right sweeteners to stand out from the crowd, while cementing your strengths and boosting your weaknesses.
All of this is tough to do since it means admitting things that you don’t care to admit. However, it’s essential for businesses that want to invest in superior human resources. An excellent tactic is to put yourself in their shoes, and here are four ways you can.
Compare Job Descriptions With Your Rivals
Your job listing is the first thing an applicant sees with regards to the company. It’s like curb appeal for a property – it helps to build the first impression and raise awareness of the brand. However, descriptions don’t always have the wow factor because, well, they’re boring. Too many enterprises decide to opt for the tried and tested method, and it fails.
A job description is a movie trailer that whets the appetite of the audience, making them want to know more about the position. Even if you don’t use multimedia such as gifs and videos, it’s imperative that the wording is in line with your ToV. If you’re a thought leader, it should be authoritative and decisive and outline your standing in the industry.
Brands that are known to be witty and funny should portray that style through the use of puns and quirky current affairs references. After all, if you were a career-driven individual with job offers at your feet, would you be interested in a run-of-the-mill listing that went through the motions?
If you’re struggling for inspiration, you should check out your competition’s descriptions. Analyze them and work out why they make you want to read on and apply for the role.
Plug The Holes That They Care About
Bosses that read “holes” as “money” need to reconsider their approach to employee perks. Although a pay rise is something that workers care about, you must offer a strong salary to attract the best candidates in the first place, so bombarding them with money probably isn’t going to work.
Remember that each person will have issues they care about that differ to other applicants. A current example that’s on point currently is safety, thanks to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. As well as social distancing measures and clean surfaces, you have to look at the office through the lenses of the people you’re trying to tie down.
Bacteria and pathogens are high on the list of things that everybody wants to avoid, yet you shouldn’t assume these are the only security concerns. An epoxy floor could be the difference between making an incredible first impression safety-wise as it’s smooth and slip-proof. Anyone who’s had incidents in the office before will be buoyed by the fact that they don’t have to go through the process again.
Security is only a single issue. There are many more, from obtaining a better balance between life and work to commuting costs, which is why it’s crucial that you gain an insight into the person and appeal to this aspect of their personality.
Let Them Reach Out To Former Employees
The key is to think like a customer. When you buy a product or service from a brand that you haven’t heard of before, what settles your nerves? Typically, the answer is a recommendation from an unbiased source such as a previous customer. You know that if they had a positive experience, the odds are high that you will, too.
The same logic applies to job applicants. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but they can’t trust you because you have too much skin in the game. Of course you’re going to highlight the company’s best features! What you’re not going to do is reinforce the office atmosphere and how the managers treat the staff.
By promoting this process, you show that you have nothing to hide out of the gate. The people they contact will reaffirm everything you’re saying, from the rate of pay to the work/life balance, and it’ll enhance your standing in the candidates’ eyes.
Plus, speaking to former employees who left on good terms gives you the option to tweak your processes so that it never happens again. It’s a win-win.
Live Up To Your Expectations
The expectations are yours, as well as the recruit’s. Remember that it was your sales pitch that got them through the door, and now you must ensure that the experience matches the marketing effort.
Nothing is more soul-destroying than being sold a lie, particularly when the consequences of working in a job you hate are great. Of course, the superior employees won’t put up with your lies because they have tons of offers to fall back on, so they’ll bounce within their trial period.
Therefore, to keep them, you must live up to the hype and prove that your sales pitch wasn’t hot air. Let them come into work early and leave early if that’s what you agreed. Pay for their health insurance policies if need be. Essentially, keep your promises and don’t backtrack.
Do you put yourself in the shoes of the best employers when trying to fill a position? If you don’t, do you think you will do in the future?
