7 tips for improving your talent attraction strategy

Most businesses have a marketing / sales / operational / financial strategy in place to ensure sustainability and growth. But many employers fail to recognise the importance of implementing and maintaining an effective talent attraction strategy which ensures the business attracts and hires the best people, often resulting in time resource and financial wastage.

Given people are the biggest asset to any company, here are our 7 tips on how to create an effective talent attraction strategy that will ensure you’re ahead of the rest when it comes to attracting the best…

1)   Identify your company culture and values

According to Glassdoor, 93% of job seekers feel it’s important to be informed about an organisation’s values and company culture prior to accepting a job offer - so the first step is to assess your company’s identity.

If you haven’t done so already, it can be a great exercise to sit down with your current employees and discuss what the core values are, what’s the company culture, and what sets you apart from other businesses – a superb employee engagement exercise too. Make sure to document everything, and this will enable you to start outlining the values and culture. The important thing here is to be authentic and try not to use clichés, and by collaborating with your team in the process the authenticity will shine through.

2)  Communicate your employer brand

LinkedIn found that 75% of job seekers will research a company’s reputation and employer brand before even applying for a role, so once you have outlined your company culture and values, the next step is to make sure people know about it.

Does your website have any insights into what it’s like to work at your business? What impression will job seekers get when they visit your website and social media pages, or perhaps if they Google your company?

Having a careers section on your website can work wonders for your employer brand, allowing job seekers to read all about your core values and company culture, first hand accounts of what it’s like to work there with employee testimonials, and what training and development opportunities are available. You can even include images and videos on the page which will give people a visual insight into the working environment.

Don’t forget: The recruitment marketing experts here at JVP can work with you to implement or further develop your careers page – which includes a job search function where job seekers can apply directly to you with all applications centralised and accessible via our time saving ATS / Recruitment Software.

Click here to read more about JVP’s website careers page development service

3)   Utilise social media

79% of job seekers use social media in their job search (Glassdoor). Have you thought about what potential employees see when they research your social media pages? In this day and age, most businesses are utilising social media to promote their products or services, but it can also be a powerful tool to help promote your employer brand.

A perfect example of this is Sodastream’s ‘Join the Revolution’ recruitment video campaign – with 6.4 Million views on Facebook this demonstrates the potential power of social media in promoting your employer brand.

If you have any events such as a team night out, a birthday celebration in the office, or even a charity fundraiser – make sure to shout about them on social media! Many businesses forget that they already have an engaged audience on social media – and if you’re not shouting about what a great place to work your company is – you could be missing out on amazing people who are passionate about your company. Don’t limit this activity to the occasions you are recruiting – post updates throughout the year.

4)   Treat your job adverts as a piece of marketing

In most instances the job advert is the first interaction the potential applicant has with your company, so you need to treat it as a piece of marketing which informs on the role and the perks whilst promoting your company, employer brand and reputation.

The key thing to keep in mind is that you’re selling the opportunity to the job seeker, this is not a job description or detailed person specification – the focus should be about the opportunity you’re offering.

The most important considerations for job seekers when they are reading job adverts other than the duties, are the salary, the location, the company culture, along with any other additional benefits such as flexible working, annual leave, enhanced pension etc.- so make sure not to leave this information out where applicable.

The search functions of most online job sites work on a keyword basis, therefore it’s vital that the job title is simple and has relevant keywords to ensure it’s found by job seekers. For instance, if it’s a customer service role – make sure that “customer service” is in the job title and within the body of the advert – otherwise you risk your job advert not being found by the right people. The final thing to consider is to keep the job advert as concise as possible, with many job seekers searching on their mobiles the last thing they want to be doing is reading a long job advert – remember this is a recruitment job advert not a job description.

For a full rundown of how to write effective online recruitment adverts, click here to read our job advert writing guide.

Don’t forget: To save you time, our recruitment specialists at JVP can craft your employer branded advert copy for you, to find out more click here

5)   Talent can be anywhere, so advertise everywhere

43% of job seekers only use one job board to search for work, and yet there are over 1100 job sites in the UK. The ideal applicant could be searching for vacancies anywhere, and whilst it’s not realistic to post on all 1100+ job sites (and we wouldn’t recommend doing so!), it is important to ensure your adverts achieve sufficient audience reach, so we advise to promote on a range of relevant job boards, perhaps including leading job boards such as CV-Library, Jobsite, and TotalJobs, along with regional, and industry/discipline focused job sites.

Don’t forget: Here at JVP when we publish your job adverts, we ensure they're seen by a relevant, targeted audience via extensive exposure through our network of over 200 online job boards which include leading, specialist and regional sites. Click here to learn more.

6)   Communication is Key

Research conducted by CV-Library has found that 56.9% of applicants feel that a lack of response from recruiters is what they hate the most. The recruitment process is a two-way street, applicants like to know where they stand, and lack of communication can actually damage your employer brand.

The other thing to consider is that it’s a fast-moving candidate market, you may have an amazing applicant but if you don’t communicate with that person in good time, they may accept an offer from another company. It’s not always realistic to be able to set up an interview straight away, but you can at least let them know that they have been shortlisted and give them an approximate time scale of when you’ll be in touch next – it will keep them engaged with your business and make them think twice when considering other vacancies.

Don’t forget: With the JVP Applicant Tracking System / Recruitment Software we’ll ensure all your applicants receive an auto-response to acknowledge the application, and you can send tailored email responses to hundreds of applicants in a matter of seconds with our user-friendly software.

7)   Ensuring a professional interview process

 A study by Monster discovered that 70% of job seekers will turn down a job if their first impression is poor. It may seem obvious, but small things like ensuring applicants aren’t waiting too long, that the room isn’t too hot / cold, and that they are offered a drink can make a big difference to a potential employee’s perception of the company.  

You can read our full recommendations on how to ensure a professional interview process, by clicking here and reading our guide to getting the most out of interviewees.

In a nutshell - it’s up to the interviewee to impress at interview, but good applicants can be selective about where they work, so it’s important to demonstrate that it’s a professional working environment. Not everyone is a natural at conducting interviews, so don’t assume that managers / team leaders within your business have the ability to interview effectively – it might be worth considering providing training to improve their interviewing skills and to ensure interviews are carried with employment law in mind too.

By following our 7 tips to improve your talent attraction strategy, you’re sure to see a return on investment because when it comes down to it – what truly drives every business forward is the people within the company.

JVP Group - Tailored support for in-house recruitment strategies

Here at JVP we know how much work goes in to forging and delivering an effective talent attraction strategy, that’s why we take the time fully understand each employer’s needs, so that we can provide a tailored recruitment marketing and support solution.

We offer a wide range of in-house recruitment support services all of which are focused on supporting you to to attract the best people, reduce the time you spend on recruitment administration, and minimising your recruitment spend.