Factors that Limit Your Company's Ability to Attract Top Talent

Talent is the lifeblood of any company. It's how you bring the ideas and skills crucial to growing and innovating your company. But attracting this top talent to your company requires a concerted effort – which is why it's critical your recruitment processes don't limit your ability to do so.

With the steep competitiveness of today's job market, that can mean many of your top candidates going to your competitors instead.

Here are some common mistakes companies make that can negatively affect their hiring process and limit their ability to attract top talent.

Know the Candidate You Want to Hire

As a first step, you must know who you want to reach and what role you want to attract them to fill. Putting this information together will make fulfilling the rest of these steps easier and increase your chances of attracting the talented candidates you want.

Learn everything you can about them. Are they highly educated? How much career experience will they likely have? What are their preferred ways of getting news or entertainment? Their education and work experience will help you understand what they likely expect from a new position, which can help you tailor your posting more effectively. More personal details will help you learn how to share information about your company or the open position to help them become aware of it.

Job Description Lacks Compelling Information

First impressions matter to candidates – and that starts from the time they learn about your company. Many candidates learn about you when they find your job opening. If you want them to apply, you must write a job description that makes a great first impression.

Create a Clear, Concise Job Title

The job title draws many people to click on your listing, whether they find it on a job board like Indeed or LinkedIn or search for it directly. Use clear language and avoid company-specific jargon, as that can make it difficult for candidates to determine the position's requirements. Making the title clear and understandable is the first indication of what skills and experience level you are looking for – and it's vital that it will catch your ideal candidate's attention.

Make the Description Accurate and Informative

Once they click into the open position, the actual description needs to be organized and informative to keep people reading from beginning to end. The job description should be accurate, informative, and compelling enough to showcase how interesting the role itself is.

You want to balance being concise and providing enough detail to give candidates enough information to decide if the position is a good fit for them without overwhelming them with too many items. Organizing the description with clear headers and bullet points can help it be more easily readable and highlight the critical information.

Ensure you describe its daily responsibilities and offer insight into how the role fits into the overall scope of your company's work. It's also important to note which elements are strict requirements compared to nice but not necessary qualifications. The goal of the job description is to help applicants assess whether the position fits their skills, experience, and expectations. When done successfully, it should bring excellent candidates your way and make the interviewing process much smoother.  

Don't Just Wait for Top Talent to Find Your Company 

Many companies have the misconception that candidates will stumble onto their brand as soon as they post it. But waiting for talented individuals to notice your brand is a critical mistake that likely won't bring you any candidates, or at least not the ones you want.

Instead, you must actively seek out your top talent and show them why this role and your company are great opportunities. Start building a connection with job candidates with prospective employee engagement to make them excited at the idea of working for your company. 

Implement a Recruitment Strategy

Create and implement an active employee recruitment strategy to get the ideal people to see your postings or pay attention to your company. Conducting recruitment marketing or outreach with outright ads or something more low-key, like emails, gives you a path to showcase the benefits of working for your company. Engaging with candidates who have interacted with, shown interest in, or started but didn't finish an application can make them feel more enthused about your company. Reaching out can encourage candidates to apply, even if they are not actively job searching or overlooked your job listing. 

Social media posts can also highlight your company culture and the work your company is doing, which are vital factors candidates seek. Social media lets you reach multiple candidates at once and let people engage with your brand, which can help you stand out and gain attention from the people you want working for you.

Make Your Benefits Package Competitive

While wages may be the core competing factor, the benefits package is the next most important factor when deciding whether to accept a job offer or apply for the position altogether. People want the best of the best when it comes to benefits. Especially for people with families or health complications, healthcare and retirement benefits keep them protected and financially secure. Having exceptional packages that give candidates many choices will help you attract and retain the top talent you want.

But your benefits must go far beyond health insurance and can include a great PTO policy or work flexibility. An excellent benefits package is essential to attracting and retaining top talent. Be sure to describe the benefits you offer in your job description so applicants know what they can expect from your company. You can take that further and explain how benefits are central to your beliefs in caring for your staff and that you support their wellness.

As a small- to medium-sized business, it can be challenging to afford a competitive health plan and other employee benefits, but partnering with a PEO can help. PEOs and managed HR firms are crucial partnerships that can give you access to a wide range of excellent benefits that will help drive the top talent to your company. High-quality, better benefits can help smaller companies compete more successfully with larger companies regarding hiring. 

Emphasize Your Company Culture 

Company culture is a critical factor candidates look for that helps attract and retain great employees. Culture is a major competitive advantage when hiring and can be a core feature in your job listings and other content. Creating articles, videos, and social media videos highlighting your culture or existing staff can indicate to candidates how much you care about them.

Company culture helps you find candidates who fit your culture. Candidates who fit your culture are more likely to stay at your company long-term. Furthermore, sharing your culture will attract candidates who are a good fit, increasing the chances you'll receive applications from people willing to commit to your company. 

Cultivating a Quality Culture

Take the time to identify your company culture and how that affects your current employees. Creating a culture plan can help you ensure a conducive work environment, which either improves it further or makes crucial changes if your employees are dissatisfied.

Then, you can show off your culture to prospective employees to find the best fit for all involved. Make sure to discuss the career development opportunities you offer for your team members. You can reduce turnover by showing your ambitious employees how they can advance within your company. 

Managed HR is a Great Resource for Attracting Top Talent

As you identify all the ways you might be sabotaging your ability to attract top talent, you can start to update your process and recruit only the best. By working with a reputable Managed HR firm, you can get the help you need to boost your employee recruitment efforts and achieve your desired results. They have the expertise to help you create effective and sustainable recruitment processes so your company can earn the talent necessary to grow.

They can also support your company by handling other HR processes, which frees up your internal team's time to focus on your staff or maintain a conducive work culture.