Tips for attracting top talent to your company

There are many ways a potential hire might come across your listing. Maybe they’re job hunting on Seek, working with a recruiter or perhaps they noticed a ‘help wanted’ sign in your window. The channels you’re using to attract potential employees greatly affect the candidates you receive for a job. If you’re hiring or planning to hire, you need to know the best places to advertise your open position to attract the right candidates.

Yet, even after choosing the right channels to find the best candidates, how do you get them interested in your open position? Read on to find out more about the different channels you can use for recruitment and how to attract the best talent!

‘So, how did you hear about the position?’

Social media

Of course we’re going to suggest social media - it’s 2021! But you do need to know which social media channels are best for you and why.

• LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s primary purpose is for professional networking, so how could it not be on this list! Not only is LinkedIn a fantastic way to advertise your new position with a post on your page or a paid advertisement, it’s also an easy way for employers to find candidates. Those looking for jobs can promote that on their own profile, making it easier for employers to find them. With LinkedIn, you know you're not the only one with work on your mind, everyone has it on their mind!

• Facebook

While recruitment and professional networking isn’t really the point of Facebook, there are so many people on the platform it’s hard to ignore it! Facebook can help you hit niche markets using Facebook groups, which are still really popular. Of course, using Facebook to promote jobs isn’t going to be the right option for every business and every role, but with 2.7 billion monthly active users, the chances of you finding the person you’re looking for are actually not bad.

Job boards

Another fairly obvious one is promoting your open position on job boards such as Seek or Indeed. As you’re posting on a site specifically to match people looking for work with people looking for candidates, you’re clearly in the right spot. There are a lot of job boards and job posts on there, so it can feel a little like shouting into the void. Plus, it sometimes feels like you’re getting a lot of low quality candidates (we will speak a bit more about attracting good ones later). Just like with any marketing strategy, you need to be assessing how well you’re doing on the job board you’ve chosen and whether you are just pouring money and/or time into posting jobs and not getting anything in return. You can have a lot of success on job board sites, but don’t take success as a given. 

Your recruitment website

Having your own personal recruitment website can be a really fruitful strategy. Because if someone is on your own recruitment site, you know they are really interested in a job with you! As a smaller business or a brand that doesn’t have high recognition, this strategy might not be for you. If candidates don’t know your brand, they are very unlikely to navigate to your recruitment site organically. If you’re using job boards, you can link them to your recruitment site to better nurture candidates.

Job alerts

Linking with the above point, potential candidates may hear about a new position from job alerts from your recruitment website. You can encourage candidates to register for job alerts if the currently available positions aren’t suitable for them so that they are the first to know when the right position for them comes along! 

Employer branding

75% of candidates research your brand before applying for a job. That means, your branding is going to be pretty important. If you’re interested in hiring new people, you should start sharing content that shows what kind of workplace you have and why candidates will want to join you. Doing ‘meet the team’ posts displaying employee testimonials or giving little insights into your brand's internal culture are great ways to attract potential candidates to your business. 

Word of mouth

This is the most uncontrollable way a potential hire may have heard about your business, but it can definitely happen. That’s why having employee advocates is going to be your best asset! A successful employee advocacy program is 58% more likely to attract and 20% more likely to retain top talent. Start by making sure your employees are happy and would want to genuinely recommend you to others and then build your strategy from there. 

Google for Jobs

Google for Jobs is another good option for attracting candidates to your business. The jobs search function works much like when you search for a restaurant in your area, except the top results won’t take you to Google Maps. Google for Jobs allows you to integrate your posts on job boards or your own site with Google’s algorithm and increase your job visibility. 

Attracting the right candidates

So you’re promoting your open position through various different channels, but are you getting the candidates you want? Now that you’re using the right channels, they’re probably seeing you, but you still need to get them to apply. If the number of applications you’re receiving is low, or if you aren’t receiving quality candidates, you probably need to ask yourself a couple of questions:

• Are you accurately describing your company and role?

Your post might not be depicting your company or the open position in the right way. The phrasing of the job posting actually means quite a lot. No, you shouldn’t bend the truth and say you’re looking for an ‘office manager’ when you really mean receptionist! You want to give an honest representation of what to expect from the company and the role. Without putting thought and honesty into the post, both you and the candidate are going to be disappointed with the pairing (and it could cost you in time and money!) 

• Have you asked for too much or not enough? 
  

We have all seen the memes of ‘entry level’ job postings asking for 5 years of experience in the field. As much as the jokes are funny, you don’t want to be unreasonable in the experience and skills you're asking for. If you’re asking for a lot, you need to expect applications with less than what you have asked for (and be okay with it too!). While less common, you may actually find you haven’t asked for enough from candidates. If you aren’t receiving quality candidates or have put the wrong people in this position previously, you might need to be asking for a little more experience or different skills. 

• Have you offered enough?

Now I know you’re not likely to want a candidate that’s only concerned about the money, but they have to pay the bills too, so you want to be offering a fair salary for the role. Make sure you’ve done a little research into similar roles in similar industries to see what going rates are. Sometimes, you might not be able to compete on salary, so you should mention other perks and benefits in your job posting. 

• Have you written enough?

There are plenty of job postings out there that are only a couple of sentences long, don’t talk about the company at all and practically scream ‘dodgy’. If you haven’t written enough in the post, you may not be getting the right candidates as they don’t even know they’re the right candidate. Put a little time and effort into that posting and cut through the noise to get those awesome candidates applying for your role!

It can be hard to find the right candidates for your open position, but it is far easier when you are promoting your position in the right ways and in the right places. You need to be where your candidates are looking for positions and controlling the message they are receiving as much as possible.