3 Tips for Attracting and Retaining Talented Employees
What’s the heart of your job description as a recruiter? If you said attracting and retaining talented employees you’re absolutely right. It’s not hiring (or firing if that’s part of your role) employees it’s making sure that the right potential employees find your company and then stay for an impactful period of time.
Setting up the structures to retain talented employees doesn’t start the day an employee is hired just like attracting employees doesn’t start the day you post a new job. To be the most successful at your job you have to play the long game. The long game is prepping to craft solid interview questions, and setting up the applicant tracking system to do a lot of heavy labor for you. The long game is also about filling your pipelines with candidates before you’re ready for them.
So the next time you’re in between hires or struggling with building a talent pipeline, start investing your time in:
nurturing relationships with your peers,
exploring alternative search methods to finding talented candidates,
and pitching your company’s benefits.
A solid grasp of these three strategies is going to make your job more manageable.
Nurture Relationships with your Peers
One of the best ways to attract good employees is to hang out with other people who are also into finding good employees. You can share resources like new Slack channels to join and job boards to post to. If you’re the only person in charge of hiring or playing double duty as a people manager and a hiring manager, it’s always a good idea to have a support system who knows what you’re doing other than the person you directly report to.
As a consultant I come into startup teams when they need to hire senior level talent. I’m often standing in for someone on parental leave or working directly with a CEO or department lead to find a key hire. That means there’s not always an in-house recruiter for me to collaborate with so I’m grateful for maintaining relationships with recruiters from my previous jobs, like Tiffany & Co and Burberry. If you’re on a team of recruiters or other hiring professionals you already have these built in relationships. If you’re solo or a consultant like I am, professional networks are also a good place to start. I’m a mentor at Career Contessa and network with other Career Contessa coaches regularly. I consider them part of my extended team so I always have colleagues versus working alone in a silo.
It goes without saying that LinkedIn is a way to stay in touch with your peers as well as connect with new ones. If you’re choosing which social media channel to dedicate your time to and you can only choose one, I have a hard time suggesting anything other than LinkedIn for a recruiter or other hiring professional.
Explore Alternative Search Methods
In the past roles were often filled with referrals from existing employees or other personal relationships. While this will still work, and sometimes quickly, if hiring diverse talent is a goal of yours a referral based pipeline isn’t the best method if you don’t already have a diverse team. I’ve gathered this short list of resources I use to network with potential talent and post new job opportunities when I’m trying to fill a role.
Job Boards
When you post a new role you’ll list the role on your website and probably on LinkedIn but if you want to open up your talent pool, consider posting on a niche job board to reach talent that may otherwise not find you.
Career Contessa
I mentioned being a mentor for Career Contessa but they also have a niche job board for marketing, sales, and creative positions that you can consider adding to your list.
PowerToFly
PowerToFly is a company that seeks to upskill and uplift underrepresented people. They do so via mentorship and coaching for underrepresented people and then connecting them to you via virtual job fairs and their extensive job board.
Tech Ladies
If you’re hiring for a technical role or a tech company, Tech Ladies has a job board seen by their audience of 100,000 women in tech. If you hire in tech frequently, you might consider joining their Founding Membership to network more.
Fairygodboss
Fairygodboss is a career community for cis women, trans women, and non-binary individuals that focuses on helping women find and develop spaces where they can show up as their whole selves. In addition to the job board, Fairygodboss is also a company review site. This is a great opportunity for you to develop your company profile and encourage reviews from current employees.
Out in Tech
Out in Tech is a non-profit organization with 40,000 members looking to “advance their careers, grow their networks, and leverage tech for social change.” Along with the job board they host events and support global grassroots organizations in their fight for equality.
AbilityLinks
People with disabilities have an unemployment rate 2x higher than the average population, largely because of how far behind companies are with being inclusive to disabled people. AbilityLinks gives companies the opportunity to create profiles, post job listings, and search resumes directly inside of their platforms.
Slack Channels
Originally designed for managing tech team communications, Slack quickly evolved into a safe space for communities to organize and thrive online. Slack channels offer an opportunity to reach candidates focused around a niche topic like these options below.
Ladies Get Paid
Ladies Get Paid is a network focused on dismantling the wage gap and offers women education, resources, and camaraderie as they grow their careers and bank accounts. As a recruiter, this can be a great tool for attracting and retaining talented employees in their private Slack group or pursue a partnership with the LGP team.
Blacks in Technology
Blacks In Technology is a community and media organization focused on increasing the presence of Black people in tech. You can request access to their invite only Private Slack channel.
Techquiera
Techquiera is a nonprofit that aims to empower Latinx professionals to survive and thrive in tech through resources and other support measures. In order to remain a safe space for Latinx professionals, allies are invited as multi-channel guests to share resources, events, and job posts.
Out in Tech
The Out in Tech job boards mentioned above also has a Slack group for members and allies.
Outside of job boards and Slack channels don’t forget about using the LinkedIn search features to find candidates that fit your needs and talent directories. You’ll be surprised what you can find with a quick Google search.
Pitch your Company’s Benefits
The last point to consider when you have the task of attracting and retaining talented employees is to remember that these candidates have options. When these candidates view job postings they aren’t only asking themselves “what would they spend their days doing?” and “what do they need to qualify for the job?” but also, “why should I want to work here?” And while great salaries can certainly persuade candidates to take your offer over another, 70% of millennials (75% of the current workforce by 2025) would choose a pay cut to work at an environmentally sustainable company.
So, when you’re discussing the role, you’ll want to talk about the company environment as a whole. The company’s purpose or mission is what you should lead with when networking and attracting employees? They also want to know the answer to questions like:
What issues does the company care about?
How do you support employees on the clock and off the clock?
Do you offer extended (or any) parental leave?
Do you have an education or conference budget?
What about an equipment or home office budget?
What’s your leave policy?
Make a goal to share more of this information upfront versus letting it be a happy (or unhappy) surprise later down the line.
Candidates want to know how they’ll be expected to do their day to day work as well. If they are considering a jump from traditional corporate structures to startups, they’ll want to know what will make the change worth it for them. Will they be allowed more creative freedoms or have the ability to problem solve (versus solely task work) sooner rather than later.
You know that attracting and retaining talented employees isn’t as simple as publishing a job post. If you were comfortable with a revolving wall of employees that’s what you would do but you don’t want that. You want an employee who is going to show up and make a significant impact on the team.
Sound off in the comments below, which of these areas are you going to start improving first?