How does your business attract new employees? The labor market has tightened over the last couple of years and experts warn that it likely will continue. That means employee attraction (let alone retention) is going to be a priority for HR professionals for the foreseeable future.
But in order to attract and recruit (and, again, retain) the best employees for your organization, you need to understand what makes your business unique. What sets you apart from your competitors? What sets you apart from other businesses that aren’t your competitors for products and services, but are for talent?
It’s called employee attraction, and utilizing this approach can be a very effective process. While the definition might seem simple, the points that go into the process like branding and marketing can have a lasting impact.
What is Employee Attraction?
Employee attraction simply refers to employers getting new talent to apply to and work for their organizations. Often coupled with the concept of retention—the ability to keep an employee working for an organization after being hired—attraction is critical for employers to find top talent. Without an effective attraction strategy, employers might lose out on qualified candidates.
Even when a company might be able to fill positions, it is important for an organization’s longevity to employ workers who genuinely want to be there because they are more likely to stick with an employer that they like being at.
With an effective attraction strategy, companies fill open positions with eager, talented candidates and establish a positive reputation among potential hires. This helps retain talented employees and foster a motivated and productive workforce, ultimately positively impacting the employer’s bottom line.
Building Employee Attraction
Getting ready to post an open position goes beyond just writing the job responsibilities and a brief description of your company and culture. An effective recruitment marketing strategy is a key component.
There are many different ways employers can go about recruitment marketing. Ultimately, the most effective tactics will vary by employer, industry and the type of potential employees they seek to attract.
Ask your internal marketing team for help in this area. In smaller businesses, sometimes there is no clearly defined marketing position, so ask sales, leadership, and others for input. It encompasses research, content marketing, video, testimonials, search engine optimization, advertising, and more. Our new HR Toolkit has a full set of tips for creating a solid recruitment marketing plan.
Employer Branding
An employer brand—which refers to how the employment market views an organization and the efforts used by an employer to adapt or shift this perception—is an important aspect of an employer’s reputation.
Employer branding aims to promote a workplace as a good place to work, with the targeted audience being current and prospective employees. LinkedIn research found that a strong employer brand reduces turnover by 28% and cost per hire by 50%. When it comes to attraction, employers want to ensure that their brand is clear and helps them attract the ideal candidate
Your employer’s brand includes tangible benefits like compensation, benefits, retirement plans—the “normal” HR duties and benefits you work on regularly. It also includes intangible benefits like workplace culture, values, a mission statement, corporate social responsibility, and diversity and inclusion.
Your employer brand is one of the first things potential employees notice about the company and leads into other recruitment strategies.
The Next Steps
Our HR Toolkit goes beyond these initial marketing strategies and guides you through a full recruitment process culminating in employee attraction strategies like referral programs, pay transparency, efficiences, and more.
The best part is you will walk away with multiple checklists, cheat sheets, and printable information to educate not only others in your department, but leadership, marketing, and other departments. Click here to get your copy of the HR Toolkit: Employee Attraction.