Competitive Recruitment: How To Attract Talent

How do you make sure your company stands out in a job market where every company is competing for the best talent? These strategies can help. Learn more!

In a job market where many employers are hiring simultaneously, it’s important to consider the impact competitive recruitment strategies can have on your talent pool. It’s challenging to find and hire quality employees, especially when your applicant pool isn’t as deep as you’d like. However, it’s essential to make sure you’re doing everything you can to make your company stand out.

This article explores what drives high-quality talent to apply for a job at a particular company. In addition to discussing benefits, a flexible work environment, and company culture, we’ll also cover the less obvious factors why a job-seeker would be motivated to hit the apply button. The insight is to help employers decide on the best strategies to entice talent to work with them over other companies.

What Creates a Competitive Market for Employers?

Increased COVID-19 vaccinations and pandemic aid from the government mean that labor demand is growing. In June, the Labor Department reported that job openings were at 6.5%, a rate signaling that the labor market is turning around.

If this upward trend continues, competition for suitable candidates to fill open positions will be increasingly tight. Employers will need proactive ways to attract talented employees in a shrinking pool of highly qualified candidates.

Organizations will also need to consider the impact competition has on their recruitment as other companies will try to implement the best competitive recruitment process to gain an advantage. The surge in job openings combined with a lack of available talent creates a competitive market for employers.

Unprecedented Times

The pandemic has significantly impacted the job market due to the restrictions that came with it.

Many in the workforce whose companies had to pause operations due to lockdowns and social distancing practices faced unprecedented consequences. Some employees were left searching for alternative sources of income or were forced to wait things out with reduced wages.

Other workers with parental responsibilities struggled with balancing full-time childcare. Some individuals had to provide care for sick family members and may have been forced to resign due to a lack of resources to provide such care.

Employees that have to juggle various duties between work and home are now rethinking their careers in the wake of this global health pandemic. All of these factors are ultimately having an unprecedented effect on the job market.

What Attracts Candidates to a Company?

Competitive recruitment’s meaning has evolved over time. While a great salary and comprehensive benefits are still relevant, there are other ways to incentivize candidates.To increase your ways of attracting the best employees, you need to understand what motivates them to apply for a job in the first place.

A job offer that includes competitive recruitment packages like the flexibility to work from home, mental health care, and compassionate leave will likely be at the top of the priority list of the most qualified candidates.

Here are the top five things that candidates consider when accepting a job offer:

1. Competitive Salary and Benefits

As candidates with in-demand skills field multiple job offers, the first thing they’ll consider is your compensation and benefits package. If an employer does not offer a fair and reasonable compensation package, they could lose out on recruiting talented employees.

Ensure that the salary you offer aligns with the new hire’s experience and perks and consider the impact benefits can have on employee satisfaction. Benefits can include work-from-home furniture, performance bonuses, health insurance, and meal allowances.

2. Flexible Work Environment

In January, Gallup reported that 44% of people currently working from home preferred to continue this work arrangement. Some may have even relocated to another region due to the increased flexibility. The ability to adjust your work schedule to accommodate the demands of a “new normal” landscape is a critical perk to have in a benefits package.

Working from home means eliminating things like time spent commuting to and from an office, time away from the office to keep an eye on a sick relative, or not having a cloud-based workstation to complete work remotely. This type of flexibility is highly desirable, especially coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

3. Job Fulfillment

It takes more than competitive pay and benefits to retain the best employees. Job fulfillment is more important now than it’s ever been. While Millenials have been driving this trend, it continues to be the case with recent college graduates.

A report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) lists over 40 elements of job satisfaction that employees look to. These include intangibles like trust, security, respect, good career progression, and a healthy work environment.

Achieving a high level of job satisfaction in your workforce builds resilience and strength for a company. By building a team of loyal employees, you’ll reduce turnover, increase productivity, and stand to gain greater profits.

4. Great Culture

A workplace culture signifies the values, beliefs, and attitudes that you want in your company. Positive work culture is highly desirable, especially to highly qualified candidates, and it helps keep employees engaged and happy at their jobs. Factors like leadership, company policies, management style, and the people you hire significantly impact how workplace culture is shaped.

Instead of letting company culture evolve naturally, it’s important to create a plan to build one. Employees want to work for a company that respects and treats them well and also has a sense of camaraderie. When employees are happy with workplace culture, they become your most valuable ambassadors in helping to bring in new talent.

5. Mission-Driven

Working for a well-recognized and prestigious company was once viewed as the pinnacle of career success. With many people no longer working in physical offices, happy hour networking, company luncheons, and other types of perks that once drew candidates in are no longer the focus.

Now, individuals find fulfillment in knowing their work is making a difference. Some employees, particularly those who work at nonprofits, are driven by succeeding at a particular mission and fulfilling needs outside of themselves. Employees who can draw a personal connection to a company’s mission and core values are more likely to stay and thrive at your workplace.

Strategies for Recruiting in a Competitive Market

The parameters of hiring in a highly competitive market have changed in light of new work norms, requiring a more diverse set of skills. Creating a competitive recruitment and selection process is essential to recruiting talented employees to meet targets. Furthermore, a well-planned recruitment strategy reduces the time and money spent on training new hires. By setting up new employees for success from day one, you can even decrease turnover rates.

Here are six strategies to consider for attracting employees to your business in a competitive market:

Establish Your Reputation

The kind of reputation you build for your company can attract the right type of candidates to seek a job with you. Invest in your online presence, because according to research by Careerbuilder, 64% of candidates will research a company online, and 37% will move on to other job offers if they can’t find information on the company.

Create an engaging work culture and share your company’s story, values, and mission in a way that makes you unique and relatable. Encourage current employees to leave a company review on Glassdoor or mention the company on LinkedIn. Show potential talent why you are the right employer for career progression and work satisfaction.

Leverage Referrals

In addition to being your company’s best ambassadors, current employees are also some of the best people to refer potential candidates. They are a cost-effective talent stream for HR and critical to successful recruiting.

Furthermore, having a current employee vouch for a candidate speaks to the applicant’s work ethic and qualifications. Add a referral bonus that gets paid once the new hire has completed the probationary period and ensure that the amount is fair based on cost per hire.

Make it Easy to Apply

The application process is sometimes overlooked in a recruitment strategy. Apart from your website and social media presence, it’s one of the first impressions that job applicants get of your company and what it’s like to work there. 80-90% of job seekers say that the candidate’s experience influences their decisions about a company, but only about 12% are able to offer a positive hiring experience.

Making it easy for candidates to apply for a job can increase their chances of following through and submitting the application. Use HR recruitment software to make it easier for your HR team to promote openings across job boards, manage applications, schedule interviews, and follow-ups, and communicate candidates’ application status. Leverage mobile recruiting, as 90% of job seekers browse for jobs on their smartphones. Remember, it’s equally important to follow up with a candidate in a timely manner.

Recruit From Your Competition

So, how do you attract employees from competitors? Believe it or not, passive job seekers may actually be less competitive. Since you’re targeting employees who already have jobs, they may also be open to better opportunities. Research has found that hires from competitors join with greater energy and enthusiasm, which often translates into increased sales and productivity.

Competing against their previous employer can be a challenging adjustment. Therefore, a new employee might work even harder to identify with their new workplace and adjust more smoothly. When recruiting talent from your competition, be sure to protect yourself from legal risks like violating state employment regulations and non-disclosure or non-compete clauses.

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Consider Leveraging Recruitment Technology

Utilizing technology to automate your recruitment needs can help save hours of vetting resumés, enabling you to spend time on the ones worth reviewing. Other services provided by online recruitment tools include interview scheduling, communicating with the candidates, conducting background checks, and verifying references and qualifications.

Building a solid competitive recruitment process with automation can ease your hiring challenges. You’ll gain access to top job boards that can help you find talent for skills that are scarce and specialized. Once you create a recruitment process that is specific to your business’s needs, you’ll be able to match the talent that is the right fit for your company.

Streamline Your Recruiting Process With APS

Partnering with an HR provider that offers recruitment and hiring technology will give you the tools you need to attract qualified candidates. Our employee recruiting and onboarding software, APS Hire, allows you to efficiently recruit candidates, track applicants, and hire top talent confidently. With APS Hire, you can:

Create better ways to attract employees with customized job postings, automated job promotions, and mobile-optimized applications.
Utilize text messaging and calendar integrations for streamlined interviewing.
Filter applicants with assessments and prescreen questions to narrow down candidates faster.
Leverage background checks and verify references to ensure you’re hiring quality employees.

Furthermore, all new hire information automatically syncs to create the employee record, eliminating manual data entry. To learn more about how to attract talent in your recruitment process with APS, contact us today