For years, companies have been fighting a talent war to recruit and retain qualified staff. In recent years and months, this situation has been further exacerbated due to a shortage of skilled workers in Switzerland. It is no longer enough to simply wait for applications. The following talent attraction tips explain how to overcome precisely these obstacles.
Talent attraction describes a company’s appeal both to suitable jobseekers and to existing employees – so it has an internal and external impact. It is used not only to attract new candidates, but also to retain your current staff.
However, the overarching aim is to attract new talent. But because most of these are already employed and not actively searching for vacancies, talent attraction uses basic marketing concepts to draw attention to a company – but what does that mean exactly?
HR managers should actively consider what their company’s ideal employee looks like and what they expect from their job. By doing so, they will be able to create a candidate persona and thus find the perfect match. HR managers then need to answer other questions, such as:
- Which channels can we use to attract talent (particularly passive talent)?
- What benefits does our company offer and what vacancies do we have for this target group?
- How can we inspire talented individuals to apply for a position in our company?
Once these basic questions have been answered, various approaches can be adopted. The most important of these are passive employer branding and active headhunting.
Employer Branding
Employer branding encompasses the entire process and actions for establishing an attractive, credible employer brand. At the heart of this is the employer promise. This describes what an organisation stands for, what it needs and what it can offer its employees. It should be unique, relevant and compelling. This is the only way to stand out from other companies, attract talent, retain staff and improve commitment.
But make sure you don’t make empty promises. Your statements are constantly being scrutinised within your organisation and new employees will quickly notice if your employer promise is merely a façade!
The biggest challenge, however, is not keeping your promise, but defining it. Because even if employer branding has become mainstream and companies embrace values in their day-to-day business, they always find it difficult to clearly define what these are.
An honest analysis of your corporate values and culture is essential – without this, employer branding is merely a façade.
Benefits:
- Improves recognition and sets you apart from the competition
- Increases your own appeal, thereby creating a competitive advantage
- Retains existing staff and improves their satisfaction
- Synchronises the cultural fit for jobseekers, thereby increasing the number of suitable applications
Drawbacks:
- Passive strategy that affects the number of applicants only indirectly
- Requires ongoing management and specific planning even without vacancies
- Comparatively resource-intensive and time-consuming
Headhunting
In contrast to employer branding, headhunting uses active tactics. A company usually commissions headhunters to identify qualified people who match the candidate persona in order to then approach these directly. This method is often chosen when seeking highly qualified or specialised staff.
The benefit of headhunters is that they not only use professional online networks such as LinkedIn, but also networks that they themselves have established over the years. With an aptitude for persuasion and intuition, they conduct interviews with suitable talent, ideally persuading them to join the employer in question.
Benefits:
- Less resource-intensive and time-consuming for the company seeking talent
- Targeted search for the ideal employee
- Pre-selection of suitable candidates
- Contact initiated with talented individuals who under normal circumstances would not have been interested in the vacancy
Drawbacks:
- Expensive
- Direct approach can be perceived as intrusive
- Headhunting can sometimes have a bad reputation
Why not both?
But which is the right course of action for your company? Often, using a single approach does not produce the desired result. A combination of various tools and methods is required for a company to effectively recruit and retain the right staff.
Are you looking for new employees?