Focus on the Candidate (Not the Job) to Seal the Deal

The war for talent rages on. Some organizations are ill-prepared to handle the challenges of an increasingly complex labor market, shackled by the “we’ve always done it this way” mentality. Others are thriving, armed with insights and surrounded by allies, allowing them to attract high-performing players and supercharge their growth.

What kind of organization is yours? More importantly, what kind do you want to be in the future? Today, we will explore the top three ways that companies can attract talent.

Target the Right Kind of Candidate

The first step in improving your attractiveness to job seekers is to understand that not all candidates are cut from the same cloth. If you’re struggling to understand why no one is responding to the job ads your business is running, you are not alone. Millions of businesses around the country are failing to attract workers because they are not targeting the right individuals. Few companies understand the difference between active and passive talent, yet it is a key element in increasing the efficacy of your talent attraction strategy.

Active Candidates are:

• Usually unemployed
• Proactively searching for work
• Set up job alerts
• Are actively applying to all positions that meet their keyword search

Passive Candidates, on the other hand, are:

• Currently Employed
• Not job searching, but open to the idea of switching jobs
• Casually browsing
• Wouldn't apply unless personally engaged

If your organization purposefully targets passive candidates the improvements can be significant, with some companies realizing nearly 70% gains in talent attraction versus those that exclusively target active candidates with job postings.

Treat Recruiting as a Sales and Marketing Function

Are you treating talent attraction as a sales and marketing function within your organization? If not, you should be. There are four pillars of talent attraction that, according to our research tracking 900+ placements that we've made over the last 7 years, have the biggest impact on drawing the top candidates to your company:

1. The market in which you operate. It’s important to tell the story of why your industry is an exciting one that people want to build their careers in.
2. The products and services that your organization serves the market with. You must be able to explain why your offering is positioned to take advantage of the industry’s growth and help the candidate win.
3. The team that the candidate will be joining. People want to surround themselves with success, so you must talk about the key players in your organization and what they have accomplished.
4. The company’s mission. What does your firm do beyond making money? What is the company trying to accomplish and what service does it provide for society? This is particularly important for attracting younger talent.

If you’re able to eloquently “sell” why your company is an attractive one using the elements described above, you will see a significant improvement in the number of people that want to come work for you.

Understand What Motivates Candidates

When you interview candidates, do you know where their priorities lie? It's incredibly valuable to understand what motivates people that will be working for you. Do they care more about money, remote work possibilities, advancement opportunities, or something else?

If you know what they care about, you can structure the conversation to focus on those topics, thereby increasing the likelihood that the candidate will accept an offer if you were to make them one. For this reason, every candidate that we interview at Miller Resource Group and present to clients has something called a CLAMPS profile:

C – Challenge: the work itself, technology, market, etc.

L – Location: geography, ability to live & work where candidates want

A – Advancement: career growth, increasing responsibility

M – Money: overall compensation association with the position

P – People: the manager and coworkers related to the position

S – Security: likelihood of long-term employment or physical safety

If your organization employs the three tips outlined above and strives to lead when it comes to candidate attractiveness rather than follow the herd, you will thrive in this candidate-driven labor market.