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Five Ways to Attract Talent

Five ways to attract talent

On the other side of the pandemic the job market has become even more competitive than ever, however the competition has shifted over from candidates to companies. Those organisations who are looking to appeal to the best talent need to do more than just rely on reputation based on the work they have done in the past, or the regular employee package of birthdays off or pizza Fridays. Businesses must go beyond “the basics” and create working environments and policies that are not only attractive, but actually exceed expectations.

The new employee paradigm

Employees who have the desired skills, and thus have a range of options, want to feel invested in the company they are working for and want the ideals and the values of the company to be aligned with their own. More than this, they want to feel safe, listened to, valued, and are looking to work with colleagues with whom trust can be established.

This was, of course, the case before the pandemic — but is now even more under the microscope. It is important for them to be able to see potential for growth and workers are on the hunt for employment within well-rounded businesses that offer a flexible environment that fits in with their personal lives, not overly encroaching into it.

Addressing the power shift

Employers need to stop just talking about culture, purpose and values, and actually show they can deliver. Much in the same way that marketing focuses on customer value propositions, employers must now shift focus to their employee value proposition (EVP). The EVP is how an employer effectively brands itself and markets its company to potential employees. It’s how best to attract the skills a company might be looking for. This is the key to not just attracting talent, but to also ensure employees are engaged in the long term to improve retention.

Five ways to attract talent

So, what must employers do to ensure the company has a strong EVP that will enable them to attract the right talent?

  1. Look within as a starting point. Involve your people and make them a part of the process as you look to establish the EVP. Let them be your advocates as they will be the most effective and powerful method of showcasing your culture to the rest of the world. As your workforce are already in the company, they are more likely to be believed and can demonstrate truth to your claims about your culture.
  1. Embody your culture with growth, belonging, and flexibility.
  • Growth for both the organisation and for each individual. If people can witness a positive trajectory for the business as well as the future potential and can see how this creates opportunities for their own professional development these same people will definitely keep an eye out for any job postings.
  • Belonging to enact a sense of inclusivity within your business is crucial, otherwise you effectively close the door to skilled workers. If potential employees don’t feel like they can be involved, considered and carried along on the journey they definitely won’t buy the ticket. Be transparent and even over communicate what is happening in the business to build trust and reliability. For too long, certain companies in the professional sectors have leaned on creating an aura of exclusivity when selecting employees and have suffered from homogenous hiring. This no longer appeals to skilled operatives especially when those coming from a diverse range of backgrounds.
  • Flexibility to bring into balance employees’ personal and professional lives. One of the positive impacts of the pandemic was the fact that employers were able to see that their employees could be trusted to work remotely and even showed an increase in productivity. By offering a flexible, hybrid working approach you open up the talent pool to those from other parts of the country, even other countries as well as to those who might have accessibility issues commuting into an office on a regular basis.
  1. Be authentic to your culture. The culture must be as unique, ambitious and tailored to your organisation as possible. It must also be human — attainable, but with an element of aspiration. You have to be genuine to your values as an organisation, tell the story of who you are and what you stand for as a business, and be prepared to dialogue about it. Open yourselves up to letting people know the “why” behind what you do. 
  1. Be honest at all times. Your words and actions when it comes to the employee experience must be aligned. There is nothing worse than luring a new recruit in with promises of professional development or access to exciting projects that never materialise. You will build trust, loyalty and long term commitment if the company's ambitions, intentions and activities all match. 
  1. Link it to your purpose. You have to be seen to be moving beyond profitability. What do you stand for as an organisation and why should the potential new employee feel that they want to stand with you? Corporate social responsibility and environment, social, and governance activities that match your business interests and encourage participation from employees is a key way to build a sense of community within the organisation and generate goodwill both internally and externally. The commitment to your chosen cause must be genuine and impactful so that it doesn’t just come across as lip service.

 

These key points are critical to the way in which you develop and present your company culture and will help to create an effective EVP that will in turn enable your organisation to capture the attention of the most ideal recruits.

At Gallium Ventures we pride ourselves on practising what we preach. We understand and enjoy the benefits of working in a culture that values honesty, empathy and continuous learning. If this resonates with you, check out our careers page and come work for a communications consultancy that puts you first.

 

About Gallium Ventures

Award-winning technology communications consultancy, Gallium Ventures, was born to achieve a singular purpose: to creatively build and fix brands — from startup to globally recognised — across product development, communications strategy through to PR and marketing activations and an exit or IPO. Based in London by transatlantic entrepreneur and Silicon Valley native, Heather Delaney, the consultancy works as an in-house team with the brands it partners with to better drive business outcomes. Heather is supported by a talented and diverse team and a culture that promotes inclusivity, honesty, learning and creative thinking to solve business challenges and achieve exceptional results.