Are You Ready To Compete For The Best Employees?

Bryony Gibson, Managing Director of Bryony Gibson Consulting, talks about the importance of a recruitment strategy if you want to attract the very best people.

Zig Ziglar said “You don’t build a business, you build people; and then people build the business.”

If you agree that people are a company’s biggest asset, but often struggle to attract the right ones, then now is the perfect time to review your recruitment strategy.

Throughout the summer candidate availability reduces and interviews become more difficult to schedule; making this the right moment to pause and map out your future employment needs against your projected business performance.

To resource a growing company well, you must first identify any weak links in your team and pick out those you believe are most likely to leave in the short-term. Performance and attitude are key here, but perhaps most importantly is an employee’s acceptance of your company culture and values.

Once you know who you can count on, what needs to change and where your skills gaps are, you can build a plan of attack; but your strategy doesn’t end there.

You need to review your recruitment process. If you haven’t done this recently, it may be that the reason you struggle to fill vacancies is because your methods no longer match your market.

My recruitment specialism is tax and accountancy professionals and I increasingly see excellent candidates end up with multiple job offers because of the high level of demand. In these cases it’s the businesses who don’t sell themselves during the interview that end up losing out.

We all know first impressions count, but throughout the entire recruitment process, while you’re assessing them, prospective employees are forming opinions about you and your business.

If you’re aiming to attract the best people then you need to ensure you give them clarity of purpose and demonstrate a clear vision for the business from the outset; and that begins with a well-crafted advert and job description.

The way you respond to each enquiry is critical; as is the time the process takes. This all creates an impression of you.

Who is the face of your company? Who meets potential new employees the first time they enter your office? From the initial reception greeting to the interviewer themselves, you must make sure everyone creates the right impression and is capable of selling your business.

The interview should be treated as a two way process – a meeting to establish a common interest. It gives you the opportunity to assess a person’s suitability, but you must also make an effort

to sell yourself.

No one buys from people who don’t believe in what they’re selling, so you need to have the right individuals in the room; those who embody your brand values and can explain simply why someone should want to work for you.

Like any sale, if you know what they want it’s easier to become the solution, so it pays to be prepared. You’d expect prospective employees to research before an interview, so you ought to do your own due diligence too.

You should carefully plan your interview technique. A scripted list of questions is useful, but to sell your business effectively you need to listen and be fluid with the probing questions you ask and how you tailor the benefits of working at your business to the candidate’s motivations.

There are many potential touch points and it often feels difficult to find the time to work out how you can manage them all, but if you can qualify your applicants thoroughly you shouldn’t need to interview lots of people.

That way you can spend your time more effectively, ensuring you make the most of the opportunity you have with each person. After all, the better the people you recruit, the more successful your business will become.