You’re Hiring! Or at the very least, you’re thinking about it. Or maybe you’ll be thinking about it soon. If you don’t fall under these categories, I’m not entirely sure why you’re here . . . ?
There are many talented people in the world, and chances are the very best person for the position you’re looking to fill is out there somewhere. Maybe they’re working for a competitor, or maybe they’re already an independent success, but are looking for more? The point is, companies, particularly start-ups, can live and die by the people they employ to help not only establish the ‘personality’ of the company, but also directly contribute to the growth and advancement of your product or service.
With all that in mind, here are Empresario’s Top 5 Ways to attract talent to your business:
1) ENVIRONMENTAL CULTURE
Bean bag chairs! Bean bag chairs as far as the eye can see! And hug stations! And don’t forget the slurpee machine. Okay, let’s stop right there. No, you don’t have to produce the extreme stereotypical millennial workplace to create an appealing environment for your team (although a Foosball Table never hurt anyone). You just need to be strategic when building an environmental culture that is comfortable, that meets the working needs of your team, and is a place people want to go to every day. Offices that are stylish and trendy are far more appealing than gray walls and cubicles. And I don’t have to be an interior designer to tell you that.
2) PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PERSONAL GROWTH
There’s a fairly serious chicken and egg scenario that takes place when it comes to offering professional development in the workplace. Many managers don’t want to put money toward professional development out of the fear their employees will leave the company and take what they’ve learned with them. At the same token, employees who don’t receive professional development are unlikely to stay in the same position. What do you do? You take the risk. In the end, it’s better to offer the best work experience possible, which includes encouraging professional and personal growth, rather than holding employees back out of fear they might leave.
3) WORK-LIFE BALANCE
The Dolly Parton song ‘Working 9 to 5’ wouldn’t be nearly as popular today as it was when it was first released. Today it would be seen as a song full of flaws. What is this 9-5 business anyway? The modern workplace doesn’t cater to such antiquated ideas. Flexible time and work from home schedules are becoming more and more commonplace and employers try to cater to a healthy work-life balance for team members. In the end, it’s all a bit of a mind game. Giving employees more control over their work hours helps reduce absenteeism and has been proven to increase productivity. The latter isn’t due to a feeling of control, it’s a way to say thank you to a manager that understand their needs. Dolly Parton needs to update her song.
4) THINK TO THE FUTURE
Some things don’t change with time. For example: people want to advance. They want to grow. They want to move forward to whatever is next. Advancement is a key to loyal team members who are in it for the long haul. If there’s clear room for advancement, to learn, to adapt, and to take on more responsibility, people are far more likely to join your cause and stick around.
5) LEAD BY EXAMPLE
The way you act and react are prime examples of the kind of behaviour you want to see from your employers. For example, I used to work for a manager who ruled by fear and punishment. Once, when quotas were not met in a quarter, he stopped providing coffee and cream in the break room. How the lack of caffeine was expected to increase productivity was beyond me. However, the reverberations of that kind of leadership were felt throughout the company and retention rates plummeted. Not only that, but it diminished the respect that people felt for their leader.
Attracting the right talent isn’t a matter of applying a perfect recipe, and while these tips may help, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the right person for the right job. There are too many variables, often dictated by the type of industry in which you operate. But starting out on the right foot, and employing the above tactics is a very big step in the right direction.
*Sources: nibusinessinfo.co.uk, hbr.org
