Marketing for recruitment: The tactics you should use to find the best talent

After two years of dealing with a global pandemic, it’s no surprise that the search for talent is undergoing a major upheaval. Staff losses through burnout, low replacement rates due to slowing immigration and a diminishing number of graduates coming through the education system have all contributed to a shortage of talent that we’re now facing in the short to medium term.

As a business owner, I’ve found I’m spending more effort marketing for talent than marketing for clients. The demand for services is there, but the right talent is harder to find. Here’s how to address this challenge.

Find out what the talent wants

In a competitive market for talent, you need to attract candidates with as many incentives as you can — within reason and aligned with your business’ values. Survey your current team about the things they like about their role and ask for suggestions for improvements. Don’t forget to offer them the same benefits as it needs to be a fair, business-wide policy, not just for new recruits.

While many businesses jump to offering more pay, holidays or bonuses, I’ve actually found that while people do need to be compensated well, it’s often the less tangible things that they enjoy most about their job: their co-workers; sharing skills; being supported; having autonomy; being empowered; flexible working conditions; good work/life balance; and advancing their knowledge and experience.

Pay attention to these less tangible factors because they are often harder to implement but can be the difference between a candidate choosing to work with you (and staying) or going to work for someone offering a higher salary.

Open every channel to recruit talent

Job sites, career platforms, online advertising, social media, tapping your network, offering talent referral bonuses — use every possible channel to find candidates. Don’t be afraid to let people know you’re looking for talent because you never know when they might overhear that someone in your industry is looking for a new role.

Simply being active on platforms such as LinkedIn can also help to build your profile so that when candidates look up who you are they can get a sense of your values as a business owner.

Market your business to the talent

Most businesses use their marketing department to pitch to customers; in a competitive industry for talent, you can use many of those same techniques and target potential recruits.

One such avenue could be video content, where a videographer can talk to current staff members, tell their stories and capture a firsthand account of the roles they’re in to give candidates an idea of what the workplace culture is like. Showing that you put your staff first is important to highlight.

Testimonials — from staff instead of clients — can also work to offer a picture of team members’ experiences and add value to the recruitment process. Recording and using that authentically is the key to making a good impression.

Knowing what differentiates you from your competitors and selling that will help you to stand out. Whether that’s your culture, career development you can offer, better work/life balance — whatever it is, promote that heavily and the right people will notice. Telling the story of the business and positioning the candidate within it will give both you and the potential recruit a good idea of whether it’s a long-term match.

Conduct exit interviews

To attract talent, you first need to understand why people look to leave so you can work on those issues first — such as burnout.

Burnout usually occurs when a staff member doesn’t feel supported and/or their workload is too high. The fix for that is therefore to create structures that offer support and can help balance the workload.

Regular engagement surveys are also crucial to keep a “pulse check” on the sentiment within your business and get cracking on cultural issues that may arise before they become an issue and drive your talent to look elsewhere.

In the instance where staff do move onto other things, conducting exit interviews is very important. It can provide an organisation with tips and feedback as to where they are missing the mark and provide an opportunity to step up their game.

No matter what your business or industry, solve the leak first — it could be anything from a toxic co-worker, a culture clash, or career stagnation — before you recruit, or you’ll find all your efforts will go to waste.