Attracting and retaining top talent has become increasingly challenging over the past few years. With unemployment rates hovering around 3.5%, a tight talent pool could constrain hiring efforts in 2020.
With a limited talent pool in high demand, organizations and companies must affirm their commitment to providing an excellent candidate experience during the hiring process, and deliver on the promise of competitive and exciting benefits once a candidate is hired.
Six Ways To Attract and Retain Top Talent:
1. Offer Competitive Pay
After several years of economic recovery, following the Great Recession of 2008, there have been relatively small increases in salary. However, as the talent pool shrinks, it puts more power into the hands of job seekers, allowing them to request higher paychecks in exchange for their in-demand skills and experience. In order to attract and retain top talent in any given industry, organizations should make efforts to increase job salary when hiring.
2. Provide Unique Benefits
To stand out in the job market, companies must strive to offer more than just higher salaries. Everything from more paid time off, parental leave and gym memberships can be a cost-effective way for companies to contribute to employee satisfaction.
By focusing on employee appreciation through special benefits or perks, companies will find more success in attracting and retaining talent.
Related Content: 6 Candidate Recruitment Strategies to Attract Exceptional Talent
3. Focus On Diversity
The lack of diversity in industries ranging from IT to finance has been a hot button issue over the last few years. However, those that make a diverse workforce a priority, by being more inclusive in hiring practices and reducing bias in the recruiting process can benefit from creating a more diverse company culture, with employees bringing a wider range of insights and experiences to the table.
Related Content: 4 Strategies to Write Inclusive Job Descriptions
4. Recruit Via Social Media
According to Aberdeen Group, best-in-class companies are 32% more likely to engage candidates via social media. Moreover, 79% of candidates are using social media in their job search strategies.
Creating a social media recruiting strategy has made communicating with job candidates easier than ever as targeted talent pools can now be tapped by simply searching relevant hashtags or utilizing industry interest groups.
5. Create A Remote Workforce
Working virtually continues to be a growing trend in the United States. In the past two decades, the volume of employees who have worked at least partially by telecommuting has quadrupled and now stands at 37%.
This makes it possible to recruit from anywhere in the world, landing the best candidates based on their skills, as opposed to those limited to a specific geographical location. Offering remote work also helps to attract and retain top talent as well as boost employee satisfaction thanks to an increase in work-life balance.
Learn More: 4 Tips For Managing Remote Employees
6. Offer Continuous Learning
Learning shouldn’t stop with the on-boarding process. In order to future-proof their jobs, employees must continually develop their skills and knowledge. This employee benefit is one of the best ways to not only attract and retain top talent, but also enables workers to quickly adapt to any changes in their role, advance in their careers, and remain engaged and excited in their roles.
Nowadays, it's not only important to attract the talent, to begin with, but continue to offer competitive employee benefits and new growth opportunities to incentivize qualified and trained people to stay at your organization for the long haul.
Sparks Group offers diversified staffing and recruiting services to help businesses attract and retain top talent. For more strategies to attract and retain top talent for your company in 2020, contact Sparks Group today or set up a free consultation with one of our talent acquisition professionals.
Sources:
http://www.aberdeenessentials.com/hcm-essentials/recruiting-best-practices-in-the-age-of-the-employee/
http://resources.glassdoor.com/rs/899-LOT-464/images/50hr-recruiting-and-statistics-2017.pdf
http://news.gallup.com/poll/184649/telecommuting-work-climbs.aspx
https://www.slideshare.net/PGi/state-of-telecommuting-2014-pgi-report/1
