3 Failproof Recruitment Strategies for Attracting Top Talent

March 24, 2023

It’s a tough time for HR managers. During the pandemic, people left the coasts for the country and started working remotely. Once that happened, workers began finding jobs outside their area code, giving way to nationwide employment opportunities and freedom of choice.

Compounding this headache is that retaining team members can be just as difficult as recruiting them. In our post-pandemic world, employees have become fond of the flexibility that working from home (WFH) provides. WFH life also means an abundance of opportunity, and people leap-frogging from role to role, looking for a salary bump or a work culture aligned with their beliefs.

As an HR leader, you want long-term employees who love working for your company, just as an apartment building manager wants long-term tenants. So, how do you, as a hiring manager, recruit employees who want consistency and growth within a role? Then, once you hire them, how do you retain them?

Recruiting and retaining talent in today’s hiring culture requires a new set of tools in your utility belt. If your recruiting efforts are coming up empty, here are three solutions for HR leaders looking to lure and hook big-game employees.

Cast a Bigger Net

If you want to catch talent, you must expand your search. The growth of remote work means talent is no longer pooled in major cities. People have abandoned their concrete jungles for suburban life with affordable housing and spacious yards. As a recruiter, you must look everywhere, not just in New York, LA, Chicago, and San Francisco.

Previously, if a new job took a worker and their family to a new city, one would want to keep that job to avoid uprooting their family and pulling kids out of school. People were forced to live where their job was, but the growth in remote work means that employee loyalty is no longer location-based.

Now, people are choosing where to live, then finding remote opportunities that allow them to enjoy homes with wraparound porches and tires swinging from two-hundred-year-old oak trees. And that’s where you need to cast your line.

Expand your search beyond the major cities to smaller towns and communities. Look for people who are highly qualified, whose experience is more diverse, and goes beyond working at blue chip companies or climbing the corporate ladder. Hire for skills, not just pedigree. You may just find diamond employees in the rough.

Build a Culture of Trust

Workers are looking for a new set of perks and incentives when considering your team. Instead of angling for a luxury car lease or power office, they want to be treated like a customer and feel like they are contributing to something greater than your company’s bottom line.

Instead of solely promoting the benefits that come with working for your company, promote what your company stands for. How is your business involved in the community? What organizations, charities, and programs do you support? People want to work for a company that aligns with their ideology and gives them purpose.

Millennials are projected to make up 75% of the workforce by 2025, and, according to Forbes, 83% of Millennials would be “more loyal to a company that helps them contribute to social and environmental issues.”

Forget Location-based Pay

Top talent commands a top salary regardless of location. Look no further than sports. Elite athletes bring paydays commensurate with their abilities no matter where the team is based. Professionals who move from Los Angeles and Chicago to Louisville and Charleston in search of a better quality of life and real estate prices that don’t make one’s eyes bug out shouldn’t expect their salary to drop in relation to the drop in living expenses.

Employees often measure their value in the workplace by the salary they command. This number shouldn’t decrease because one lives in a city with fewer skyscrapers and a lower cost of living. Pay according to the value of an employee’s work, not the GDP of their state.

Ultimately, if you’re an HR leader and having a hard time finding talent, remember to cast a bigger net, boast about what your company stands for, and make employee salaries performance-based, not location-based.

The views and opinions expressed within are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Parker, Smith & Feek. While every effort has been taken in compiling this information to ensure that its contents are totally accurate, neither the publisher nor the author can accept liability for any inaccuracies or changed circumstances of any information herein or for the consequences of any reliance placed upon it.