6 Steps to Acquiring & Retaining Talent
If your company wants to attract, recruit and retain key talent, you need to have a well-thought-out approach.
Our whitepaper entitled Talent Acquisition: A road map for success has taken input from our middle market clients and developed a road map that outlines six critical steps for acquiring talent.
1. Understand your needs for today and tomorrow
This is often the most overlooked step. Draw the organizational chart for what your department, division, or association will look like in 3-5 years, and keep in mind how the business will evolve.
Define the position specification, or success profile. These are the skills and competencies required to perform the role successfully today and in the future.
2. Developing your sales pitch
A key part of your strategy is to determine why a candidate will want this position and also why they’ll want to work for your company. You’ll want to be able to answer some of the following questions:
- What is the vision for the company in 3-5 years?
- How does your organization differ from competitors?
- Is this position newly created or is this revisited?
- What is the turnover in your company?
- Who owns the company?
- Have you benchmarked the salary & incentives for this position?
3. Developing your recruiting game plan for sourcing candidates
Today, there are more sources for candidates than ever due to three factors: internet resources, networking events, and groups specializing in professional skills and interests. Where are you going to focus on to reach the best candidates?
4. The internal interviews and due diligence process
The HR department or hiring HR manager/executive should have a well thought process that includes a phased or multiple visit process so that only the most promising candidates are brought back for 2nd or 3rd round interviews. See the other processes we recommend in our Talent Acquisition Whitepaper.
5. The offer and employment agreement
There are several considerations when it comes to making the offer and the actual offer itself:
- Employee’s previous employment history, specifically regarding any past agreement considerations.
- Agreement in terms with any external recruiters
- Long-term incentives to key employees that are at risk to losing their positions if the company sells.
- The candidate’s intentions. Ask him/her up front what they plan to do if their current employer counters their offer. Ensure your candidate is in it for the job, not the offer quote
- Be sure to specify that the offers is only valid with a positive background check
6. On-boarding
Some companies have great on-boarding policies and some do not. A comprehensive process should do the following:
- Provide orientation
- Develop key internal and external relationships
- Learn about the organization practices and systems
- Set goals, and provide feedback for both parties
To read the full Talent Acquisition whitepaper, click here.