The new world of work is significantly different, and businesses will need to respond differently to attract, engage and retain skilled workers, writes Tim Powell
While it is right to recognise the differences between different generations of talent and account for them accordingly, fundamentally the key elements to attract and retain are true and increasingly important to all job seekers.
To acquire the talent needed to fuel business growth, from Baby Boomers to Millennials, organisations need to evaluate their talent acquisition strategies to ensure they are best able to target candidates across multiple generations.
1. Build a strong employer brand. Creating a solid employer brand should be one of the top objectives for a business as it forms the basis of a robust talent acquisition strategy – attracting new talent while increasing employee engagement.
Clearly displaying an organisations culture, views and values gives potential candidates the ability to identify with the business.
To get to this stage, an organisation needs to understand what interests and motivates talent, developing the brand’s core messaging in a language that resonates with its primary audience.
2. Engage them on their favourite channels. Once a company has defined its brand, this will help to navigate where it is best to be visible to potential candidates, encouraging engagement on their favourite channels.
Moreover, having clear brand values will ensure the language used is appropriate for both the platform and the audience. This is more relevant than ever in the digital world we live in and employers must be sure to meet candidates where they spend the majority of their time – on their smartphones.
With 86 per cent of active candidates using their smartphone to begin a job search, social media plays a significant role here. Recent research has highlighted that employers who use social channels to hire found a 49 per cent improvement in candidate quality over candidates sourced only through traditional recruiting channels.
Businesses need to adapt accordingly, integrating social media into their acquisition strategies while ensuring channels from LinkedIn to Facebook are marketing the brand in its best light.
Additionally, a mobile friendly career site, where candidates can upload their resumes and apply for openings with the touch of a button, is a must. Investing in job search apps for mobile, to attract both active and passive job seekers, is worth consideration too.
Whatever methods fits best, businesses need to evolve their digital initiatives to engage an increasingly digital-first audience.
3. Show them their future. Once an organisation’s employer brand has been established and a complimentary recruitment strategy put in place now is the time to show future employees what working for the business would look like.
Effective employee engagement isn’t always about salary. Strategies beyond remuneration, from innovative work spaces to flexible working policies, play an important part when attracting and engaging talent.
A recent study found that 83 per cent of people who joined a company in the last two years said flexibility was an important factor when considering whether to accept a role.
Implementing effective career development programmes will also add appeal, providing candidates visibility of their place within the organisation and allowing them to map their progression.
There is a finite (and in some cases ever diminishing) supply of highly skilled workers across key disciplines.
To be fully effective in today’s competitive recruitment landscape, businesses must respond to the new world of work, refreshing their talent acquisition strategies to best target talent across all generations.
Doing so will not only help to secure high quality candidates, but also effectively engage and retain them to future-proof the organisation.
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