How to Attract More Employees Than the Competition

It’s a well-known fact: in order to truly flourish as a company, you need every bit of advantage over your competitors that you can realistically get. Market environments of today are utterly Darwinistic in nature, meaning that those who can’t distinguish themselves are either forgotten or worse, violently taken over by their more adapted rivals. As such, it is paramount that you actively work on making your business superior to others to attract and retain employees.

One of the most vital areas you should focus on is talent recruitment. It’s no secret that the prosperity of your company is largely driven by the skills of your employees. The better they are, the better your services get. Merely headhunting for new rising stars is not enough, however.

What you should prioritize is actively attracting new and professionally appealing candidates by implementing deep changes within your company. Some of them may appear harder to carry out than others, but the resulting gains should be more than worth the initial effort.

Your Work Environment Should Be as Flexible as Possible

One of the most common misbeliefs in today’s society is that there is only one way to work, and that is the office job in a 9-to-5 model. While there are many people who don’t mind this environment, there are also others who have no interest in it whatsoever because they find it highly tiresome and incompatible with their lifestyle, not to mention entirely obsolete.

As such, if you want to attract more potential employees than your competitors, you need to make your company as flexible as possible in terms of the working environment.

This can be done by offering several options maximizing adaptability. This includes flexible hours, relaxing the dress-code requirements if possible, letting them choose which tasks they want to take on and even offering the option of working from home.

Moreover, even if something is theoretically within their duties, consider if an advanced program could do the task as well as them. To illustrate the point, your administrative employee doesn’t have to fill out the stubs manually. A paystub creator can easily do it too.

What software can’t reliably do is write a highly personalized message to one of your important clients. That, in turn, is an easy task for the said employee.

Always Offer a Very Competitive Initial Pay

One of the biggest reasons many people choose to work in one place rather than another is the pay rate. This is a fundamental issue and many of your competitors are likely doing everything they can to offer the highest pays possible. The result is that most companies offer competitive pay rates, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd.

Still, you can get an edge over others by offering higher initial pay than before. This will let you attract more talent, which in turn, creates a positive feedback loop for your company. The more quality employees you have, the better your services get, allowing you to offer even higher pay rates.

As the word gets around, the new talent will come flocking to you, and your business will grow exponentially.

It’s Not Just About Pay, It’s About the Opportunities

Although money is important, it’s not everything. People nowadays look for jobs that satisfy them on a professional level. They want to feel challenged and they want to learn new things. If you want to attract more talent than your competitors, you need to understand this and offer your employees the chance to grow professionally.

You can do this by giving them opportunities to learn new skills at work and attend seminars or workshops. You can also create a rewarding system that will allow your workers to grow and learn while also increasing their pay and responsibilities as time goes on.

All of these things will make them happy and satisfied with their jobs. And as the word is bound to spread inevitably, the new talent will come to your company in spades. The result? Both sides win.

Don’t Just Hire Workers, Hire People

As your business grows, you will naturally be hiring more and more people. It’s essential to understand that you should not treat them as mere numbers when hiring. Instead, you should always try to look at the person behind the CV.

What actual skills do they have? What kind of personality do they possess? Are they reliable? Will they fit in the team? All of these things matter a great deal.

By hiring employees based on their actual skills and characteristics instead of just their resumes, you will get much more talented workers who are willing to go above and beyond for the company. New talent will notice this and be drawn by your person-oriented approach, resulting in them applying for your job openings.

And since you also focus on having a solid working environment with a positive culture to boot, they will stay with your company for a long time, making your business thrive like never before.

Be Understanding to Your Workforce

Above everything else, your employees are humans. As such, they have to live their lives like everyone else. If they want to do something that isn’t immediately conducive to greater profits, like taking a paid leave in order to visit their ill grandparents, you should be understanding and allow it.

The reasons go beyond simple courtesy. According to the study conducted by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, workforce happiness is directly related to their actual productivity.

As such, you kill a few birds with one stone. You indirectly improve the efficiency of your business, possibly raise your employee retention rate and most likely increase the number of talented applicants, once the word of your humane approach gets out.

Conclusion

As we’ve seen, it’s possible to attract more talent than your competition by implementing small but vital changes in your company.

The ideas mentioned above will make your business stand out from the crowd and that’s why the new talent will be drawn to you. It’s a win-win situation for both sides and it will ensure that your company keeps growing with each passing day. Good luck and remember the old adage “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”!

Authors

Maksym Szumilowicz

Maksym Szumiłowicz is an enthusiastic writer and an avid fan of all things science fiction and futurism