Fast 5 tips to attract talent in the Great Resignation
By Nicola Hutchinson, Client Advisor
The Great Resignation is upon us and some of the best talent are predicted to be on the move. To help out, we’ve curated our fast five tips to make sure your organisation can cut through the noise to attract great talent right now.
These are sure to shape, sharpen and activate your Employer Value Proposition (EVP)– landing you ahead of the curve. Let’s dive in.
Consider your place in the world
Resist the urge to let your EVP become an inward looking exercise, that only focuses on the story you want to tell. It’s important to also put your head up every now and then, and consider your place in the world. It’s not enough to simply offer what you think candidates will want, you also have to ensure what you offer feels fresh, different and distinct from your competitors.
Take flexibility, for example. Once a celebrated point of difference for many of our clients, the pandemic opened the floodgates to flexible work, and it’s now considered a simple hygiene factor. To stand out in the flexibility game, you’re competing with the likes of Canva, who only require their people to be in the office 8 days per year.
Or you might look at D&I, and consider how Salesforce recently announced a truly progressive support package for transgender employees. Whatever it is for your organisation, before you shout from the rooftops about what you do differently, do your due diligence and see how it truly differentiates from your competitors - then take the necessary steps to make that difference sing.
Make your strategy data-driven
Data-driven insights are non-negotiable for any people project. To drive real, tangible outcomes that last, you need to build a solution through fact – not assumptions. For example, if you are losing top talent, you need to collect data to identify the problem. Are you hiring the right people? Are you creating the conditions for success? Then use this data to point your EVP in the right direction to drive sustainable talent acquisition.
If you’re unsure what we mean, have a gander at our work with Interactive, a leading technology company. Through data collection and analysis we were able to identify the strengths that were unique to Interactive, and turn these into the powerful Bring your + campaign, which targets the unique attributes that Interactive are looking for in new team members to build a truly diverse workplace. Data can show you what is true to your organisation, and identify the right talent to meet your unique goals.
Look for bad news as well as good news
We are in the age of information and frankly you simply can’t hide from Glassdoor or social media. Seek to uncover the light and shade of your employee experience ahead of time, so your EVP sets the right expectations for incoming candidates and employees. Not every business is for everyone, so giving people the tools and information to opt out will help funnel your talent pipeline.
Check out this interview with Linktree's co-founder and CEO Alex Zaccaria, where he shares how they own their culture story - by letting candidates know that joining this start up requires resilience and adaptability to working at pace, telling them that “this will likely be the most exhilarating and rewarding experience of your career, but it will also be the most challenging and hard to navigate time in your career.”
Ultimately, truth serum is a powerful thing. Your EVP needs to attract talent, but the truth retains them in the face of the Great Resignation to come.
Know your audience
The Great Resignation has also aptly been called the Great Realignment. Why? Because people are looking for work that compliments their life and aligns with their values, not vice versa. Do you know your audience beyond the workplace? Do you know where they spend their time online? What do they do on the weekend? What are their passion points?
Linktree is again a great example - they identified that their talent are more likely to have a side hustle and created an employee experience that celebrates these passion points and empowers their people for success in and out of their work with the company.
Think about how you build your EVP in a way that supports their goals and passions outside of their role? This can be an avenue for you to create loyalty, advocacy and connection.
Outthink not outspend
Once you know your audience, be creative in your channels and methods to engage with them. If you’re recruiting for hospitality roles, can you use the humble QR code we all know and love as a recruitment driver on the doors to your venues?
Or if you’re attracting Tech talent into a historically non-digital business and you know your target audience are more likely to be gamers., how are you tapping into gaming communities in order to connect with your audience where they like to consume and engage?
Don’t be limited by your ‘traditional’ channels, be bold and try something new to create the cut through you need and get noticed when attracting talent to your organisation during the Great Resignation.
Learn more about our unique approach to EVP’s here. If you’d like to discuss your business needs, get in touch with Nicola to arrange a discovery session.