7 Keys to Attracting Top Talent in a Competitive Hiring Climate

For the last several years, businesses in a wide range of industries have been facing a “war for talent.” Competition for top talent has reached unprecedented levels, forcing many businesses to rethink their recruiting and hiring practices in order to ensure they have the quality staff necessary to succeed.

There are several reasons why the job market has shifted significantly over the past few years, fueling this intensely competitive hiring climate:

Evolving job candidate priorities – The COVID-19 pandemic forced many individuals to re-evaluate their priorities, including what they value in a job opportunity. Salary is no longer the primary factor determining whether an opportunity is attractive. Job candidates today are becoming more selective and frequently prioritize companies that align with their values, offer a healthy work-life balance, and provide opportunities for professional growth.
Shifting worker demographics – As an increasing number of baby boomers reach retirement age and Gen Z individuals reach working age, we’re also seeing a shift in worker demographics. Gen Z is expected to surpass baby boomers in the full-time workforce in early 2024, and their values are very different than the boomers they are replacing in the workforce. This younger generation’s preferences are very similar to the changes in worker priorities brought on by the pandemic, further intensifying this shift in the workforce.
Rise of remote and flexible work opportunities – In addition to fueling a change in job priorities, the pandemic forced businesses to adapt to a remote work format. While some companies have been trying to get employees back into the office over the past year, a significant percentage of employees valued this shift to a remote policy and the flexibility it provides. As a result, more employees are prioritizing remote and hybrid work opportunities than ever before.
Rise of the gig economy – The employment landscape looks very different than it did several years ago. Today, there are an increasing number of professionals seeking project-based work and short-term contract jobs rather than the stability of a full-time position. This new reality means that not all the best talent will find your position attractive. You’re likely looking at a smaller pool of talent that values the type of position you have open (contract vs. full-time).

Your staff is one of the most significant factors impacting the success of your business and as a result, it’s critical to attract the top talent to fill your open positions. The companies that will navigate this process the most effectively are those that not only recognize these changing employment trends, but also adjust their hiring strategies to gain a competitive edge over other businesses seeking to hire the most qualified candidates from a small pool of elite talent. The following tips will help your company remain attractive in this competitive hiring climate.

Promote Your Company’s Brand During the Hiring Process

In today’s competitive hiring climate, your company’s brand can act as a differentiator that helps you attract the top talent. Today’s workers are seeking:

A role that is meaningful on both a personal and professional level
A company with values that align with their personal values
An ability to contribute to an organization that seeks to benefit the larger community

Your company’s brand plays a critical role in your ability to address these priorities commonly found in the most talented candidates today. There are two important elements that make up your company’s brand:

Your purpose – What your company does and what it stands for
Your core values – The behaviors and characteristics that your team exhibits in their daily lives (personally and professionally)

In addition to building a powerful company brand that aligns with the values and pursuits of your top candidates, you must also be able to effectively communicate this brand to them. This involves crafting a compelling and cohesive narrative that is conveyed consistently throughout all your messaging.

To craft a company brand that stands out to top talent:

Refresh your purpose and core values – Revisit your company’s purpose and core values to make sure they reflect your culture. Make any adjustments necessary to ensure these talking points accurately define your identity.
Understand what motivates your candidates – In order for your brand to resonate with the top talent, you must first understand their motivations and desires. Make sure to conduct research to identify what the top talent in your industry seeks in a new job position. Are the best candidates interested in work-life balance, working for a company with a purpose that aligns with their values, opportunities for professional growth, remote and flexible work schedules, or something else? Make sure your culture truly addresses these desires.
Craft authentic brand messaging – Create compelling and authentic stories that highlight your company brand. This can involve sharing stories from existing team members about their experiences working with your company. It can also involve sharing stories about the ways you engage with the community at large to contribute to positive change. These stories should all provide illustrations of your purpose, values and culture.
Communicate this brand messaging consistently – For your brand to resonate with top talent, it must be communicated consistently throughout all your channels. This includes your website, social media profiles, videos and job postings. You should also reiterate this brand messaging during the interview process.

Build a Strong Company Culture

While we discussed company culture as part of your branding, it’s important to give this aspect of your business its own entry into this list. Your company culture consists of the shared norms you establish for your work environment, and it plays a major role in the day-to-day experience of your employees. When you have a strong company culture, you’re much more likely to appeal to the top talent.

When assessing your company culture, make sure to evaluate the following factors:

What is the dominant leadership style?
Do your team members actively live your core values every day?
How engaged are your team members in their work and in the success of the company?
How do you motivate, recognize and reward your staff?
How do people treat and speak to each other?
Is there a culture of support and collaboration?
How does management communicate with your team? Is there transparency and honesty in these communications?

These factors play an important role in creating a strong company culture. When you can offer a culture that provides a positive work experience for your team, it will help you attract and retain the best talent.

If your company already has a strong culture that aligns with the priorities of today’s workforce, make sure to promote your culture on your social media profiles, your website, your job postings, and during your interviews. This will be one of the strongest ways you can differentiate your business and attract the best employees.

If you feel that your culture can be improved upon, start taking steps right away to make the necessary changes. Improving a company culture can take time, but the effort will be worthwhile, as it will help you build the best possible team.

Offer Flexible Work Arrangements Whenever Possible

The pandemic created a fundamental transformation in how and where work is done. It forced companies to learn how to function seamlessly in a remote work environment out of necessity. However, this experiment has permanently altered workplace norms, and it’s clear that remote and hybrid work is here to stay.

Many workers have embraced remote work due to the flexibility it provides. This is especially true among Millennial and Gen Z workers who are now making up an increasingly large percentage of the workforce. These younger generations of workers have come to value this flexibility above many other criteria impacting their decision regarding whether to take a job.

There is a growing body of research supporting the extent to which workers value these flexible work arrangements:

With many workers valuing the flexibility and improved work-life balance provided by remote and hybrid work environments, it’s critical to embrace these working models whenever possible. Companies that resist this transformation of our work environment may find it increasingly challenging to attract top talent over the next few years.

Taking the following steps will help you incorporate flexible work arrangements into your hiring strategy:

Define the different types of flexible work arrangements you offer. This may include a combination of remote or hybrid work options, compressed workweeks, or flexible hours.
Communicate your company’s commitment to providing flexible work options during the recruiting and hiring process. Include language such as “flexible schedule” or “remote work options” in your job posts to make them more attractive to candidates who value these perks. During the interview process, make sure to let candidates know exactly what these flexible arrangements look like at your company.
Make sure you equip your business with the technology tools necessary to facilitate effective remote work.
Develop clear expectations and performance metrics for remote employees, and provide regular feedback so your employees remain productive at home.
Provide remote employees with the devices necessary to be successful when working at home. This may include a laptop, extra monitor, cell phone, or any other hardware required to perform their job properly.

When you’re able to offer remote work and other flexible options, it will give you a competitive advantage over other companies vying for the best talent. In addition, it allows you to recruit the best talent around the country (or potentially around the world) rather than being limited to candidates in your local region.

Provide Competitive Compensation and Benefits Packages

While compensation may not be the primary factor modern workers prioritize when deciding on a job opportunity, it remains an important factor. We’ve experienced rampant inflation in the last couple of years, and living expenses are higher than ever. Compensation packages need to be sufficient to ensure your employees can comfortably pay their bills in light of this high cost of living. Moreover, the top talent in every field works hard and provides significant value to their employer, and they deserve to be fairly compensated in a manner commensurate with the value they provide.

One of the ways you can gain an edge in attracting the top talent is to offer as competitive a compensation package as possible. This includes a salary that is at least in line with market value for your industry and a comprehensive benefits package that will make your offer even more enticing.

To make your benefits package stand out and serve as an effective recruiting tool that attracts the top talent, it should go beyond the basics and truly provide value to your employees. This can be accomplished by:

Offering a variety of health insurance options that meet the diverse needs of your staff
Providing generous PTO offerings that go beyond industry standard
Offering employer matching for 401(k) contributions
Providing an employer contribution for HSA accounts
Offering company equity or stock options for roles that align with the company’s growth trajectory
Offering employee wellness programs that improve quality of life

Offering Competitive Compensation and Benefits Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank

There is a common misperception that offering a generous compensation and benefits package requires you to spend a lot of money. However, there are ways you can keep these costs manageable while still providing an attractive package that appeals to the top talent:

Consider the total compensation – Base salary is only one portion of the compensation package you provide. While it’s important to offer a base salary that is commensurate with industry standard, you can make this compensation package more attractive by offering generous benefits, bonuses, and equity/stock options. Often, these items will make your compensation more attractive than a high base salary alone, and it may be more affordable in the long run.
Offer non-monetary perks – Many workers value perks that don’t increase the financial value of their compensation package. Offering professional growth opportunities and policies that promote a healthy work-life balance can make your opportunity more attractive to candidates.
Offer flexible work arrangements – We’ve already discussed the important role flexible work arrangements play in the way workers value job opportunities. This is a powerful perk that won’t cost your company any money, but it will make your overall compensation package much more attractive to the top candidates.

When creating your compensation packages, always start by conducting market research to understand industry salary standards for the roles you’re recruiting for. This will provide you with a benchmark to shoot for that ensures your offers remain competitive.

You can make your offers even more appealing by customizing your compensation packages based on the needs and qualifications of each candidate. For example, some candidates may be willing to accept a slightly lower salary if they receive an extra week of PTO and/or more remote time each week. In other situations, you may find that the qualifications of a particular candidate justify increasing your salary offer to ensure they choose your company. Building in flexibility to create customized compensation packages can be a powerful tool during negotiations.

It’s also important to be transparent about your compensation and benefits package during the recruiting and hiring process. Placing a salary range and listing the benefits you offer on a job posting can help narrow down your list of candidates to individuals who are likely to accept your offer.

Remember, the secret to providing competitive compensation packages isn’t spending more money. It’s about strategically allocating your resources in a way that allows you to attract and retain the best talent in the most cost-effective manner. When you approach compensation in this manner, you can gain a competitive edge while staying within your budget.

Incentivize Employee Referrals

Your existing employees can be one of your most effective recruiting tools. In fact, employee referrals are an excellent way to attract top talent. Your employees have intimate knowledge of your purpose, core values, company culture, and the characteristics necessary for success at your company. As a result, they are more likely to recommend candidates who align with these aspects of your business than a recruiter with limited knowledge of your company. In addition, happy employees can be effective company ambassadors, explaining to top candidates why they love working at your organization. This can make your opportunity more attractive to talented individuals they refer.

You can often boost the quantity of quality applicants for your open positions by implementing an employee referral program that incentivizes your team to recommend individuals in their sphere who would be a good fit for your company. Offering a referral bonus or another type of incentive that your team values for any new employee they recommend who remains with the company for a set period of time can be a powerful tool that expands your recruiting efforts and improves employee engagement.

Create a Positive Candidate Experience

When faced with a competitive hiring climate, it’s important to leverage every tool at your disposal to make your opportunities appear more attractive to top talent. One of the ways to accomplish this is to create a positive candidate experience. An individual’s experience throughout the recruiting and hiring process can play a major role in their perception of your company. The more positive you can make this experience, the better the top candidates will likely feel about accepting your job opportunity.

There are several reasons why a positive candidate experience can give you a competitive edge during the hiring process:

Easier to attract top talent – The best candidates are more likely to accept your job offer when you treat them well and provide a respectful candidate experience throughout the hiring process.
Reduces hiring time – Creating a smooth journey throughout the recruiting process will minimize delays and prevent you from getting bogged down at various stages of the interview cycle. This will allow you to move the best candidates through the process faster so that you can make them an offer before another company does.
Builds a talent pipeline – There may be situations where you interview multiple candidates for a position who are highly talented and an excellent fit for your company. The individuals who aren’t selected are more likely to consider your company for future opportunities if they have a great experience throughout the recruiting process. This allows you to build a talent pipeline that can be leveraged when future positions become open.

The following elements are critical to your ability to create an exceptional candidate experience:

Effective communication – It’s important to keep candidates engaged and informed throughout the process by providing regular updates, clear expectations of what next steps entail, and prompt responses when they reach out with questions.
Transparency – Make sure you’re transparent and honest about your company’s culture, the specifics of the role you’re filling, and the expectations for the individual performing this role. This will help ensure the candidates who move along in the process are a good fit for both the role and your company’s culture.
Respect – Always show respect for a candidate’s time, interest and effort during the recruiting process. Whenever possible, avoid unnecessary cancelations or delays. In addition, provide feedback when necessary to ensure each candidate understands what is expected of them throughout the process.
Personalization – Each individual applying for the role brings a unique set of skills and experiences. Creating a personalized candidate experience can help you appeal to the different personalities of each applicant, and it can allow you to dig into each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses more effectively.
Leverage technology – Utilize technology whenever possible to streamline the process. Applicant tracking system software can make it easier to collect, sort, scan and rank applications you receive for each position, making this initial stage of the process go faster. Conducting video interviews can reduce the time spent by each applicant while maintaining the personalization and intimacy of an in-person interview.

Continuously Refine Your Process

Attracting the top talent in a competitive hiring climate requires a comprehensive approach that includes all of the elements discussed above. By building a strong company brand, fostering a positive culture, offering flexible work arrangements and competitive compensation packages, creating an employee referral program, and crafting a positive candidate experience, you can make your company stand out to the best applicants and increase the chances they choose you.

Keep in mind that the employment landscape is constantly evolving. As younger generations of workers continue replacing baby boomers in the workforce, it will become even more critical to appeal to the factors these younger employees value most. The best way to ensure your business remains attractive to top talent is to continuously refine your recruiting and hiring process.

When you lose out on your top candidates, ask them to provide feedback about why they chose not to accept your offer and what you could have done differently to be more appealing to them. This information can provide valuable insight into the things your top candidates value, allowing you to make your open positions even more attractive to the best talent moving forward.

7 Critical Keys to Attracting Top Talent in a Competitive Hiring Climate