Do you know how much hiring the wrong talent can cost you? Well, let us save you the trouble. Hiring the wrong employee can cost you anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000! That's not a trivial amount especially for small businesses and growing companies, right?



It's for this and other reasons that attraction and retention of top talents is a major priority, at least it is for over 83% of business leaders. In fact, it's common to find recruiters working overtime to keep company needs documented and the talent pipeline well-stocked. Yup! Acquiring the best, brightest skill-set the job pool can offer is never a walk in the park.





How to Recruit the Right Employee for Your Business





It`s not entirely impossible though. Here, we bring you a rundown of 6 talent acquisition strategies to help you reel in the right employee. It`s simple! You just have to…





One: Evaluate and Enhance Your Brand





It`s not all about talent, rather, the right candidate has to resonate with your business. Their values should reflect those of your company! For example, if you leverage Eco-friendly practices, a potential employee should be one that is into “going green”.

To achieve this, you must understand your brand, its core values, culture, general practices, and vision.

Don`t be shy to use your current workforce. Ask your best employee why they love working with you. Why they chose you in the first place. What would attract them to the role you`re hiring for? You`ll be surprised at how many valuable ideas you can draw from them. Ideas that will help you understand more about your business and the type of expertise to look for.

You`ll be in a better position to understand what high performers look for before settling for a role. What salary amounts can impress them? Remember, high talented persons can afford to choose who to work for. A right they have earned by virtue of their skills and training. Which means, if your business does not interest them, has an awful reputation, or can`t just meet their salary demands, you`ll lose out!

And guess what? Involving your employees will make them feel more engaged and valued increasing their retention rate.

To avoid the hassle, contemplate outsourcing your human resource services. In doing so, you`ll be working with professionals with the expertise to see the acquisition process to the end. Reliable HR consulting services will carry out a thorough analysis of your company to determine what talent is needed now and in the future.

They`ll also plan ahead for staff retirement, attrition, and leaves of absence as they schedule time for talent acquisition activities: inputting, outreach, updating candidate details, and networking.

To make HR outsourcing even easier, ensure your brand has a stellar reputation. That is, it`s social profiles, reviews, company culture, business websites targets both customers and potential top-notch talent.





Two: Integrate Talent Acquisition





Keeping an open mind is key when it comes to talent acquisition, therefore, get the entire company involved if possible. You can even introduce monetary rewards for quality hires or employee referral programs.

Make your employees your brand ambassadors. Yes! They can positively impact your acquisition by reaching out to quality career-seeking candidates, creating talent ambassador social profiles, conducting reviews on job boards, and creating content rich in the business values and culture.

Again work with other departments. For example, analytics or accounting department can help you analyze data and pull actionable insights. A marketing department can help sell your brand better. From freshening up recruiting materials to showcase your business value in search results, on social channels and other platforms.





Three: Write Targeted Job Descriptions





To attract the right employee, go beyond the generic job description. Give it a thorough thought and input important matters. Consider listing typical daily activities, performance measures, all materials to be submitted for a successful bid, company values and culture, a relevant video, and contact information.

The job ad should depict your talent acquisition strategy, company culture, and why the right candidate should work for you. Be specific about what past experience and from what kind of projects you`re looking for.

Being a crucial part of the talent acquisition (TA) strategy, consider hiring HR consulting services. This will result in a more effective pre-screening too, as professional HR services are well equipped to have candidates answer relevant questions while applying. They`re better experienced in asking specific questions aimed at gauging how the applicants can handle real-life situations within your business.

HR outsourcing can find means to understand candidates` biggest accomplishment to date, the position-related software they have experience in, and huge blunders they may have fixed. They`ll cleverly deduce their view on overtime, working on weekends, and work travels. In short, outsourcing HR services will help better understand whether the targeted job seekers have the experience, knowledge, and passion required to take on the task at hand.





Four: Spread Your Message on the Right Platform





After writing a targeted job description, it`s time to spread the message far and wide.

According to a recent study, 1 in 6 job seekers found their current job on social platforms. That`s a big percentage! But before you spend all that cash and time on the advertisement, it`s good to bear in mind that it`s quality and not quantity that matters.

So, first research what platforms will bring in better candidates. Here, bring on board your top talents. Get to know how they found you.

When it comes to job boards: Indeed, Glassdoor, CareerBuilder, Jora, Jobrapido, LinkedIn, among others; seek help from professional HR consulting firm. They are better equipped to analyze what platforms your ideal candidates might have a presence on. This could be by monitoring blogs, retweets, hashtags industry topics, etc. They can also refer to the industry resources or studies that suggest where potential candidates have the most social activity.

Truth be told. HR outsourcing and preparing beforehand will see you have better results.





Five: Make Data-driven Decisions





You've advertised, they have applied. Let`s get to selecting the right candidate. An HR professional with a great TA strategy seldom hires prospects and just hope it will all work out. No! They instead make data-driven decisions from sourcing and lead generation to hiring and on-boarding. In the end, they`ll have irrefutable facts on why and how a certain candidate is a good fit. A key reason to consider outsourcing HR services. Why?

A good HR consulting service provider is at abreast with the ever-advancing recruiting technology. They are knowledgeable in utilizing modern hiring tools to assess long-term metrics like retention, performance and overall fit.

Armed with the data, they can forecast the future success of the company based on the quality of past top talent. HR outsourcing will make it easy to track the key recruiting metrics so as to analyze your performance and monitor how new employees perform in their duties.

Did we forget the interview?

Don't! It`s the surefire way to gauge a candidate`s action while under pressure or in a formal setting. To take it up a notch, however, opt for casual phone conversations, informal negotiations, or lunch meetings for it`s here that you`re bound to learn one`s true nature – characters that might not be evident during a standard interview.





Six: Look Internally





Sometimes what we`re looking for is right in front of us. So, before going outside in search of talents, see whether you can promote employees internally. It`s easy. And way easier working with a professional HR consulting service provider. Given that they review your staff on a regular basis, they can easily pick peak performers within the business. Those established staff that have proven to be reliable, are up-to-date with industry trends, and love growth.

These professionals will then take time to prepare and train top performers on the required responsibility and leadership. Interestingly, they can work towards this, years beforehand by offering internal mentor-ship programs, stretch assignments, and trial runs. The magic of HR outsourcing!

You can also try circulating a list of vacancies regularly via email or an internal link.





Happy Hiring!

Talent acquisition can be said to be bittersweet. It requires skills and patience to build, but the end results is a great reward for your company. Therefore, start the journey today by ensuring all organization needs are documented and that you`re positioned to track trends in your business and industry. Remember, the more you know, the further you`ll go! To save time, however, consider outsourcing your HR services to a reputable HR consulting firm.



