4 Steps to Build an Effective Attraction Strategy

More and more we hear from employers that they are having a tough time finding good people in the pile of resumes that they received when posting their job opening. They have great jobs available and are a great place to work but the applicants they are getting either don’t have the skills they want or they aren’t the right fit for their organization culture.

Recruiting good people doesn’t just happen. It takes a solid, intentional approach that is grounded in both good marketing and clarity for who you are and what you offer to you an employee. And in some cases, it doesn’t even matter what your business is about.

Here are 4 strategic steps to take to build an effective attraction strategy.

Step 1: Know Your Why

Be clear on why someone should come work for you.

If you can’t articulate why someone should come and work for you, then getting clarity on that should be your number 1 priority. How do you figure this out? Ask your current employees. They will tell you what it is that makes working for you great.

Step 2: Know Your Who

Be clear on the qualities you see in your ideal employee.

Take a look around your organization and find the qualities that make employee successful in your organization. Those qualities are the ones you want more of. Think about your best employee. What is so amazing about them? Describe them in your marketing and more of those people will be drawn to work in your organization because they can see themselves fitting in.

“Your best employees should be the benchmark for attracting new people to your organization.”

Step 3: Communicate

Tell everyone you know what it’s like to work for you.

Once you have a clear sense of your “ideal employee” and can clearly articulate what it means to work for you, then tell EVERYONE. Best place to start? Your website. Have a careers page that is easy to find on your website (amazing to me how buried this can be!) and make it high energy, high impact and put an emphasis on speaking directly to your ideal employee. Make them want to work for you – whether you have a job opening or not. After you have nailed your website, move onto your social media channels. Talk about how great you are – don’t be afraid to shout it from the rooftops!

Mind Valley does an amazing job at this. They have a highly attractive corporate culture to a particular type of employee and when you review their careers page you can see why people want to work for them. Notice however that their careers page talks very little about the business they are in. It talks all about what it means to work there and what is in it for the employee. The result? People are flocking to Kuala Lumpur to work for them.

Step 4: Walk the Talk

Don’t just talk about being a great place to work, be a great place to work.

It is all well and good to market that you are awesome but when new employees start to realise that it was all just fancy marketing, you will lose people so fast your head will spin. Be sure to walk your talk and create the kind of environment that you think is going to bring the ideal employee to you and then do whatever it takes to make it a place they want to stay. You will reap the benefits tenfold.

Your Engaged Assignment: Do a walk around and start making notes about what it means to work for your organization. Take what you learn and start communicating it. Create a web page that moves people to check you out a bit more. Have a Facebook page that builds relationships with prospective talent and don’t be afraid to find more people who are just like the amazing ones you have now!