Attracting and hiring the best talent for your business is crucial for its success and growth.
For over 15 years we have helped hundreds of business hire talent at all levels of seniority within the construction, civil engineering, rail, power and telecoms sectors.
Over this time we have seen the good and the bad when it comes to how companies manage the recruitment process, so we wanted to share with you some of the key factors to consider when trying to attract and hire great people for your business. There is a lot to consider when hiring talent, but these are, in our opinion, the most important to consider;
Salary and package on offer
It’s important to advertise the role at the right level in terms of salary and package. If you want great talent you will need to pay for it and salary and package is an important factor for most candidates. We strongly suggest you do your research before you advertise the role. This could be through working with a recruitment agency, who will be able to guide you on what the right figure would be. Alternatively, you could check out our salary latest salary survey by following the link below...
Advertise the role
What we mean by this is sell the role, don’t just tell the candidate what they will be doing in the role… that’s what a job spec is for. Talk about your business and why it’s a great place to work and why the culture is great. Discuss the types of work you do, why your employees enjoy working for your business. What learning and development do you offer? How do you invest in your employees? Why the role has opened up? Is it due to growth? All of these things will help the candidate to build a picture about your business and get them excited about the prospect of working for you. It's a job advert, not a job spec!
Don’t delay
In a candidate short market, getting top talent onboard is really challenging. If you see what you like, go for it! Arrange the interview, give the process the time it deserves, give the feedback and make the offer. We wrote an article specifically on how speed is crucial when hiring talent. Follow the link below to read the full article...
Make sure the interview process is effective
The interview process is just as much about the candidate finding out more about you as it is you finding out about the candidate. It’s so important to make sure you ask the right questions so you can gather the right information about the candidate. Also, it’s really important you sell the opportunity to the candidate during the interview. The candidate could well be interviewing with other companies, so make sure the candidate leaves feeling excited about the opportunity and the prospect of joining your business.
It’s also worth considering who the right people are to take the interview. Sometimes the best person to interview a candidate is someone already working in the same or similar role. Current employees can give an accurate description of day-to-day experiences and help candidates better understand what they can expect if hired.
Soft skills are important too!
Soft skills are a combination of people skills, social skills and communication skills. Soft skills also takes into consideration character attitudes, social intelligence and emotional intelligence, which enables people to navigate their environment. Often these skills are hard to learn and are important, as these are the skills that will make or break if a person will fit well within your company culture and work well with existing employees within your team.
Obviously technical skills are crucial, but it’s important to consider the balance of your team and if the candidate you are looking to hire will compliment your culture, as culture is usually a big factor if a candidate works out or not.
Don’t sell the candidate short
Avoid the hassle and the haggle, if the candidate is right and fits the bill, make the offer and give the candidate what they want if they are worth it. Be honest and up front if you have salary structures and caps. Low ball and you lose!
Work with a partner… a recruitment agency!
You hear a lot about ‘value added’ and ‘true partnerships’. The demand and competition for top talent is fierce. Ask yourself these questions “are we working with the right recruiters?” and “Are we getting the best value from the relationship?” Re-evaluating this is key to your organisation being able to get the best from your recruitment partners. Reach out – great recruiters are market experts, agile and have some fantastic solutions and ideas to your recruitment challenges.
Remember that hiring the best talent is an ongoing process. Continuously evaluate and refine your hiring strategies to adapt to changing market conditions and evolving business needs. Building a reputation as an employer of choice will help you consistently attract and retain top talent.
Are you keen to find a recruitment agency that can support your recruitment?
We pride ourselves on our service and are always pushing boundaries to help improve this for our clients and candidates. We have relationships with thousands of great candidates across the construction, civil engineering, rail, power and telecoms sectors.
If you want to find out about our services in more detail and how we can help you and your business visit our client services page.
