Five ways in which organisations can increase their chances of attracting and recruiting candidates

Finding the right approach to attracting and recruiting candidates will increase your chances of filling key positions and gaps in your workforce.

It has become more problematic over the past few years to recruit new employees across all levels. The UK has been experiencing a shortage of talent and skills in the labour market, as well as feeling the effects of a reduction in workers due to Brexit and the pandemic, meaning attracting and recruiting candidates is becoming increasingly difficult.

The challenges in finding low-skilled workers to take up roles in industries such as hospitality and agriculture have been well publicised, however this is also affecting the recruitment of high-level roles, skilled candidates and professionals, where employers are finding it hard to fill more senior positions.

As a result, employers now need to adopt a different, more open approach to recruitment and finding the right people to fill the gaps in their workforce. We’ve suggested five ways in which organisations can increase their chances of attracting candidates with the skills and talent they need.

Broaden your horizons

Change and broaden your outreach efforts and the channels you use to attract people. Internal advertisements, online networking social media channels such as LinkedIn (see our related article), recruitment agencies and search consultants, plus of course your own organisation’s website are all highly effective for publicising available positions. Other methods to consider include:

  • Apprenticeships
  • Links with schools and education establishments
  • Specialist/trade publications
  • Local and national press
  • Commercial/industry-specific job boards
  • Job fairs and online events
  • Collaborations and partnerships with other organisations
  • Word of mouth

Engage and interact

Be sure to engage with potential candidates throughout the recruitment process and get rid of any obstacles that might hold people back from applying. Consider how using technology can improve candidate selection process, such as developing online tests and assessments and utilising tracking systems for applicants. This could speed up the selection process and compliment the human interaction aspect, without intending to replace it.

Be inclusive

Employing inclusive recruitment methods can make a huge difference. Research undertaken by the CIPD in 2022 found that only 35% of organisations were actively recruiting talent across all age groups, while just 24% were advertising positions in different sources to increase the chances of a better response from under-represented groups. Think about how jobs can be designed, particularly for hard-to-fill roles. Advertising roles as open to flexible working is reported to be many organisations’ most effective method of attracting and recruiting candidates, according to the CIPD’s Resourcing and talent planning report 2022, with 69% of organisation advertising at least some jobs as open to flexible working.

Promote your brand

It is important to establish a strong and reputable image as an employer. The CIPD’s Resourcing and talent planning report 2022 found that 75% of organisations responding to the survey of over 1000 HR professionals reported their organisation has taken action to improve its employer brand over the last year. Actions taken include:

  • Increasing flexible working opportunities.
  • Improving pay and benefits to make the organisation more competitive.
  • Revamping and promoting organisational values.
  • Making improvements to their workplace environment.
  • Offering development, coaching and career opportunities
  • Promoting reward and recognition schemes and initiatives

Be transparent

Be transparent regarding salary and benefits, as more organisations are now offering improved pay and benefits to address cost of living rises as well as providing flexible working arrangements. Make sure you shout from the rooftops about what you can offer potential candidates and don’t be afraid to share the details when advertising positions. Consider pay transparency when advertising roles, whilst being realistic in your approach to listing benefits, and make sure you include pension schemes and other core benefits in the details.

  • How INSPIRING can help

  • Get in touch

    Call us on 0800 612 3098 or email info@inspiring.uk.com.

  • Why people choose to leave your business

    Understanding why people leave your business and having the strategies in place to deal with issues effectively is crucial if you want to retain your best employees. We're looking at the most common reasons why people choose to move on and how you can ensure your organisation is a place where people can see themselves working long term.

    The culture within your organisation impacts on the happiness and satisfaction of your employees. It also strengthens, or weakens, employee retention and affects how your business attracts new talent. We’ve given three factors that have a huge impact on employee retention rates and suggested how practices in these areas can be improved.

    LACK OF MANAGER SUPPORT

    Unsupportive managers are a key reason for people leaving. It’s a common saying that people leave their manager, not their job.

    The skills and behaviours required for leaders and managers are different. An inspiring leader has a clear and compelling vision for the organisation, engaging their team and encouraging increased productivity. An Inspiring Manager will be able to set objectives and communicate effectively to their team, helping them to work together and achieve their goals.

    John Telfer, Managing Director of Inspiring says “Many businesses experience the problem of Accidental Managers: people who are promoted to management positions due to their technical skills, but who don’t have the people skills to manage a team effectively.”

    Honesty and openness from managers is key to effective people management. Managers should communicate with their teams regularly regarding action plans and progress against them; operational activities and milestones. Make sure all managers are arranging regular, documented team meetings or one to ones to ensure that everyone is being given the opportunity to give and receive feedback or express any concerns.

    NOT FEELING VALUED

    Employees will leave if they are disengaged and don’t feel appreciated. Reward and recognition isn’t always about money. Of course, everyone would like to get paid more for what they do, but other important factors for job satisfaction include opportunities to:

    • grow and learn new skills;
    • to progress their career;
    • to work on challenging and stimulating projects;
    • to feel that they are an important a part of the overall business; and
    • to be acknowledged and praised for their efforts.

    People can change the culture of an organisation by recognising each other’s contribution.  Employees who take the time to acknowledge and praise other employees for their good work will often find their praise is returned.  Why not ask for suggestions from your team for new ways to celebrate success?

    LIMITED CAREER PROSPECTS

    You will have a better chance of holding on to your employees if you have plans in place for talent management, succession planning and learning and development. Spotting employees with leadership potential and helping them to develop their skills and behaviours will reap big rewards for both the individual and your organisation. Have a look at our article ‘How to identify future leaders in your organisation’ for more about this.

    Taking the time to talk to people and find out the areas that they want and need to develop will not only assist you in planning effective training development programs, but also shows that you value your people by making an effort to create the best learning environment for them.

    It may be that opportunities are limited for climbing the promotional ladder, in which case you could implement a mentoring programme to help retain your best people and demonstrate that your organisation is investing in their career.

     

    Team up with INSPIRING…

    The best way to find out why people choose to leave your organisation is to ask them! Conducting Exit Surveys will help you understand why employees leave, enabling you to identify any problem areas. INSPIRING’s bespoke exit surveys, with reports tailored to your business, will help you to understand and reduce staff turnover.

    Why Linkedin is now the best place for recruitment

    The recruitment world is changing. We are connected like never before, with online platforms able to bring us instant recruitment posts as soon as a job goes live - with professional networks, groups and connections all communicating across various social media platforms. LinkedIn is increasing in popularity as both a job posting and referral site.

    Posting a vacancy on a job board can be a complicated business. Big traffic recruitment sites get a high volume of applicants, but these applicants are not always of suitable experience, training, or qualifications. When you need to fill a specialised role, you also look to recommendations from businesses that you work with. A candidate that comes recommended can hugely simplify your process of employment. Particularly if you work in a specialised industry, finding a candidate as unique as your job requirements may involve specialist help.

    That’s why your employee recruitment strategy should focus on LinkedIn. This is not to say that you should remove job boards from your recruitment strategy; finding new talent is one of the best ways to grow your business. LinkedIn offers the ability to easily find other professionals in your field. Here are our favourite ways for taking advantage of what LinkedIn has to offer:

    • Build a constructive network for your company online and you will find that recruiting a suitable candidate becomes far easier, as your job posts are seen and engaged with.
    • Stay in touch (and on good terms) with anyone who has worked for you or with you in the past. They will have other contacts in the industry, so even if they don’t work with you again, they may know someone who would be perfect for your role.
    • Actively use LinkedIn. Respond to other company or individual queries and raise your profile.
    • Make use of groups dedicated to your industry. Primarily these will be discussion based, but it will again raise your profile.
    • Use InMail. You can send requests to contacts and acquaintances for recommendations for your role.
    • Actual job listings. LinkedIn offers paid job boards for employers, where job seekers can search for free.  Encourage your network to share this listing. It will also be boosted to any LinkedIn members who are registered as seeking employment in that field.
    • Target both active and passive candidates. You can contact those who are seeking employment, but LinkedIn also works for headhunters. Advanced searches can help you identify potential candidates who you can InMail.

    LinkedIn is ideal for building strategic relationships. As with networking, LinkedIn allows you to introduce yourself to other business professionals in your field and discover new candidates who may previously have inaccessible, or unavailable for work. It also builds your profile within the community, meaning when you do reach out to a potential candidate they are more likely to recognise and reciprocate interest.

    Team up with INSPIRING

    Click on the links below to follow INSPIRING on LinkedIn and our other social media channels:

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    Reward and recognition of employees without breaking your budget

    Rewarding staff is a great way of motivating them and maintaining employee satisfaction. But how can you do so without spending money? We understand that as a business you can’t throw bonuses their way every time you want to say ‘well done’ or ‘thanks for the good work’. We’ve created this article to share some top tips for showing your employees appreciation for a job well done without putting pressure on already stretched budgets.

    Keep hold of your talent

    Employee satisfaction is absolutely vital in any workplace, but that doesn’t mean salary reviews and end of year bonuses have to be the ‘be all and end all’. To motivate and retain talented employees for the year ahead, employers need to develop more innovative recognition and reward strategies that don’t rely on money alone. Doing so will protect against misalignment between company goals and individual activities and keep everyone on track. You will maintain and improve employee happiness without damaging the company’s budget.

    Honesty is the best policy

    Speculation and gossip surrounding pay increases and bonuses can be dangerous. It’s impossible to eliminate this completely but you can make sure that you’re delivering a consistent and honest message about opportunities for financial reward in the coming months and years. Employee wellness is important, so it’s important they know how things like pay increases work because, if for example, an employee had false information, and was hoping for a bonus/increase in the nearby future it could lead to constant disappointment and the employee might start doubting their work and lose motivation and interest. That’s why it’s important you provide accurate information. This will give your employees a sense of control over their futures and help to create an open, honest workplace.

    Offer opportunities

    A good way to recognise high performance is to offer opportunities to broaden your employees’ experience. For example, ask them to lead an internal knowledge sharing session or offer a day’s job shadowing. This could lead to creating a new role for them in another area of the business. Engaging with the aspirations of your employees and creating personal development plans that help them realise their ambitions is crucial to retaining talent.

    Regular feedback

    Taking the time to evaluate your communication and feedback processes sends a strong message that you care about employees’ development and that good work will be recognised. Without structured feedback employees can feel like the quality of their work, good or bad, goes unnoticed. Staff surveys and focus groups are a good way of achieving this.

    Say ‘thanks’!

    It’s common knowledge that  a lack of recognition from management is one of the most demotivating factors for employees. Taking the time to highlight good work will boost employees’ job satisfaction and put any constructive criticism in context. Drawing attention to achievements across teams can be a powerful motivation to other team members.

    Why people are leaving your organisation (and what you can do about it)

    Understanding why people leave your business and having the strategies in place to deal with issues effectively is crucial if you want to retain your best employees.

    If people are leaving your business, it will usually be for one or more of the following reasons:

    Lack of manager support…

    Unsupportive managers are a key reason for people leaving. It’s a common saying that people leave their manager, not their job.
    The skills and behaviours required for leaders and managers are different. An Inspiring Leader has a clear and compelling vision for the organisation. They can engage their team and encourage increased productivity. An Inspiring Manager will be able to set objectives and communicate effectively to their team, helping your employees to pull together and achieve your business goals.
    INSPIRING can help you diagnose problem areas and provide tailored development through our Inspiring Leadership programmes.

    Not such a great place to work…

    Culture, physical working environment and operating policies all factor highly in ensuring a healthy, engaged and productive workforce.
    The culture within your organisation impacts the happiness and satisfaction of your employees. It also strengthens, or weakens, employee retention and affects how your business attracts new talent. Conducting a culture survey will pinpoint what’s needed to create and maintain a positive culture: i.e. valuing, recognising and supporting individuals contribution to the company, both from the perspective of the employer and employee.
    You could also look into having a wellbeing survey , which measures the physical, emotional and social wellbeing of your employees, as well as identifying areas where you can improve wellbeing within the workplace.

    Career progression…

    You will have a better chance of holding on to your employees if you have plans in place for talent management, succession planning and learning and development.
    Spotting employees with leadership potential and helping them to develop their skills and behaviours will reap big rewards for both the individual and your organisation. Have a look at our recent article ‘How to identify future leaders in your organisation’ for more about this.
    As well as offering learning and development solutions, INSPIRING can help with design and implementation of a tailored performance management system to ensure that your team is set relevant KPIs / objectives that not only reflect your business needs, but also correlate to their personal development.

    Not feeling valued…

    Employees will leave if they are disengaged and don’t feel appreciated. Reward and recognition isn’t always about money. Everyone would like to get paid more for what they do, but other important factors for job satisfaction include opportunities to:
    • grow and learn new skills;
    • to progress their career;
    • to work on challenging and stimulating projects;
    • to be acknowledged and praised for their efforts; and
    • to feel that they are an important a part of the overall business.

    Working with BSI’s new people management Standard (BS 76000) will ensure your people practices are clearly defined and consistent. As a result, your employees will be more engaged, paving the way for improvement in both individual and business performance.
    INSPIRING can support you throughout every stage, from your first look at the Standard through to initial audit and beyond. Achieving certification against BS 76000 will help your staff to understand their impact on the overall business and demonstrate that you truly value your people.

    The best way to find out why your people are leaving is to ask them!

    Conducting Exit Surveys will help you understand why employees leave, enabling you to identify any problem areas. INSPIRING’s bespoke exit surveys, with reports tailored to your business, will help you to understand and reduce staff turnover.