Finding & Attracting the Right Candidate for the Job
The first few steps in attracting the right candidates for your job opening is to advertise a competitive but honest salary and a compelling job description in all the right places.
This blog post is the first in a series of three that will highlight tips and insights to help you attract, interview, hire, and onboard the right candidate for your job opening. This series starts by sharing ways to find and attract the right-fit hire.
Attracting the right candidates for a job means creating a clear, concise, and helpful job advertisement that accurately represents your organization and the position’s responsibilities. Conversely, attracting the right candidates means discouraging those who are not the right fit from applying.
Like a hummingbird is drawn to the sweet water in a feeder, so should candidates be drawn to your company and the role their applying for—if it's the right fit.
Let’s dig a little deeper into how offering a competitive salary & benefits, creating a clear job ad & posting it in all the right places, and highlighting your company's culture can help you find and attract the right people.
Offer a Competitive Salary & Benefits
Most employers approach salary from an internal perspective. What can the company afford to pay? How are current employees in similar roles within the company being paid?
Unfortunately, it’s not all about what you want to pay; it’s about what the market demands. Research what other industry employers are offering for closely related positions and be prepared to match it. A quick online search or a visit to salary.com will also provide a fairly accurate benchmark salary or hourly rate based on industry and geography.
You can’t claim to pay a competitive salary unless you’re truly competitive. With unemployment at a historic low, offering competitive benefits and compensation packages is a top way to attract your target candidates.
In this economy which gives job seekers the upper hand - pay rate isn’t always about what your industry typically pays. You also have to look at OTHER industries who are attempting to hire similar types of people. For example if you are looking for an entry level associate for a manufacturing job - you also need to know what construction companies, distribution centers, retail stores and other industries are willing to offer entry level candidates in terms of pay and benefits.
Post Job Ads and Highlight Company Culture
There are two important pieces needed here: the internal job description and the external job ad. The internal document should offer clarity to the team and the new hire regarding role, accountability, and job specifics. The external job advertisement should function as a marketing piece—that which you post on job boards for all to find and read.
Regarding the job ad, if you’re not receiving resumes from qualified (or any) applicants, the content may need to be reworked or slightly tweaked. For many job seekers, if the ad isn't helpful, clear, or appealing, it’s not worth considering.
A well-written job posting can be an invaluable tool in attracting an employee that is a good fit for the position. Ask yourself these four questions before writing your next job ad—and be sure to review these few tips.
Structurally speaking, format the ad using headers, bullet points, and white space. Also, make use of font options like bold and italicize to draw attention to keywords.
Stick to one font family. Using more than one can look sloppy and unprofessional.
Include the job title at the top and make it stand out.
Share your company’s mission and core values.
Highlight aspects of your organization's culture that make it appealing.
Help candidates for the job visualize a typical day at work by breaking down responsibilities into short, clear job duties.
Describe the position accurately and clearly.
Makes sure that the job requirements listed are reasonable.
Include clear directions on how to apply for the job and what other items are required (e.g., a CV, resume, work samples, or references).
Have another person read the ad before you post it. What’s clear to you may be unclear to another.
Before reaching out to the world, first determine if there is anyone already on your team that may want to step into the newly opened role. Generally speaking, it’s good to hire from within, but if no one is a good candidate, then it’s time to look outside of your four walls.
In today’s job market, it’s not enough to post your job listing in the usual places, sit back, and wait for dozens of incredible applications to roll in. You have to be proactive and aggressive if you want to attract great candidates for the job.
Find out where your target audience hangs out (Monster or Indeed? Facebook or LinkedIn?) and then wow them with a helpful job ad, competitive pay and benefits, and a transparent look into the company's culture.
As algorithms and business models change, you’ll need to stay up-to-date with how recruitment platforms are functioning and displaying job listings. In most cases, you will need to pay to reach the candidates you really want.
While your local newspaper may have a free classified section and trade publications are targeted, you’ll likely get better results by posting your job openings online and spreading the news by word of mouth.
Here are some tips that we recommend when advertising job openings.
Post on job search engines. Post on large job boards such as Monster.com and Indeed.com, but also consider posting your job description to niche boards and search engines that specialize in your industry.
Utilize social media. LinkedIn, the leading online business networking tool, is ideal for advertising job openings. And now Facebook has a job listings option for business pages—and it’s proving to be effective. Know where your ideal candidates hang out. For instance, LinkedIn is great for professional positions, but you won’t engage with many skilled laborers there.
Talk to colleagues. A personal referral can help you cut through much of the upfront vetting and screening necessary with unknown applicants. Spread the word to people you trust. You may have experienced this personally, but consider this a reminder: many times people who come recommended are well worth an interview.
Want more hiring advice?
There’s a lot to consider when mapping out all the steps of the recruitment process. It includes developing strategies to attract employees that will be a good fit for the role and company culture, creating clear job descriptions and compelling job advertisements, and determining which platforms to post listings on so that you reach your target audience. The recruitment process also includes interviewing and making decisions. But it doesn’t stop there, onboarding is also an important part.