There are many reasons why a company benefits from a new hire who is the perfect fit. Top talent will help your company increase profitability, be happy and engaged as employees, mentor other employees to succeed, promote your brand to the local community and beyond, reduce turnover, and support the company mission.
But what about all the tasks HR must do to find and attract these “perfect” employees? Here are some tips we know to be true after watching HR managers recruit hires for over 20 years.
- Be clear about your company brand. Your company brand is much more than your logo, your website and your mission. An effective brand extends to include everything that distinguishes your company from its competition and the feeling you want your customers and employees to experience when they think of your company. Think of some of the most successful brands and the feeling that they evoke in their buyers: Nike = power and success, Apple = eloquent design and ease of use, Amazon = convenience and excellent customer service.
- Have clearly defined company values so the prospective hires can self select based on their own values. State these values clearly on your website, in job descriptions, and during interviews. An example of this might be someone who values preserving the environment who might prefer to work for a company who sells products made with environmentally safe ingredients. A person who values being social and having fun might prefer to work for a company whose employees are very social with each other in and out of the office.
- Interview your current top talent to find out what they like most about their job, the company culture and benefits. Use this important information in your recruitment sales and strategy.
- Make sure your chosen benefits align with the type of people you want to hire. For example, ETSY wanted to hire more women. To encourage more women applicants they developed “Hacker Grants” which is a program for women that provides talented women engineers with a 3 month program called Hacker School that teaches them new skills, taking them from a B level hire to an A level hire. At Patagonia, midday yoga is encouraged. A person who values volunteerism would greatly appreciate a paid week off to volunteer for a cause of their choice. Towers Watson research shows “organisations that use their EVP (employer value proposition) most effectively are five times more likely to report their employees are highly engaged and twice as likely to report achieving financial performance significantly above their peers when compared to companies that use their EVP less effectively.”
- Always be recruiting. Always be selling your company. Approach talent outside traditional recruiting channels. Examples of this can be doing local volunteer outreach to help your community as a way of networking. Offer referral incentives from current top talent, research for new hires on social medial based on the skills you are looking for and approach them to plant seeds about your company. Offer solid internship programs that can be used to get to know young talent. Ask friends to keep their eyes and ears open for you.
- Offer perks and be generous. Do not underestimate the value of offerings other than a high salary. For some, the physical office environment is a huge draw. King’s (the developer behind Candy Crush) Barcelona offices are sure to draw talent who appreciate beautiful environments in addition to all of the other perks that King offers. You can see their Barcelona office here and their Stockholm office here. At “AirBnB employees are allowed to take their pets to work and regularly go sailing.”. Other perks could include: fun events, paid sign up fee for races and sporting events, have someone pick up dry cleaning in the office, have someone bring in lunch, free food on a regular basis, and inspiring speaker visits .
- Have the reputation of treating your employees like you treat your best customers. Kindness, inclusion and being able to feel safe are all highly valued traits of a company that people want to be associated with. Kindness and support need to be shown throughout the entire employee journey from initial hire through exit interview. A way to promote this could be with a solid mentorship program that promotes each employee’s career goals and educational growth. For more information on the benefits of career mentoring refer to this article.
- Consider making a recruiting video that captures the personality of your office culture and the opportunities that employees receive when they work at your company.
- Finally, have a generous relocation plan so your new hire and their family will feel cared for and supported right from the start. Have this plan include an in-house mentor for additional cultural readiness support if it is needed, and a generous apartment/home allowance so they feel happy and safe in their home environment.
If you’re planning to bring foreign talent to Sweden, navigating an unfamiliar, and often confusing relocation process can cause stress and delays. Thankfully, Nimmersion’s Relocation Guide How to Help your Talent Move to Sweden is here to help with helpful resources to guide you through the whole process.
Final thoughts: What comes usually around goes around. We encourage you to foster and applaud kindness, generosity, trust and tolerance as something that is of utmost importance. If these traits are a part of your recruiting process and held in high esteem in your company culture, you will most likely attract employees with the same qualities which makes for a fantastic team.
Download our tips on how to great new employees.
