A brand is only as good as its employees. Without dedicated, smart, creative, caring, hardworking, and talented people behind them, even great ideas, intentions, products, and services can’t sustain a business or other enterprise in the long run.
That’s why attracting the best employees to your company or nonprofit is such an important goal. Your reputation, quality, consistency, customer service, ability to spread your message, sales, growth, and success depend on it.
Sometimes, it might seem like the steps for attracting the best employees represent unnecessary costs. But really, they’re an investment—and a smart one, at that. Directing more money and resources to building a brand employees can be proud of and that helps provide them with the life they want contributes to your success, as well as your employee recruiting and retention.
Everyone looks for something a little different in a job, and few people get everything they want from any single position. But if you can offer a mix of perks that most people covet, you have a compelling case for why leading applicants should want to work for you.
Here are some of the most common, effective, and reliable ways to win over the most valuable employees:
How to Recruit Top Talent for Your Brand
- Pay a competitive salary. Compensation isn’t everything when it comes to attracting the best employees, but it’s definitely important. If you don’t pay as much as or more than your competitors, the most promising candidates will be drawn to them first.
- Provide great benefits. Salary isn’t everything. An enticing benefits package makes your job more appealing, and can even make up for a lower salary than leading candidates are hoping for, or for a slightly lower salary than a competitor offers. Health insurance, a retirement account, and paid vacation are common benefits, but don’t overlook things like unlimited PTO, work-from-home days, free food and drinks in the office, a pool table in the break room, and other perks that sell you as a desirable brand to work for.
- Stress work-life balance. Today’s top employees—especially the younger ones—prioritize the ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance (and you should too as a business owner). Respect employees’ time outside of work hours, make it easy for them to take time off when they need it, and encourage them to enjoy themselves. This won’t just help win them over in the beginning; it also helps retain them and keep them performing to the best of their abilities for the long haul.
- Emphasize company culture. The best employees want to work for a brand that has personality and values as part of a genuine company culture. Show it off on social media, let it flourish in the workplace, and make it part of your mission or vision statement. Corporate or social responsibility is a part of this, too; support your community or important causes in ways that make your employees proud to work for you.
- Offer professional development opportunities. Invest in your employees, and they’ll continue to grow and become more valuable to you. And if there’s one trait that’s shared by all the best employees across all the fields and industries, it’s that they’re hungry to learn new things. There are plenty of ways to provide professional development opportunities for your employees, so anyone can find options that work for them and their staff.
- Make room for advancement. Along with the desire to learn new information and skills, talented people want the job to grow as they do. They crave more challenges, responsibilities, experiences—and yes, often more money. They don’t want a “dead-end” job. Create opportunities for your best employees to move upward, take on a more significant role, and ideally earn more as they prove their worth.
- Reward high performance. Your top talent can’t get raises and promotions all the time. But they appreciate having their good work and value recognized. Plus, they like to work at a place where they know their contributions to the greater good will also benefit them personally. “Employee of the Month” plaques are a little cliche, but there are lots of other options. Bonuses and other employee incentives are a common way to encourage and reward performance, and knowing you offer them will make it easier attracting the best employees. As for retaining them, verbal acknowledgement and occasional thank you gifts go a long way.
