Candidate attraction

Your recruitment process takes many stages and can be time-consuming, but it’s important to get each step right. Otherwise you may end up with the wrong individual for the role.

Attracting candidates isn’t a straightforward process. Your hiring strategy begins with the search for relevant talent, but ensuring the process runs smoothly is complex.

In this guide, we explain how to make your efforts deliver results.  

What is candidate attraction?

It’s the tools and techniques you use to attract talent to a role you’re recruiting for. By selecting the right channels, you can generate interest from relevant professionals.

When attracting candidates, recruitment should align with your workforce plans so you can work out your measures for success.

This will then help you to choose the right channels to reach relevant potential employees. So, it’s important to use the right techniques to complete your goals.

Your branding is important in the process. It helps you to market yourself well to the talent pool, who can self-select from your roles with a clear understanding of that you require.

The methods of attracting candidates

With a large amount of competitors out there, remote working opportunities, and international destinations to choose from, your business needs to stand out.

But what attracts a candidate to a company? Consider the following possibilities:

• Offer a competitive wage: You can use salary benchmarking to determine what to pay an employee, but you can consider going above the normal industry rate to ensure you attract talented individuals.
• Showcase your business’ perks: There are many extras you can throw into a weekly routine to make working life more enjoyable. It could be pets in the workplace, free fruit, board games, or a video game console. Remember, employee perks can be affordable for even small businesses.
• Improve work-life balance opportunities: This may include flexible start times, remote working, and an employee assistance programme to support the wellbeing of your staff.
• Build your company culture: If you have happy employees, this will be evident to candidates outside of your business. A positive working atmosphere is obvious from the likes of Glassdoor reviews, so look to create a welcoming and open culture for staff to benefit in the long-term.
• Offer professional development: If there are career opportunities and the chance to advance with your organisation, it sends out a good message to candidates. It lets them know there’s room for progression and a long-term career.
• Internal promotions: As with professional development, make it clear you’re happy to promote staff members rather than bring in new talent to fill top roles. Again, this provides employees with something to aim for.

Candidate attraction strategies

There are steps you can take to create a plan of action. Consider the following to help you:

• Identify your target market and the ideal candidate. This will narrow down who you’re looking for and make it easier for the right applicants to get in touch.
• Make sure you craft your job descriptions correctly, highlighting specific USPs to gain the attention of the applicants you want.
• Check out your competitors. If they’re claiming the best candidates over you, see what they’re offering that you don’t. Then adapt your business to be a more attractive destination for talent.
• Get proactive—don’t wait for potential employees to get in touch, look around online to discover new talent.

Attracting the best candidates involves making sure your business looks progressive, transparent, and open.

You can use new and inspiring techniques, such as by reaching out to impressive candidates on social media platforms.

Professional networks are an excellent place to aim for. For example, it’s common for businesses to wonder how to attract candidates on LinkedIn. This involves searching individually for professionals with a relevant skillset.

You can then reach out to them with a message to ask them about their availability.

It’s a good way of attracting diverse candidates, too. During your search you may find talent abroad and reach out for them to consider your business.

Need our help?

To perfect your hiring strategy contact us for guidance on the best techniques to use: 0800 051 3630.