How to attract employees to your business? Recruiting a senior member of staff is like buying a house or going on that all important first date. You know instantly if it’s right. Instinct and an unconscious thought process lead your decision.
So when recruiting, you need to ensure all the boxes are ticked to find that successful candidate. Critical factors include the message to the market, your perception in the market and how you go about engaging with it.
Strong representation
Contrary to some cynics no single website or social network is going to sell your company for you. You need a strong representative who can get the right message to the right people. They need to be on your side, trustworthy and able to embrace your company values and brand. This way you regain control of how your business is being marketed within the senior community, and you can work closely with an executive search consultant to ensure the right message is being portrayed.
Executive search
Working with an executive search firm also speaks volumes to the market. It proves how serious you are about the new hire, new venture or new market and often senior people will want to work with someone they trust and have a relationship rather than directly with the company itself. A search firm gets the best access to the best people and all their peers. They also ensure more honest feedback can be relayed – plus the rejection and offer process is much more easily managed.
Sell the opportunity
It’s up to a business to sell the opportunity available to the candidate. They sell their company in the press, at events, through marketing initiatives but all too often hiring managers forget to sell to the candidate sitting in front of them. It’s far easier to make a decision on who is the right candidate if they come out with a positive experience and are interested in pursuing. After all, if a candidate is already sold on the business, then it’s obvious they’re in a stronger position to qualify deeply and be asked difficult questions at interview two when the front runners are being whittled down.
Senior personnel
Having a senior person in front of you to interview is a fantastic learning opportunity for everyone. Everything from emotional intelligence to market intelligence is covered. And if the feeling is not right straight away you can use the opportunity to delve further and enrich the experience for everyone and come away with a deeper understanding in a range of areas. Experience is vital. If interviewing is something you are doing more frequently courses such as NLP and Emotional Intelligence are a fantastic way to understand human behaviour and stay attune to your experience and the other party.
Engage and inspire
Not only do you have to sell the business, but you also have to engage and inspire them throughout the process and keep the momentum going from one stage to the next. Offer detailed feedback, give them follow-up work after each meeting and ask thought provoking questions. The candidate is there to learn too, after all.
I always get my candidates to think outside the box and come up with interesting bespoke questions for use during interviews. Believe me, it’s greatly appreciated when the same compliment is returned. My final point is on making a decision of which executive search firm to use.
Subscribe for entrepreneurial & small business advice
Subscribe to our newsletter for advice and insights on starting, managing and growing a small business in the UK.
Trust is the key, but a boutique search firm that specialises in a particular market sector is always going to offer you the best service. They offer a far more cost-effective way of employing talent, and they don’t have the same overheads as the large firms. You are always guaranteed that all important personal service from a smaller company and that will always prove invaluable.
