Why Should Someone work for your Organisation?

Over the past couple of weeks I have had 2 thought-provoking conversations around attracting talent, one was with a Partner of a scaling Data Consultancy, and the other was the MD of an established manufacturing business.

Both conversations were centered around how they can attract and retain the best talent in the market for their businesses, it is no secret that finding strong candidates in the market is becoming increasingly difficult, there is an active war for talent in every sector and industry vertical now. The question from both was around how they can position themselves as the employer of choice in their respective areas and what we can do as a potential partner to distribute that message whilst augmenting what they do currently.

What was fun to walk through was the two completely different perspectives and angles at answering the same question. One was about creating a strategy and story for the business as they are a relatively unknown entity and the other was more about education within the market so people that we/they engage with are aware of what they do that is additional to what they are known for.

As an Executive Search business, we typically go out to map a market in order to identify and engage with “Passive Talent”. Passive talent being made up of prospective candidates who more often than not, are in a comfortable position and not considering a job move. We have to do this as our client base are continually looking to bring in the best candidates available, it is rarely about putting a bum in a seat, they are looking for progressive employees who can continue to innovate and drive performance internally.

These candidates will be approached “out of the blue”, our role is to make sure that we can position our clients businesses in the best possible way within the first couple of minutes, we have to create a compelling story on behalf of the clients. We do this by taking the time to immerse ourselves fully in the culture of our clients, to see what makes them unique and stand out from the crowd, in this market you need a USP because the power sits with the potential employees.

Our relationship-led way of recruitment allows us to know and understand our clients' businesses from the inside out, when we couple this with the market knowledge that we have here at Collingwood we can ensure that we will be able to position our clients in a favourable way. This is particularly important for all outreach but even more so if we are carrying out targeted headhunts from specific businesses/competitors.

What we evidenced with both these leaders was that in order to craft that proposition we need to understand who they are and what they do, they both need to allow us the time and space to do this so we can effectively act as an extension of their companies to entice the best talent into a conversation with them.

To kickstart this process we ask the same question, which is always “What makes your organisation stand out from your competitors?” Sometimes this will be followed by that awful, dreaded tumbleweed moment of dead air and silence. It is however sometimes the ‘lightbulb’ moment for some hiring managers and business owners when they are asked this, it will dawn on some people that they understand that they don’t have a clear Employer Value Proposition (EVP), an EVP is the secret sauce to attract talent and it is essential to a successful executive search partnership.

At the end of the day, why in this market would somebody risk changing their employer if they are content and don’t have a reason to be shopping around?

An attractive EVP can be made up of all or some of the following:

• Your Product or services are market-leading and can provide an excellent opportunity to any prospective employee.
• The chance to work with a fantastic leader that can empower employees to improve each day.
• Providing the opportunity to work within a business that has put Equity Diversion and Inclusion (ED&I) front and centre in their hiring strategy and culture.
• The opportunity for continued learning and development within the business, do you facilitate additional learning, courses and certification.
• Strong changes in career progression, putting emphasis on organic growth in the business and setting people up for success.
• The one “most” people pay the most attention to, is there a strong total rewards and benefits package, is it market leading and stronger than your competitors.
• Do you already have a strong brand and/or reputation to leverage.

Not all organisations have the luxury of an inhouse Talent Attraction and Branding Team or dedicated HR resources to create an EVP or brand, in those cases we need to get the answer to these questions directly from the Hiring Manager(s). For example

• Why would somebody join your team?
• What do you enjoy most about working for this organisation?
• Why did you move here? Or what has kept you here?
• What is your leadership style? Who are your Team Ambassadors?
• What is the onboarding and development going to look like for this individual?
• What does the career path look like for this new hire?
• Is there extra opportunity for personal development?

Whether it’s a team or organisation-wide EVP it needs to capture all the unique, compelling and relevant reasons that employees are proud and motivated to work for you. Executive search is not a ‘sticking plaster’, without those key selling points trying to recruit new talent runs the risk of smaller talent pools, less engagement, slower hiring times and generally access to less people.

In closing, knowing what you and your company do well is essential to attract top talent. If you can’t answer these questions, it is probably a sign that you need to start to communicate internally on what you can change to become a more attractive proposition or to start the change process to compete with others who are.

If you feel you could benefit from a consultation to discuss this topic then please do let me know, it is now more important than ever that you know how to position yourself and that you make sure your current search and selection partners are doing the best job for you in the market too.