3 tips to attract the best talent

Hiring talent in Hong Kong these days is not easy. Increased competition from employers in Mainland China, new candidate expectations and low unemployment are but a few of the factors contributing to this tough recruitment market.

The truth of the matter is that good candidates are not desperate. In fact, many are already employed, and not actively looking for a job. If they are, they’re pickier, and have a choice of companies to work for.

The real issue is that many employers do not have a strategy in place to attract these individuals and get them to apply.

Attracting talent is all about sales and marketing
If a company’s sales were decreasing because of a competitive environment, what steps would it take? A successful one would move with the times, differentiate its offering, and focus on delivering a superior customer experience.

Employers should do the same thing. When I meet CEOs in the region and ask them why their organisation is a good employer, they are very convincing: great benefits, fantastic working culture, growth opportunities and happy employees. So why are they struggling to attract talent?

Unfortunately, most candidates never get a chance to talk to the CEO or the employees. Instead, they go on the web looking for this type of information. If they don’t find it, most top candidates just don’t apply. It’s a fact.

Engaging with talent online
Today, most candidate touch points are on the web. Social media sites like Linkedin and Facebook have gained a lot of popularity amongst recruiters and candidates and this trend will continue to grow.

However, a recent study we conducted amongst our clients found that a well-designed company career website with compelling content is still by far the best online recruitment tool an organisation can have. Of course, these client career sites did not consist of a boring page with a list of vacancies: they were attractive, convincing and candidate-centric websites. In short, they were designed to spark interest in the right types of individuals.

The key is for employers to put themselves in the shoes of top candidates in order to present them with the right content. A graduate wants to know about graduate programs, a specialised engineer could be drawn by specific on-the-job training and a professional who has a family will take a keen interest in the medical package on offer.

Potential applicants want to get a glimpse of a company’s personality and its people, to help them decide whether or not they want to work there. Displaying benefits, employee testimonials, a corporate blog, growth opportunities and other relevant content helps convince the right individuals to press the Apply button.

The importance of the applicant experience
A lot can happen after someone clicks on that Apply button, and much thought and expertise goes into designing the perfect online applicant experience. For now, here are some simple tips:

• Do you have recruitment@company.com or an “upload your CV” box on your careers page? Get rid of them. It’s the best way to attract a lot of unqualified applicants and turn off good ones. It is also a nightmare for your HR department to go through.
• “If you don’t hear from us in two weeks, assume you haven’t been selected”: don’t write this, it leaves candidates with a poor impression.
• Instead, reply to all your applicants; with the right tools, this is easy to do quickly.

If recruiting was just about hiring people, companies would advertise jobs, get loads of average applicants and hire them. The difficulty lies in hiring the best ones, who will make positive contributions to the business. In order to do that, organisations need to adopt a smart approach to create a connection with them. It makes perfect sense, the question is, why aren’t more employers doing it?