Recruiting top talent is difficult. In fact, the talent war is over – talent won! You need to form lifetime relationships with all the candidates you represent. Candidates want to know three things:
- Do you care about me?
- Can I trust you?
- Will you do what you promise?
Initially you are a stranger. Someone they don’t know or trust so their answers are guarded. Attracting the best talent and building trust requires that you share your track record of success early in your conversation and then ask questions to uncover their challenges in talent acquisition. Your ultimate goal is to become their lifetime career agent.
In addition, candidates must feel that you are:
- A niche recruiting expert in their industry/profession
- More knowledgeable than your competition
- Successful and can prove it by your track record
- Able to provide information that will help them succeed
7 strategies for attracting talent
Knowing how to recruit top talent can be easy by integrating these seven strategies into your routine.
1. Understand your best business – pipeline in advance
Study the business that has been filled in the past two years. Select the top six titles and pipeline candidates in advance.
2. Ask better questions – focused on WIIFM (what’s in it for me)
Take your direction from your candidates. Don’t assume what they have done and are doing is what they want to do in their next job. Use percentages when interviewing. Ask questions that uncover the five things the candidate would change if they were their boss.
Most importantly, start every subsequent conversation with the same question,
“Has anything changed since the last time we talked?”
3. Overcome objections in recruitment
Objections are buying signs. If you don’t overcome three objections with each call, you are making customer service calls. Thus, overcoming objections in recruitment takes you a step closer to making a placement.
4. Position yourself as a lifetime career advisor – nurture
This is critical in the contract staffing business. You want your candidates to continue using your services to find their next job or gig. Often they just decide who they want to make money for during their next job change. Always nurture your candidates (date – never get married).
5. Identify new resources quarterly
Consistently identify new resources for attracting the best talent. Ask your candidates what resources they use when they are in a job search and often they will provide you with very effective free resources. Your clients do not want the same candidates they are surfacing by using job posting boards.
6. Uncover leads in your recruiting database during the job candidate search
You are sitting on a gold mine called your recruiting database. If you are working only off a resume, you are greatly reducing the number of leads you can obtain from every candidate you interview. Knowing how to recruit the best talent often starts with resources that you already have access to, but aren’t using effectively.
- Go back to January 1, 2016 and identify your best talent. Call their past two places of employment and ask for them. Who are you connected to?
- Often you place at different levels and the individuals listed as supervisors can often be recruited
- Reference checks are potential candidates
- Send your database a bi-monthly article and sampling of jobs – lateral marketing
7. Triple referred candidates
If you have been a recruiter for over two years, 50% of your candidates should be the result of referrals. If that is not the case, you need to do the following:
- Create a process of when and how to ask for candidate referrals.
- Assure candidates they are not referring their competition.
- Add the words, “From Your Last Place Of Employment.”
Implement any of these seven strategies and you will be well on your way to attracting candidates of the highest caliber.
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Barb Bruno, CPC/CTS is a guest writer for the Top Echelon Recruiting Training Blog. You can hire her for your next conference or event or for in-house training. Barb’s training techniques have guided thousands to a higher level of sales and profits. She is best known for her methodical, easy-to-implement strategies that she shares with her audiences. Her enthusiasm is contagious! If you would like to hire Barb, please call 219.663.9609, email support@staffingandrecruiting.com, or visit Good as Gold Training online.