Acquiring and retaining high-quality talent is a key business concern. In many cases, survival depends on a business’s ability to acquire and retain the talent necessary for smooth function and transition. Of course, both tasks have become more complex in modern workplaces. Sourcing new workers is no longer a matter of simply circulating a contract-to-hire posting in a local newspaper.
Employee recognition is still valuable, but it’s not enough on its own merit. Instead, incentive plans and smoother onboarding seem to be playing more significant roles in successful hiring. Learn more about leveraging the two below.
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How Incentives and Onboarding Contribute to Better Hiring
Candidate behavior (and associated expectations) has shifted substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. From a greater focus on workplace safety to more FMLA leave, workers no longer attach as much importance to conventional workplace perks as they used to. Instead, the approach that seems to be working best these days is offering better incentives. This motivates more people to work for an employer and streamlining the onboarding process can make it easier for them to join a workforce.
Why is this necessary? The Great Resignation offers a very good answer to this particular question. With millions of Americans simply walking away from their jobs, it is obvious that the American workforce has changed its priorities. Most people are still willing to work, but only under the right compensation and benefits, and only for employers that offer the right experience.
Where these expectations are not met, workers are more than willing to quit or go elsewhere, which leads to the conclusion that businesses must consider more ways to bolster hiring; specifically, ways to make a role more attractive. Here are a few key tips:
Apportion More Resources to Hiring
The first thing businesses need to do to execute more successful hires is to direct more funds into hiring. This does not mean simply hiring more in-house recruiters. In fact, it may prove far more efficient to partner with experienced staffing agencies. Instead, the bulk of the funds should go towards improving the hiring process. Specifically, employers need to direct their energies to identify and remove obstacles that impair onboarding or hiring.
Many businesses make the mistake of assuming that an investment in HR capabilities is not an efficient use of funds. After all, HR functions don’t generate revenues.
However, they do play a huge role in acquiring the talent necessary to generate those revenues, and the deployment of funds can help these functions grow, thereby improving the capability to onboard candidates with more success. It also contributes to a much better candidate experience, setting a more positive tone for the employer-employee relationship.
Flesh Out Compensation and Benefits
Making it easier to join a workforce doesn’t attract candidates on its own; it just makes it less exhausting or less complicated to ease into a new role. To induce a candidate to apply in the first place, most employers will require additional incentives. A great employer brand, a healthy business outlook, and a great workplace were once very important incentives in this context.
But during the pandemic and remote working, employee needs, and priorities underwent a key shift. More than ever, employees attach more value to the compensation and monetary benefits associated with a role. Likewise, non-monetary benefits have become far less appealing.
To execute any talent acquisition strategy properly, businesses need to reshape their benefits and compensation structures, paying more attention to health insurance, bonuses, commissions, paid time-off, and access to physical and mental health professionals. Now more than ever, workers are prioritizing these needs over things like an annual company retreat or an aesthetically appealing workplace.
Streamline Recruitment Capabilities
While expanding recruitment capabilities, it may prove worth the effort to streamline them as well. This usually involves removing obstacles that make hiring and onboarding more complex. It also involves an equal focus on strengthening the processes to prevent bad hires.
For example, a stronger workplace investigation and due diligence process can help detect and remove candidates that overstate their abilities (or even lie about them). Partnering with specialized third-party recruiters can help businesses fill technical or specialized roles much faster and with greater efficiency. Removing redundant or obsolete aspects of a hiring policy can also enhance the rate of successful onboarding.
The specifics will differ from business to business, but the efficient methods will typically revolve around the goals of attracting new workers and making it easier to successfully onboard them. The intense competition over talent pools means businesses need to make these changes sooner than later or the best talent will end up with competitors who already understand the need for these changes and respond to them more quickly.
