Attracting high profile employees to join your company is a mystery that very few business owners solve. Part of the problem is a belief that people will be drawn to success as the business makes a name for itself. But how can a business succeed if you’re not working with the very best from day one?
The truth is that attracting the top talent is a process that starts long before you even open your doors for business. Here’s how you should go about it.
Have a talent strategy
Every modern business owner has a business plan or strategy to get them through the initial 12, 18, and 24 months of their existence, but this is rarely coupled by a talent strategy.
If you are starting a business, the first thing you need to do is think about the kind of people you want to work with. Maybe you have worked with a person who has really set the bar in your field. Or you would like to snap up tech graduates to make sure you appeal to the millennial consumers who are quickly becoming business owners.
Before you open your doors, you need to establish a team structure and try to bring in people you want to work with. You’ll also need to think about talent acquisition and retention campaigns to get great people – you won’t find them by accident, especially in a competitive market.
Market yourselves
A lot of great businesses and initiatives fail because even though they might be doing great work, nobody knows or cares about it.
As a business owner, you are probably fully invested in what you do, but that sometimes means you lose sight of the bigger picture. You need to try and think about the way the target market, or the average person in the street, perceives you.
The only way to affect this perception is to ensure that you balance awareness and bragging. Nobody will be interested in a business that shouts about how great it is, but again, in such a saturated market you do need to make a noise about yourself to get noticed.
Consider a social media marketing campaign – LinkedIn is a good place to start – that generates awareness that you’re out there. If your media and targeting is well structured, high-level talent in your industry will take notice.
Market yourself like you market your product or service, and the right people will start talking.
Believe in your purpose
It doesn’t matter whether you own a franchise or a niche store, talented people are attracted to passion and purpose.
If you believe wholeheartedly in what you do, and get excited just talking about it, then people will gravitate towards you and want to join you on your business journey. If you don’t believe it’s worthwhile, then, why should they?
Become visible
The best intentions and marketing campaigns are meaningless if you don’t have a presence on the platforms where prospective talent spends their time.
Naturally, you will need to form a company with yourcompanyformations.co.uk. Once you’ve got your name and all the legal elements of starting the business sorted, create the required digital ecosystem.
In most cases, this starts with a central website that’s supported by various social channels. You need to be tactical here: if you don’t have great content for Instagram, don’t be there.
Once you’ve created your properties, drive and optimize traffic through SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Run this in conjunction with your awareness and recruitment campaign and you will have made a good start.
It’s up to you
It is worth noting that even if you follow the above steps, great people aren’t attracted to mediocre business.
You need to deliver on your promises and run a successful business that promises growth on an individual and corporate level.
Once you have made that start, you need to sustain it to prove that you’re not just a flash in the pan, and then you need to grow: aggressively.
It is normally during this phase of your business development that the heavy hitters come knocking, but don’t forget about the people who got you to where you are, because they are probably the high-profile people that you’ve been trying to attract since day one.
