Alyson Pellowe offers advice on how to ensure the best talent wants to work for you – and not your competitors.

Attracting great talent can be a difficult task at the moment. Because of the well-documented skills shortage, the best candidates can afford to be selective. Many employers find that the employee is in the driving seat, which means that the onus is on companies to take the initiative.

In order to guarantee a pipeline of excellent candidates, the HR department, working with the management team, need to ensure that the employer brand is well positioned. Ask yourself: Are fantastic candidates actively looking to join your company?

Organisations which naturally attract good candidates tend to have a strong, respected brand both internally and externally. So how do you ensure your company is an ’employer of choice’ – with the best talent knocking on your door, rather than your competitors?

Firstly, start from within. There are no better champions of your company than your existing team. Implementing good reward packages, creating tailored learning and development solutions and secondment opportunities are great places to start. These initiatives will help create a desirable working environment – which will be appreciated at all levels of the business.

It will also have huge implications when your people are networking, or simply catching up with friends in the industry. They will automatically promote the company and convey a positive message. Why not try ‘finder’s fees’ – when a member of staff finds a suitable candidate for a vacancy they can be financially rewarded. This can be incredibly fruitful in a competitive market, plus it can be cheaper than a recruitment agency.

Standing out from the crowd

However, not all of your applicants will come through word of mouth. If they do not have a personal connection to a particular company, candidates often have a scatter gun approach to finding a new role. They may have 10 or more businesses that they want to approach, so you need to make sure you stand out from the crowd.

A job advert in an industry publication, or national newspaper, can be a great chance to promote both the vacancy and the company: but think about where you are advertising your positions. There will be websites and publications that will not necessarily compliment your brand and could be a turn off for a potential candidate – so choose where to advertise wisely.

As well as targeting your advertising, you should look at the content as another opportunity to market your brand. A job advert that really sells a company can be incredibly successful. By communicating positive points about the company – such as the fact that you are an Investor in People or an industry award winner – you can really excite a potential applicant, even if they aren’t actively looking for a new role.

Once you are getting good candidates through the door, you should seize the opportunity to sell the business again – it’s a two-way street when competition is tough. Make sure the interview is conducted by a confident and proficient interviewer who is able to ask lots of open questions and allow the candidate to speak. A bad interviewer can ruin it for the company and put off an invaluable prospective employee.

The key to attracting great talent is to be attractive. Companies like Innocent Drinks or Virgin Radio were named in The Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For’ 2007 because they actively adapted their business to become an employer of choice.

By concentrating on your most valuable asset, namely your staff, you are giving yourself the best possible base from which to provide a first-rate service to your clients.

Alyson Pellowe is founder and managing director of People Vision Ltd, a leading provider of cross-industry HR management and development expertise. Please call 0870 241 6383 or email info@pvhr.com for more information.