Five best ways to find good employees

When it comes to employees, we want the best. Why settle for anything less than the A-Team? From improving quality of production and overtaking competition to building a robust workplace culture, the better the employee the better your business will fare. The average employee is productive for 60% of their workday so most organisations can’t afford to have anything less than first rate people.

So why is it so hard to find employees? What’s the best way to find good employees? The issue isn’t accessibility, with digital innovations more prospective staff can apply for roles than ever before. Unemployment rates have decreased since last year so the talent pool has grown. The issue is instead finding the people who fit into your unique organisation’s style. Who can help you grow and inhabit the values of your business. These five creative ways to find employees will help you find the right people for you.

Curate a good candidate experience

Why are businesses having trouble finding employees? The answer starts with candidate experience. The first impression you make is with the application process. Think about how you advertise the role and how easy it is to find. Once it’s found, how simple is the process?

60% of candidates do not finish applications due to lack of accessibility with another 64% who would share their negative experience with others. That is a huge pool of potential candidates, likely ones who could have been invaluable to you and your organisation, lost all because unnecessary obstacles put in place.

Do you have several sections of repetition asking for the same information over and over? Do you have misleading or confusing job descriptions? Do you have a reputation for providing feedback or even just a rejection letter? All of these things limit your attraction factor and prevents the right people from building your service offer. Make sure line managers conducting interviews are well trained to present the company while also being friendly and social to improve the experience.

Show off your benefits

When people ask how to find good employees the best answers revolve around benefits. 69% of employees report that they might choose one job over another if it offered better benefits and 51% of employees see benefits will play a significant role in talent retention. Benefits are one of the first draws you have at your disposal. Alongside salary, they make up the majority of the work-reward balance.

But don’t just develop benefits blind. Work with your pre-existing people to find out what they would like to see. Flexible working hours, health plans, subsidising commuter costs, day care services and more are all fantastic attractions and can make the difference when the right employee is looking for their next role. Rewarding referrals can also be an extremely useful tool by utilising the individual networks of your staff while also building into your benefits offer.

Develop internal talent

If you can’t find employees to suit your needs, why not curate them yourself? It may seem self-evident but, instead of worrying about how to find new employees online, you can work with the people you already have. 87% of millennials (75 percent of the global workforce by 2025) believe learning and development in the workplace is important. This means you can retain more of your employees by offering training and nature skill-based growth while also developing the right type of employee for you.

You can also apply this to interns, graduates and others starting their careers. You can offer opportunity for development to a ground level workforce while also opening up an additional avenue for recruitment.

In addition, 59% of millennials claim development opportunities are extremely important when deciding whether to apply for a position. By providing this for you own staff you can have the best of both worlds by attracting more employees, retaining the ones you have and ensuring the quality you need is met.

Expand where your looking

If you want the best employees for you, then increase your chances of finding them by broadening your horizons. Digital advertising is one of the most modern tools for reaching a wide audience for a career opportunity. 84% of organizations recruit via social media which includes more than just LinkedIn. Make sure you aren’t solely using limited and old-fashioned ways of reaching prospective employees. While also increasing your potential pool, you will also convey a tech savvy and up to date persona which in turn attracts more people.

As stated above, you could also look into providing internship or graduate programmes. Career fairs, university or college visits and other targeted campaigns are invaluable to getting your name out there and attracting fresh graduates to your business.

On the other hand, think about reassigning your efforts away from low yield areas. 90% of recruiters search for candidates on LinkedIn which makes it the number one site for businesses and job seekers. Other sites like Monster or Indeed may not then deserve as much attention. Equally, if you place advertisements for your company in the newspaper, you will only be hitting a tiny portion of potential candidates. Make sure you expand your horizons one way and shrink them the other for maximum potential.

Use the right tools

Ever changing retail trends provide insight into what people are looking for. Find out whether more people are looking for carbon conscious businesses or organisations that prioritise equality, diversity and inclusion. By keeping up to date on these you can tailor your offer to focus on the most current expectations of prospective staff.

To help you keep on track as well as sift through all the candidates you attract, you need to utilise the latest innovations in onboarding and recruitment tools. 94% of HR professionals say that using recruitment software has impacted their hiring process positively and over 98% of Fortune 500 companies use recruitment software. Don’t fall behind when you can embrace technological solutions to do the heavy lifting for you.

What can Sova Assessment do for you?

Sova Assessment offers an award-winning platform that prioritises clarity and precision with fair, pragmatic, data driven solutions. From tailoring interactive candidate experiences to highlighting staff retention issues, there is an easy way to make sure you’re keeping an eye on your onboarding process. Respond to obstacles in your recruitment drive before they happen with fast, fact-based insight.

You want the best. They’re out there looking for their next role right now. So get ready for them.