Recruiting Strategies Must Look Inside-Out to Win the Race for Talent

The race to recruit and retain the best talent increasingly favors job seekers. Equipped with ever-more-powerful technology to access information about companies and connect to expanding networks, the most highly skilled candidates can find and leave jobs more easily than ever before.

Consequently, this turbo-charged level of job mobility continues to upend companies’ recruiting and retention strategies. Technology lets candidates apply for multiple positions with one click and easily amass a wealth of information about potential employer salaries, career paths and company culture.

Remote workforces have also eroded geographical boundaries. And while globalization has enabled companies to look beyond the local talent pool, it’s also empowered talent to look beyond local employers.

Complicating matters further, Millennials and Generation Z both grew up in a digital culture and entered the professional world accustomed to boundless access to information and industry disruption. They will comprise two-thirds of the workforce over the next decade and are conditioned to rapid change and comfortable with exploring many different career opportunities.

All told, employers’ biggest challenge remains providing the best talent with a reason to join and more importantly, to stay. Employers must adapt and develop strategies to attract and keep the strongest candidates in today's fast-changing labor market.

Online platforms show if you’ve got the right stuff

Digital platforms have made it easy for candidates to search for job openings and research a company’s reputation. Candidates prioritize company culture more than ever, making it critical for organizations to manage their reputations carefully.

Online platforms allow organizations and candidates who share similar values to connect more easily. Beyond screening for qualifications and skill sets, the human resource function must articulate how the company mission and practices are aligned with the candidate's sense of purpose.

Workforces should be as diverse as the communities and customers that companies serve. Employers that prioritize building a diverse workforce will draw from a larger and richer talent pool. A diverse workforce aggregates different ideas from different backgrounds and life experiences. These can stimulate creative thinking, innovation and problem solving.

Create incentive for employees to stay

Once employees have joined, retention becomes the biggest challenge. Organizations’ talent and human resource functions can prioritize retaining employees through professional and personal development opportunities.

Internally, they can construct company-wide digital platforms that improve communication and sharing, thereby improving workflows. This would also create an environment for successful peer and social learning, letting mixed generations teach and learn from one another.

Improved internal communications should help the organization with two other priorities: advertising openings internally and emphasizing mobility within the company. Together, these highlight occasions for employees to play different roles in-house as they build their careers. And advancing a culture of continuous learning, or “upskilling,” helps employers raise the barriers to exit for their employees.

The human resource function must look strategically at moving employees into available openings across the organization to build talent pools within the company. Organizations should post each opening internally first to ensure that the interview selection focuses on promoting from within. Creating ample in-house opportunities for highly skilled employees will emphasize the value and worth the organization holds for its people.

How to run the race as it evolves

The digitization of hiring and job-seeking processes demands more strategic thinking from companies. But so far job-seekers have adapted to these changes more rapidly, proving more fluid and flexible.

Studies show that Generation Zjob-seekers, the youngest entering the workforce, will have 14 careers over their lifetime. They haven’t grown up with the notion of lifelong careers and even full-time jobs. If an organization can't open them up to new experiences, this generation will most likely move to companies, or careers, that can.

No company can afford to lose the race for talent. Highly skilled job-seekers want to work for the most successful companies and alongside the best talent. To attract and retain these candidates, employers must design a workplace that provides growth opportunities, variety and a sense of purpose.