The key to success in attracting top talent is to make your company an employer of choice. A company must set itself up as a solid, well-organized enterprise and create compelling reasons for top-notch professionals to work there. Those reasons can include excellent compensation and benefits, advancement opportunities, regularly scheduled performance reviews, and other popular perks such as flextime.
Finding the top talent is often a difficult task. Most often, these individuals are not actively seeking new employment. That means companies have to dig deeper to find the top 5 percent. Direct hiring from primary competitors is a company’s best strategy. This involves sophisticated networking and sales ability.
One networking tactic is to determine which of your current employees have already come to you from key competitors. Ask them whom they would recommend hiring from those competitors. Even if a top candidate is ultimately not interested in your position, he or she may be able to refer someone else.
Typically, companies don’t part with top talent. This talent is often well compensated, which makes the stakes higher. In addition, a company will fight to keep them. Therefore, you must be able to offer something that their current employer doesn’t satisfy, such as a new technology or–best of all–a compelling company vision.