Written by Salary.com Staff
September 19, 2018
It’s essential for every organization to attract top talent to stay ahead of the competition. Not only will a highly skilled workforce drive innovation, companies can pass their institutional knowledge and expertise to other employees.
Understanding how to attract and retain that talent isn’t just about initially offering competitive pay. It requires analyzing, adjusting, and future-proofing your compensation management strategy.
So where do you start? First, let’s explore the benefits of attracting top talent a little more.
There are plenty of reasons why every company should focus on attracting top talent. Just like in sports, the best players almost always win more. The same concept goes for business.
To understand the importance of attracting top talent, here are some of the benefits:
Improving performance and productivity
Success breeds success. Talented people are usually much more productive and efficient in their work. Their skills and experience help them tackle complex tasks and challenges, which can lead to better outcomes and higher-quality work.
Reducing training costs
Companies will save time and money by hiring top talent. Hiring the right job candidates lessens the time spent training. Highly skilled employees have the skills to adapt to new challenges and work cultures. They also have a solid foundation of knowledge, which allows them to quickly adjust to new roles and responsibilities.
Establishing positive company culture
By hiring top talent, a company can create a positive culture in the workplace. They often have elevated expectations for their work environment. Having these kinds of employees in the organization, they can establish healthy competition in the workplace, promote teamwork, and inspire other employees to perform at a higher level.
Here are four essential best practices to attract and retain top talent.
Provide competitive salaries and benefits
This is the most effective way to attract top talent in the market. Aside from base salary, benefits, and rewards are also important to employees. However, before offering a salary range, human resources and managers should keep in mind that the offer must align to their budget and responsibilities. Pay equity plays a key role in management.
Offer career development and transparent career pathing
New graduates and candidates with one to two years of work experience are looking for more than a competitive salary. Most of them prioritize career growth. Gaining experience and skills will not only benefit employees, but also the company. It establishes trust in employees. Offering training, mentorship programs, and opportunities for new employees and tenured employees will open the door for growth and internal upward mobility.
Promote the company's mission and values
Most of the time, top talent is motivated by a sense of purpose and wants to work for companies that share their values. Usually, these are the ones seeking a long-term career to grow with the company by acquiring knowledge and skills.
Utilize social media and job boards
Social media platforms have evolved. They offer more than just finding friends and former classmates. They create endless opportunities for personal connections and professional networking. They also provide tools for identifying and engaging with candidates perfect for job openings. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn have major benefits for jobseekers.
Using social media platforms in addition to job boards extends the reach of your job postings. Human resources teams must deliver clear messages that highlight the benefits of working at a company.
Pay equity is a concept of ensuring that all employees are paid fairly for the work they perform. The basis of the evaluation focuses on performance. This means employees can get the salary range for the same job if they perform well, regardless of their personal backgrounds. Pay equity has a positive effect on the hiring process, especially if a company aims to attract top talent.
This concept of equal pay for equal work, not only focuses on employees, it attracts new talent because pay transparency and job a transparent promotion process has become standard operating procedure for successful organizations. If the process is fair, candidates will be more curious and want to be part of the organization.
Combining pay equity and pay transparency practices also go hand in hand with superior internal communications and exceptional work cultures.
Streamlining your compensation management strategy and embracing pay equity will boost your ability to hire and retain top talent.
Bringing new talent with a fresh perspective, unique skills, and exceptional experience helps companies innovate and remain competitive in the market. And the influx of talent will raise the level of everyone you employ.
Download our white paper to further understand how organizations across the country are using market data, internal analytics, and strategic communication to establish an equitable pay structure.