As you know, hiring and retaining top talent is one of the biggest challenges you face as a business. And while there’s no magic formula for winning with talent acquisition, there are certain foundational principles that have the ability to positively transform your approach. This includes clarifying and enhancing your company culture so that prospective employees are drawn to your organization.

What Makes a Desirable Company? 

Money only goes so far. If you’re 100 percent reliant on overpaying for talent, your business will suffer. You might be able to convince some to come work for you, but it’ll be a frustrating and time-consuming process. (Not to mention, you’ll face challenges on the employee engagement and retention fronts.)

The real key to talent acquisition is to shape your business into a company that people actually want to come work for. And here are a few ways you can do just that: 

1. Compelling Employee Experience 

It’s easy to get so caught up in mission statements and core values that you forget about one of the most important aspects of building a visionary business: Cultivating a compelling employee experience.

Employee experience is basically the summation of everything an employee learns, does, sees, and feels when working for your company. And it’s arguably the single greatest competitive advantage a business can have in today’s business world.

The key to creating a noteworthy employee experience is to personalize how you engage employees at each of the five stages of the employee lifecycle: recruitment, onboarding, development, retention, and exit. By accounting for each phase – rather than just delivering a copy-and-paste approach to everyone – you’re able to identify and address what matters most to each employee as they mature within the organization. People notice this (and they stick around).

2. Flexible Working Options 

But this goes beyond just letting people work remotely. It’s also important to account for autonomy and to give employees the opportunity to take calculated risks.

“If your employee has a good idea of how to make something better, they should have enough freedom to give it a go,” talent acquisition specialist Jenn Steele writes. “Let employees decide where your community funds should be donated. Give them the autonomy to move desks around or post to social media. Wherever possible, give freedom to your employees to make decisions about things that are important to them.” 

Sometimes your willingness to grant autonomy will come back to haunt you. However, if you truly have a culture where people love and respect the organization (and each other), these issues will be few and far between. People don’t attempt to take advantage of a company that they enjoy working for. 

3. Upward Mobility 

Talented employees with lofty career aspirations are not content with sitting still. They want to know that they have an opportunity to grow. And companies that have a history of promoting from within are going to be much more attractive to prospective employees.

You don’t always have to hire from within, but you should at least interview multiple employees for an open position before zeroing in on someone. And when you do hire from within, make it clear that upward mobility is something you prioritize as part of your culture. 

4. Diversity and Inclusion Efforts 

Today’s employees – especially millennials – want to work for companies that have strong moral compasses and are committed to bettering the communities around them. They also expect to work in environments where there’s diversity and inclusion. By hiring a wide range of people from all walks of life, you can prove to prospective hires that you practice what you preach. 

5. Correlation Between Value and Compensation 

Money is no longer the best motivating factor, but it is important. Employees want to know that they are being fairly compensated for the work they put in. Finding ways to establish correlation between valued added and compensation received is a great step in the right direction. And in a world of data and metrics, it’s more practical than ever. 

Reshape and Refine Your Business 

Businesses are malleable. If you’re lacking in one area, you have the opportunity to reshape your approach and refine how you handle specific aspects of your company. And if you’re intentional about it, you can eventually create a business that people want to work for. Are you willing to prioritize the right foundational elements that will set you up for long-term success?

Are we doing this to mix up the exact match anchor text?

Yep! I know you wanted to use “employee experience” but we tried to differentiate a few of them. Still included the terms you requested but extended it a bit.