The ability to attract and hire new employees is a serious concern for many. Most organizations assign the function to recruitment, and the human resources team, with limited input from functional teams as necessary for the role.
Teams prepare a job description, post the job on various job boards, and then hope talent will rush forward. The result is often limited enthusiasm, lower response rates, and an underwhelming candidate pool. The typical process is anything but attractive.
Attracting employees should not be the sole responsibility of human resources. Instead, the primary responsibility for attracting employees should be marketing. If we do not have a buzz around the organization, how do we expect talent to want to be with us?
The best companies are constantly marketing specifically to potential employees. It does not require being a tech company to succeed here. Every industry and region will have market leaders. What makes the company exceptional, and where are you going? What culture do you have, and are employees happy? Check the public employee satisfaction ratings on some sites, and you will get a sense of how important an organization believes its employees are and how well they market to potential candidates.
Attracting top talent is a marketing function and should be viewed as such. What can you reasonably expect to draw if you put out plain vanilla in all your messaging?
