Catch them all: 7 golden rules for attracting and recruiting talent

Do you secretly envy your competitors who attract the best talent, and dream of becoming one of those attractive companies?

Good news for you: recruiting talent can be learned, and it's within your reach (promise). Discover our 7 golden rules for recruiting the best profiles.

1. Recognize talent when you see it

Recruiting talent is all well and good, but what exactly do you mean by talent? One person's talent is another person's talent.

➡️ The question to ask yourself: what are you looking for? Identifying the profile you want for your company is crucial to your recruitment success!

Know the position you're looking for inside out, and not just the tasks and ideal soft skills. In much the same way as a marketing director knows his core target audience by creating marketing personas, it might be worthwhile for you to do the exercise of creating your candidate persona.

You may have noticed that, when recruiting, you rarely find people who match the job description in every way. Your talent as a recruiter is to identify the potential in candidates, and the candidate persona is used to identify these people.

Here's what you need to know about your persona (and therefore your ideal candidate):

• motivations,
• career goals,
• values,
• desired work/life balance,
• interests, etc.

2. Attract talent like a magnet with a high-quality employer brand

According to a recent study by StepStone, 95% of candidates find out about a company's reputation and employer brand before applying.

StepStone

What you need to know about talent, especially in tech, is that they have no trouble getting hired by companies: they have a choice.

➡️ The question to ask yourself: why would a talent choose your company over another?

For equivalent positions and salaries in high-volume professions, it's really the company that determines the choice. Candidates must want to contribute to your company's success. That's why you need to work on your employer brand.

There are two components to consider in your employer brand:

1. Company identity: history, values, culture, innovation, management style, etc.
2. Image: what the public perceives of your company.

Don't forget that recruitment takes place mainly online, so employer branding goes hand in hand with e-reputation. To achieve this, take care of :

• your social network accounts,
• the career section of your website
• your profiles on job boards, etc.

The idea is to ensure that the image you project reflects the company's DNA, and that job applicants are able to project themselves into the company thanks to the tone you use, the photos you display and the way you present yourself.company through the tone used, the photos posted, the values put forward, employee testimonials, etc.

💡 Need an example? Here's the Appvizer company page on the Welcome to the Jungle website.

🛠️ Need a tool? softgarden is a talent acquisition solution designed to manage all your recruitment tasks. Create a job offer in less than 5 minutes and publish it on the right sites in just a few clicks. With the software's automation, workflows and mobile application, you can effortlessly collect and manage your applications, from search to hire .

3. Find talent where it belongs

If the talent isn't coming to you, then go hunting for it! Sometimes, a recruiter has to put on the salesman's suit to approach candidates who seem to fit the criteria.

➡️ The question to ask yourself: where do you look for this talent?

There are several possibilities:

• On professional social networks. Recruiting on LinkedIn enables you to find profiles that match your criteria, and to make direct contact with them. Talent is often already in place? That's true, but have you heard of the "open to opportunities" feature? It allows current employees who are not actively looking to indicate that they are open to professional opportunities - good to know!
  
  
• In schools, if you're recruiting work-study students or interns. You can get in touch directly with their administration department, which will be delighted to advertise your vacancy to students, or even recommend some of their top performers.
  
  
• At trade fairs and events. Although recruiting happens more online than in real life, recruitment fairs can help you meet motivated talent. By networking at professional events in your field, you can meet interesting people even if they're not openly looking for a job.
  
  
• On job boards, whether specialized or generalist. This is where most candidates apply, and as talent is first and foremost human, you'll be able to find it there (yes, yes!). From Linkedin to Google for Jobs, there's plenty to do!
  👍 For example, by using Beetween, you digitalize all your recruitment processes and broadcast your offers on over 150 partner job boards, social networks and your career site to save you maximum time.

• Think of co-optation too, where an employee recommends someone in his or her network for a position (for a fee, or not). Collaborative recruitment can give you access to hidden talent that you may have missed during your hunt?

Can't find your (hyper) rare pearl in France? Why not recruit abroad? Although there are a few administrative formalities to be completed, the right person can sometimes be found hundreds or thousands of kilometers away.

4. Write an attractive job advert

The job advertisement is the first step in the recruitment process. It's the first thing a talent will see about your company, so you need to make a good first impression to get them to take the bait!

At the very least, you need to respect the basics of a good job offer. But to attract talent, you're going to have to put a bit more effort into it to make it stand out from the crowd.

➡️ The question to ask yourself: how do you write a job ad that makes people want to apply?

Here's how to put some glitter ✨ in your job ad to make candidates' eyes shine:

• the writing tone should be simple, direct, natural and in keeping with your company's personality ;
• missions should be clearly defined, ideally in bulleted form for greater visibility;
• use as few discriminating criteria as possible (education, number of years' experience, etc.), as talented people don't necessarily fit into boxes and may not apply despite their added value;
• make a vow of transparency regarding salary, so that talented people enter the recruitment process with full knowledge of the facts;
• be honest (don't pretend you're a big company if you're not, don't invent imaginary fund-raisers, and don't dangle things in front of candidates), to keep their trust and avoid disappointing them once they're in place;
• give details of the work environment (size and organization of the team, prospects for career development, company events, etc.) to help applicants project themselves, etc.

5. Create a candidate experience they'll remember (for the better)

A tedious recruitment process can discourage many people, and can be one of the reasons for turning down a contract with a company. So if you want to maintain interest in your company at every stage, it's worth building a candidate experience that's at least smooth, if not exceptional.

But first, a quick reminder of what the candidate experience is: it refers to all the emotions, feelings and opinions provoked during the candidate's interactions with your company throughout the recruitment process. It can therefore be neutral, negative or positive.

➡️ The question to ask yourself: what can make the candidate experience with your company a positive one?

Since you want to leave a lasting impression on your candidates, here's some advice:

• Don't improvise: build your ideal recruitment process, clearly defining all the stages, their duration, the people involved, etc.
• Offer a fluid and rapid experience, making it easy to submit the application (ideally just a few clicks), with short lead times between each interview, the possibility of remote interviews, etc.
• Communicate regularly, because there's nothing worse for a candidate than not knowing. Even if it's to inform them that the decision hasn't yet been made, it's a good idea to let them know. An unsuccessful candidate also deserves your respect by informing them if they're not being considered, and ideally the reasons why other candidates have been preferred.
• Put yourself in the recruit's shoes: recruiting a developer and recruiting a salesperson are two very different recruitment processes.
• Innovate in the way you recruit, using new formats such as escape games.

Finally, don't forget that digital recruitment doesn't mean cold, robotic recruitment. Even if a candidate isn't right for the current position, end the exchange on good terms and keep his or her profile on hand for a potential future job opening.

6. Make the interview a pleasant experience

Even for talent, the job interview can be a stressful time. It has to be said that some companies take a malicious pleasure in grilling poor candidates to find the slightest flaw in their CVs or the very thing they lack.

What if you took the opposite approach and created the conditions to make the interview a convivial moment? Here's why it's important:

• Talent will experience it as a positive experience, which will work in your favor;
• Without the stress, the talent will "sell" better, and be able to calmly tell you all the good reasons for working with them.
• You'll also be in a better position to assess their personality and see if they'll fit in well with your company.

➡️ The question to ask yourself: how to create the right interview conditions?

Here are a few tips:

• Avoid trick questions (aka give me 3 qualities and 3 faults).
• Bounce back on what they tell you about their experiences.
• Be open and enthusiastic.
• Speak naturally while remaining professional.
• Don't hesitate to raise any doubts or questions you may have, in complete transparency.

7. Challenge yourself regularly

I know that doubt is a good thing, it helps you to question yourself.

Steve Lambert

Whether you've succeeded in recruiting talent or not, there's always room for improvement. The best way to find out if you're doing things right, or at least if you're on the right track, is to ask for feedback from the key stakeholders: the candidates.

➡️ The question to ask yourself: how can we do better?

You can do this by :

• schedule an informal interview at the end of the process to gather feedback on possible improvements and points of friction encountered by the candidate,
• send out a satisfaction questionnaire.

There's no doubt that this invaluable feedback from candidates will give you new insights into how you proceed, and give you good ideas for doing better... and convincing the next talent to cross your path.

💡 Here's a good idea: ask your colleagues who have been involved in a candidate's recruitment process for their feedback too.

What's next? Pamper your talent with quality onboarding

Have you succeeded in convincing the right people to join your company? Well done, you've been very, very good.

But the game's not over yet, because poor onboarding can undermine all your efforts to recruit talent. When you consider that a poor integration can cost one to three months' salary (direct and indirect costs), and is the reason cited by 30% of managers for resigning.

Here are a few tips to maximize the chances of success when onboarding a new recruit:

• assigning a sponsor to whom they can ask any questions they may have about how the company works and what it's like,
• provide a welcome booklet to help them adapt to the work environment and get up and running quickly,
• provide regular HR follow-up to ensure that integration is proceeding smoothly,
• offer a welcome pack to engage employees and pass on your values.

And what about you? What are your secrets for recruiting talent? Share them with us in the comments.