Sourcing talent has become a complex process for many organizations. Straightforward techniques like posting open positions on job boards and on your company’s website often do little to attract top talent, since such talent often is already employed and must be wooed away from the current position and convinced that you have something better to offer. The Foundation of Attraction Companies will have an easier time attracting top talent if they have differentiated themselves in the marketplace. It is foundational to take time to discover your brand’s personality—not some hipster trend mentality, but a cool factor that will stand the test of time and show how you are different and better than your competitors. Companies that have not taken the time to find their employer brand personality will have a harder time attracting top talent, because top talent is attracted to companies that seem like the best in their field, or that are distinctive in some important way. eBook: How to Attract Top Talent Using Inbound Recruiting – Find out how to harness the power of an inbound recruiting strategy in order to attract, hire, and retain top talent. Social Media: A Place to Connect Many companies become ultra-focused on the talent search, but fail to realize that they will never attract top talent with a narrowly focused search. The best approach is to reach out through venues like social media and work on developing relationships. Sometimes that means giving away content and information. Sometimes it means giving your time to invest in relationships. Social media is also an exceptional venue to let your brand personality shine, which of itself will attract talent that will want to join in the conversation. eBook: Using Social Media for Executive Search – Learn how to leverage social media in your executive search process more effectively. The Importance of Reputation As time goes on, word of mouth will give your company a reputation, and you need to do what you can to make sure it is a good one. Having a reputation as a good place to work and a company that cares about employees and does right by them will go a long way toward attracting top talent. This kind of reputation can only be developed one way: by treating employees—and everyone—well and by doing everything you can to provide a great place to work. Top talent will be productive no matter how you structure the work day, so be flexible. Let them work from home. Give generous paid time off. The most valuable of your employees will not abuse PTO hours. Instead, they will make certain to get the work done before using PTO. Train employees as well as you can, even if it is costly upfront to do so. Top talent will appreciate the investment and will be more likely to stay. Good candidates expect no less than your best, because they are giving you no less than their best; that is why they are top talent. How a Talent Management System Can Help Growing companies often have good intentions about developing relationships that will lead to top talent acquisition, but keeping track of those relationships can be difficult with so many other competing priorities. A talent management system like ThriveTRM will do the important work of tracking relationships with top talent, sharing information with all key staff members so that your company can be as responsive to top talent as you want to be. Contact us today to explore our robust talent management solutions.