We know what it’s like.

SME Business Owners have literally got enough to do so the thought of creating, executing and embedding an attraction strategy when you’re not actively hiring probably is not very attractive.

However, we also know what it’s like when you need to hire and you feel like you’re starting from scratch. Every single time.

A year-round attraction strategy really is one of those things that would make hiring so much easier when the time comes. Future-you would really thank present-you for taking the following steps, I promise.

• Know your strategy

This will vary business to business. Are you actively growing this year so know you’ll need X new employees? Or are you happy where you are but you’re in tune with your natural attrition? Whatever your strategy may be, it’s worth setting out your priorities, timelines and the type of people you need to attract before you do anything else.

• Assess your current employer brand

You’ll find it very difficult to build any sort of strategy or message if you don’t actually know how you’re perceived as an employer by your current team. Carry out things like employee surveys, have a look on Glassdoor & gather common words your customers use to describe you in their reviews. Hopefully this will be the message you want your employer brand to be associated with and the story you want to be telling.

• Employee reviews

Why aren’t employee reviews as sought after as customer reviews? They should be. And they should be shouted about in the same way. Just like your prospective customers value the reviews from previous customers, potential new employees will trust the reviews of your current employees more than anything that the company writes about itself.

• Combine this with your marketing strategy

Talent attraction and brand marketing are more closely linked than most organisations treat them, since the same tone, values and storytelling that attract customers can attract candidates too. Aligning the two means your careers content, social presence and campaigns all reinforce one consistent identity. The aim is that when someone from a competitor is thinking about a new role, they automatically think of you.

• And tell the team about it too!

Get the team involved and be really honest about why. If suddenly, they start seeing a huge attraction strategy push on socials and you’ve not told them why, they are going to undoubtedly question what’s going on. Let them know what you’re trying to achieve and why. When it’s at the forefront of their minds too, they’ll feel more confident to post about it on LinkedIn, speak about it at networking events or even just with their friends and family.

• Create a process for managing direct approaches

You’ll know all these stages are working when you start to receive speculative CVs into the business. This is a huge success, but yes, you also need a process to manage this too. Nothing will kill the fantastic employer brand you’re building faster than being perceived as somebody that ghosts candidates. Identify somebody to own the process, respond to every single one, whether you are recruiting or not, even if their experience isn’t right.

• And turn this into an active pipeline

When you have this process, turn this into your own active pipeline. Keep a live spreadsheet on where people have come from, highlight ones that have really impressed you, keep a note of any conversations you’ve had and then et voila, when you have a live role come up, this is the first place you can turn before even thinking about advertising and recruiter costs.

• Update the Careers page on your website

For many potential candidates, your careers page is the first port of call to see what it’s actually like to work with you, so it needs to work hard. Keep it current, make sure it reflects your real culture and values rather than generic corporate language, and make it easy for people to see what roles are open, what the process looks like, why they’d want to join and most importantly, a clear and easy way of being able to contact you.

• Get out and about!

As the saying goes, people buy from people. Get to networking and industry events to back up what your socials are saying about you. Networking is generally just regarded as a new business tool, but it can be an extremely effective recruitment tool too. Even if your next recruit isn’t in the room, their husband / wife / best mate might be. And if they think you’re great, they’ll spread the word.

• Assess, refine and repeat

A talent attraction strategy isn’t something you set once and leave alone (sadly!). It needs regular review against the results is has rendered. Look at where your new hires have come from, what’s working and what isn’t, and be willing to adjust and adapt your approach, if needed.

Like most things, an attraction strategy is not likely to be perfect, but consistency is key. Even if you can’t do all of the above tips continuously, pick the ones you can do, keep showing up and you will see results.

And, of course, if you need a hand on getting started, you can get in touch with us (Sophie & Sarah AKA the PROPA Girls) at any time.