6 Incentives to Attract Good Recruits
The key to any successful business is building a strong, dedicated team. If you don’t have the right people working with you, it doesn’t matter how well-conceived your business strategy is; it won’t be implemented properly.
You need team players that are enthusiastic about the direction the business is going and feel like a part of it all. The real question is, how do you find such a team?
A great way to find the best talent is to provide incentives. Everyone loves perks, and with the right benefits, the position you offer will stand out in a crowd.
Before we offer some suggestions, let’s take a closer look at what incentives are.
Why Are Incentives Important?
There is no denying how many people are currently looking for a job. There is an enormous pool to choose from, whether they are fresh out of college and looking for their first job or whether they are simply heading in a new direction. However, not all candidates are ideal. To find the right talent, you need to put in some effort.
It can be easy to think that, as the employer, the candidate should be trying to impress you exclusively. In reality, it goes both ways. A good candidate knows their worth, and you need to demonstrate that your company would be a good fit. However, the work doesn’t stop there. Hiring the right talent is just the start; you need to focus on retaining your new team.
It’s crucial to focus on retention from the start. Offering the right incentives in your initial job posting is a good idea, but you need to ensure they are the kind of benefits you can sustain. You need to think of the long-term; otherwise, the excellent talent you just hired could leave in the space of a few months, and you’ll be back to square one.
With that in mind, we’ve compiled some incentives that are enticing not only for new applicants, but for current staff members too.
Allow for Flexible or Remote Work
If the past two years have shown us anything, it’s that flexible working conditions are a must. The opportunity to work from home or use flexi-time (working a set amount of hours that can be undertaken anywhere throughout the day) is exceptionally attractive to workers. It helps make the workday grind feel more manageable and assists workers to feel more in control of their time.
For many, it could be a deal-breaker. Parents or those with other responsibilities outside their professional lives often need flexible working hours to fulfill all the demands on their time. This is increasingly important to many, so including it in your job postings should prove a huge incentive.
Flexible or remote work isn’t an incentive that will fizzle out months into the job. It’s the perfect example of a long-term bonus.
Prioritize Trust
This is a big one, especially for younger generations. Applicants want to know that you don’t see them as expendable and that you value their work. There needs to be trust between an employee and an employer, and this trust can manifest in many different ways.
One of the best ways to achieve this is by allowing your employees to work independently. Talented workers don’t need their hands to be held through every decision. That is part of the appeal, but they will also feel immediately appreciated by giving them the room to set their own goals.
It’s a reciprocal benefit, and highlighting this in the job posting will catch the attention of the ambitious candidates you need.
Emphasize the Potential for Growth
Beyond feeling in control and valued, your employees don’t want to feel like they are stuck in a dead-end gig. Providing your employees with a tangible goal to aim toward can be enormously motivating, be it a promotion or professional development. Going into a job with the incentive to grow is exciting and will help keep your team’s performance consistent.
When incorporating the potential for growth into your job posting, try to tailor it specifically to the kind of person you want for the role. If you’re looking for someone with decades of experience under their belt, be sure to convey that effectively. Consider your audience.
Cultivate a Positive Working Environment
This one is a little difficult to sell in a job posting, but it is integral to retaining the talent you eventually hire. You can offer various incentives and still lose team members if the work environment isn’t healthy. Thankfully, there are ways to create a more positive work environment.
One of the most significant contributors to this is open communication. A strong team expresses its opinions and thoughts frequently in an open forum. Allow creativity and camaraderie to thrive. Remember, sites like Glassdoor exist solely to expose poor work culture.
If your working environment is profoundly negative, it won’t stay secret for long.
Sell Your Company in the Job Posting
We touched on this a little earlier, but just to make it abundantly clear, you need to sell yourself to the candidate too. Although the employee is the one that wants the job, you also want to hire someone of worth. You can only do that if you prove that you can help them achieve their professional goals.
You can accomplish this by telling applicants why they should choose your company in particular. This is an opportunity for you to highlight the incentives outlined above. What is your work culture like? Are flexible working hours available? How can a candidate grow in the position if you hire them?
These are all critical questions to answer in your job posting. Trust us, the right applicant is looking out for them.
Champion Diversity
Lastly, but by no means least, you need to emphasize diversity and inclusivity. When you have a team of people from different backgrounds, each with their own unique life experiences, you have access to a wider pool of creativity. It also allows you to tap into a broader range of demographics, which will help to better represent your consumer base.
How is this an incentive? Because employees want to know that their opinion matters. There is little risk of someone feeling overlooked in a diverse team where everyone’s voice is equally valued. It can also help to root out workplace prejudices, helping to cultivate a far more positive work environment. Once again, this benefits both you and your team.
Contact ScoutLogic Today
Offering all the incentives we have listed is a great way to create exactly the team you need to succeed. However, you also need to know who you’re working with.
At ScoutLogic, we run numerous screening protocols to ensure that your applicant is precisely who they say they are.
Contact us today to learn more and take the next step to hire the best possible talent!
Download this free guide to go into the searching process prepared. This guide includes actionable steps to:
- Gather your requirements
- Determine vendors
- Check references
- Determine success metrics