Employers understand more than most that starting our own companies or leading teams gives us a feeling different from any other sensation. The company is our bread and butter, built from our own ideas and derived by our creative spirits. It can be easy to get carried away in terms of how we view our businesses. The truth is, there are millions of employers across the US and in the world today. While we don’t doubt that your company is great and fosters an awesome culture and offers a unique environment, the reality is, the talent pool at large has many choices to choose from. So what does it mean to be “different”? Better yet, what does it take to distinguish ourselves from the pack? While your company might not be the only amazing one, it doesn’t mean we have to give up on being a standout organization. 1. Stop Assuming and Be Strategic Suggest asking your current team why they enjoy working for the company and leveraging those aspects in your employment branding efforts is key. Avoid assuming everyone wants to work for you because your company or team is doing something out of the ordinary. 2. Dare to be Different Suggest honing in on what makes the environment uniquely unique from anyone else. Look at the impact and/or value the team brings to the company’s environment, culture or to your customers. Focus on the Why. Why should someone choose to work for you vs another comparable company. Avoid overselling benefits, many companies put too much weight on their benefits. Your company has so much more than benefits to leverage. 3. Target talent that views your company as a step-above Suggest coming up with a list of companies and/or environments, where that talent pool would find your company and/or environment a step-above their current place of employment. Focus your efforts on sustainable talent acquisition channels with the least amount of friction. Avoid pursuing talent from companies that are out of your league. There’s always a chance of landing someone from one of those organizations, however don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

The broad definition of a recruiter is: an individual who works to fill job openings in businesses or organizations. What isn’t very well defined is the method(s) in which companies or organizations go about finding and engaging talent to be able to fill those job openings. In today’s ecosystem, a recruiter has 4 primary channels to acquire talent before entertaining external support (3rd parties) Inbound: Resumes through job postings, career page or social media Outbound: Talent that is sourced and engaged directly Referrals: Referrals from employees, partners, investors Internal Mobility: Internal promotions — career progression/upskilling/training Aside from Internal Mobility and Referrals making up 10–30% of hires on average, recruitment teams have two paths to pursue and only one they can directly impact - Inbound Outbound (direct impact) As inbound channels continue to slow down especially for the skilled workforce (inbound is still more plentiful for unskilled roles), outbound is becoming much more important for companies and organizations to remain competitive. The difference between outbound and inbound is the ability to sell & compel candidates on an opportunity your company/organization is hiring for. Waiting for a resume to come through, is no longer a safe option as the sole strategy. To get the caliber of talent we all strive for, pursuing talent is the only option. So what does this all mean — it means, the job of the recruiter is evolving from that of a farmer to that of a hunter in ‘sales speak’. Here are a few suggestions on how to evolve and recruit the new ‘recruiter’ Seek out a Hunter, not a farmer; Ask the obvious, how many hires have you landed on your own in prior companies? It’s not about years of experience, where you worked or how long you’ve worked there, it’s only about results. (eg. # hires this person directly impacted and frequency) Recruiters must be self disciplined and have clear KPIs that produce acceptable hiring results for the company (interviews/offers/hires) Accountability — hold the recruitment team accountable for all deliverables; Gamifying team deliverables is an excellent way to create a friendly recruitment ‘sales’ environment to increase the KPIs mentioned above.