Getting creative is one of the best ways to get top talent interested in your opportunity. Today, I'll share a few creative tactics you can use as talking points to attract 'A' players.
Getting creative and exhibiting flexibility will go a long way in landing top talent. There are even things you can do to find 'A' players that may not even be actively looking.
Whether you're doing your own recruitment or using a recruiting firm, the top thing you must do at the beginning is really know what's motivating someone to make a move. That's more important early on in the discussion than talking about your opportunity. Before you start selling your offer, you want to understand what's going on with someone's situation.
People are more likely to make a move to remove pain points than they are to make a move for pleasure. People are very motivated by these pain points in life, like not getting paid enough, traveling too often, not getting along with their superior, or getting overlooked for a promotion. These pain points are the number one reason people think about making a career move.
Generally, people will think about making a career move for two years before they actually do something about it.
Pain points are the number one reason people think about making a career move.
You also want to think about how creative and flexible you can be to attract top talent. An example of this creativity and flexibility would be allowing someone to work from a home office if they live in a different city—could they work on a virtual team concept? If there is travel, could you allow them to work from home on Fridays? Could you even be flexible with our titles? For the right person, would you be willing to go from a director to a senior director or even associate partner?
Think about how you can be flexible with a title with the same compensation. They are just words, but for some people, the title is a really big deal.
You will also want to discuss their future with this company and succession planning. What can this role for them be in two or three years? This is a big deal for an 'A' player, and a lot of people forget to discuss it in the interview process. Finally, think about how this role will improve their skill set. What's in it for them?
If you discuss all of these things with people, I think you'll find that you get more 'A' players interested in your opportunity.
I hope this information was helpful for you. If you have any questions we can answer, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you!
