How to attract quality talent: where you're going wrong?

All organisations want to attract the highest quality talent – and the six million dollar question is: how do you do it and where are you going wrong?

We have the answer.

according to the 2015 randstad award research, the top five things australian employees want from an employer are:

56% – Salary and employee benefits
51% – Pleasant working environment
51% – Job security
49% – Good work/life balance
38% – Convenient location

Unfortunately, there's a disconnect between what employees and employers want.

the top five things employers are focusing on are:

Financial stability (ranked 6th by employees)
Strong management (ranked 11th by employees)
Good training (ranked 7th by employees)
Career progression (ranked 8th by employees)
Long-term job security (ranked 3rd by employees)

If you want to attract quality talent, you need to address this disconnect. Some employers do this by just tackling the benefits and offering above-market packages such as cash bonuses, free dry-cleaning, free parking, club memberships, coupons and discounts.

If you are among one of the smarter organisations, you will realise most employees can't simply be bought. Instead, cultivate a strong employer brand that sells your organisation’s values and culture.

An appealing and authentic brand will boost your ability to attract, engage and retain a high-performance workforce, which in turn will drive your competitive advantage and result in real bottom-line value in terms of enhanced productivity, innovation, operational excellence and market leadership – employees want to work for an organisation that shares their values.

a strong employer brand can be attributed to:

28% lower staff turnover
10% lower payroll cost for companies with strong brands
46% less indexed cost per hire

If your employer brand falls short or offers a promise that is unfulfilled, it can damage rather than improve your organisation. You will fail to attract good candidates and existing employees may become disillusioned and leave your organisation. Not convinced? Around 84% of employees say they would leave an organisation for another that had a better corporate reputation.

Survey your current employees to find out if you're fulfilling your brand promise, asking them how you could do better. Use this as an opportunity to discover why they joined your organisation in the first place and what’s keeping them there.