Attracting and retaining top talent remains at the top of the list for talent attraction professionals. However, over the last couple of years, the global pandemic has overhauled the employer-employee relationship, causing organizations to pivot seemingly overnight to attract quality job seekers. 

Currently, almost nine out of ten employees wish to continue working remotely at least part of the time. Over half of job seekers are willing to give up some salary for more flexibility, and more than one-third are willing to give up some salary to learn new skills. Just over 60 percent of job seekers will apply for a job when the company is dedicated to diversity and inclusion. This percentage rose to 68 percent of knowledge workers and 72 percent of the C-suite.

With the surge of available jobs, the demands for finding top talent continue to mount, as recruiting professionals must do more than hire the right people. They must create a candidate experience – giving insight into what it would be like to work at your company while keeping jobseekers’ demands at the forefront.

Keep reading to learn more about ways to attract the right talent to your career site.

1. Highlight Your Mission and Values

The global pandemic has caused just about everyone to re-think their values – from employees to businesses. According to a recent McKinsey study, almost two-thirds of U.S. employees “said that COVID-19 has caused them to reflect on their purpose in life. And nearly half said that they are reconsidering the kind of work they do because of the pandemic.” In fact, millennial employees were three times more likely to reevaluate their work. 

With 70 percent of employees saying that they get a sense of purpose from their jobs, talent management professionals must take this into consideration when recruiting. When a job candidate’s purpose aligns with the company’s mission and values, employers can enjoy “stronger employee engagement, heightened loyalty, and a greater willingness to recommend the company to others.”

Communicating your mission and values on your career site is critical to attracting the right talent to your organization. Showcase how the company started and where you’d like it to go. For instance, what is important to your workers?  What drives your leadership? How do you give back to the community? How do you invest in your employees and their families? 

Also, to show that you’re employee-first focused, consider how your benefits reflect your values. Do you trust your employees to work remotely, focusing on output rather than input? Do you prioritize mental wellness through days off, employee assistance programs, or top-notch health benefits? Do you encourage your employees to take vacation days, showing that you prioritize work-life balance? 

According to a recent study, a third of C-suite job candidates “said they’d take a pay cut to work for a mission-driven company that aligns with their ideals.” Further, according to the World Economic Forum, “employees are becoming more ‘belief-driven’ in the wake of the pandemic, with 6 in 10 of those changing jobs seeking a better fit between their own and their employer’s corporate values.” 

Tailoring your mission and values to job seekers – not customers, clients, or other stakeholders – can help excite job seekers about joining your company, especially if missions and values align. 

2. Showcase Your Workplace Culture

When creating or updating your career site, you should also communicate your workplace culture through pictures, videos, and text. Your workplace culture serves as an extension of your mission and values. 

According to a recent PwC study, 72 percent of job applicants want to understand a company’s culture before accepting a job. Employees today want an experience, not just a job. They want a purpose for their work – something meaningful. 

Emphasizing workplace culture benefits the employer as well. By giving a transparent look into your company, you can better attract job candidates who appreciate what your company offers, ensuring a better fit. In addition, when employees and employers are a right cultural fit for one another, the employee is more likely to be successful in their new role.

On your career site, highlight individual employees’ experiences. Focus on team building and interactions. Feature your employees devoting time to charities or neighborhood activities. By doing this, you can demonstrate how your organization’s mission, values, and culture extend beyond the workplace.

Communicating your culture is so critical that experts have said that your organization’s “culture and the experience you provide people is your differentiated asset.”

3. Share Your Company’s Vision

Job seekers not only want to know where your company came from but where it’s going. Sharing your company’s vision and goals gives job seekers a look at your plans for growth while also tying directly into your mission, values, and culture. 

Mission and vision statements seem to overlap, causing confusion in messaging. A mission statement is “a literal quote stating what a brand or company is setting out to do. This lets the public know the product and services it provides, who it makes it for, and why it’s doing it.”

On the other hand, a vision statement is your company looking toward the future, stating what it hopes to achieve based on its mission and values. In other words, a “mission statement is a roadmap for the company’s vision statement.”

When drafting a vision statement for your career site, make it simple, clear, and concrete, giving examples of your expected growth.  For example, do you plan on adding more team members over the next year? What about opening a new location? What are your plans for addressing professional development and skills gaps? Do you plan on connecting with new customers or clients? How will you continue to make your community a better place?

By having a solid, forward-thinking plan for your company’s goals and vision, job seekers can better understand the purpose of your organization while seeing themselves as employees,  working towards a common purpose and long-term success. 

Don’t forget to make your vision statement inspirational and motivational. Also, remember that job seekers are your audience for this vision statement – not current employees or management.

4. Emphasize What Sets You Apart

In this competitive talent market, employers should distinguish themselves from the competition.  

Here are some examples of how to differentiate yourself as we’re all navigating uncharted waters:

• Are you offering benefits beyond the traditional health plan and 401k?
• Are you offering hiring bonuses?
• Are you focusing on career and professional development for your employees?
• How do you value employees on and off the job?
• Do you encourage employees to use their voices at work?
• What’s unique about your culture?
• Are you embracing flexibility and digital collaboration?
• How do you embrace diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging (DEIB)?
• Do you offer a unique product or service?
• Do you give back to the community?

When deciding how to showcase your differences, be sure to focus on what job seekers want today – not two years ago. Keep in mind, today’s job candidates are prioritizing flexibility, career progression, shared values, empathy, better compensation and benefits, remote work, community involvement, and more work-life balance. 

In this candidate-driven market, you want to stand out from the crowd. Therefore, focusing on how you differentiate from your competition can give you a significant edge when recruiting the right talent.

What Next?

It’s time for companies to truly embrace a people-first approach to recruiting. Take the lessons of the past two years and embrace those in creating or redesigning your career site. After all, job seekers are in the driver’s seat for now.