The biggest constraint for organizational success is the ability to hire and retain the right talent. For many businesses, as roles become increasingly information and interaction intensive, their priority is to attract experienced talent to their businesses. However, 82% of companies currently believe they do not recruit highly skilled workers.

Attracting and retaining experienced talent is more important than ever to drive innovation and performance, ensure functionality and stability across business operations, and support the development of younger employees through mentorship.

Therefore, this article will examine how to attract experienced talent to your roles and company beyond financial incentives. We will explore how you can do this by:

1. By focussing on what makes your company attractive to potential employees.
2. The strength of its company culture and reputation.
3. Highlighting how working at your company will provide employees with personal fulfillment and opportunities for career progression.
   

How can your business attract experienced talent?

Find your USP as a business

As an organization, you must consider what attracts an individual to a role or a company. For top talent, salary is not their sole focus when searching for a new job.

They know they can get the money they are worth anywhere, so other factors contribute to their decision-making. Consequently, businesses must consider what they can give employees to achieve the benefits of this highly experienced individual within their workforce.

For businesses, EVP, or Employee Value Proposition, is a vital means of attracting experienced talent. Suppose employees give their time, experience, qualifications, hard work, and creativity. In that case, they expect meaningful work, career progression, learning and development opportunities and the knowledge of working for a great organization.

To ensure your business is a viable and attractive destination for experienced talent, you must identify what your company does differently from its competitors.

In a competitive talent landscape, finding your points of difference and what you can offer potential employees is crucial to improving interest and the application and retention rates of experienced talent.

Creating the right environment for talent to succeed

Experienced talent wishes to know that they are joining an established work culture. A role becomes significantly more attractive when potential candidates realize they are entering an inclusive, diverse environment. Furthermore, it is also crucial for experienced talent to feel they are joining an employee-focussed culture.

Whether it is the provision of social events to build the bonds needed for success or providing the support necessary to manage the work-life balance through flexible work, suitable levels of autonomy, childcare or wellness programs.

Employees, regardless of experience, want to feel that their needs are met, that they are valued and feel a sense of belonging when it comes to their working environment and culture. 

By highlighting the importance of culture and connection between the workforce and adding employee testimonials to careers sites to provide candidates insight into their day-to-day lives, you can show that yours is the right environment for experienced talent.

A stellar reputation in a competitive landscape

Businesses around the world are struggling for experienced talent as low unemployment rates affect the availability of talent. Therefore, investing time and effort to promote and market your brand, opportunities, and workplace is crucial to propelling your organization ahead of its competitors.

Like how reputation can impact product sales and revenue, your reputation as an employer can help you stand out among a surplus of great job opportunities.

Therefore, businesses must capitalize on marketing tools to grow awareness, promote their unique culture and build credibility among experienced talent.

Whether that means focusing on improving interactions potential candidates may have with the company, such as candidate experience or leveraging social media, efforts to portray your organization positively can attract experienced talent.

A reputation for outstanding working practices, people and the delivery of excellence can boost a business's brand equity. Using these positive associations amongst consumers or potential job seekers can increase awareness and interest in working at your company.

Therefore, to attract experienced talent, focusing on growing your reputation through marketing can deliver the right attention.

Deliver personal fulfillment in their everyday working life

For experienced talent, it matters that they can contribute.

Experienced talent feels they have a lot to offer to a company. The experience, knowledge and skills they have built over many years are a valuable resource. Therefore, for businesses to attract experienced talent, they must explain how they will utilize their skills significantly and their role in stimulating organizational growth.

You can do this by setting out their role in the company. For example, it is crucial to determine whether they will be involved in the decision-making process with their voice and ideas. Or by indicating how you would like them to take a leadership role through mentoring or organizing training so that they can support the development of its younger employees and the company as a whole.

Experienced talent wants to feel fulfilled, and there is a purpose behind the time and efforts they put into their work. By clarifying how you intend to channel their expertise in exciting ways, experienced talent will feel that they can play an integral role within your company.

The opportunity to progress and grow

The potential for career progression is fundamental to any potential candidate's decision-making before they apply for a role or accept an offer. 

Experienced talent is not satisfied or content with what they have. On the contrary, experienced talent possesses a hunger to push themselves, enhance their soft and hard skills and adapt to new technologies and working models to be the best version of themselves. 

As a result, businesses must showcase to experienced talent how they can offer an environment that will challenge them and the opportunities for further professional development. For example, through additional training or internal mobility programs, experienced talent can increase their understanding and awareness of other business areas that may be of interest.

By understanding the aspirations of your potential talent, you can see how it would be viable to provide them with a role and company that can deliver on their goals and ambitions within your organizational framework. 

Why attracting experienced talent is crucial to business success

Talent matters today. It is scarce, valuable and hard to replace, especially experienced talent. Hiring those with the experience and excellence in particular roles can result in higher performance levels, with experienced talent eight times more productive than an average hire.

However, as the demand for top talent grows whilst the recruitment market shrinks, it is becoming more challenging for businesses to attract and hire experienced talent. Therefore, companies must find suitable methods to attract experienced talent. They should be looking to:

1. Identify what makes their company unique and consider how EVP can attract experienced talent.
2. Showcase your company culture to increase potential interest.
3. Grow your employer and brand reputation to help stand out in a competitive landscape.
4. Highlight how your roles and company provide experienced talent with personal fulfillment.
5. Deliver opportunities for experienced talent to enhance their skills and for career progression.

The quality of talent companies possess can greatly impact their abilities to grow and prosper. When you can recruit right, tremendous opportunities open up for success.