How SMEs can win the race for talent

I don’t need to tell anyone recruiting today that’s it’s a challenge to attract, recruit and retain the best people for their vacancies.

I’m proud to say that 90% of the jobs posted on Jobs.ie result in a hire so, when it comes to recruiting, we deliver for our customers.

But let’s take a step back. And talk about attraction and retention? Before you even post your vacancy on Jobs.ie the best people should already know your business and want to work for you. Then once you recruit them, with the support of Jobs.ie of course, you want to be sure to keep them.

However, the competition for talent in the Irish labour market is at an all-time high. The presence of some of the world’s best known and most appealing employers in Ireland, combined with almost full employment has transformed jobseeker expectations.

Attracting, hiring and retaining talented people is just as crucial to an SME as a global business. It could be argued that it’s actually more important as just one great hire can have a positive impact on a small business.

When you scrutinise the companies winning the race for talent, you find they are looking beyond salary and job title. Instead, they’re looking at the overall ‘employer brand’.

In other words, they focus on how the company is viewed as an employer to the outside world and then leverage this perception to attract a target talent group. Before they even post a job ad, they are already one step ahead of their competitors.

Does that all sound a bit woolly to you? Well, there’s cold, hard business logic backing it up. It is estimated that strong employer branding can cut your recruiting costs and reduce employee turnover by 30%.

But why should big businesses hoard all the knowledge and expertise? It’s time for companies of all sizes to leverage the power of their employer brand. Which is why Jobs.ie has teamed up with our sister company Universum to bring their established and well regarded Employer Branding Academy to Ireland for the first time.

At the recent ISME conference, we were delighted to be joined by Employer Branding Expert and founder of the Employer Branding Academy, Claes Peyron, who hosted an SME Talent Workshop.

With a choice of online or class-based training, the Employer Branding Academy participants will learn the practical strategies and techniques to build a strong employer brand that can be executed to any business big or small.

Regardless of how the economy twists and turns in the future, one thing is for certain, the race for talent is here to stay.  If you want your business to be first off, the starting blocks, then it’s time to embrace employer branding.