Competition and Compensation: What it takes to Get, and Keep the Best Talent?

In today’s world of work, there aren’t many things that can’t be replicated, making it harder and harder for businesses to differentiate themselves. That is, except people. Unless you’ve got an illegitimate license to clone, you can’t replicate the people in your team. If you want to be better than your competitors, you need to find a way to attract the best people and keep them.

According to a recruiting report from LinkedIn from March this year, Competition and Compensation are the two biggest obstacles to talent acquisition and retention. So what do you need to do to overcome these? When we talk with our clients about their efforts to attract and reatin talent, we’ll usually begin by asking them what they’re doing in the following areas:
 


Make your Business More Competitive

• Challenging Work: No-one likes to be bored, particularly at work where you spend a good chunk of your time. If your employees are challenged and excited by what they’re doing they’ll tell their friends who will want to work for you, and everyone knows referrals make the best hires.
• Career Opportunities: It’s human nature to want to self-improve, which means by and large, people don’t want to stay in their one job doing the same thing forever. If you can offer opportunities for people to try different things, be promoted or further develop in the role they’re in, you’ll be able to attract great people and keep them longer.
• Ethics & Trust: People like to work with people who they can trust and who they respect. Don’t make false promises, be transparent about what it’s like to work in your business and what your business stands for. Not only will this attract the best person for the job, you’ll likely attract a team of people who will identify with your business and stick with you.
• Flexibility and Balance: I think we can all agree that high performance is based on outcomes, not hours or location of work. Following on from the whole trust thing flows flexibility and balance. Don’t be a Horrible Boss. Know when to give and take and trust yourself and employees enough to make it work. If it doesn’t, it’s a performance management issue, nothing to do with flexibility.

Make a Good Compensation Offer:

• Pay & Bonuses: Pay a fair wage, reward people when they do a good job and be honest about the whole thing. That will attract the right people and keep them happy, particularly if you’ve got everything else right. It’s not necessarily the most important thing, but it matters to most.
• Benefits: This is something you can do to differentiate yourself in a relatively cost effective way. There are a whole raft of options out there of what you can offer and how. Work out what reflects the values of your business and what you think will attract and keep the right type of person for your work i.e. what you would like if you were working for your business?
• Shares & Equity: This isn’t an option available to everyone but is increasingly so. The allocation of shares and equity in your business is a very powerful tool that will not only attract and keep the right people but will also motivate them above anything else you can offer.

So there is a good start on how to get and keep a good team. If you want some more info on teams, performance or sourcing great talent, check out our blogs.

If you just want to chat to someone about it, get in touch. I’d be more than happy to pick up the phone or grab a coffee with you.

Elise Barter
Principal Consultant
Generator Talent Group
Elise.Barter@GeneratorTalent.com

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Generator Talent Group

Generator Talent Group