As a Business Coach, I’m seeing many businesses really struggling today to attract and hold onto the right kind of people in their teams.
However, while most are quick to blame the recruitment process or the current economic conditions, it’s more important to focus on what’s actually within your control, such as your workplace culture and the type of environment that you’re offering new and existing staff.
The reality is: whether it’s for better or for worse, you ultimately get the team you deserve.
What team do you have? What team do you want?
Here’s how to home in on what you can do to find and keep the best people in your business.
Why is attracting the right talent so important?
In the right circumstances, your people are your business’ biggest strength – but they can also be a source of weakness if they lack motivation, leadership and support. Therefore, choosing the right talent can literally be the difference between business success and failure.
This makes finding the right people to help you run your operations one of the most critical things you will do as a business owner – so it’s important to do it properly.
That’s why I tell my clients that you have to focus not just on attracting high-quality talent, but also to give them every reason to want to stay with you over the long term.
So, how do you attract the right people?
To attract the right people, you first need to make your organisation an attractive place to work!
This involves:
- determining the level of value that you currently offer your employees and
- evaluating whether it’s enough to draw in and retain good talent.
If it’s not, you’ve got some work to do.
However, with the right kind of leadership and management, you can transform your organisation into a desirable workplace that will have people busting down the door to come work for you – that’s the goal.
5 key steps to help you attract and retain the best talent
- Build a system of recognition
Employees who feel recognised for their efforts at work are far more engaged in their roles. So, showing genuine acknowledgement can go a long way to retaining your best talent over time – and it’s not just monetary based.
Recognise your team often, in a variety of ways instead. For instance, an unexpected, personalised ‘thank you’ message for a job well done will go a long way.
- Get clear on your purpose
Give your employees a strong purpose to get behind. Excite them and make them feel part of something bigger than themselves.
Having a clear purpose to solve real-world problems and reminding both your employees and your outside audience of this regularly will help cultivate and reinforce a positive culture within your organisation.
- Develop a strong sense of mastery
Is your team getting better every day?
Investing in regular training and development for each of your team members will help to reinforce their self-worth and motivate them to keep improving and contributing to your workplace in a valuable way.
Good people stay when they feel there’s more for them to learn.
- Play to your team’s strengths
If one of your employees hates data entry, then don’t give them a day full of admin tasks. Instead, take the time to understand each team member’s strengths and utilise them accordingly to delegate matching tasks. I recommend using the CliftonStrengths Assessment to do this.
Not only will this give your staff a sense of accomplishment, but it will also make work feel more engaging and encourage them to stay with you.
- Give your team what they want: autonomy
I cannot stress how important this is in fostering a positive workplace culture.
Once your team is well-trained, they have a sense of direction, they feel recognised and they’re each playing to their strengths, you need to make sure that you give them the autonomy they need to do their job and achieve their goals.
Micromanagement is not only inefficient, but it shows a lack of trust. Autonomy creates a positive working environment that will help you retain your best talent.
For more information, read: Why managers should start asking more questions.
These five simple steps will work together to not only build and reinforce a strong internal culture, but your team will also start telling others, too.
Ultimately, when you start to see your current employees encouraging their friends and business connections to come and work for your company, that’s when you’ll know you’ve hit the sweet spot.
Do you need help in cultivating an attractive workplace?
Attracting the right talent and retaining them over the long term is paramount to the ongoing success of your organisation.
By fostering a positive and productive culture, you can continue to grow your workplace and enable your people to grow with it.
As a Business Coach and Mentor, I work with business owners like you to help you achieve your business goals.
I can guide you in building ideas, developing strategies and implementing systems into your organisation to help you attract and hold onto the best talent in the marketplace.
Simply schedule an initial discovery call today with me.
Stephen O’Sullivan
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