Top 5+ Essential Elements to Building a Talent Brand that Attracts A+ Players

An organization no longer has the luxury of singularly focusing on “how good is our product or service?” Now, it’s equally as important to ask, “How good a company are we to work for…?”

In today’s LinkedIN News feed, you will discover talent is on the move. While people were staying put for the duration of what they thought would be a short economic blip, they now are willing to once again consider taking on new roles at new companies. That is a good sign for the economy, one of many indicators used to signal improvement, and also signals it is time to focus on your talent or employer brand.

Growing Importance of Employer Brand

The companies who always rank high in retention and engagement all have two things in common. They focus on the importance of their employer brand and invest in the happiness and well-being of their employees.

According to Harvard Business Review, employer branding is becoming strategically more important to CEOs, HR and marketing leaders, with a third looking to build their global employer brand through 2021. In addition, many leaders now believe the responsibility for the employer brand rests with the CEO and are a part of the marketing function rather than leaning on recruiters or HR, with 60% of CEOs saying it is their responsibility.

What is “Employer Branding”?

Universumglobal.com defines Employer Branding as the process of promoting a company, or an organization, as the employer of choice for a desired target group — one which a company needs and wants to recruit and retain.

In a post by colleague Marty Caldwell, he starts with the idea, “Successful sales organizations begin at the top and execute at all levels.” He also says that that Vision, Mission, Values, Strategies and Tactics are the guidelines to sales success. I would suggest that same philosophy applies to how you attract, recruit and retain people for your organization. Today, really focus on how your mission, vision and values contribute to attracting and recruiting the right talent.

Nothing new about hiring A-Players? Think Again.

Everyone wants to hire “A-players”. But how do you define A-players? How do you define A-players for your organization? Do you have the ideal profile for A+ players?

If you don’t, then how do you ensure your hiring the right team? Some people say it’s just a gut feeling, others would say they have contracted the best we could find at the time. I would say, that’s all garbage!

In our eBook, The ART of Hiring A-Players Today, we posit the cost of mis-hiring and mis-promoting is 5X-24X the individual’s salary. DO THE MATH! For a $50,000 a year employee, that means you are losing $250,000 to $1,200,000 for each bad hire! A company we are working with just completed a sensitivity analysis indicating for them it was about $850,000 on an $80,000 average base. That’s scary, real world data.

Our book also asks why so many people and companies are just plain bad at hiring? The reasons for mis-hires are many, but the top seven are:

1. No clear definition of the hiring requirements. What are the MUST HAVE talents
2. No clear ownership of the hiring process. Who is ultimately responsible for the hire?
3. Reliance on one person to make the decision for the hire. Who else interviews?
4. Hiring for functional attributes ONLY. Do they fit in with the team or group?
5. Hiring based on interview only. Are they really who they say they are?
6. Lack of thoroughness in the process. Who validated their claims? References?
7. Poor on-boarding. How do we acclimate them to our team / company / products?

Attracting, Recruiting and Retaining – Starts at the Top

No need to panic; we all have had to fine tune this process, and many have even stunk at it in the past. How can we make sure we learn the lessons and begin attracting, recruiting and retaining those A+ Players?

Define what an A-B-C player looks like within your organization and communicate throughout the ENTIRE organization. State what having the right players on your team means to the success of your organization, and what the wrong players mean to your detriment. Think in terms of $$$ and overall morale. Make it a part of your dialogue, both internally and externally. It must become a part of your culture, who you are and march your vision.

In our recent podcast with Brynne Tillman, CEO of Social Sales Link, she makes it clear that their passion must show through. Clearly important right now, as the future success, rising out of pandemic, means you must have folks who are “all in”. In her mind, if you have a high enough IQ, EQ and passion quotient, you can learn and do just about anything.

Determine who is responsible for the process. How it will be implemented and communicated throughout the ENTIRE organization. Also, develop a training protocol for success. Define expected outcomes, and make sure they match your mission.

Discuss expectations with everyone on the team and what attributes or skills are critical to measure for recruiting and retaining the correct people within the organization. This includes your recruitment firm. Also, define metrics that will measure the success of the organization and marry them to your values.

“I want to see impact beyond responsibility,” says Tillman. Others we talk to feel the same. A clear expectation of hires must be that they brought incredible value to their organization, not just have a list of responsibilities they may or may not have performed against admirably.

Decide how you will find these candidates. Choose whether you are using internal or external sources…or both. If using external sources, they must also be on board and understand how you define your hiring strategy for A+ players. Also create tools, that make it easy for those interviewing and hiring so everyone becomes clear on how candidates will best compliment and execute team strategies.

Brynne also covered the critical aspect of depending on recommendations, and not just those you seek out from references. Brynne says, “Look at recommendations on LinkedIN. Where are they coming from…? Are they clients; are they from coworkers? Does their boss love them?”

Train on the message and implement the tools. Measure your success using well defined metrics. Also, make sure you are getting feedback from your organization on a regular basis. If you think once a year is enough, you’re wrong. Ensure everyone is executing well on employer branding tactics.

There is so much more to be shared around this topic. If you would be interested in the eBook, “The ART of Hiring A-Players Today”, drop me a message, and I will make sure you get a FREE copy.

And share your ideas below on how a company can become the employer of choice through a well-executed talent branding strategy. 

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As always, we recommend you connect with Brynne on LinkedIn. You don't want to miss out on her content.

You can find her here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/brynnetil...

Want to learn more about Brynne or gain access to her free training, you can visit her at www.linkedinlibrary.com or you can find her at her company page which is https://socialsaleslink.com/

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If you haven't connected with Scott, please connect with him on LinkedIn. You can find him here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/scottrivers/

Lastly, please check out our latest book on The Art of Hiring A Players. You can get this awesome resource for free by going to this link: https://cercatalent.com/hiring-a-play...

Cerca Talent: https://www.cercatalent.com/

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Scott Rivers is the Managing Director of Cerca Talent+, a talent agency for the Diagnostic and Life Science Industries. Scott's recruiting experience extends into the areas of Diagnostics, Life Sciences, Oncology and Genetics. His team manages recruitment for all levels within the commercial area of these businesses.

As a leader who has worked at all levels of commercial, medical sales and global marketing, Scott is an intense professional who works with organizations to fine tune talent branding. If you are a leader looking to expand your team with professionals who are focused on delivering work in which they take pride, and you can be proud of, every day, then Scott would be privileged to help you in the process. Having been a professional in the fields where you focus, Scott knows the ins and outs of the companies, the business and the customers you are working to come alongside.

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Cerca Talent+ is a full-service Executive Search Firm with a strategic focus in the areas of Clinical Diagnostics, Molecular Diagnostics and Oncology, Genomic and Genetic Medicine. Our clients choose Cerca because of our deep understanding of the industries we serve. They continue to work with us based on our extensive market knowledge, vast connections and quality of results.

We Provide Top Talent to create Peak Performance. That’s a good match for any company. Partner with the group that can talk shop and gain rapport with the pros who will lead your business into the future. Email Scott Rivers today at [email protected], or call direct at 201-594-2101, and we will begin the process of finding you Top Gun Talent guaranteed to help you set records