How To Attract Big Talent To A Small Company

Just because your business isn't a Fortune 500 company doesn't mean you can't attract some top-notch professional talent. The answer is simple: instead of selling a product or service to the public, you need to sell your company to a prospective talent who you are certain will be a big difference-maker for your business.

How do you sell a product or service to the public? You show how good it is, how it feels an important need or fulfills a desire. So how do you sell your whole business to this bright talent? You show how awesome your business is, and why it would be a great fit for the prospective employee. Here are four ways of accomplishing this.

Awesome companies attract awesome people

A Competitive Salary
Thanks to the Internet, it's easy for anyone to do a search and see what the average pay is for a number of different jobs out there. So right off the bat, you need to make sure that your compensation is on par with the going rate. "You get what you pay for" doesn't only apply to customers, it seems!

Good Benefits
Although a better-than-average salary is certainly an attractive thing, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The good salary is a nice way to catch someone's initial interest, but now that you have that attention, you need to capitalize on it and take things to the next level.

Money is good, but a smart employee (and you want smart employees!) knows that benefits are important. Personal and sick days, vacation, 401K plans, health insurance, life insurance, short and long-term disability, the ability to work from home sometimes, discounts to local businesses and services, all of these provide the prospective employee with perks that, if they were to purchase themselves, would cost them an arm and a leg. Health insurance immediately comes to mind.

The Opportunity For Advancement
A smart, ambitious employee, a real go-getter, won't be happy in a dead-end job. The talented professionals out there know that they're good, and know that they have potential to go far. If your positions don't offer employees the means to advance up the ranks, then you won't get the kind of bright motivated people that every company needs in the first place.

And this opportunity can't be presented as some vague kind of "I'm sure that you'll be able to advance into something better eventually". That's baloney, and the sharp applicants know it. Make sure you can show prospective employees what sort of career track the occupation provides.

Treat Your Employees Like Human Beings
People talk, and these days, what with social media and blogs, talking is easier to do than ever. While it's frowned upon (and rightly so) for people to post rants about their jobs in public, such as a status on their social media pages, nothing prevents people from talking in private about how good (or bad) their company is.

If you want to hire good people, you should make sure that you're a good company. In this context, a good company is one that treats its people well and doesn't simply consider them to be cogs in a machine or some kind of organic-based life-form asset. Employees who feel valued, who are given a degree of flexibility when non-work urgencies like illnesses or kids come up, and who aren't being taken advantage of, are the kind of employees who will help spread the good word about your company and how awesome it is. This comes into play especially if your business offers an incentive bonus for referring a new hire!

These are just four ideas for making your business attractive to talented professionals. Check out the article "Attracting Quality Employees to Your Business" for some more insights.