Landing talented staff is crucial to any business’s success. Hence, it’s in every company’s interest to know how to attract the right candidates.
Let’s take a look at Google, for example. They’re considered to be one of the world’s most attractive employers.
They offer a global reach, posh offices, and flexible work arrangements. Not to mention the prestige that comes along with working there.
However, much of Google’s success is largely due to its employees. So really, the question is: How do you find people who can do the same for your company?
Google’s Genius Method for Discovering Top Talents
If you’re thinking of sifting for Ivy League accolades and years of direct experience, think again.
Contrary to popular belief, Google doesn’t require shiny resumes and cover letters.
Instead, they created an online and self-paced professional certificate course. Upon completion, interested students are given a shot to land project management roles at Google.
In other words, everyone can work at Google without any experience or even without a degree. Even Tesla and Starlink founder, Elon Musk, also adheres to the concept of finding top talents without a degree through practical and innovative methods.
Simply put, the traditional approach to staffing no longer limits multi-billion dollar companies. So why should SME’s be different?
Applying Google’s Approach to SME’s
Of course, it’s possible to adopt a similar approach in finding the right candidates for your business -without creating a professional certificate course.
All you have to do is to come up with ways to democratise the employment landscape. To do this, you’ll need to employ key components.
Here are three ways to widen the net and draw in rockstar employees:
Cast a Wider Net
First things first. Obtaining a huge volume of applications isn’t the end goal. It’s finding the best candidate for a role. But you can only do this when you attract more options.
Hence, eliminating the standard restrictions (i.e. higher education and direct experience) can open up your candidate pool considerably.
For instance, if you’re looking for a talented sales representative, there’s no need to require a college degree. You don’t need a diploma to be effective at sales.
In fact, billionaires Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg built their empires sans a college degree.
Thus, don’t overlook potential candidates without a degree or who lack prior experience as it can be detrimental to finding the best fit for your company.
Prioritise Aptitude Tests
In lieu of shiny resumes and diplomas, you can ask for portfolios showing their previous work, thought processes, communication skills, and leadership styles.
After all, specific work tasks can be learned. Hence, what you need to screen for is aptitude.
You may use screening questions to field incoming candidates. Afterwards, you can proceed with test projects to assess final applicants who demonstrate the skills and talents that you need.
Polished cover letters and past academic achievements won’t guarantee excellent work performance. You’ll need to make use of screening questions to gain additional insights about the candidate’s suitability for your company, and vice versa.
Invest in Employee Training
However, this strategy isn’t exclusive to candidates and employees. Employers who truly want to hire and retain top talents also need to invest in employee training.
Acquiring talents with a high degree of aptitude and fresh perspective won’t suffice.
You also need to support and give them opportunities to upskill so they can do more and be more.
That’s how you find and retain top talent.
Unsure about where to start? We’ve got you!
Remote Staff has been assisting more than 3,000 Australian SMEs and entrepreneurs like you with the help of our remote workers from the Philippines for more than a decade and counting. Aside from finding and hiring top talent, we also provide assistance in onboarding to help you retain your most talented and skilled employees.
Call us today or schedule a call back and let’s get started.
Serena has been working remotely and writing content for the better part of the last decade. To date, she's written for Pepper.ph and Mabuhay Magazine, among others, and has churned out more than a thousand articles on everything from The Basics of Stock Market Investing to How to Make Milk Tea-Flavored Taho at home.
