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Winning the Best Talent: 7 Hiring Strategies for Mid-Sized Companies
September 19th, 2024 by Amy SuitterBy Bill Benson and Jeff McGraw
Large companies that have name recognition often start with an advantage when attracting talent. Candidates know who they are and they often have a reputation for offering good benefits and opportunities. If you are going to win the best talent you will need to take a strategic approach.
Whether hiring finance or engineering talent, or seeking a specialized skill set, you will often be competing with one of these “name brand” companies. Large companies indeed have larger budgets, talent acquisition teams and the best technology. Here are ways you can improve your win-rate when competing for top talent:
1. Promote the Opportunity to Make an Impact
Employees feel particularly valued for their contributions when they have a noticeable impact on the company’s success. Create an environment where employees are allowed to take on broad responsibilities and projects that offer visibility within the company. Larger company roles tend to be narrower in focus and it is often harder to get noticed for promotion. Feature the ability to make an impact.
2. Focus on Career Development and Promotion Opportunities
As part of the onboarding and integration process, implement professional development plan. Connect the incoming talent with a mentor and develop continuous learning opportunities through on the job training programs. Expose them to broader roles and duties to keep them growing and learning.
Provide clear and attainable career advancement opportunities. In small to mid-sized organizations, employees often have the chance to wear multiple hats and take on new challenges, accelerating their career growth compared to larger companies
3. Fine Tune and Promote your Company Culture
Small to mid-sized companies are often close-knit, empowered, collaborative and more personal than a large company culture. Clarify the differences offered by your company in a way to differentiate yourself from larger companies.
- Work life balance is important to most employees. Develop comprehensive wellness programs and benefits that address physical, mental, and financial well-being. This can include gym memberships, mental health days, stress management workshops, and financial planning assistance. Offer family-friendly policies such as flexibility to attend a child soccer or football game, flexible working arrangements and work from home options.
- Engagement with the community. Promote a purposeful culture by offering time off to volunteer in the community. Encourage community involvement which can lead to referrals.
- Develop partnerships with local universities to tap into their talent pipelines. Offer internships, co-op programs, and collaborative research opportunities to attract emerging talent.
While large companies or “corporate” environments have their benefits, we find that more people enjoy working for small to mid-sized companies where they feel less like a number and have a closer connection to strategic decisions and top executives. Mid-sized companies are often less political, less bureaucratic and offer more direct opportunity and flexibility.
4. Offer Competitive and Flexible Compensation Plans
While you may not match the salary of larger corporations, you can offer customized benefits such as work life balance, flexible work hours, remote work options, or extra vacation days. Consider offering unique perks like student loan assistance, wellness programs, or professional development stipends.
Provide opportunities for employees to have a financial stake in the company’s success through equity options or profit-sharing plans. This can be particularly attractive to candidates looking for long-term growth and investment in the company’s future.
5. Flexibility and Agility
Highlight the ability to work on cutting-edge projects or contribute to innovation in ways that may be less accessible in larger, more bureaucratic companies. Smaller teams can pivot more quickly and implement innovative ideas faster.
Emphasize the benefits of working in an environment where decisions are made quickly, and employees can see the immediate impact of their work.
6. Take a More Strategic Approach to Recruiting
Turn to third party recruiting firms to help target and recruit candidates who are not answering postings. This will give you an advantage over companies who are relying on large advertising budgets.
Offer employee referral programs and encourage your best employees to identify potential past colleagues or classmates. They are often the best advocates to promote the opportunity to like-minded potential employees.
7. Human Touch
Large companies utilize AI and automation to screen and communicate with potential applicants. Hone your communication to be more personal in style and tailored to the individual. Outreach should focus on valuable information to a candidate not what is important to the employer. In other words, the posting or outreach content should be focused on “attracting” rather than “screening”. Describe what you would like the person to accomplish, which is more appealing than a list of requirements.
Your initial live contact with the candidate should be warm and focused on understanding what is important to them. Large corporations may use automatic messages as a first contact. You can differentiate yourself from the start to build trust with the candidate.
Hopefully these tips will help you win the best talent!
Happy Hunting.
Hiring Right for Culture Fit
August 14th, 2024 by Amy Suitterby Bill Benson and Jeff McGraw
If you are looking to hire individuals who will thrive in your organization, they need to have an environment that complements their style and approach to work. The gravity of culture fit becomes increasingly important when hiring leaders and is paramount if that leader is in an executive role.
Organizations will sometimes hire a new leader to adapt a culture. We often see this post-acquisition or during instances of ownership transitions. Organizations that need to change their culture due to market conditions or competitive pressure will need to consider several risk factors when approaching the change.
Failing to Consider Culture in Hiring Has Consequences
Owners, boards and top executives often favor attributes that lean toward their aspirations or a desired future rather than understanding who will successfully lead the current organization. Companies can be enamored by a person’s credentials or specific industry experience rather than a more holistic understanding of the candidate. These risk factors include the following areas:
Underestimating the Resistance to Change: Not fully understanding how current values, leadership styles and practices will react to a new approach. This can impact the effectiveness and performance of the new executive.
Misalignment of Expectations: Ownership and the new executive have conflict because they are not aligned fully on pace, methods and outcomes of changing culture. This falls into the category of “be careful what you asked for.”
Neglecting Employee Input and Ignoring Existing Strengths: This will lead to trust and morale issues which may result in losing your best employees. Listening and building upon strengths in addition to addressing needed areas of change will be more effective.
Lack of Communication: Failing to communicate the reasons for change and the role everyone will play in the change process, including the new executive, can be a critical failure point. Over-communicating needs to be the practice.
Lack of Support: Let’s assume you fully understand the factors involved in hiring your change agent. Failing to give the new executive the backing, support and time needed will hinder their ability to be successful. (See: Misalignment of Expectations.)
Understand Your Current Culture
The following diagram offered up by Harvard Business Review, and Spencer Stuart, offers 8 different organization cultures.
Lee Hecht Harrison does an excellent job giving examples and describing how these eight culture factors impact leadership activities in this article.
Hiring Right for Culture Fit: A Good Recipe to Follow
Vision and Values: Alignment in this area will ensure decisions and strategies that reflect the company’s core principles and lead to a more cohesive direction.
Leadership Style and Influence: A leadership style that aligns with the culture will resonate with and more effectively influence, motivate and retain employees.
Change Management: An executive aligned with the culture will be better equipped to lead seamless change.
Decision-Making: Culture fit influences decision making processes. The right fit will lead to someone making decisions that fit the values and be more sustainable in the long run.
Collaboration and Team Dynamics: Aligned leaders will create more harmony and an environment that is more innovative and efficient.
Brand and Reputation: Misalignment often leads to turnover and can additionally impact customer and investor satisfaction.
Long-Term Success: The right culture fit will ensure long-term success through continuity and consistent leadership.
Incorporating the right hiring specification which includes intangible “fit factors” along with effective behavioral and conversational interviews, assessments and references, are critical in identifying and selecting the candidate who will be most successful.
Check out another blog article we have on culture fit here.
Can we help you find a candidate that’s a good culture fit? Contact us.
Hiring for Culture Fit in 2023
March 21st, 2023 by Amy Suitter
Hiring for Culture Fit in 2023 by Bill Benson
Are you struggling to find people who will stay with you long term? Do you have an intentional process to evaluate fit? We still see companies screening and measuring candidates against largely tangible requirements. Most companies see the importance of culture fit, but it hasn’t translated to the interview process. A best practice would be to evaluate both tangible and intangible qualities. If someone fails or leaves after a short time it is often related to how they fit within the company or some other intangible factor. Hiring an employee that fits well with the team and has a baseline of experience to build from is often a better hire than someone who has all the experience but doesn’t fit the company well.
It is easy to attach confidence to a candidate with parallel experience or be infatuated with a specific aspect like a skill set or competitor experience. Many of the factors we see as important are often skills that can be learned. Personality, drive, character, willingness to change, interest in learning and many other factors are inherent and won’t change.
The most discussed aspect of fit is “culture fit.” Culture fit refers to the compatibility of an individual with a company’s values, beliefs, and working style. The idea behind hiring for culture fit is that employees who share the company’s culture are more likely to be happy, productive, and stay with the company longer.
Consider employees within your company who are succeeding. What are the qualities they possess that make them successful? They have a good understanding of what it takes to be successful in your organization. It’s important to take a good look at the factors pivotal to the success of your top employees. This gives you insight on qualities to seek with your new hires.
When considering culture fit in the hiring process employers typically assess an applicant’s values, communication style, work ethic, and personality. This can be done through various methods such as:
Interviews: The interviewer can ask open-ended questions such as, “describe a culture that is a good fit for you?” “What elements or characteristics are you seeking in your next work environment?” “If you could wave a magic wand – what would you change in your current environment?” Here are some additional questions to consider.
References: Speaking to the candidate’s past colleagues or managers can provide insights into their work ethic and how they fit into a team.
Behavioral and situational interview questions: These types of questions can provide insight into how the candidate might handle different scenarios in the workplace.
Work samples and tests: Review a candidate’s previous work or give them a test or project that can give a clearer idea of their skills and abilities, as well as their approach to problem-solving.
Company events and activities: Inviting candidates to company events or activities can give them a sense of the company culture and help determine if they would be a good fit. Having the potential candidate spend some time in your environment will also give you a feel for how they fit.
Dinner or lunch: Having a candidate out with a small group in an informal setting like dinner or lunch will give you insight into their social skills.
Family-owned businesses have unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to hiring and building a successful workforce. Typically, these companies have strong cultures that value people, customers, relationships and teamwork. In the post covid environment, many of these family business values resonate with employees looking for stability in a caring environment. It is critical for these culture rich environments to take extra time to evaluate alignment. Here are a couple of tips for family businesses leaders:
- Designate a key family member who has strong alignment and passion for the culture of the organization and involve them in the interview process.
- Have a clear understanding of the elements that make up your culture and use those to help promote your brand. Elements like a focus on safety or employee development are examples that reinforce an environment that is meeting the needs of its employees.
- Trusting relationships are developed when the employee believes the employer is focused on collective interests rather than profit. Make sure interviews are a two-way street where you ask questions about what is important to the candidate and what is important to you.
- Develop purposeful opportunities for employees to volunteer and get involved with a community or not-for-profit organization. These activities will reinforce your culture of caring.
Here are some areas of “fit” to check that can contribute to an employee’s success:
1. Readiness to adapt and change
2. Self-Directed
3. Motivation and Drive
4. Values Alignment
5. Interest in Learning – Creative, Inquisitive
6. Capability to Work Collaboratively
7. Emotional Intelligence
8. Pro-Active – Able to “see the work” as well as execute.
9. Leadership Style
10. Character and Integrity
The cost of a hiring mistake can be 3-5 times the amount of the employee’s annual salary. A good interview, reference and assessment process will help you find a great fit for your organization.
Happy Employee Hunting!