Due to skills shortages, and increased market competition, it is now harder than ever to attract the best calibre of candidates for your scientific jobs. Here are our top tips for attracting candidates to your business:
1. Consider your branding
- Candidates are more likely to consider positions within your business if you have a strong brand.
- Make sure your website is up to date and include success stories in your news section. It’s helpful to have a careers section where you list any opportunities that are currently available and sell the benefits of working for you.
2. Do your research and put together a competitive offering
- You are in a much stronger position to attract the best calibre of candidates if you know what skilled candidates are looking for.
- Not all candidates are motivated by salary but it is worthwhile carrying out a salary survey to identify what your competitors are paying. You may wish to use this to benchmark your salary offering or to adapt the role profile accordingly.
- Benefits are often as important to candidates as the salary is. Identify what you offer (or can implement) which might be attractive to a candidate and use this to sell your company.
- Think about succession planning and whether you can offer a potential candidate the opportunity to progress.
3. Put together a clear and concise person specification, job description and advert
- Candidates are much more likely to consider a position if they are given full details of what the role will entail and what is expected of them.
- Having a person specification will help you to identify the candidates who are of interest to you, and will also allow recruitment consultancies to identify the candidates who possess the skills which you are looking for.
- Include both the essential and desirable skills in your person specification.
4. Make it easy to apply
- Research suggests that many candidates are put off by a complicated application process. If you need candidates to complete a long application form or to send a letter in order to even register their interest for a role, then it’s likely that you will lose candidates who put off completing the form and then miss the deadline, who forget about it, or who just don’t have the time.
- It’s worth considering that the best candidates are often passive candidates, the ones who aren’t actively looking, but who might consider applying for the right role, with an attractive advert. You should make it as easy as possible for those candidates
5. Never stop looking
- Is there a role that you regularly struggle to recruit for?
- Is there a position that is key to your business that you couldn’t cope with the loss of?
It’s worthwhile always being open to speaking to good candidates in these areas.
You may not have an active vacancy currently available but could you accommodate this candidate in some capacity within your business? If not, make sure you set clear expectations at the beginning of the process, give the candidate timescales for the anticipated need (if you can) and agree a time to get back in touch for an update.
For positions which regularly arise, a recruitment consultancy can set up a “talent pool” of candidates, which are pre-screened, and can be contacted quickly should an urgent position come up.
If you’d like to chat about any of the issues raised in this article, please don’t hesitate to contact our team of specialist recruiters
