In today's competitive job market, building a team of talented recruiters is a crucial priority for any recruitment business. But how can you distinguish your organization from the crowd and attract the very best talent? Creating a robust talent acquisition strategy is key. From solidifying your employer brand and Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to focusing on candidate experience, and new starter training, here's how you can position your company as an employer of choice. Finding awesome people isn't a walk in the park, but it's doable if you focus on creating a talent acquisition strategy that plays to your strengths. Let's dive into the need-to-knows.

​What's Your Vibe?

First things first, let's talk about your employer brand. This is your company’s reputation as a place to work. No one wants to work at a place that reminds them of an episode of The Office. So, get your marketing and ops folks in a room and brainstorm ways to show off all the best assets of your company. Some tips:

• Get on LinkedIn and shout about your company. Show off your great internal culture.

• Run webinars, post quotes and videos from your current employees.

• Get your Glassdoor profile in order and ask for reviews from staff.

• Spotlight success stories – people who have climbed the ladder.

​Sweeten the Deal

Next up, your Employee Value Proposition (EVP). This is your sales pitch to potential employees – give them all the reasons they would want to choose you over the other recruitment companies that might be chasing after them. You want to think about the kinds of things that make working for you rewarding, such as incentives, career prospects and values. Think about things like:

• The benefits you offer (flexible working, bonus schemes, holiday allowance, incentives)

• Career progression opportunities and how quickly they can climb the ladder

• Work-life balance and wellbeing programmes

• Technology and tools

• Training and L&D opportunities

​Make a Great First Impression

You know how you don't like waiting forever for a text back? Well, people don’t like being left hanging after they apply for a job, either. The candidate experience begins from the moment an individual interacts with your brand, and it continues through the application process, interviews, and onboarding. Building a positive candidate experience will mean you’ll find it easier to attract the best people on the market, and it’ll result in more loyal employees. Think about:

• Your application process - is it overly complicated or repetitive?

• Your communication touch points – do you keep people informed throughout the journey?

• Your interview process – is it long and drawn out or do you make decisions quickly?

• Your feedback mechanisms – do you give clear instructions and constructive feedback at each stage?

​Help them to Fly

Your training program is your secret sauce to keeping great talent. This isn't just about showing newbies how to use your internal database. It's about making them feel empowered and ready to conquer the world—or at least the world of recruitment. Make the training engaging, interactive, and, above all, useful.

Creating a high-quality talent academy is the gift that keeps on giving – not only does it help your new starters feel settled and invested in, they’ll also start fee earning quicker, and give a better level of service to clients and candidates, protecting your brand reputation.

Include all the areas that will help them succeed:

• Sales calls

• Job briefs

• Candidate screening

• Writing job ads

• Boolean searches

• Using your tech

• LinkedIn training

​Be Cool, Be Inclusive

Diversity and inclusion aren't just buzzwords; demonstrating a real commitment to D&I across your workplace is fast becoming a necessity. People want to know that they can come to work and feel accepted for who they are. They want to know that they will be celebrated and supported to flourish, that diverse voices are heard and respected.

​In today’s landscape, and with Gen Z workers in particular, it matters that their workplace respects and values all kinds of people. So, if you want to attract graduate recruiters, make it a big part of your culture and talent strategy. Think about things like:

• Affinity networks and employee groups

• How you gather and implement employee feedback

• External D&I networks

• Policies and values

• Media and social media representation

• The diversity of your senior team

​Go Where the People Are

Finally, don't just wait for applications to roll in. Having a far-reaching outreach strategy in place will help you to approach and attract talent that may not have considered recruitment as a career option, or may already be in work but thinking of a change.

As well as utilising social media, you could consider running or attending events like job fairs, sales expos, and industry events in your niche. You could also team up with local colleges to promote a career in recruitment as an alternative for those who don’t want to attend university.

​Wrap-up

Attracting talent in today’s world where employee expectations are high requires more than posting a few job ads. Sure, you could use a rec-to-rec, but if you work on these areas you could save yourself money and build a reliable pipeline of high-quality talent.

To sum it all up, if you want to lure in top recruiters, you need to be a place people want to work. That means communicating who you are as an organisation, what you stand for, how you treat your employees, and how you help people to succeed. Make these things the key areas of your talent acquisition strategy and you won’t go wrong.