Earlier this month I was a speaker at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Digital Summit 2018.

I was joined by marketing leaders from across the industry, including Royal Mail, Lonely Planet and SORTEDfood in an event which saw debates about how to take advantage of the challenges facing the industry, such as Brexit, mistrust, fake news, new technologies and brand transparency.

During my speech I shared some of my 12 years of recruitment expertise.

This advice, aimed at developing successful recruitment strategies, covered everything from identifying an organisation’s culture, pinning down business objectives to understanding employees better.

Here are my top tips for attracting and retaining workforce talent:

The push factor

The reason someone decides to leave their current organisation can be split into two defining groups: ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors.

Push factors are just that, the things that push them to want to leave. The most common are: the direction of the business, poor job satisfaction, lack of challenge, no career progression, and salary. Interestingly, the first four push factors are interlinked.

Every organisation must consider these push factors in order to improve staff retention. Are you communicating with your employees effectively? Do they understand the business objectives?

The pull factor

On the other hand, pull factors are things which attract candidates to a new organisation – things which they are not experiencing at their current workplace. If you cannot retain talent, can you attract it?

The top pull factors are: challenge, job satisfaction, business direction, work/life balance and pay rise.

Generation X is typically attracted by a strong work/life balance and a professional challenge. This is likely to be linked to them being in the midst of raising a family. They will also typically want some composition of flexible, or agile working, at an organisation that is more interested in their work output rather than where it is undertaken.

Baby boomers are looking for job satisfaction and its challenge – often as a result of seeking personal gratification and public recognition in their professional lives. It can also be the result of them being ‘empty nesters’ with no need to balance work and home so allowing them to focus on their career.

Putting yourself in their shoes

The ability to match a candidate’s generation is particularly relevant as the adult millennials move into senior and executive positions. This generation are tech savvy, have a preference to work in a team environment and are unwilling to sacrifice lifestyles for work commitments. They will also seek constant feedback and praise for their work, requiring a slightly different management style. Boards and organisations need to consider this fresh set of challenges and ensure they have the procedures in place to hire and retain staff from this generation.

To develop a successful recruitment strategy, organisations need to focus on what may push their high achievers out of the business and address those concerns in order to retain talent.

When they need to hire, they should act upon the pull factors of their target candidates and understand how to compete in the marketplace beyond simply offering remuneration packages.

Flexibility and the weekly commuter

As technology has enabled effective remote working, many organisations are comfortable to offer some form of flexible or agile working practices. Indeed, it’s something Generation X demands.

However, many senior and board positions require a high level of office presence to interact with key stakeholders and direct teams.

Whilst a Page Executive survey revealed that 58% of candidates would consider relocating for a job – many more (72%) were comfortable with weekly commuting.

The weekly commuter market is growing. Sometimes called weekly boarders or 5:2ers, employees spend a chunk of the week in one destination for work, whilst retaining their home often many miles away. The advantage being they are able to pursue career opportunities, without having to uproot established support networks and schooling etc.

This is an option which progressive organisations must consider providing in order to secure the services of high achieving talent.

It’s all in the planning

Every organisation is different but there are broadly three areas you must consider when building your recruitment strategy

Firstly, you need to plan your recruitment. It sounds obvious but many hiring managers and organisations react too quickly to changing personnel issues and don’t think through their recruitment?

It’s essential you consider what your people attraction method is and why. You must also take into account the recruitment channels you use including direct, adverts, LinkedIn, social media, agency and head-hunters. Which method will give you the best person, not the best person available?

Define job roles, reporting structures, salaries, location, and industry background versus functional experience.

Think outside the box

Just because something has always been done a certain way doesn’t mean it should continue. Challenge your normal approach to hiring. Consider your employer value proposition, diversity and inclusion strategy, candidate location, candidate industry experience, unconscious bias, flexible working and so on.

You should also be flexible on what you are looking for. What will fit in the role/team or business – think outside the box?

Firm but flexible

Whilst it’s important you really define your hiring process, you must avoid becoming too rigid. Have a structured recruitment process but be prepare to compromise on this if it means securing good talent.

When it comes to timescales, work back from when you want to person to start with you, consider their notice periods and the time it will take for all key decision makers to meet and screen the individual.

And importantly, don’t procrastinate on decisions. Make a timely decision with a realistic offer. The market moves quickly for good talent, the best people will have multiple opportunities, so do not undo all your hard work in planning, process and defining your employer value proposition just to fall at the last hurdle and not make a timely decision.