Attracting the best job applicants to a leadership role is crucial for the success of any business. Leaders set direction, influence culture and impact performance. As such, you can’t compromise, especially in a highly competitive job market.
To make matters even more challenging, the expectations of today's job seekers are constantly evolving, and organisations must adapt to these changes in order to remain competitive. In short, you really have to sell it to them to attract the very best candidates to your business.
In this article, we’ll explore some effective strategies for attracting the best job applicants to a leadership role. Drawing on our extensive experience in executive search, we’ll share insights and best practices to help organisations stand out in the crowded job market and secure the most talented candidates for their leadership positions.
5 Ways to Attract the Best Job Applicants for Your Role
1. Think about what you’re offering your employees
Salary and benefits are among the most important factors that candidates consider when evaluating job opportunities. Offering competitive compensation and benefits packages can help attract top-tier candidates to leadership roles within your company.
What’s more, you can think about offering flexible working patterns which, in this day and age, are valued very highly by the majority of employees. Read our white paper about the 4 Day Work Week to find out more about the benefits this can offer you as a business.
2. Nurture your reputation as an employer
In order to attract the best candidates, it is important to establish a strong employer brand. This involves developing a positive reputation as an employer, through factors such as a positive company culture, competitive compensation and benefits, opportunities for professional development, and a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Websites like GlassDoor can be incredibly influential when it comes to top tier candidates choosing where they want to work. And that’s the crux of recruiting to leadership positions - to attract top talent, in order to get the best of the best through the door, your business must be a rewarding, welcoming and exciting place to work.
3. Emphasise opportunities for professional development
Top-tier candidates are often looking for opportunities to continue learning and growing in their careers, it’s probably the reason they’re in influential leadership positions in the first place.
By emphasising professional development opportunities within your company, such as mentoring programs and training, you can help attract these candidates to leadership roles within your organisation.
4. Shout about your values
Values are incredibly important when developing culture and reputation as an organisation. And, as such, they’re also key in attracting the best candidates to leadership roles in your organisation. A candidate at this level is looking for an organisation which clearly aligns to their own beliefs, principles and values.
By showcasing these values in recruitment stages, you can set yourself apart from competitors and attract high-calibre candidates who are seeking to join an organisation that upholds ethical standards and fosters a positive work culture. When candidates perceive a business as being genuinely committed to its values, they are more likely to be drawn to leadership roles within that organisation, viewing it as an opportunity to make a meaningful impact while advancing their careers too.
5. Utilise an Executive Search Consultant
At leadership level, top tier candidates are few and far between, and the chances of that perfect person being in the market for a new role at the same time you’re advertising your role is quite slim. So, rather than advertising your role and waiting for a candidate to come to you, you can opt to take control of the situation with a more proactive approach and utilise an executive search consultant.
Partnering with an executive search consultant can help your company identify and attract the most qualified candidates for leadership roles, even if they’re not actively looking for a new role. These consultants have deep knowledge of the job market and can leverage their extensive networks to identify top-tier candidates, with industry specific knowledge and experience, who may not be actively seeking new opportunities.
So, if you’re still considering how to attract candidates to your leadership team, there are a few practical tips above that can help you bring in the very best people.
It’s never an easy task to bring someone into a leadership position, and the cost of this going wrong can impact your bottom line and your reputation too.
So, if you’d like to mitigate those risks, consider getting in touch with an expert executive search consultant from the SPS International team. Our search consultants have experience in a range of industries, and contacts in a variety of sectors, to make your executive recruitment process more efficient, and bring you the very best candidates.