How to Hire Top-Performing Employees

The war for talent has been fought since 2001, and companies are cognizant of the ramifications of losing. Top talent makes—or breaks—your organization. According to McKinsey, a study found high performers are 400 percent more productive than average ones. So, to get employees that are going to power your company’s efforts, you need the right recruiting strategy. Here’s how to hire top-performing employees.

Focus on the Candidate Experience

First, you need to focus on the candidate experience. This is what Virgin Media did. They found that a negative candidate experience was costing them $5 million annually. Through bad reviews, negative word of mouth, and other effects of providing a poor experience to job applicants, Virgin was losing customers. So, they changed how they treat anyone who applies for a job with the organization. By creating a gold standard recruitment process, they increased revenue. In fact, they discovered it’s 10 times cheaper to gain business from the recruiting process than from traditional marketing.

Improve Your Employer Branding

Similarly, Virgin’s positive candidate experience involved improving their employer branding. LinkedIn defines employer brand as “a second brand related to its primary brand about how you’re viewed as an employer.” In other words, it’s the thoughts and opinions of your organization by past, present, and potential workers. Why does an employer brand matter, though?

For starters, a positive employer brand can increase your total number of applicants by as much as 2x the amount that companies with negative brands receive. This improves your recruiting team’s performance by giving them more options to find the high-performers your organization needs.

Also, cost-per-hire dramatically increases for companies with negative employer brands. Cost-per-hire goes up by an incredible $5,000 per employee for businesses with bad reputations. Keep this in mind next time you decide not to respond to every job applicant about their status.

Remember, candidates are researching your company culture. Therefore, focus your employer branding efforts on social media channels and other media potential applicants use. Highlight what life is like for workers and some of the other employee perks your organization offers. It worked for Virgin Media, and it can drive revenue for you too.

Start an Employee Referral Program

Another strategy for how to hire top-performing employees is starting an employee referral program. Who better to get top talent to join your company than the top talent already at your company? If you incentivize your workers to reach out to their network to fill vacant positions, you can improve the quality of your candidates. According to BambooHR, 88 percent of employers say referrals are the largest source for above-average applicants.

And, employee referrals expedite time-to-hire. Employee referrals’ time-to-hire is 29 days, compared to the 39-55 days for traditionally sourced candidates. This isn’t even accounting for the money you save by not having to advertise for candidates.

Finally, if you want to find top talent, reach out to Applied Resource Group. As Atlanta’s top staffing firm, we deliver high-performing candidates to companies in various industries. If you want to improve your organization’s productivity, Applied Resource Group can power your recruiting efforts.