1. Clear Value Proposition and Follow-Through Let’s start with the basics. In order to attract applicants, a company must advertise a competitive wage and benefits. Pay your employees at or above the market range, and offer them generous benefits including health insurance, paid vacation and sick days, childcare, and other perks. Top companies like Facebook and Google have paved the way in modeling what a competitive package looks like and benefitted from their subsequent popularity among talented job hunters. 2. Healthy and Inclusive Company Culture A company should seek out diverse perspectives in the hiring process. Research has shown that diversity and inclusion are not only good for morale, they also help a company’s bottom line, with The Peterson Institute for International Economics stating that companies whose leaders are 30% female earn 6% more in profits compared to those without female leadership, and Forbes finding that firms in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above the national industry means. An inclusive culture also impacts a company’s ability to retain their top employees once hired, which is discussed in greater detail below.

Review-based sites like Glassdoor, Indeed, and even a general Google search have made internal company culture more transparent than ever before through crowd- sourced anonymous reviews of employee’s personal experience at a company. Increasingly, job hunters are relying on these reviews as well as word of mouth when choosing where to apply. Whether it has a positive or negative reputation, a company’sculture undoubtedly impacts its ability to identify and hire competent and committed employees. A savvy employer will use this to its advantage by ensuring a constructive and supportive work environment that takes employee’s needs and ideas seriously.

4. Machine Learning + Human Input = Better Hires Some interesting research has emerged in the last several years around the role of machine learning technology in the hiring process. McKinsey explains that “when the National Bureau of Economic Research looked into this, it pitted humans against computers for more than 300,000 hires in high-turnover jobs at 15 companies. Human experience, instinct, and judgment were soundly defeated: people picked by computers stayed far longer and performed just as well or better.” Citing various examples, including that after Xerox replaced its recruitment-screening process with an online test from Evolve, attrition declined by 20 percent, McKinsey has made a case for integrating machine learning technology into the recruitment and hiring process to supplement or add statistical insight to the humans in charge.

5. Develop Existing Talent and Avoid Burnout It is not enough to attract and hire talented people if they encounter inartful systems and burned-out colleagues when they begin work with the company. A recent Harvard Business Review article highlighted that chronic stress leading to employee burnout was rampant in the workplace even before the pandemic, leading to disappointing performance, an unhappy workplace, and attrition. The article noted that according to Christina Maslach of the University of California, Berkeley, Susan E. Jackson of Rutgers, and Michael Leiter of Deakin University, burnout has six main causes: 1. Unsustainable workload 2. Perceived lack of control 3. Insufficient rewards for effort 4. Lack of a supportive community 5. Lack of fairness 6. Mismatched values and skills It follows that in addition to competitive pay and benefits, employers who wish to retain the talent they work so hard to attract should focus on ensuring that employees encounter a sustainable workload, merit-based rewards, a supportive community, flexibility and fairness from managers, and job functions that line up with their skills and passions once they’re on the job.