How to Attract Top Talent: Recruiting Talented Employees

Recruiting talented employees can be a challenge for companies hiring contractors. Learn more about how to recruit and retain top talent for your company by offering compelling opportunities, establishing accurate expectations, and communicating clearly.

Offer opportunities for talented employees to be effective

Companies that hire contractors may treat them differently because they are technically not your employees. But remember: contractors are at your company because of their skillsets and your needs. If you are recruiting talented employees for your short-term, long-term, or project-based requirements, it’s in your best interest to give them the chance to do good work for your company.

Most contractors genuinely appreciate the opportunity to be effective in the company that hired them. Offering your contracted worker those opportunities, as well as providing compelling or unique work prospects, gives you a distinct advantage when hiring the best talent.

Suppose you can provide opportunities for unique experiences, such as working with niche technology or projects of particular interest. In that case, contractors may look for ways to be more flexible so they can work with you. That flexibility can go both ways: enabling contractors to be most effective within your company may extend to offering accommodations in work schedules, remote work, and other areas, if possible.

How can you communicate these opportunities and ensure you are both hiring the best talent and using that talent efficiently? Make sure to set clear expectations and stick to them.

Establish accurate expectations for the work and culture

One critical step in preparing your company and contracted workers for success is establishing accurate expectations for the company’s work and culture. Here are some examples of how this helps as you work on recruiting talented employees:

1. Come to a mutual understanding of objectives and expectations.
   It is a smart move to provide contractors with a good understanding of the project they are working on. Not only does this help you find the right person for the job, but it also lays the groundwork regarding what they should expect from their work and how you will be using their talents.
2. Ensure a good culture fit.
   While skill and expertise are essential when hiring the best talent, culture is also vital to a successful client-and-contractor relationship. To help contractors fit culturally and get along with the team, make it clear what they should expect from work, communications, and relationships. Of course, there is some flexibility, but if expectations are set and appropriately met, the culture fit can help facilitate a smooth working relationship.
3. Be prepared for top talent to hit the ground running
   Contractors are meant to be a resource for your company, so it’s best to ensure everyone’s time is being used as efficiently as possible. Setting clear expectations eliminates time wasted due to waiting for tools or instructions and allows the contractor to hit the ground running from day one.

Not sure how to set proper expectations for your contractors? Clear communication goes hand-in-hand with establishing expectations and recruiting talented employees.

Communicate clearly to recruit and retain top talent

Communication is vital to getting a contractor started at your company smoothly. These communication touchpoints should continue throughout your company’s working relationship with a contractor.

Each person and company is different, but it’s necessary to come to a mutual understanding regarding the expected frequency and style of communication. This helps build trust on both sides. On your company’s side, you can trust the contractor’s areas of expertise and ability to do the job effectively. At the same time, the contractor can trust they have all the tools and information necessary to do the work expected of them.

Need some help with recruiting talented employees through opportunities to be effective, accurate expectations, and clear communication? Our staffing experts can help you with hiring the best talent and finding the right person for the job.

Black Diamond Networks designed the Bridge the Gap program to help facilitate a smooth relationship between companies and contractors. If you’re wondering how to attract and retain top talent, Bridge the Gap is your answer. Follow our lead, and we will help you define expectations and channel information properly.

Bridge the Gap helps ensure all necessary information gets surfaced and communicated effectively, from recruitment to onboarding and throughout the contract to offboarding. Our team will schedule regular check-ins to make sure things are going as planned. If any snags or issues arise, these check-ins will ensure they get addressed immediately.

Overall, the shared goal of Bridge the Gap and your Black Diamond experts is to ensure a positive and productive work relationship. We will do our best to ensure clients and contractors are set up for success as we help you with recruiting talented employees for your short-term, long-term, or project-based needs.