The majority of those talent prospects referred to in hiring circles as “A-Player” talent are employed and engaged in their current company. What is your strategy to get their attention?

A few common factors to keep in mind within this “A-Player” talent pool:

• It takes persistence and creativity to get their attention
• Your job posting is not getting their attention
• It takes a compelling marketing campaign to make them take notice
• It’s not unusual that they do not have an updated resume to share
• What will you do differently to compete and attract the top talent
• How will you appeal to the underlying motivations of “A-Players”
• If you do get their attention, know that they are now listening to your competitors too
• Top talent is interviewing you while you are assessing them
• Time is not on your side in the recruiting process with the top 10%

Since the truly “A-Players” need to be assessed and sold simultaneously, it requires a team approach with both a hiring authority and an experienced search professional. If you have a strong internal search resource or partnering with an external search vendor, it is exceedingly important that your search partner has the business acumen and soft skills to maneuver the “A-Player” through the recruiting process.

Over the last 10 years, the firm’s spend on various databases, social media, job boards, etc has increased as a percentage of our total company spend. Bottom line is that in today’s competitive environment, you have to invest in order to be able to execute. Internally we talk about pulling all the levers in order to successfully execute for our clients. Our candidate database has over one million contacts, we utilize all recruiting channels and our research department is stronger than it has ever been. We have learned that we need a variety of resources, working in tandem with one another, to meet the needs of our clients.