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IT MATTERS FRIDAY'S: Become A Giant Slayer to Compete for Talent as a Small-Medium Size Business


As leaders and/or owners of small to medium size businesses, the current market for talented employees has presented challenges that for some seem unsurmountable as talented employees have many choices plus larger corporations are offering bigger salaries and relying on their prestige to give them the edge.

With such circumstances, many would feel there is little to no hope, however, a change in your mindset and resourcefulness can help you Slay These Giants in the pursuit of acquiring talent.

Ask and think how many of today's and yesteryear startups grew to become major players in their industries. With limited resources and money, they somehow out maneuvered the larger competition in order to thrive.

and become creative to get to where they wanted to go ...recognize what makes your company and why you go into to business in the first place. What is the problem you are committed to solving.

You can't control things outside of your control such as the talent pool size or what larger businesses are offering, but what you can control and have the biggest influence is your business structures, brand, workplace environment, engagement, training, social goals, and more.

Use your size to your advantage as you are forced to be more nimble, innovative, and resourceful because you simply can solve things by chucking huge sums of money at it.

Truly think outside the terms of money and recognize what makes your company different. Why are you in business in the first? What problems are you committing your life to solve? What type of impact on society to you want to have?

Start with communicating your story and purpose to prospective Talent making your case as to why what you do is important. Talented individuals these days are looking for opportunities to challenge themselves and work on things that have a purpose and an impact. So share articles, videos, comments, media, etc. that showcases your service or products in action to allow prospective employees to connect and see what it is you truly do.

Present an offering of more challenging work that is geared towards professional development of skills that can be used on along a career journey as Talent is always looking to learn and even though the trend is for employees to not stay in one place for long years just the offering of potential long term skills and experience that hard to come by at larger corporations present a unique value proposition for your company.

If you haven't already, consider investing in an Employer Brand just as you would invest in creating a brand for your products or services. Showcase stories to help prospective Talent visualize what it is like to work at your company through raw unedited video of the day the life of current employees at your company, their opinions and reasons for why they are there and have been for as long as they have.

Change your communication and management structures to reduce red tape and inherit beauracy that most larger corporations have and promote that your environment is designed and is the place where talent can flourish, having the flexibility to deliver results without the constant micro managing and several layers management to obtain decisions that impact the meaningful work they'll be assigned.

Take advantage of the fact that because of this and your size, you have a more intimate and engaging atomsphere that has a true sense of team and every is involved.

While you maybe limited in financial resources salary compensation, look to create a performance based structure that offers uncapped bonuses rewarding their efforts thus you can lead with revenue and have more competitive compensation plan.

In regards to looking within yourself, leverage your workforce by creating or prioritizing an employee referral program as your current employees are your biggest advocates as word of mouth is the biggest influencer to acquire Talent plus Talent is always attracted to others like them.

Put forth the effort into sourcing and developing raw talent both internally and from unrelated industries that are outside the preview of larger corporations as most have rigid criteria boxes for who they target.

Think of the San Antonio Spurs who constantly make the playoffs and win titles yet they aren't a priority destination for free agents based on location and lifestyle thus they invested in systems, culture, processes, and the like to create a development program that helps them source raw talent from overseas and Division II schools, Semipros, etc and help them become great and sometime greater than the Talent could have every imagined which can be a great selling point.

Most importantly, have social goals if you don't already have them as social enterprise is more important than ever because Talent nowadays are judging company's on their reputation, relationships, and engagement in their communities.

And last but not least, become more in tune with the ongoing needs of current and future employees by communicating regularly looking for coming trends that can give you the leg up on larger corporations that tend to lag because of their size.

So while larger corporations are selling themselves on prestige and larger salaries, look to compete and offer things beyond money that can give you the edge because in order to grow and compete, you must have and continue find Talent.

Look within and what's within your control along with your advantages and become a Giant Slayer To Compete For Talent.

It Matters!

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