4 Ways to Attract Talent to Your Business in 2023

Talent shortages have been a big problem for businesses for a while, and they’re not going away anytime soon. 

The US labor market remains tight, and Labor Department figures from February showed an unexpected continuation of strong job growth. While these figures are expected to start easing as the Federal Reserve steps up its measures to bring down inflation, attracting the right talent to your business in this tight job market is set to be one of the many challenges you and your business will face in 2023. 

Here are four ways you can fight the trends and bring the right talent to your business:

1 | Offer Flexibility

While many of us have returned either partially or entirely to a pre-pandemic pace of life, it appears there’s one ‘upside’ of pandemic life that workers are keen to hold onto in 2023 — flexibility. 

A recent report from We Are Rosie, found that 71% of workers would pass on upward mobility at work in order to receive flexibility over when and where they work. Moreover, a report from Owl Labs and Global Workplace Analytics found that 66% of remote workers would immediately look for a new job if they were forced to return to the office, and that 45% of workers 52% say they would take a pay cut of five percent or more to have greater flexibility.

It’s also important to highlight that this demand for flexibility isn’t just driven by a new-found aversion to heading into the office. The current childcare crisis across the country means that many workers, particularly women, are being increasingly burdened in already challenging circumstances, forcing them to find flexible work options that will allow them to progress in their careers and care for their families. 

The reality is this: in 2023, if you’re not willing to be flexible, you won’t be able to attract the best talent to your company. However, it’s important to remember that ‘flexibility’ isn’t a one-way street, and it doesn’t mean you have to give a blank check for employees to do whatever they want. Instead, see flexibility as a process of collaboration and working together to create a path forward that will benefit both your employees’ and your company’s growth. 

2 | Deliver Autonomy

Talented team members can only remain so if they’re given room to grow, and a key element of growth is the ability to learn from your own actions and mistakes. 

Again, this doesn’t mean you have to give them a blank check, but allowing team members to make their own decisions and implement them (in alignment with your company’s goals and values) will instill a feeling of trust, accomplishment, and, most importantly, a feeling that you want them to succeed. 

Remember, ‘autonomy’ doesn’t mean acting entirely alone. It’s vital that you work together with your team members while they grow, providing support, feedback, and guidance as they embark on their journey in your company. If you can master this, you can be almost sure your people will want to stick with you for the long haul. 

It’s important to make sure you’re checking in regularly with your team members to track their progress; and no, a weekly or monthly meeting over Zoom won’t do the job. If you’re in a full in-person or hybrid work environment, be sure to set up monthly or quarterly one-to-one, face-to-face meetings with team members. If you’re working remotely, see if you can meet halfway; otherwise, if you have to meet virtually, increase the frequency to weekly or bi-weekly and make sure it’s one-to-one and not in a group.

3 | Show People Your Company has Room for Them to Grow

A particular challenge from small and medium-sized companies is that people may often perceive —  in many cases, incorrectly — that smaller organizations offer them less room to grow and develop their careers.

Often, this perception comes from small and medium-sized companies not clearly communicating the paths for growth and development within their organizations. As such, it’s critical you set out clear career paths and development plans for potential employees that may be interested in joining your organization.

Remember, setting out a career plan verbally or in a quick email or a short Word document may not be enough to provide a prospective team member with the certainty they need to take the leap and join your team. Think about setting out career paths and development plans in more detailed visual representations; for example, Gantt charts, timelines, or mind maps. 

Also, think about coaching and training that can help your team grow into roles as your business grows. A recent poll from Gallup found that especially as Gen Z enters the workforce, the need for constant, digital, easy-to-access training and development is crucial to a company’s talent retention, productivity, and profitability.

Particularly in smaller to medium-sized companies looking to scale, roles will often be fluid and develop over time, so it’s important you keep your team members aligned with your company’s mission so they can adapt and foster their talent in ever changing environments.

4 | Prioritize Diversity 

Diversity may seem like the buzzword du jour; however, if you can truly understand and embrace it, you’ll soon have talent knocking at your door. 

As Caroline Van Cleemput, Regional Vice President at Salesforce Belgium, points out, “It’s common to take a profile of a successful employee and look for clones, but it’s the differences between individuals that give a team its strength. You need a variety of backgrounds and experiences, so people can teach and inspire each other.”

The challenges you face in the day-to-day operations of your business are not always the same, so the way in which you respond to them needs to be equally diverse. If you have a wide breadth of lived experience within your team, you’ll be able to draw on a wide range of skills and opinions when presented with a challenge.

While it’s often necessary to ensure each of your employees possess certain skill sets, try to remember that skill sets aren't exclusive to one group of profiles, and different life experiences and soft skill sets will influence hard skills to make them more adaptable in a wide variety of situations.

Moreover, it’s important to remember that when joining an organization, people don’t want to feel like a carbon copy of their peers. In fact, people want to feel like they have something to learn from those around them — something they can take with them throughout their careers and that will help them become better in whatever profession they pursue.

Executive Strategy Leadership Workshop

Learn ways to create sustainable growth for your company, while developing your team, aligning stakeholders to your company’s core mission, and fostering inclusive leadership. Our 2-day Executive Strategy Leadership Workshop features the SUMMi7 signature Business Scaling Method™ process developed by Eric Strafel, Founder and CEO, who is a former Fortune 50 Executive and award-winning author of The Frontline CEO.

Reserve your executive workshop session if:

• Your business has 50 or more employees with more than $5 million in annual revenue.
• Your business has experienced barriers to growth.
• Your team lacks alignment on strategic direction and morale is low.

What it includes:

• Pre-work to develop an outside-in perspective of your business, inclusive of market research, customer insights, and employee interviews.
• A 2-day facilitated workshop session for you and the executive members of your team to collaboratively develop a strategic roadmap supported by data and market insights.
• A strategy playbook custom to your company to help you implement your plan with all levels of your team.
• Access to SUMMi7 Chief Growth Office engagements for continued strategic execution support with a team of implementers working side by side with you.

If this sounds like a fit for you and your company or for more information, contact Shelli Howlett at shelli@summi7.com.