The Best Way to Relocate Top Talent

In today’s global marketplace, companies are looking much further than ever before to source the best talent for job vacancies. But once a talented candidate is targeted, it doesn’t guarantee that person will want to relocate for the position. Positioning open jobs is a paramount duty for recruiters and hiring managers to improve their talent acquisition strategy and convince top talent to relocate.

Consider these four stacked areas of position branding that can help your company overcome employee relocation reluctance.

Make Open Positions Shine

Engagement has to be a part of an organization’s recruiting repertoire from the start. Most candidates can easily distinguish between a generic job description and one that is crafted in an engaging manner to appeal to the best talent.

Here are a few ways to make open positions shine:

• Title – Which one has the most impact: Marketing Supervisor Level II or New Media Marketing Manager? Clearly, the latter. As companies have rushed to standardize roles and define levels over the past decade, some of the true meanings attributed to critical position titles have become diluted by bland branding. The job title is likely the first piece of information to be consumed by the candidate. Make it impactful, descriptive and engaging to achieve the best results.
• Hook – Objective statements have become redundant on resumes, but this type of description can mean the difference between a targeted talent pool and a crowded pool of mismatched applicants. Consider this first narrative like an elevator speech – you have just a few moments to concisely and winningly sum up the job’s true impact and aspirations.
• Opportunities, Not Duties – High level positions need higher level career dialogue. A dry, bulleted list of daily duties won’t successfully attract great talent away from their current home to where you need them. Presenting functional tasks as opportunities rather than duties requires a reversal in mentality. Back away from “you must do” role expectations and move in the direction of “you get to” standards.

Engage, Engage, Engage

After publishing engaging written collateral through various recruiting channels, it’s time to engage in…engagement. How can a remote candidate engage with a company? How can a hiring manager engage top talent? And how can an organization work to actively promote engagement through the entire hiring process while overcoming reluctance toward employee relocation?

An iCIMS white paper on recruiting top talent reminds recruiters to:

1. Understand exactly which candidates they need to connect with
2. Craft messaging specific to those desired candidates
3. Utilize channels specific to the position being filled in order to reach the targeted audience

Only after the right audience is reached through the right channels with the right message can one-on-one engagement begin. This is an area ripe with opportunities for an organization to separate itself from the pack and attract exactly the right type of candidate for a job. Recruiters can take advantage of this opportunity by making the entire recruiting process intimately personal with each candidate, rather than a cattle call affair that will likely turn off all but the most desperate job seekers.

There’s no downside to one-on-one engagement through the recruiting process. Even if a particular candidate isn’t chosen or turns down an offer, a door has been opened that can lead to enhanced networking and opportunities for both the company and candidate in the future. Engagement can also be the key differentiator in a candidate agreeing to employee relocation for a particular job.

Promote Company Culture

A recent study by Worktree Consulting included a concise summation of employee relocation and migration today: “…people join organizations but they leave managers.” Why would a potential employee, who might live half a world away, want to uproot his family and life and come join your organization?

Joining a new company is so much more than walking into a cozy building with a cushy corner office. For desirable talent, who are often being courted by multiple organizations touting employee relocation benefits at the same time, company culture can be the turning point between a rejection and loading the moving van.

Company culture isn’t something that develops or changes overnight. No matter where a company is on the continuum of company culture, the overall aim and current trajectory of culture can be positioned as a recruiting device. Key points to share with a candidate include:

• What best describes current company culture
• Why that culture is evolving in a certain direction
• Where the company aspires to reach in the next step of evolving culture
• How a candidate will fit in with, be impacted by, and be able to affect the organization

Put the “Me” In Employee

Finally, once it’s apparent recruiting efforts have netted the best possible talent and expectations are met, company side, it’s time to drive home where a candidate can excel in an organization. Between opportunities to reach higher-level jobs, taking part in groundbreaking work, or leading an extraordinary team, the hiring team is charged with painting a vivid picture for potentially relocatable talent. Break it down to the level of “me” – engage, excite, invigorate…and successfully hire.