Four Essential Tips to Attracting and Retaining Quality Digital Talent

Attracting high-calibre digital talent is one of the hottest talent and leadership topics and is absolutely critical for the business success of most companies in Germany and overseas. The consensus was that all potential talents should be seen as ‘customers’ of the company, and the credibility and authenticity of the employer brand is absolutely key in attracting and retaining these. Allianz hosted an energising ChapmanCG HR leaders roundtable around digital talent in Munich. A positive meeting highlighting the evidence that Germany’s HR landscape is becoming increasingly diverse with 60% of our Munich participants being internationals. Here are the four key questions that need be considered around the attraction of talent, according to our roundtable participants.

1. Choosing the right sourcing and recruiting channels to find recruits

• Relevant conferences are a prudent source for long-term talent pipelining. Stack overflow (an online gamified Q&A portal for developers with a dedicated job advertising board to match the network with potential employers) and X Ray Search (a technique used to ‘advanced google search’ a website. For example, recruiters can use this to isolate promising LinkedIn profiles using specific keywords; eliminating irrelevant results and enabling much more targeted candidate sourcing) can be particularly effective in digital sourcing.
• Social media channels such as LinkedIn remain key, tracking how the talent is coming to the organisation. It’s also powerful to look at why people don’t apply to roles.
• Usually a slick Applicant Tracking System can be the answer – it can take too long so streamlining the process, as one organisation has done, reducing down to one minute, is imperative.
• Implementing a simple process around referrals can also be highly effective.
• If done well, talent acquisition shouldn’t own the process alone. There should really be shared accountability here.
• Finally, it’s important to leverage groups and communities internally and make it much more straightforward to make recommendations.

Another critical element is having the right capability in your Talent Acquisitions (TA) teams. Can they sell your organisation accordingly? Being more specific around which audiences you are trying to reach and avoiding volume can help TA be more effective, and efficient.

2. Attracting digital talents and the core elements to becoming the employer of choice

Purpose is a key part of attracting digital talents. Focusing the job remit on the is more important than the. An organisation needs to ask itself what impact an individual joining will have on the entire company and how they will contribute to the of that company. This was described quite aptly as the of that talent’s potential journey within the company. ‘Storytelling’ also works in retention. Articulating the projects that your current digital talent will be involved in helps them visualise their future ‘story’ within the company. Obviously it’s important to understand their motivators and tailor their career progression accordingly.