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The four pillars of early talent

In today’s competitive marketplace to put yourself in a prime position to bring in top talent and keep them there, a holistic approach is most impactful. 

Why recruiting and retaining early talent is key
The early talent you hire are the future of your workforce. A study from Adobe showed that they already account for 20% of the workforce and by 2025 that number will rise to 30%. Gen-Z are entering the workforce with forward-thinking skills that are going to be increasingly valuable to businesses as we enter the digital transformation. However, they also have high expectations of what the workplace can offer them and are more particular than generations before them when accepting roles. There are four key pillars of Early Talent that you need to think about to ensure you attract and retain these future leaders and change-makers into your business: Brand, Attraction, Recruitment and Development. 

Brand – When we think about ‘brand’ often it is the consumer brand that comes to mind. However, there is another type of brand which is all about how you are viewed as an employer. These two are interlinked but both require the same amount of attention. Spending time carving out a strong and positive employer brand is imperative in today’s competitive job market. More specifically, early talent needs to be able to connect with your brand. Early talent have less information about the working world and have different priorities to experienced employees. Research from Handshake shows 95% place importance on working for a purpose led business, which can be conveyed through your brand. Therefore, crafting a specific brand that connects with this age group and conveys the meaning of your company will be essential for securing top early talent. 

Attraction – Once you have an early talent brand that speaks to the people you want to hire into your business, the next step is to actually make sure your brand stands out and entices the right people to want to work for your business. Focusing on how you attract the right candidates increases your application numbers and generates interest from a more diverse pool of candidates. To win over the best early talent in this competitive market you need to get creative with your attraction campaigns. This means putting your name and story out there in a way that stands out to your target audience, the attraction campaign brings your employer brand to life. 

Recruitment – The third pillar is recruitment, you’ve attracted candidates to your brand and now you need to make sure that you get the right people into the business and give them a great experience while doing so. A bad candidate experience can impact your early talent brand and damage your future hiring opportunities. In the recruitment pillar you need to focus on creating and facilitating a recruitment process that will secure you the best talent. This builds the future of your organisation, positively impacts your employer brand and allows you to bring diverse talent into the business. 

Development – The final pillar is development, if you’ve given your candidates a great experience as they come into the business you don’t want it to be tarnished as soon as they get through the door. Learning and development is high on the agenda for early talent coming into the workplace now – a recent Wiser Academy survey found that 70% of respondents rated a structured training programme as important or extremely important in their first role, with 22% of them stating they wouldn’t accept a role that didn’t offer one. Development starts from their onboarding experience and can look like a full graduate programme, regular learning experiences throughout their first few years in the business, or your digital learning options. Creating these spaces to develop new skills, a leadership mindset and build relationships within the business drives employee engagement rates, reduces turnover and is key for showing your talent you value them. 

While each component is important independently, all four pillars are connected. In today’s competitive marketplace to put yourself in a prime position to bring in top talent and keep them there, a holistic approach is most impactful. 

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