It’s officially a candidate’s market again.

Here are 6 tips to find great people when the fight for top tier talent gets fierce.

• Know your competition – Know what your rivals offer and their hiring processes.  You wouldn’t go to market without knowing the competition’s pricing, products and marketing strategy, it’s the same mentality for your recruiting strategy.
• Make decisions faster – First one to find and make an accepted offer to the best candidate wins.   Decide who you want on your team now.  Decisions delayed rarely benefit your company.
• There are no unicorns – Waiting around for the “Prince Charming” candidate just allows lots of great people to slip away.  Rather than waiting for the dream person to come along, even if it takes month or years, think about how much traction the hiring team could get with a solid “A” or sometimes even “B” candidate and a few months of training.
• Reconsider the Requirements – Lists of requirements can become a “wish list” rather than the skills and knowledge necessary to perform the job.  Is that Master’s degree/10+ years/super obscure software experience really needed or is it just a plus?
• Hire for fit. Train for skills – Many companies follow this old way of thinking “We hire for technical skills and fire them for their interpersonal skills.”  But it is backwards, you can train tech.  You can’t train drive, attitude and personality.
• Get creative to attract people – It’s not about the money.  More people expect work/life balance than ever before.  Options like flexible start times or work hours, job sharing, or customizing roles to fit the skill level of employees all show that employees matter.

Hope this help you and your teams find, retain and grow amazing teams in the coming year!