Many business owners find one of the most challenging areas in business is finding and keeping great talent. And the reality is in order to grow a great business. You can’t do it alone.

You need people. You need great people.

But many business owners don’t have a system or a methodology on how to attract, onboard and retain great people. In fact, most have very little skill in this area at all. Yet, it’s one of the most important and foundational pieces to growing a great business.  So, I wanted to share three keys to being able to find, attract and retain great talent.

Number one.

In order to attract great talent or great people. You need to be attractive, that is your business and you as a leader. You need to have an infectious culture in a positive sense, a culture that people want to be a part of that. A culture they have heard about. You’ve got a great work environment. You’re doing great work with great people. You’re making a difference.  

If your culture is not attractive you’re not going to attract the best. And you’ll be sitting there wondering while placing these ads and doing all these things, “why aren’t I getting great people?” and the reality is that you’re not attractive.

You need to have a good hard look in the mirror at your business, at your culture, and at your leadership and you have got to remember great people don’t leave businesses. They often leave leaders. Think ask yourself “are we doing everything that we can to be attractive to the marketplace to bring in the best talent?”

Number two

You need to understand that great talent is around you.  You need to be looking all the time when you have a clear understanding of the ethos or characteristics of the people that you want to bring into your business. What you’ll realize is it’s almost like taking the blinkers off. These great people are around you all the time. I can recall two stories with this one is, I was at the supermarket and I was lined up one day, I was just watching the way this woman interacted with each person that she served. She had a big smile on her face and she just had a little chat with everybody. Nothing was too hard. She just made it really nice and enjoyable for people. I remember walking up to her when it was my turn to be served and then she smiled and I introduced myself and I just said to her here’s my business card. You have an amazing attitude. And I love the way your customer service skills came across then I said if you’re ever looking for a job in any industry, I work with many people give me a call. Turns out that she was looking to get into graphic design and I helped place her with one of our clients.

The second story, I was in a restaurant in Sydney with friends and the waiter comes up and you know starts introducing himself, the menu and this and that and this young gentleman as he’s wasn’t that young, he was probably in his mid-40s, he just created this amazing experience for us. Turns out, he was an out-of-work engineer in the restaurant, serving tables together to get a wage because he couldn’t find work. Again, I managed to hook him up with a client.

You’ve got to find great people and make them aware of who you are and what you do and invite them to come and see if they want to be part of your company.

Great people are all around you. You also need to be aware that great people are often in employment and you may need to headhunt. You may need to invite them because they (I think the statistics are something like 78 percent of people are unhappy in their current workplace) may be passively looking but they might not be actively looking. So all you’ve got to do is dangle a little carrot in front of the right person and they just might come across.

Remember great talent is all around you.

Number Three

You need to always be on the lookout for great people. You’ve got to always be scouting. It’s almost like a professional football team. You’ve got to be looking even when you don’t need somebody. You’ve got to build your army because if you’re not scouting, if you’re not either grooming people to come through your business, or you’re not out there actively looking then when it comes a time when you need somebody, and you need someone now, you will make a reactive hire. You could bring the wrong people in.

This has a negative impact on our culture and not only do we have a negative experience with them, but we end up losing some good people also. So you have to be constantly out there looking, whether going and talking with University graduate, creating your own apprenticeship scheme in your own company, constantly advertising to see who applies for the job (remember that you don’t need to grant someone a role if you’re advertising). Making sure that you’ve got a good social media presence, making sure that you’ve got a great employment page on your website. You’re constantly out there looking and allowing people to come and look at your business to come and join your team.

So, in summary, you need to be sure that you’ve got these strategies in place in order to Attract, Retain and Inspire great people to help you grow your company.

Remember, you can’t grow a great company without great people. It’ll all go on your shoulders, you will burn out and you’ll never achieve the goals and dreams you have for your life and business.