Top Tips to Attracting Top Engineering Talent

With an annu­al demand for 124,000 engi­neers and tech­ni­cians, ver­sus an antic­i­pat­ed short­fall of between 37,000–59,000 grad­u­ates, attract­ing the top engi­neer­ing tal­ent is more dif­fi­cult than ever. At RTRS, we work hard to source only the best engi­neer­ing tal­ent out there, attract­ing them to your vacan­cy but are you doing every­thing that you can in attract­ing them to your business?

In this blog, we’ll be cov­er­ing our six top tips in appeal­ing to the engi­neer­ing tal­ent that you deserve.

1. Have an unfin­ished story

Engi­neer­ing employ­ees want to be part of a jour­ney. They want to know where you’ve come from, where you’re going and how they can play a part in that. You can achieve this by:

• Shar­ing your com­pa­ny’s his­to­ry — where did you start and what have you achieved
• Impart­ing your com­pa­ny’s vision — what does the future hold and how are you going to get there
• Involv­ing the poten­tial employ­ee — how will their work con­tribute to your vision
• Rein­forc­ing your core val­ues — what are they and how do you work to them

You want can­di­dates to be excit­ed about your jour­ney and the prospect of join­ing a vision that they believe in and a vision that they can con­tribute to. Tell them a sto­ry that they want to see the write the end of.

2. Pro­vide opportunity

72% of can­di­dates cite advance­ment as the top rea­son for want­i­ng to change jobs. Demon­strate your ded­i­ca­tion to career advance­ment by having:

• Clear and real­is­tic career paths
• The nec­es­sary tools and technology
• A cul­ture that embraces per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment and empow­ers employ­ees to achieve it

Pro­vide exam­ples of employ­ees who have worked their way through the ranks and explore what the engi­neer­ing posi­tion being applied for could even­tu­al­ly lead to.

3. Invest in your employees

When talk­ing to our can­di­dates about the type of com­pa­ny they want to work for, invest­ment comes up a lot. Employ­ees are look­ing for some­where to invest their time, skills and ded­i­ca­tion and they want to know that this invest­ment is rec­i­p­ro­cat­ed. By offer­ing employ­ees train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, sem­i­nars, qual­i­fi­ca­tions, coach­ing, men­tor­ing and over­all pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment, you’ll not only be attract­ing the top tal­ent but you’ll be retain­ing it too. Pro­vide exam­ples of how you have invest­ed in cur­rent employ­ees and be open to can­di­dates about how you will invest in their future careers.

4. Perks

It does­n’t have to be all pool tables, free lunch­es and sleep­ing pods but top tal­ent will con­sid­er the ben­e­fits that you offer. RTRS can help you to con­duct reg­u­lar bench­mark­ing to ensure that your pay, ben­e­fits and poli­cies are com­pet­i­tive and attrac­tive. Con­sid­er your:

• Remu­ner­a­tion
• Pen­sion contributions
• Annu­al leave
• Work­ing environment
• Flex­i­bil­i­ty
• Tech­nol­o­gy

Ensure that these are perks that val­ue your employ­ees and that your employ­ees value.

5. Unique sell­ing point

Your unique sell­ing point isn’t just reserved for your clients — it extends to your employ­ees too. Sell your brand, per­for­mance, cul­ture, excit­ing projects, employ­ee rec­om­men­da­tions, awards, accred­i­ta­tions — if you’ve got it, shout about it. You think you’re a great place to work at — tell them why.

At RTRS we have Investors in Peo­ple plat­inum accred­i­ta­tion, ISO9001, REC mem­ber­ship and APSCo mem­ber­ship — it sells our ser­vices and skills to poten­tial can­di­dates and clients but it also informs employ­ees that we have a ded­i­ca­tion to excel­lence, high stan­dards and inno­v­a­tive recruit­ment prac­tices, which helps us to build a strong and expe­ri­enced team.

6. Be genuine

Over­all, at RTRS we advo­cate being gen­uine. If you have reviewed all of the above and a top tal­ent engi­neer still isn’t attract­ed to you, then you might not be the right fit and that’s ok. Don’t sell a dream — keep it real and the right tal­ent for your com­pa­ny will want to be a part of it.

 

About RTRS 

RTRS is a spe­cial­ist engi­neer­ing recruit­ment con­sul­tan­cy that works with you to source the top engi­neer­ing tal­ent for your tech­ni­cal vacancy.

Find out how we can help today.

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