It’s no secret that when it comes to accepting a job, money talks – and that’s true for almost 70% of job seekers. But one of the biggest pain points surrounding recruitment is how to secure top talent when you can’t pay top dollar. Well, we’ve got a few helpful tips to help you better your chances of securing the best candidates when salary isn’t the number one seller.

You’ve probably conducted a pay analysis to determine you’re paying fair market rates, and it’s worth checking out salary reports for your competitors, especially for key roles you’re struggling to hire for. Don’t be afraid to openly compare yourselves to the competition - if they are paying above or below market value, that will be a point of discussion for candidates with multiple offers. Be prepared to answer questions on why you pay what you do, and also any positive info you can discuss around opportunities for future rises etc.

And don’t forget - as well as having your own views on whether you’re a fair payer, you also need to understand your employees’ perceptions too. We know employees are some of the most trusted influencers when it comes to communications around a company’s integrity and engagement, so make sure you know what they’re saying. If they disagree with your views on pay, your employer brand image could be the thing that suffers.

If you’ve done the research, the competitor analysis (and everything in between) and you still can’t afford to pay top whack, have a look at the overall package you’re offering. Could you be more flexible around holiday? Do you have some amazing perks? Whatever you are offering to subsidise rates of basic pay, ensure they are meaningful to your workforce.

This advice is all well and good, but we think the best thing you can do is remember to celebrate your strengths. Money isn’t everything to everyone, and particularly in relation to job satisfaction isn’t a leading contributing factor. There’s actually a bigger focus on career opportunities, belief in leadership functions, and culture and values – so make sure these are clear at all times!

Ultimately every organisation is unique, and it’s teasing out those USPs that will get the right candidates to join, and ultimately stay.

You all know The O2 Arena, it is the busiest music arena in the world and one of the most prestigious venues for artists to play in the UK. But did you know that The O2 Arena also housed one of O2’s flagship stores?

O2 recently tasked us with planning and running a multimedia campaign to recruit top retail talent to work at this amazing store. The campaign includes some firsts for O2 such as digital panels on the London Underground’s Jubilee line that services the arena, as well as innovative mobile advertising; targeting people in the local area that are interested in retail jobs, with eye-catching push notifications on their phone.

This campaign is just the first of many exciting media campaigns that we will be executing for O2, following a great planning meeting.

Over the coming weeks, we will be rolling out campaigns across channels such as digital outdoor, mobile, radio and programmatic to pipeline talent for their hard to fill stores across the UK and to increase the diversity of their retail workforce, from recruiting more women into leadership roles to recruiting more BAME and LGBTQ+ team members.

If you need any assistance in planning any attraction campaigns – whether for a massive recruitment need or for an individual hard to fill role, or if you have specific D&I recruitment needs, just give us a call!