Ever since you were young, you knew the value of talent. You knew that if you had certain attributes or gifts, you would get ahead in life. Companies know this too. They know that talent is valuable and worth their attention.

Businesses today know that the more they recruit talented people, the more they will receive back for their investment.

However, some companies still operate under the model that hiring cheap, even disposable employees is the way to keep the business machine moving. However, they have not considered the following benefits of highly skilled employees.

The Benefits of Hiring the Right People

Often, it is much easier to know who the right person is for your team when you have experience hiring the wrong people. The right person is someone that fits in and that adds to your company instead of taking away from what you have created.

When you hire the right people in a company, you will be able to gain the following benefits.

• Exceptional work output. If you choose to hire people who have skills that are necessary and valuable in your company, you will see the work output increase. Not only are these employees better at what they do, but also they are able to find ways to make things faster, easier, and better.
• Lower training costs. Though some might think that hiring cheap employees is a good idea, think about all of the training costs. When you have to hire new people all the time, you have to pay them repeatedly to be trained. In addition, when this is the case, you spend money on people who just do not last. Moreover, talented employees may not need as much training time, allowing you to save on training costs in that way also.
• More ideas. A new employee who is already talented and skilled will be one that can and will contribute new ideas to the company. They might be able to offer you an idea or a process that you had not considered, allowing you to benefit from their brilliance.
• Role models. Bringing in new talent also causes others in the company to see if they can meet their level of excellence. If you have a company that is struggling to see growth in older employees, bringing in new talent can raise the proverbial bar of performance.
• Loyalty. If you recruit someone who is talented and matched to the job, and you compensate him or her for his or her talent, you will be hiring a loyal employee. This means they will be around for years to come and to grow with the company.
• Happier team members. The more talented people you have, the happier everyone in the company will be. This is because they know everyone is able to do their jobs and they are able to be as efficient as possible in their jobs. It makes everyone work on a more level playing field, which reduces burnout, frustration, and boredom.

Talent is not Always Costly, Either

The main reason why companies tend to shy away from talent is the cost. They might believe the more talented the employee, the more they need to make to be swayed into coming to the company.

While this idea is not without merit, it is not the whole story, as you will learn in subsequent sections.

There are other ways to 'pay' for talent.

• Growth potential. Let talent know that they will grow with the company and that this means security as well as higher wages in the future as they support the company goals.
• Bonuses and benefits. If you can offer benefits and bonuses that are valuable for talent, then you will entice them to choose to your company over others.
• Employee programs. Things like wellness programs can also be appealing to some applicants. If you have these sorts of programs in place, that can help to 'pay' for your talent too.

In addition, when you look at skills and training, you might be able to hire someone who is straight out of school, and possibly willing to be paid less in the beginning of their career.

It is not always costly to hire the best employees for your company, nor should it be.

How to Define Talent

With all of this talk about talent, it might be wise for your company to determine what this means. The more you can look at what talent means to your company, the more you can establish a system for recruiting and hiring.

Your definition of talent might be based on the following.

• Experience level. This might be the roles that they have achieved at companies and their progression from one role to another, even across companies.
• Education and training. You will also want to look at the education and training a person has in the field. You want to see that someone is dedicated to improving their knowledge set and that they already have a foundation of success.
• Accomplishments. It helps to know that the people you hire are not just experienced in what they do, but you also want to know that they can produce results and value for a company. Look at their resumes to see if these accomplishments are listed or ask about them during an interview.
• Years in the industry. Though years do not matter as much as they did before, there is a definite difference between someone who has been in an industry for 20 years compared to someone who has been in an industry for 5 years.

Companies find it helpful to look at what the ideal employee might have on their resume. Write out a list of the ideal qualities in an employee and from there, talent can be more easily measured.

You want to have talented people at your company. Moreover, you want talented people to want to work at your company. But these two things do not always cooperate in the way you may desire.

Instead, you need to sell the employee on your company and what it can offer them, outside of just money and prestige (though those are nice things to offer).

Defining the company's brand will help it become the place people WANT to work, for example, Google, Facebook, and others. Though your company may not be a large organization with endless resources, there are ways you can set yourself apart from the rest of the crowd.

What is Your Brand?

If you are the type of company that sells, well, anything, you know you need to set yourself apart from everyone else. This thing you decide will set you apart becomes your brand.

Look at the example of Facebook and its beginning as a social media establishment. It sold the idea of being a place where you could securely connect with a special group of people, other college students. As it grew, this changed, but the idea that it would be a place where you could connect with friends exclusively made an impression.

That impression sold the users, and then sold other users, and so on.

As a business, what makes you the place that someone should work?

• Is it the hours? Do you have hours that accommodate the lives of your employees, as well as keeps them from being burned out?
• Is it the bonuses? What do you offer to employees and to those who are interested in working with the company?
• Is it the people? If you have a fun group of people, then you should share this with prospective employees.
• The offices? Maybe you have an office that has certain features or resources.
• The lunchroom? Perhaps you offer free lunches or you help with food costs.

During this brainstorming session, it is a good idea to make sure that you are not making things up or exaggerating. Stop and think about what makes your workplace unique. Consider a typical day and how the company supports its employees. Talk to those employees who have been around the longest and ask what they enjoy.

The more you can begin to describe what sets your workplace apart, the more you can then sell it to an employee.

After all, who does not want to work at a place that (as an example):

Widget Company is the place to work when you want to collaborate with other geeks until the morning hours. It is the place where you will live and breathe technical systems, and where you will slowly lose any pigmentation from your skin…

What is a key point to remember during this branding identification is that you do not have to be the company where EVERYONE wants to work. Think back to the talent you want to hire into your company. What do those types of people want from their workplace?

That knowledge of their interests is what can influence how you brand your company, and how you might begin to create a company that lives up to its reputation.

Of course, the best plan would be to find the best pieces of your company now, and highlight them.

However, at the same time, if you begin to notice that your workplace is not a place that you would want to work either, it might be time to rebrand yourself before you lose the employees you already have.

How to Sell Your Brand

When you are looking for new people to add to your company, you need to think about selling who you are and what you have to offer to a talented person.

Once you have defined your brand, it is a key item to look for ways to show this brand to the ones you want to recruit. For example, you might add your branding message to your website under 'Careers' or you might add a blurb about your brand in all of your job postings.

The more you can talk up the workplace before a person applies for a job, the more buzz you will generate. And the more buzz that you generate, the more people will come to your company instead of you having to reach out to find them.

Other places to talk about your company's brand are:

• In social media. Use your company's Facebook, Twitter, and other accounts to talk about the typical day at your company and what a person working there might expect. Give one of your senior employees a voice in this forum to show that people looking for work should apply.
• In a blog. A blog that talks about your company's brand and environment can be a way to personalize the information and to keep it in the eye of the prospective employee.

In addition, you will want to look for any negative information about your company and its work environment. You can do this by scouring the Internet for information and by talking to other employees about the presence of potentially negative messages.

Try to fill up the Internet and the conversations about your company with positive messages. This campaign will allow you to express more easily the brand you want to share, and the positive will outweigh the negative things a prospective employee might find.

Updating Your Brand

While you might have a strong brand that brings people into your company, you need to remember how newness is more enticing than the same old story.

Every year, think about the new things you can offer to your current and to future employees. If you can continue to improve on the brand you have created, the more the word will spread about your company.

The more people learn about how great your company is, the more they will want to work with you.

You might update your brand with:

• New perks.
• New benefits.
• New working schedules (for example, the European model of fewer hours).

When you want to maintain a strong team and you want to entice new talent, your brand needs to continue to be impressive, and updates are essential.