Talent attraction and acquisition: 12 strategies for our hybrid reality
By Allison Colburn• 11 mins read•September 14, 2022
Talent attraction has become a defining challenge for organizations operating in a permanently hybrid world. Competition for skilled employees remains high, and candidates now evaluate employers based on far more than compensation alone.
Today’s workforce expects flexibility, purpose, and a workplace experience that supports how they actually work—whether that’s remote, hybrid, or in-office. As a result, talent attraction is no longer just about filling open roles. It’s about positioning your organization as a place people genuinely want to work, now and in the future.
In this article, we explore what talent attraction looks like today and outline proven strategies organizations use to stand out in a competitive hiring landscape. We’ll also examine how workplace strategy, culture, and flexibility play a critical role in attracting and retaining top talent, drawing on insights from Emily Mullen, Manager of Talent Acquisition in People Operations at OfficeSpace Software.
Article summary: Talent attraction today depends on more than compensation and perks. Employees expect flexible work models, thoughtfully designed offices, and environments that support productivity, collaboration, and wellbeing. Organizations that align workplace strategy with employee needs — using data and AI-driven insights — are better positioned to attract and retain top talent.
What is talent attraction?
Talent attraction refers to all the steps and strategies HR and talent acquisition professionals take to make their company an attractive place to work. It’s about what happens before the hiring process. Good talent attraction strategies put your company on the radar for the types of potential candidates you want to have in your workforce, so that you’re always flooded with great applicants for any job posting.
Talent attraction can take different forms across various industries, job positions, and generations within the workplace. Professionals in the space need to stay up to date on the latest trends both in their own field, and in workplace experience overall.
Both talent attraction and acquisition focus on two types of potential employees: active candidates and passive candidates.
- Active candidates are those applying for specific, current open positions.
- Passive candidates are the types of people you know you’d like on your team in the future.
Even when there’s no vacancies at the moment, the idea is to keep their eyes on all the benefits of working for your company. This way, they’ll be more responsive to future job advertising.
That’s why Emily says her team regularly checks in on how well new hires are performing, both in the near and long term, along with the experience all candidates have in the hiring process. They then make adjustments to their recruiting strategy as necessary.
“It’s a constant circle of feedback,” she says.
What is the difference between talent acquisition and talent attraction?
Talent attraction and talent acquisition are two sides of the same coin, so enhancing one should enhance the other.
- Talent acquisition is about finding the right person for the right job in your organization. This covers everything from posting the job listing to interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new staff; it’s the active work of recruiting active candidates.
- Talent attraction is about all the other ‘stuff’ that strengthens this process. It’s about fostering a company culture and building up a host of benefits. This should entice potential candidates to want to apply for that job listing in the first place.
Both tasks are often handled under the HR umbrella. But most companies will find they need a dedicated talent acquisition manager when they hit 150 employees or so.
Why is talent attraction important?
The Great Resignation may not get the same headline coverage it once did. But make no mistake: we’re still very much in an employee’s job market.
In a year where over four million American workers quit their jobs each month, and where 66% of employers have increased their hiring activity, we’re in virtually unprecedented times when it comes to staffing and hiring.
More than half of North American software engineers, for example, are approached by recruiters at least once a quarter.
Meanwhile, consider that about half of people who are happy with their current job are either actively or passively looking for a new job. Or that 30% of people actively looking for a new job say they are very happy with their current job.
Clearly, just being satisfied with your position isn’t always enough to stay in it anymore. This places more pressure on companies and their HR departments to attract and retain workers.
Moreover, note that a poor experience in the recruitment process makes about 64% of job seekers less likely to purchase goods or services from that employer. For larger companies, this can easily translate into lost future revenue.
In short, talent attraction is critically important to both short and long-term business interests in practically every industry.
Talent attraction strategies for a hybrid workforce
Job boards alone aren’t enough to attract top talent. Employees evaluate employers long before a role is posted—based on culture, flexibility, growth opportunities, and how well a workplace supports their day-to-day experience.
Today’s most effective talent attraction strategies focus on building a work environment that aligns with employee expectations while supporting long-term business goals.
1. Competitive, transparent compensation
Compensation remains foundational. Organizations need to ensure salaries are aligned with—or exceed—market standards, especially for high-impact roles. Transparency around pay ranges, growth opportunities, and total rewards helps build trust early in the candidate journey.
For organizations with tighter salary bands, flexibility can increase the overall value proposition. Remote and hybrid options, reduced commuting costs, and alternative work schedules can significantly improve perceived compensation without increasing base pay.
2. Autonomy and flexibility
Flexibility is no longer a perk—it’s an expectation. Employees want meaningful autonomy over when and where they work, whether that’s fully remote, fully in-office, or somewhere in between.
Organizations that give employees real choice see higher engagement and better retention. The key is designing flexible work policies that are intentional, equitable, and supported by the right tools—so employees can be productive wherever they are.
Employees have always wanted to be treated like adults. Now, thanks to the pandemic, we know first-hard that employees can be trusted to be just as productive offsite as they are onsite. In short, they are adults, and they do the work.
Providing the right choices
“Our world will be much more respectful of employee choices on where they want to work,” says BlackLine CEO Marc Huffman.
Note that it’s critically important that employees have as much say over when and where they work as possible. In fact, employee experience scores jump from 45% to 74% when employees are given complete choice and freedom here.
“We have to trust and empower our people to make the right decision, and they will rise to the occasion,” says workplace strategist Angie Earlywine, Senior Director in the Total Workplace division of Global Occupier Services at Cushman & Wakefield. “When a worker has the choice to pick which days are best given the workload she has for the week, and given what’s going with the rest of her life, that is where employee experience scores start to go up.”
While this amount of flexibility may not be fully possible in every company or industry, companies still need to figure out a way to create a flexible work environment. One that supports workers wherever they are.
“Autonomy is huge. Everyone’s talking about it.”
Emily Mullen, Manager of Talent Acquisition in People Operations, OfficeSpace Software
Thankfully, new technology in the workplace is making this easier and easier. Particularly as companies are now able to provide digital workplace solutions for remote and hybrid employees, while also providing tools that make it easier to navigate the physical workplace when they’re there.
3. Benefits
When people talk about ‘benefits,’ they don’t just mean things like healthcare coverage or a health spending account. Although these are important and often deal-breakers, too.
‘Benefits’ can also cover things like having a casual dress code, tuition reimbursement, free lunches, gym memberships, and more.
For example, supporting education is widely considered an important benefit. One study finds that 85% of workers believe employers should invest in their continued education. Employees want to work for companies that are invested in their career and skills development. Like Joe Dusing, Senior Director of Learning and Development for Paylocity, tells SHRM, “every potential employee wants to know two things: ‘What are the skills that I need?’ and ‘What are the programs that you have in place to support me?’ If you don’t have answers, they likely won’t want to work for your company.”
4. Vacation policy
Vacation policy is such a critical benefit that it warrants a special mention. Companies are wise not to forget that time-off for workers is mutually beneficial. It allows employees to come back refreshed and recharged. It’s also something that matters to job candidates across the board.
Ultimately, when constructing a vacation policy, companies should look to make their offerings as attractive as possible. In fact, unlimited vacation is becoming the norm in many high-tech companies. Some companies (like OfficeSpace) go a step further and have a minimum amount of vacation every employee must take.
5. Company culture
Company culture has always been incredibly important in talent attraction. Although it can be more complicated in a remote or hybrid office.
Remember that some of the most frequent questions that come up in Emily’s interviews with potential candidates center around how OfficeSpace maintains company culture with such a distributed workforce.
“If the culture piece isn’t there, it’s really, really easy for a candidate to walk away and go find the culture somewhere else,” she says.
Companies like OfficeSpace can use events (whether hybrid or in-person), recognition and awards programs, and regular all-hands meetings with leadership to ensure employees feel connected to each other and to their mission.
Ultimately, it’s essential to recognize that companies require the appropriate tools and environments to cultivate a culture of collaboration in the workplace. As the workplace becomes more intentional, many organizations are utilizing data and AI to gain a deeper understanding of how their spaces facilitate collaboration and culture. AI-driven space planning tools help teams analyze how offices are actually used, forecast future needs, and design environments that support connection, focus, and flexibility—reinforcing the workplace as a strategic asset in talent attraction.
“We’ve always treated our employees as a big extended family. Our pay and benefits are competitive, but where we stand out is our culture—a positive work environment, beautiful lunchrooms and rest rooms, monthly recognition and award programs, a defined career path and a company newsletter reporting on everyone’s life activities and work accomplishments.”
Rita Case, CEO of Rick Case Automotive Group, as told to Chief Executive
In short, company culture suffers when it’s difficult for people to interact with each other, their tools, or their physical workspace.
6. Employer branding
Consider that 91% of job seekers will review an employer before applying for a job. Or that 86% won’t apply for a company that gets a bad rep from former employees. Ultimately, how people perceive how a company treats its employees matters to job seekers.
Employer branding (sometimes referred to as recruitment marketing) is the sister to company branding and marketing in general. Instead of sharing and highlighting what makes a company’s goods and services great, employer branding is about sharing and highlighting what makes working for the company great. Applying for a job can be a time-consuming task. And good employer branding can make people more willing to make the effort.
“Satisfied employees became a walking advertisement of the company, recommending it to friends and in the mass media.”
Izydor Nowakowski, writing for LinkedIn
Google offers one of the better examples of employee branding in action. Many would consider working for the company to be a ‘dream job’. Not in the least because of its stellar employer brand rankings, or because 73% of employees say they’re proud to work there.
And since Google famously only ends up hiring about 0.2% of the people who apply, their employer branding affords them the ability to always hire the best and the brightest.
7. Account for diversity
Part of creating an inclusive company culture includes building diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts into the talent acquisition process.
For example, Black and Hispanic Americans are more likely to use social media to discover job opportunities and connect with recruiters over social media. And, women, people of color, and working parents are more likely to want flexible, hybrid working options.
“Every policy must be put under a microscope to ensure it includes a promise of better equity; otherwise, the company risks a backlash among current employees and job candidates at a time when our surveys suggest that seven in ten employers are struggling to find workers with the right mix of technical skills and human capabilities they need.”
Art Mazor, Deloitte principal and global human capital practice leader, as told to Chief Executive
Companies need to take these considerations into their talent attraction strategies.
They also need to understand that workers today, especially Millennials and Gen Z, are demanding that companies take a proactive approach to environmental and social issues. This can play into whether or not they decide to work with a company.
“Workers have a ‘voice’ now more than they’ve ever had before,” says Art Mazor, a Deloitte principal and global human capital practice leader.
8. Use social media and email marketing
Using social media can be a great tool for attracting passive talent, assisting in employer branding efforts. 45% of job seekers say social media is ‘very important’ to their job search, and that 48% of Gen Z and Millennial have applied to jobs they found on social media.
And of course, when it comes time to active recruiting, companies can also use social media to advertise job openings.
Larger companies may also consider using email marketing. This is done by adding applicants to an email list so they can be apprised of future job openings.
9. Employee advocacy and employee referral programs
Like we’ve covered, would-be employees pay attention to what people say about your company. Job seekers simply trust current and former employees and reviews from fellow job seekers more than recruiters, execs, or the company website. In fact, 55% of them will abandon an application if they read a negative employer review. For these reasons, employee advocacy can play a big role in talent attraction.
Talent acquisition managers should also note that while satisfied employees are often happy to share their experiences, they may need a little push to do so; 50% of American workers say they would share social media content from their companies on their own personal channels. And 26% say they’d be more likely to do so if they were asked.
And remembering the importance of autonomy, consider as well, when employees have time and location flexibility, they’re 2.1 times more likely to recommend working for their company.
“Make sure that you have a group of people at your organization who love it there so much that they would recommend it to their friends and family to apply.”
Emily Mullen
Finally, another strategy is to collect metrics around your employee net promoter score (eNPS). This can help HR professionals understand where things are working and where they can make improvements. Employees with high scores (i.e.: a 9 or 10) are the ones who will recommend your company as an employer of choice.
10. Career fairs
Career fairs are still a valuable tool for high volume recruiting for entry-level positions. And now that many have gone virtual, they can also be a great tool for smaller companies looking to hire. HR reps no longer have to travel across the country, but instead can sit in on a few virtual ones to conduct interviews.
11. Write clear job descriptions
While it may seem simple, a big part of attracting the right talent is simply advertising for the right people. A good rule of thumb is that more detailed job descriptions attract better applicants who understand what will be required of them.
This means writing job descriptions that specifically outline both the tasks and responsibilities associated with the position, including core and desirable requirements.
Clear job descriptions are also important for the onboarding process. They ensure everyone is on the same page when it comes to expectations.
And don’t forget that the job description is yet another place to ‘pitch’ the benefits of working for your company, aligning with employer branding efforts as well.
12. Use talent management database software
Finally, Emily stresses that using talent management database software (also called an ‘applicant tracking system,’ or ATS), is essential when managing the application process.
“The automation part of this software is phenomenal,” she says.
With the right software, HR and talent acquisition can keep their pipeline moving. This ensures they’re getting back to candidates more quickly and efficiently.
It creates a smoother experience for candidates, because they’re constantly moved forward by hiring managers. And it’s a better experience for hiring managers, thanks to the amount of time saved and increased efficiency.
Taking the first step to talent attraction
The first step to talent attraction is understanding what employees want. This will change over time and vary depending on where people live, their culture, life stage, generation, and past work experience.
Today, it’s a safe bet that job seekers will want a good life balance, company culture, and to work for an organization that is not afraid to embrace technological change.
“Remote work has made it so much easier to attract people to work for us. So for companies that are considering moving from 100% in-person work to a hybrid work model, I’d say that it’s going to open up a world of opportunity for them to find better talent,” Emily says.
