How Companies Can Attract the Best People

People searching for how to attract the best people to their company are usually in one of two mindsets:

1. They’re scrambling -hiring under duress, desperate for top talent yesterday.
2. They’re scaling – building a future team, trying to lay foundations now so they don’t regret it later.

In both cases, the stakes are high. The best hires can 10x your trajectory; the wrong ones can drain morale, slow down initiatives, and chain you to mediocrity.

So let’s do this right. In this post, I’ll walk you through the five pillars you must master to attract the people you need. And yes, early on, many forward-looking firms are in a non-executive director search for leadership quality and governance maturity.

The Magnetic Promise: Employer Brand & Employee Value Proposition

You can’t really “attract great people” if they don’t know you exist – or if they don’t feel you’re worth their time.

A solid employer brand is your magnet. According to Universum, investing in employer branding yields higher application rates from high-quality candidates and decreases recruitment costs because word-of-mouth and reputation begin doing the heavy lifting.

Then there’s the EVP (employee value proposition) – “what employees get for what they give.” They give their time, energy, ideas, and they get rewards, development, experience, and leadership. The trick is to make your EVP distinctive rather than trying to be average in everything.

How to make your brand and EVP real:

• Anchor on one or two things you can credibly deliver better (culture, autonomy, mission, growth) rather than mediocre across the board.
• Show, don’t tell – use real employee stories, LinkedIn takeovers, behind-the-scenes day-in-the-life content, and metrics where possible (e.g., “last year we promoted 25% of our team internally”).
• Audit your public footprint: careers page, Glassdoor / local review sites, social media. If candidates visit and get no signal of your culture, that’s a lost opportunity.
• Run experiments – A/B test messaging on job ads; see which value propositions get more click-through from prime candidates.

Did you know? As much as 75% of candidates research a company’s reputation and brand before applying – so your brand is more than “nice to have.”

Design a Hiring Process That Leverages Momentum

Once talent is interested, you’ve got a narrow window to convert. Long, bureaucratic processes kill momentum and enthusiasm.

Here’s a structure I’ve seen scale well:

Key to speed: empower hiring managers to make quick decisions, limit rounds to 3–4 max, and commit to timelines.

⚠️ One more caveat: talent hoarding is a real internal sabotage. A recent academic study showed many managers resist letting high performers apply for internal roles (so they “hoard” talent), which suppresses mobility and frustrates star performers. You need incentives for internal mobility – not gatekeeping.

Growth, Culture & Autonomy: What Top Talent Actually Wants

If you’re thinking “great culture = ping-pong table and free snacks,” slow down. The next generation of star hires looks deeper. In fact, Harvard Business Review calls out four things employees want: to feel valued, belonging among trustworthy peers, visible growth potential, and flexibility in life-work integration.

Here’s how you build that in practice:

• Career ladders that don’t force management – allow deep contributors to grow laterally (e.g., “principal engineer,” “senior researcher”) without requiring people-leadership.
• Autonomy + guardrails – let people choose how to do their work, but define clear outcomes.
• Learning budgets + time – e.g., 10% of time to experiment, pay for conferences, internal “hack weeks.”
• Psychological safety – people must feel safe to fail, speak up, push back.
• Rituals & signals – regular retros, all-hands, celebrating small wins, peer recognition programs.

One CEO friend launched an internal “bright ideas” microgrant program (small sum to prototype a project) just to see what side hustles the team would build. The spin-offs became new product features. Growth, culture, and entrepreneurial spirit in one move.

Compensation, Benefits & Flexible Trade-Spaces

Money won’t buy loyalty, but a bad package or one that seems out-of-date pushes people away.

Some guardrails:

• Stay market-competitive. Use salary surveys, benchmarking services, or consult local executive search firms.
• Think total compensation: salary + equity + benefits + perks + flexibility. Sometimes, giving freedom matters more than cash.
• Offer flexible work models: remote, hybrid, asynchronous, where feasible. Many companies now redesign their culture to attract workers outside traditional geographies.
• Provide “soft” benefits that matter: parental leave, mental health support, sabbaticals, wellness budgets, and caregiver flexibility.

You can’t be best at all dimensions. If your brand equity and growth opportunity are strong, sometimes you can get away with a slightly lower salary than a corporate competitor. But don’t misprice yourself-people talk.

Keeping the Flame Alive: Retention & Talent Flow

Attraction is just the start. The cost of losing someone you just got is brutal.

Here are retention mechanics that separate the winners:

• Ongoing feedback loops: Frequent check-ins, peer reviews, skip-level meetings.
• Promotion fairness & clarity: Transparent criteria, early signals of “next steps.”
• Rotation & stretch assignments: Move people into new domains, give them accountability.
• Recognition rituals: Monthly shout-outs, peer nominations, spot awards – done well, gratitude strengthens bonds. Even small acts of appreciation can build stronger loyalty.
• Exit diagnostics & guardrails: When someone leaves, treat it as learning. Also monitor early attrition (people leaving within 6–12 months) – that often signals broken promises.

Did you know? In some top-growth firms, internal movement (rotations, secondments) accounts for a large share of retention-people stay because they see new options inside, not outside.

When You Break Through – Advanced Moves (Signals for A+ Talent)

Once you’ve got the basics, you can layer in moves that say: “We play at this level.”

1. Bring in independent oversight/mentor execs
   As I mentioned earlier, using Non-Executive Director Search strategies (as linked above) not only strengthens your board but sends a signal to top talent: you’re building with structure, accountability, and long-term ambition.
2. Public thought leadership/anchor hires
   Hire a recognized name or publish in your domain. A “hero hire” can draw attention.
3. R&D labs, internal incubators
   Let internal teams spin off new product lines and invest small internal capital. People join because they can be founders inside your company.
4. Talent brand partnerships
   Work with universities, competitions, and awards – pipeline early believers into your company.
5. Internal talent mobility marketplace
   Make internal “job boards” or rotation programs transparent so people see what’s possible. Don’t hide opportunities.

Summing Up: The Attract-Retain Flywheel

You don’t “recruit top people” once. You build a system – a flywheel – that turns visibility, values, opportunity, compensation, and care into a magnet. Over time, your strongest employees become your biggest recruiters.

If I were putting this into action at your company tomorrow, I’d start by:

• Auditing your public employer brand + EVP and repositioning around one unique strength
• Mapping your hiring pipeline and cutting waste (rounds, delays, mismatches)
• Introducing internal mobility rituals
• Running small bet projects (e.g. culture experiments, microgrants)
• Investing in at least one signal hire or board-level external executive to solidify credibility

You’ll be surprised – once your flywheel is spinning, even passive top-tier candidates will start knocking.