Build Your Company Culture to Attract the Right Candidates Before a Role Opens

A resignation letter can feel like a gut punch, especially when it comes from the person who has quietly kept the wheels turning for years. When an employee gives notice, how quickly can you move from grieving the loss to filling the role? 

If it is a long-term teammate who you have trusted for years, who helped build your processes and who held a ton of company knowledge, it feels personal. 

The opposite is true when someone was not a great fit from the start. It can feel like a relief. They didn’t hold the same values, adhere to your standards of customer service or value loyalty the way the rest of your team does. 

Yes, you will update your standard operating procedures or hurriedly create them. But whether it’s a sad loss or good riddance, in those first few days, your focus should be on filling the role to keep the business going and also to ease the burden and stress on your remaining team. 

Don’t Scramble, Be Ready 

A hard truth: When a role suddenly opens up, your team feels pressure. If you run ads right away and don’t see results, the next instinct is often to increase spend or scrutinize the ad. Most of the time, the real issue is what happens after someone sees it. Are you clearly selling the position and your company? Are your culture and values coming through? Do you have an online hiring process, and does it make it easy to apply? 

That’s why this work shouldn’t start when someone resigns. All year long, you need to give attention to how you’re marketing your company and how your application process feels to candidates. The top talent you want to hire is evaluating you as much as you’re evaluating them, and they care about the experience you create. Hiring decisions affect someone’s life and future, so help them see themselves working for you and give them a reason to believe in the choice. If your goal is to attract great candidates, your process has to reflect it. 

Let Your Culture Do the Recruiting 

Why would someone want to work for your company? Even if you’re in human resources, you’re in sales and marketing. You are selling the position you need to hire. But if the effort you put into making it appealing doesn’t adequately convey the incredible propane business and family atmosphere you’ve built, then you’re missing out on candidates. 

In a time when anyone can work anywhere, you need to stand out. You need a dynamite job description that clearly shows you put effort and thought into painting a clear picture of what the position entails. 

Not only do candidates want honesty, clarity and descriptive details to help them decide whether to apply, but they also value a number of other factors. Aspects like safety, your willingness to listen to their ideas and advancement opportunities can strongly attract growth-minded individuals. 

Culture Attracts the Right Fit 

You don’t need to have a pool table in the garage or an oversized office cat to be cool. But if you do have unique aspects to your company culture that help define what it’s like to work there, you need to devote space on your website, social media and employment materials to share what it’s like to be a member of your team. 

Haley Pitcock shares what it’s like to be an employee of Farmers Energy Propane Plus in Kentucky: “Whether it’s helping someone face-to-face or a technician calling afterward just to make sure everything is still working, being part of a team that genuinely cares and makes time for people makes me proud to be here.” 

If your culture is reserved, professional and a bit old school, it will appeal to someone looking for that kind of thing. If your culture is fast-paced, technology-driven and a bit quirky, it will appeal to the right people. Flexibility in scheduling, training, community involvement and a family-friendly environment are just a few of the things that should be highlighted. 

Candidates want to know if they are a good fit with your mission, vision and values. So, share those aspects of your company publicly; don’t hide them in an untouched folder on your computer. And for heaven’s sake, make sure they hear from your long-standing employees through quotes, videos, stories and more. 

Make it clear what your company stands for and the problems you solve for others. For candidates who value making a difference and want their work to matter, your attention to this will be well worth the time you spend. Carefully outline opportunities to learn, grow and advance. 

So, what are you waiting for? You need to sell the heck out of the position and your company culture. Do it so well that when the time comes, candidates will be the ones scrambling to apply.