Before you hire creative talent, you should know this: you’re facing a high demand and short supply. Every business will eventually have a need for creative people. They play a role in every aspect of an organization. Unfortunately, creativity isn’t found in everyone. In today’s market, every business is looking for creators and innovators. So, if you want to find the best ones, you should know where and how to look.

In this post, we’ll take a look at the 5 things to consider before and during creative recruitment. These will help ensure that you hire creative talent effectively and efficiently, as well as retain them.

1. Fine-Tuning Your Hiring Process

Hiring for a creative post is a bit different from hiring for technical and analytic jobs. Needless to say, you also need to be creative. What’s good about hiring creative talents is that it’s easy to know right away if an applicant has what it takes. You can skip red tape and jump onto the skills test. Have applicants perform a task. If you like their work, proceed to the interview to learn more about them on a personal level. If their test result isn’t what you’re looking for, don’t waste both of your time and simply, honestly tell them what you think about their work.

2. Being Open to Giving Them More Flexibility

Creative talents appreciate flexibility. Being confined in an 8-to-5 office setup is their bane, as it can limit their creativity. When you hire creative talent, consider allowing remote work. Better yet, opt for hiring full-time home-based creative staff. This way, they are able to work on their own time and pace, using their preferred equipment.

3. Carefully Deciding on Compensation

While most creative talents are in it to just share their craft, they also have bills to pay. And truth be told, money can be a good motivator, too. It will be best if you can meet their expected salary or even pay them a bit more. This won’t be a problem for bigger companies, but how about SMEs and startups?

A good solution would be outsourcing. Through this, you can reach talents from lower-wage clusters. Even if you pay them higher than the average in their region, it’s possible the rate will still be lower than the average in your own country. This is a win-win for both parties!

4. Having a Feedback and Recognition System in Place

Creative talents thrive in an environment where their craft is appreciated. Genuinely talented people also appreciate constructive feedback that helps them further their skills. When you hire creative talent, you should plan how to manage them, and part of managing them is encouragement. This is why it’s also important to have the right project manager to handle them. If you decide to hire remote creative staff, you should also consider hiring a remote project manager who knows how to handle home-based employees even when they are miles apart.

5. Before You Hire Creative Talent: Knowing Your Options

When you hire creative talent, or for any talent for that matter, you have three options. You can hire through your own recruitment arm. You can also enlist the help of creative recruitment agencies. Finally, you can outsource your tasks that require creative talent.

These three methods each have their own pros and cons. When you hire on your own, you have more freedom and you will get to know applicants on a personal level. This is favorable for bigger companies that have a recruitment arm or personnel. However, for smaller companies and startups that do not yet have a dedicated recruitment staff, it would mean that executives themselves perform the recruitment. This may take time and this basically means work for you.

Meanwhile, working with a traditional creative recruitment agency means passing the recruitment process to their professional team. They will find talents for you. Usually, they will present you promising candidates and you will decide who to hire. However, the agency’s work ends there. Once hired, the employee will now be your responsibility, from training to keeping them satisfied.

Finally, when you hire creative talent through a managed outsourcing company like HOPLA, both talent recruitment and management will be done for you. You can also hire creative talent for your specific need, at a time you need them. Whether you need a content writer, web designer, or video editor for a specific project, you can enlist the expertise of one of HOPLA’s talents when you need it. In such setup, you will only pay for talent and service fees that you specifically need for a specific project and amount of time.

To learn more about creative and design recruitment through distributed outsourcing, get in touch with HOPLA today!