How To Become An Employer Of Choice: Advice From The Experts
As we enter into a new decade, businesses are finding out that the recent drop in unemployment has had an interesting affect on their ability to hire and retain employees.
The truth is, we are currently in a candidate’s market.
In fact, studies show that the turnover rate is unusually high as employees seek out better and better opportunities for themselves.
As a business owner, it’s critical that you understand what this means for your hiring and retaining process. In order to stay competitive in 2020, you will need to put serious thought into how you can become an employer of choice.
By taking an evaluation and adjusting your methods you will be able to attract the best talent and keep those valuable employees satisfied so they stay with you for years to come.
Here’s where the industry’s experts recommend you start:
Build An Employment Brand
While it’s likely that you’ve put serious thought into your business’s brand, you may have never considered what your employment brand looks like to candidates.
Recruiting.com has this expert advice,
“The challenging thing is you can’t build an employment brand based solely on pillars of values or expectations.
Instead, it has to be lived out by your employees and their actions every day.”
The article suggests that you think of your brand as a collection of:
CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
How do you initially treat the people who want to work for you?
EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION
What do you offer employees in return for their time and effort?
COMPANY CULTURE
What’s the ethos of your company? What do you care about?
PEOPLE
What do your leaders believe in? What kind of individuals make up your workforce?
“By building a magnetic employment brand, you can help yourself to attract the right people for your organization.
When you have a perception that precedes experience, you can compete beyond compensation.
Because you’re providing other benefits through an employment opportunity at your organization.
Lastly, it helps set better expectations for prospective employees, which improves retention.”
Retain And Promote Current Employees
While promoting your current staff may still leave gaps in your business, you will find that your company will have a higher level of job satisfaction and be more attractive to candidates if you showcase your growth opportunities.
Steven Imke writes on his business blog,
“We no longer work in a world populated by previously trained job candidates.
Thanks to the speed of technological change and its impact on every position, even the best qualified new hires will need not only technical training but training in soft skills as well.
Additionally, employers of choice companies must develop current employees so they can be promoted.
Employers of choice companies must budget for training not only to remain competitive but to satisfy the employee’s urge to learn and develop.”
Define the Type of Candidate You Want to Recruit
Getting total clarity on who your ideal candidate is will greatly help you understand how to attract these prospects moving forward.
“The very first initiative to bring an employer of choice is to clearly define the type of person you want to retain and recruit.
It is an important initiative as hiring the right employees can make a big difference to the success of the entire business.
If you can recruit as well as retain employees who are the best fit for your company, then you will be able to become a successful leader with a successful job.”
Evaluate The Benefits You Offer
In 2020, employers are going to need to think about their benefits packages beyond that of just healthcare and 401k’s.
“Our 2013 State of Employee Benefits in the Workplace survey findings revealed that, while many employers had difficulty recruiting and retaining employees, only a quarter touted benefits such as wellness initiatives and flexible work arrangements.
Yet, with wages holding fairly steady since the recession, benefits have taken on new importance, and employers would do well to consider a “total rewards” approach to attracting top talent.
It is an approach we take to heart at SHRM. Recently, our Alexandria, Va.-based headquarters was named one of Washingtonian magazine’s Great Places to Work for 2013.
For example, SHRM was awarded for:
- competitive pay and benefits
- challenging and interesting work
- great work/life balance
- professional development opportunities
- financial stability
- commitment to charity and community
- and the recognition and respect given to employees
They company goes on to say,
“This acknowledgment is a reflection of our workplace values: What we do matters. Our people matter. And our culture matters.
As HR professionals, you can help drive business success by building great places to work—places where top talent is motivated to come and to stay.”
Stay Positively Engaged
Taking a positive, intuitive approach to how you interact with your staff is a must if you hope to be an employer of choice.
Glenn Llopis writes in this Forbes article,
“Stop spending time being overly critical of what your employees are not doing right and identify what they are naturally gravitating towards – that which gets them excited.
Throw their job description out the door and focus on those areas your employees enjoy contributing to the most and build a plan that utilizes their most positive capabilities to create the outcomes you desire.
Everyone wants to enjoy what they do at work, so allow employees to engage with the business in ways that generate the results that you require, while giving them the flexibility to navigate and explore how they can best contribute.
See well beyond the obvious. Expand your leadership lens to detect what matters most to your employees and allow them to flourish.”
Glenn also goes on to encourage employers to empower their employees by giving them more responsibility and more freedom.
“You will never know what an employee is capable of accomplishing unless you stop micromanaging and start empowering them to discover their full potential.
Put them in situations that will build their confidence and strengthen their self-trust.
Empowering employees sounds simple, but it requires a leader to let go, step back and observe. It demands a confident leader that is willing to allow their employees to fail, then help them pick up the pieces and rebound.
Employees engage when they are empowered to explore endless possibilities.”