People often think about the things companies look for in candidates but it’s important to know what candidates are looking for in a company. Being able to retain good candidates will save you time and money as the recruitment process can be long and expensive.
Getting the interview process right and having a clear understanding of what candidates are looking for will ensure you attract the right people and also hire the right people.
Work-life balance
Candidates are now seeking jobs that will give them a work-life balance that accommodates their lifestyles. Work-life balance is seeming to be a much bigger factor in how happy employees are than it used to be. This may be because employers are finding new ways to entice their employees with extra perks that will make their work-life balance more effective and enjoyable for them.
What people often get wrong is the idea that work-life balance is all about giving your employees more time off. This isn’t the case at all. There are smaller things you can make to your offerings that mean employees feel as though their work is valued at the company and they will be rewarded for the work they do.
If you’re looking for examples of ways you can improve the work-life balance for your employees why not consider closing the office early one day a week during the summer. Friday half-day perhaps? Why not suggest that there will be no phone calls allowed after a certain time to ensure employees get to go home when they finish and are paid for work they do, rather than spending extra time at work that they don’t get paid for.
Job perks
One thing to consider is to offer job perks to potential employees. This doesn’t necessarily have to be more pay or large bonuses. Perks can take shape in a number of ways. If you’re a small company with few employees, why not make sure your fridge is stocked with drinks, fruits and snacks for the employees to enjoy.
Why not think about offering some sort of discount for those who want to use the gym on their way to work. You could also think about having an area of the office, or a separate room where employees can go and chill out, or play table tennis when the day gets stressful.
Be sure to encourage this use. There is no point offering these extra perks if employees are too afraid to make use of them.
Rewarding work
Are you finding ways for your employees to feel like they’re doing rewarding work? It’s not enough to just get a pay check at the end of the month now, especially for millennials, who are consistently seeking out new opportunities to actually make a difference.
Are you providing job roles that allow your employees to feel like they’re doing rewarding work and the work is engaging? If you’re not, you might find you have a problem with retaining employees as they will often see this as an opportunity to see work elsewhere.
When you go through your job description, see if the work you’re doing is rewarding for the candidate and if not, see if there are ways you can adapt the role so they feel like they’re making a difference. You don’t want your employees to become complacent to ensuring they’re proud of the work they’re doing will in return reap you better rewards, as work will be done to a higher standard.
Who else do you work with?
Your company is not just built up of the people who work there, but the people who pay for your service of product. When approaching and talking to potential new employees, they often like to know who your customers are and who you work with. If you have clients that you’re particularly proud of, then tell them this. They like to know the types of clients they’ll have the opportunity of working with and it makes sense for you in order to excite potential employees if you want to retain and capture the best talent.
By naming people you’re proud of working with, you add a certain sense of credibility to your brand or business, and it also shows the potential employee that they would also have the chance to work with these kinds of brands if they worked with you. It also highlights the level of work they would need to put in, in order to create a product/service that is at the standard that these clients require.
Opportunities to grow
If you want your business to excel then you need to be attracting the best talent. The best talent are consistently the ones who are always looking for further opportunities to grow in their career. They’re not happy stuck where they are and are always looking for higher and better opportunities.
This shouldn’t be seen as a negative thing, however. If you can provide opportunities for your employees to grow within your company then you have a chance of hiring and retaining the best talent.
If you help your employers grow their own careers then you can be rewarded as a company. This reward can be seen through the idea of your employers staying longer with you and being much more productive workers.
If they know there are chances for their own career to develop within your company, they are less likely to seek out other opportunities and much more likely to stay with your company.
Recognizing and rewarding hard work
Although employees get paid to come to work every day, they work hard and when that hard work is actualized it should be rewarded or recognized.
Having a system in place that recognizes and rewards hard work can help your business in a number of ways. It can really help with recruiting. Potential employees see that this is the sort of place they know their work will be rewarded. As well as this it helps your employer retention and also your brand. If people know they are going to be rewarded for their hard work or even just have their hard work recognized, they’re more likely to continue to work harder as they know it benefits the company and it’s something they notice.
Employees become distant and aloof if they feel they are working hard but the hard work they’re doing isn’t been noticed.
If you’re looking for ways to promote hard work then you could think about providing feedback for employers, this could be done in weekly or monthly briefing meetings. You could have a system where the efforts are rewarded through a mention of the particular hard worker in the monthly newsletter.
This sort of encouragement is likely to attract new and better prospects as well as ensuring the ones who are there want to stay there for as long as possible.
Read more: Creative ways to recognize employees
Where do you see the company in the future?
If you’re running a start-up or small company then it’s not always certain where you envisage your company to g in the future. It’s always important to have a plan in place and also it’s important to let this plan be known to any candidates who are interested in your roles.
This is important for two reasons. The first is it lets the candidate know that if they join you, they’ll be part of a larger plan and they will play some part in making sure the company achieves its goals.
The second is that it lets the candidate know that there is a plan in place and you do have a future for the company. No future plans means candidates often feel like they’re not important or not wanted and this will in turn stop people applying and accepting your roles and also stop people staying for lengthy amount of times at your company.
Why do you enjoy working for the company?
It’s important for potential candidates to know why you enjoy working at the company. When you’re conducting an interview, you are effectively the spokesperson for that company, it’s your role to further convince that candidate that your workplace is somewhere they would want to be.
If you can, save a little time to talk about what you enjoy in your own role, what you find challenging and what you find rewarding. Doing this will give the candidate greater insight into what it’s like to work at your company and it gives them an honest view of the perks, and benefits they might receive if they’re offered a job with you.
Interviews and the whole hiring process is a two way thing. Just as you have criteria for the perfect candidate, candidates have criteria for the perfect roles. They’re much more demanding now and people are looking to find roles that excel and push beyond the boundaries of what every ordinary job is offering.
If you can position yourself as a company who gives back to their employees and encourages growth you’ll be sure to be inundated with high quality potential candidates.
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