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 menti