Becoming an Employer of Choice
Contributing Writer, David Bowe
In today’s landscape of work, there are many challenges that businesses face when trying to add new people to the team. With unemployment at low rates, when businesses open a role for candidates, these candidates have many options for where they want to work.
How do we, as leaders, make sure our businesses are thought of as a great place to be for our teams to spend their work days? And how do we inspire candidates to wish to work with us?
As leaders, I would encourage you to ask yourself the following questions, at a minimum:
“Do we treat our employees–and other stakeholders–with kindness, courtesy and respect?”
“Have we created an environment of trust among our employees?”
“Do our employees feel cared for and have a sense of inclusion as to what is going on in our business?”
“Do our employees enjoy coming to work, or is it something they dread?”
“Do our employees leave their first day of onboarding fired up and feeling good about their employer selection?”
“Do we celebrate wins and have fun?”
It all starts with the perception of our business to the outside world. These days, companies need to show what our mission and core values are and to give talented candidates the ability to see us. We should strive to become an Employer of Choice to the candidates that are looking for work.
How to Build a Leadership Team that Makes Your Business an Employer of Choice
There are 5 crucial steps to becoming an Employer of Choice according to Moss Adams*, allowing you to grow your team and retain the great people you hire.
Add soft skills to requirements for your team leaders and managers (all the way to the top)
Assess your existing team for gaps in this new requirement. Be thoughtful in your approach as you focus to add this capability to your leaders and managers in place.
Add the same soft skills requirements to job descriptions and assess candidates for these skills for future hires. Note: These skills are as important (if not more important) than the existing lists of capabilities you’ve used up to this point.
Work with your group of managers to find and launch new ways of celebrating your team. The new workforce has a strong desire to be impactful and celebrated. Add activities and events that reiterate the importance of your people.
Be fearless in trying new ways of engaging - take ideas from everyone that shares them, try things frequently, and come up with ways to measure the success of this new methodology of assessment of your employees.
Check back for Part II of this series on Becoming an Employer of Choice where I share the steps you should take to build your leadership team into the best people leaders they can be.
*Moss Adams is a fully integrated professional services firm dedicated to assisting clients with growing, managing, and protecting prosperity.
