10 Strategies to become an employer of choice
An employer of choice attracts and retains top talent. What makes your company an employer of choice? What are job seekers looking for in an employer for their next job? And what can trigger top talent to make a move? These are the questions that employers should ask themselves to attract and retain top talent.
Want to be an employer of choice? Implement these 10 strategies to attract and retain top talent:
1. An employer of choice treats employees with dignity and respect
Nobody wants to be humiliated in the workplace. Employees want to be part of an organization that treats them with dignity and respect. They want to be included in company events and to have information shared with them. How did the quarter or year go? Where are we headed as an organization? It’s important to share the information with employees. It makes them feel valued.
2. An employer of choice shows appreciation
Employees want to be appreciated for who they are and what they bring. They want leaders and managers to listen to their ideas and be open to new ways of doing things. Examples of showing appreciation include, amongst other things, private time with one’s manager, or the opportunity to represent your organization at a conference or networking event that holds meaning for the employee.
3. Ability to evolve professionally
We all want to learn and grow professionally, through learning opportunities, training, coaching, and feedback. Managers should always be talking to employees about their next move or level of development. Similarly, duties can be expanded or performed at a more sophisticated level. Also, make team members part of interesting projects as demonstrated skill sets are capitalized upon.
4. Employers of choice provide mentorship
The impact of both peer mentorship and leadership mentors for all generations should be emphasized. Importantly, nowadays, CEOs and senior leaders are taking on “millennial mentors” to get them up to speed on new technologies. Likewise, the younger employees can benefit hugely by being guided by experienced leaders.
5. Fairness and equity
Compensation is rarely why employees leave. However, job seekers are looking for organizations that treat their people fair, and there must be internal equity within the organization. Besides, employers of choice find ways to provide opportunities for employees to generate or save more income. No employee wants to think “This is it. This is as well as I will ever do financially.”
6. An employer of choice rewards results
Employers should always find a way to reward exceptional results. Having both individual and team results-oriented programs to hand out rewards when goals are achieved is hugely beneficial. For example, rewards can take the form of a financial bonus, time off, or anything that has meaning to the employee or team.
7. Employers of choice provide meaningful work
All employees want to know that what they do has importance in the world. For example, if you have employees working on an assembly line, show them how critical they are to the bigger picture. How does their day-to-day work make a difference?
8. An employers of choice values diversity and inclusion
Increasingly, candidates are looking for organizations that value and live diversity and inclusion. They want to reach their full potential with organizations that provide equitable career opportunities, accommodate them, and include them.
9. Employers of choice have active leadership
Managers that feel they don’t have enough time or capacity to regularly coach their direct reports are missing the boat. Importantly, employees want goals in place so that they understand what they need to achieve. Therefore, as a manager, it is your responsibility to provide the tools, training, coaching, feedback, and performance management for people to succeed and to have a positive career experience. Good leaders enjoy coaching and thrive on seeing their teams succeed.
10. Work-life balance & fun
Probably the most important aspect that job seekers are looking for in any career or workplace nowadays. In fact, we spend more time working (whether at the office or at home) than we do with our children, spouses, partners, friends, and family. As a leader, do you stop the clock enough to enjoy your employees and to play together in the workplace? It’s a no-brainer that we want to have some laughs together while we work. The team that laughs together, stays together.
Nothing builds energy like hitting specific targets. If your company has been through some rough times, and the culture has taken a dip, pick a few short-term goals, focus everyone on the same thing, reach the goals, and then celebrate with some fun!
Not an employer of choice (yet)?
Ten strategies are a lot to implement in one go. As a leader or leadership team, focus on a few positive initiatives and outcomes to develop your organization into an employer of choice. This will result in attracting and retaining top talent. You don’t have to be perfect. But any efforts toward a more positive environment can quickly become wins and will set you up as an employer of choice.
Do you need to grow your team, but you don’t know how to do it without putting more pressure on your payroll? Besides, you’re not sure if you need the extra team members permanently? Talk to CoLAB Talent Placements!
CoLAB Talent Placements is an employer of choice
CoLAB Talent Placements specializes in providing high-performing contract resources to grow and complement your current workforce. This gives you a flexible workforce to scale with your demand needs.
We help business leaders to:
- Scale execution capacity with high-performing individuals,
- So leaders can focus on driving strategic results,
- Without employing permanent resources.
Our contract resources solution give you:
- Flexible, off-payroll resource capacity that matches your need,
- High-performing people without the HR burden (recruitment, on-boarding, etc. is our responsibility)
- Reduced mis-hires through the temp-to-perm journey, and
- Our high-performing resources hit the ground running.
Talk to CoLAB about your resource needs, especially if you’d like to explore the possibility of using contract resources to grow your workforce. You will love doing business with us!
Set up a 20-minute obligation-free call with Barend HERE.
CoLAB Talent Placements is part of the CoLAB Group.