The last five years have seen the landscape transform for HR professionals. Employees across industries are realigning their priorities and striving for more flexible packages; flexible working is no longer a bonus offered by progressive organizations, it is an essential for HR companies that want to recruit the best.
Tech recruiters like Motion Recruitment are at the forefront of these changes as they see top tech talent valuing flexibility and hybrid working over renumeration and even career progression. In this changing world, it is clear that businesses need to find innovative new ways to engage, develop and reward their workforce. And strong company culture is probably the best – if not the only – place to start.
Understanding employer brand
You will already have an organizational brand but when we talk about Employer Brand, we are talking about not what you do (marketing, sales, production, distribution), but how you treat the people that do it. Employer branding is often overlooked but it is in fact a valuable part of your strategy. By understanding how potential employees see you as an organization, you can hone your employer brand to attract the best people. In a time when people are prioritizing work life balance more than ever, a company that has a reputation for valuing and investing in its employees is far more likely to attract skilled talent. In fact, according to Glassdoor, 95% of jobseekers consider an employer’s reputation when making a decision.
Improving company culture
Many organizations struggle to develop a strong company culture because they fail to realize that the culture is something that develops as the result of a series of other embedded changes. Employer brand is one of these key changes. A good working environment is a natural by product of employer branding. This will naturally need to boosted morale and productivity while helping you to attract high caliber applicants.
How to build your employer brand
In a time of tech talent shortages, mass layoffs and digital acceleration, it is more important than ever to build your employer brand so that you can boost your culture, retain talent and attract new innovators. There are a few key steps that you can take to get a good idea of where you are, and where you want to be.
Internal staff satisfaction audit – if you don’t already monitor your staff’s wellbeing, now is a good time to start. While productivity can be a good indicator of staff contentment, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Confidential questionnaires will give you a good insight into how your staff are really feeling, and what you can do to improve their wellbeing. Remember to respond to the audit with quick wins instantly and longer term goals as soon as you can; few things do more damage to employer brand than feedback that goes ignored.
Examine your onboarding policy – It is true that first impressions last, and your onboarding process is your opportunity to engage a new member of staff from the word “go”. Make sure that you invest in new hires; the more valued they feel, the more they are likely to deliver for you. If you are unsure of the efficacy of your onboarding process, survey newer recruits to see how you can improve it in the future, or speak to a recruitment firm about processes you could deploy.
Recruit internally – Although there are great tech talent agencies out there who will strive to match an organization’s need to the available talent, the most effective way of developing a strong team is to focus on retaining existing talent, rather than recruiting more. If you look at your staff as an investment, it is clear that there is more value to be gained in investing in the staff that you have and nurturing them to gain the skillset than you need, than investing the same amount or more on recruiting, onboarding and training new staff, that may not be the best fit. Good value for money is only a fraction of the benefit of nurturing your staff and recruiting in-house; a rewarded, happy, loyal team is likely to offer far greater productivity while helping to bolster your brand which, in turn, will help you to attract top talent when you do need to look outside your own workforce.
Make ED& I a priority – Equality, diversity and inclusion shouldn’t be an afterthought or a box that you should tick; it should be central to your organization and something that runs through every strand of your operations. The majority of time, organizations that tend to have the best employer branding and most content network of staff are those who adopt equal opportunity, merit-driven recruitment and promotion models.
Like many best practices, good housekeeping when it comes to recruiting, retaining, valuing and rewarding staff will reap rewards long into the future. A little investment in terms of resources and time now, will see you develop a strong team that wants to do their best for your organization, now and long into the future.
