“Be the change you wish to see in the world”—you’ve heard this gem of a quote before, I’m sure. Oh, and “Be the ball.” That’s a classic.
How do you become the company you want to be? How do you attract—and retain—the talent you wish to have?
The top 3 things modern candidates look for when job searching are commute, money, and work-life balance. If you have perks/benefits that can sweeten these areas up for your potential candidates—why not promote them and let the talent world know what you’re working with?
Talking benefits/money can be a touchy subject—companies may not want to share all the goods because they don’t want candidates who are just looking for “perks” and aren’t really there because they’re passionate about their work and the company. Candidates may not say anything about “perks” when being interviewed because they don’t want you (the company) think as such about them—when really candidates are actually humans who want to do the work they love but also take care of their personal, mental, spiritual well-being at the same time.
Truth is—you need to share your goods with the talent world. The workforce is changing and the competition for talent is fierce. If you’re a tech company with a great “work from home 1 day a week” culture, then I bet 98.76555% that you’ll attract the candidate (that’s looking for this culture) versus the company who doesn’t have that culture… (or, maybe they do that the same work from home policy, but they were too scared to put it out there, so they missed out on the candidate… #DeepThoughts)
Here’s what we aaaalllllll can do to stop doing this dance and actually communicate all of our needs so everyone is mostly happy:
If you’re able to find and attract candidates who live around the area your company is based, you’re more likely to win them over and retain them for a longer period of time. Long commutes are draining, and research shows the longer the commute, the unhappier and unhealthier people become. And you’re more likely to eat more fast-food (which, if you choose Chick-Fil-A, I wouldn’t necessarily consider that a bad thing. Just sayin’) FYI: A great way to target candidates within a specific area is through Facebook ad targeting. If you hire someone who has to fight a nasty commute daily, it’s going to take the will of God to keep them in your seat… or other “perks”… which leads us to #2.
Do you give your teams the opportunities to earn more dinero more than just the annual raise? Maybe you provide quarterly bonus opportunities based on performance, impactful work completed, etc.? Or do you have a budget to send your employees to conferences and workshops to help develop their skills? Share it when you create job postings! People do some amazing things when they have incentives. It can bring out a whole other side of passion if you have competitive people on your team. A healthy competitive candidate would bite at this in a heartbeat—and it makes work fun and something to look forward to. Human nature, friends. #gamification.
It’s up to you when you want to have the conversation about work from home days, frequency, unlimited vacation, paid volunteer hours, etc. if you have any programs like these. You may want to wait until the second interview after the candidate has sold himself or herself to you before you dive into this pool.
If after the first interview you are confident that the candidate will fill the need and solve any problems you have, it’s most likely you’ll do what it takes to get them on your team. Informing them about any work flexibility and life balance perks should happen at this point. Also, if it’s important to the candidate, they will ask if you have any opportunities like this during their 2nd or 3rd interviews as well. It’s a two-way street—and the best hires are when both parties win.
Whatever type of culture you have, whatever perks you have, OWN IT ALL! And share it all! It’s important to be transparent and honest about what you can offer to find the best fit—and the same goes for candidates applying. If there’s a type of culture you want to create, start implementing it and getting it out there in job postings and through your recruitment marketing strategy.
And if you don’t have a recruitment marketing strategy—what are you waiting for?! (FYI: We can help you if you’ve got the struggles.)