Want to Attract Talent? Be Worthy, Be Known

Employers around the world are becoming aware that the rules for finding and keeping top performers are changing rapidly. Fierce business competition and equally fierce competition for top talent mean that good people are becoming more mobile than ever. Indeed, it seems to have become standard operating procedure for many workers to keep their résumé permanently updated and in circulation.

Not surprisingly, this means that the people most likely to leave their jobs are those who can most easily find jobs elsewhere. Unfortunately for those whose businesses are struggling to meet intensifying competitive challenges, it also means that the people most essential to their future success – talented managers, knowledge workers and revenue producers –  are also the ones most likely to walk off.

Clearly, we are no longer competing for just a larger share of the market, we are also competing for talent. In today’s talent market, the best people seem to have the upper hand and are exercising their right to choose the workplace in which they will deploy their talent. To be worthy of that choice, businesses have discovered that they must now offer much more than just good pay.

Talented workers are also insisting on ‘a good place to work.’ Typically, this involves more than just good pay and benefits; it also means a place that provides a welcoming work environment, creates opportunities for professional development and advancement, treats employees with respect and dignity, and enables them to feel valued, both as contributors to the organization’s success and as human beings.

Given a choice between comparably remunerated positions, an increasing number of high potential people are indicating a preference for organizations that offer the greatest opportunities to develop and do their best work. Obviously, this trend must be kept in perspective. A business that is foundering or heading towards bankruptcy will certainly have a difficult time competing for talent, no matter how wonderful its internal culture.

Nevertheless, its obvious that the long–term success of any organization is now heavily dependent on its ability to recruit and keep the best talent, and to enable its people to develop to their highest potential. The term ‘employer of choice’ is commonly used to describe a company whose status and reputation as a great place to work, make it the first choice of top class people.

Ongoing research suggests that organizations that are able to attain this status enjoy certain advantages. To start with, the greater the public awareness of an organization’s reputation as an employer of choice, the greater the pool of talent it will attract and have to draw upon. This, in turn, should help to make the search for top talent more of a selection process. Finally, the increased quality, value or performance of better people combined with expected savings on recruitment costs should, in turn, more than repay any costs associated with the process of becoming and remaining an employer of choice.

Some Key Issues

For reasons similar to those identified above, an increasing number of organizations are choosing to identify with the employer of choice strategy. Unfortunately, as with so many deceptively simple concepts, it is not so easy to convert theory into practice. We believe there are a number of reasons for this.

First, there is growing recognition that to compete for market share, an organization must first compete for talent share i.e. those talented future leaders, knowledge workers and producers who will enable the organization stay competitive. The decision to become an employer of choice is a strategic commitment.

Second, becoming an employer of choice requires employers to see their people as valuable assets, to invest in them as assets that can appreciate in value, and to treat them as human beings who have a range of personal and professional needs or preferences, and who can walk out of the door if those needs and preferences are not satisfied.

Third, and most important, there are two elements involved in becoming an employer of choice – beingworthy and being known. As we have already seen, being a worthy organization requires policies and practices that support people in doing their best work and developing to their fullest potential, both professionally and personally. However, it is also important for organizations to be known and recognized for creating environments that enable people to succeed and to develop behaviors and skills that will position them for greater success in the future.

It seems likely that to be well-known, but not particularly worthy might create a discrepancy between people’s expectations or experiences that could ultimately lead to the loss of high performers whose expectations are not being met. On the other hand, to be worthy but not particularly well-known would also be largely ineffective as it would result in the organization’s failure to leverage a critical success factor i.e. having the best people. We believe both of these elements are necessary to attract the most desirable people to the organization. Neither is enough on its own.

Human Resource Managers Have a Critical Role to Play

Creating a worthy organization or employer of choice isn’t the responsibility of Human Resources (HR) alone. In fact, I would argue that the intention to do so begins with the owners of the business and devolves through the Board of Directors down to the Chief Executive and his or her management team. Nevertheless, much of the day-to-day implementation of management strategies required to meet this lofty goal will eventually fall into the lap of HR.

Fortunately, today’s HR managers understand the vital role they must play. Their preferred weapon of choice is the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) i.e. the set of organizational values and people practices that are used to positively answer the unspoken question from current and prospective employees alike –  “Why should I (continue to) work for you?”

At the heart of the EVP concept is something that all HR managers would do well to keep in mind: talent always has options, always has a choice.