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The battle for the right talent is no longer a looming disaster, but a harsh reality. While organizations used to set up their stand, advertise their offer and wait for the best talent to queue up for them, in the age of the employee market, it is the talent that chooses the stand that is most attractive to them from a multitude of offers. To attract and retain the best talent in such an environment, you need to know who you are as an organization and have the courage to stand out from the crowd. And being a great employer is the foundation for this.
The battle for the best talent must be tackled from within
As part of their employer branding efforts, organizations often try to meet the needs of the ideal candidate. They promise some or several of the common criteria that talents seem to be looking for. For example, if you google the qualities of a good employer, terms such as flexibility, international career opportunities and willingness to innovate come up again and again.
However, if you as an employer address mostly external expectations and needs instead of focusing on your unique cultural advantages, you will inevitably attract talent that does not fit your workplace culture. So before you start throwing around empty phrases, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you know who you really are as an employer and what makes you special?
- Do you know why your employees like working for your organization? Or why some of them leave after a short time?
- What is the "icing on the cake" of your organization? What is your USP that sets you apart from your competitors in the talent market?
- Why do your best talents stay in your organization, are motivated, committed and proud to work for your organization?
I'm often asked whether you should hire for performance or for cultural fit. And the answer is: ideally both! But if both are not possible, you should always opt for cultural fit. Individual performance can usually be improved more easily through coaching or even by reassignment to a more suitable position. On the other hand, our individual cultural mindset is acquired and consolidated very early in life, which makes it difficult to change our value system. Thus, a high performer in a culture that does not match their values will become unhappy in the long term, which in turn could be reflected in their performance or even become counterproductive for the entire organizational culture.
By defining the cultural values within your organization and communicating them to the outside world, you can anticipate such a development. One of the foundations for successful employer branding is the development of the EVP, the Employer Value Proposition.
An authentic employer value proposition is the basis
To attract the right talent, you need an authentic EVP for the first time. For us, it comprises three areas that enable you to stand out from the crowd in employer branding.
- Find out who you really are - evaluate your workplace culture as it is today. The most valuable source of this knowledge is your employees. Ask your employees and involve them in the analysis of your workplace culture. At Great Place To Work®, we use our Trust Index™ employee survey and focus groups to explore the internal perspective.
- Find out about your competitors in the talent market - but don't overdo it. A simple web search is usually enough to find out what your competitors are promising and will give you an idea of how you can differentiate yourself as an employer. But beware: don't fall into the trap of thinking you have to promise the same thing; this is where boldness takes on its true meaning. Many companies fear that potential applicants will no longer be interested if they appear too different. In fact, it's their unique, authentic mix of qualities that will attract the right talent and will also greatly help you retain and engage your internal talent.
- Last but not least, every EPP should have a goal-oriented component. After all, we all know that we live in a world of constant change. So if you select the traits from your workplace culture that really drive the development of your organization, you will attract the talent that is best suited to accelerate that development.
In order to make the development of your EVP a worthwhile journey, the core component is therefore the authentic communication to the outside world of what you already live internally or what you really want to live in the near future. Take into account how different our individual values are. Employees and we as people are multifaceted - today's talents are looking for an employer where they can truly be themselves and see their values reflected and where they are empowered to be part of the change.
Employer Guide 2021
Together with the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), we interviewed over 180 experts from a wide range of industries about employer branding, their employer brand, the shortage of skilled workers and the impact of the coronavirus crisis. The result is a white paper that provides an approach to developing the employer brand, identifies 4 fields of action for employer branding in Switzerland, shows 15 parameters for the correct success control of employer branding and illustrates the influence of the corona crisis on employer branding.
