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First, the good news. The economy is robust. Unemployment is low. Consumer confidence is high. Technology has been a boon to productivity. Disposable income is at an all time high. The real costs of many goods and services are lower now than they’ve been in decades. Now the bad news. The economy is robust. There are more jobs than there are people available to fill them. The competition for employees is running at a fever pitch. U.S. employers are recruiting overseas, through welfare-to-work and prison work release programs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects service work, which accounts for 79 percent of all employment today, will be responsible for all net job growth in the next decade. Given this scenario, how are employers going to attract and retain the kinds of front-line employees they need to keep the doors open and customers coming back? There are a few companies showing the way. Starbucks Coffee, Southwest Airlines, and Disney have something in common besides success. They’re "magnetic companies." Magnetic companies attract, select, and retain the best – and repel the rest. If you think they do this by paying top dollar, think again. They don’t. In fact, a recent survey in Journal of Business Strategy reported employees ranked salary and benefits as 13th and 16th on the list of things they value most when looking for a job. To become a magnetic company you need to become an employer of choice among a target group of applicants. The first step in becoming an employer of choice is to take a marketing approach to recruiting. This means doing the same kind of homework about ideal job candidates as you do about your customers. To pinpoint ideal candidates, ask yourself what kind of people work for you now and which are the best? Why are they the best? Why do they work for you and what do they want from their jobs? Where do these kinds of people congregate? What do they read? Why do you lose some of the good ones? Who is your competition for employees? What does your competition offer that you don’t? Once you’ve identified a target group of candidates, you can tailor your recruiting message to appeal to them and broadcast it where they’re most likely to see it. Your recruiting message, like all advertising, has to have a strong benefit message. You have to tell them why they want to work for you. The next step in becoming an employer of choice is to develop a hiring system. What kind of system do you have now and why are you doing it this particular way? How do you identify the best candidates? Are you testing for needed skills and attitudes? How many interviews does each applicant have and what questions do you ask? How do you get references? Testing for capacities, attitudes, and skills raises the quality of all new hires while ensuring fairness. Testing is also the very best predictor of job success. Far and above references, previous experience, interviewing, and academic achievement, testing identifies the best candidates. Another plus is that testing uses the applicant’s time, not yours. No matter what the system, you have to make it easy for applicants apply for the job – especially in this tight labor market. When you limit the hours you accept applications or require people to apply in person, you’re making it difficult for the best people to apply – especially those who are already working or in school. When you take a marketing approach to recruiting, you increase the quantity and quality of those applying by making it easy. While recruiting is about image, employee retention is about reality. One of the ways magnetic companies do this is by making the job hard to get. They know that people want whatever it is they think they can’t get. And when the job is hard to get, only the best people get it. The next key to retention in a magnetic company is outstanding management. Outstanding managers put employees first and customers second. They know that when they take extraordinary care of their employees, their employees take extraordinary care of their customers. These managers combine recognition, responsibility, rules, respect, relationships, reward, and fun, to create a work environment that few choose to leave – even for more money. Recognition is simply giving praise where it’s due. Rewards add incentive to the workplace. When we give people the responsibility of making decisions and suggesting improvements, they are empowered to do a better job. To enjoy any game, we need to know the rules by which it’s played. Too few rules result in complaints about management inconsistency. Too many stifle creativity and flexibility. Let everyone know the rules so they can play their best game. Given human nature, respect is difficult to establish, but well worth the effort. Your employees will respect you, one another, and your customers only as much as you respect them. And respect creates an atmosphere where good relationships thrive. No one stays long in a job where they can’t enjoy give-and-take relationships with others. The people who work for magnetic companies are having fun. Normally, whatever fun happens on the job is instigated by employees and only tolerated by management (if they know about it at all). Southwest Airlines is the best example of workplace fun. Customers and job applicants alike flock to them because they’re perceived as being fun. What could you do to make work fun? If your employees were having fun, would you attract more customers? The employers who figure out what employees want and deliver it will build magnetic companies that successfully attract, select, and retain the best. |
