Chief Executive<\/a> magazine pointed to incentive compensation as a key strategy when the market for talent is tight. Naturally people like to be rewarded for hard work and a quarterly bonus gives them something to anticipate. Unfortunately, it will also fall flat when other drivers of employee engagement and satisfaction are missing.<\/p>\nResearch has demonstrated time and again that compensation doesn\u2019t create employee satisfaction. Sure, money quells discontent, removing the irritant of low pay from the equation, but that doesn\u2019t solve cultural concerns.<\/p>\n
Employees expect to be paid fairly and once that threshold is crossed, added income doesn\u2019t make them happier. It might make an unhappy employee stay, which is exactly the opposite of what savvy leaders want! (Assuming you\u2019ve already done what you can in an effort to make them happy.)<\/em><\/p>\nWhy bribe someone to stay when you\u2019d both be better off if they leave?<\/strong> When an employee doesn\u2019t buy into the purpose of the business, if they don\u2019t feel like an integral part of the mission, there\u2019s a good chance they don\u2019t belong. Help them along and create room for someone who is engaged.<\/p>\nA culture that attracts top talent doesn\u2019t happen overnight, especially if you need to correct the course of a wayward environment. It\u2019s much easier to build culture intentionally from the beginning, although new businesses rarely put enough emphasis on this area.<\/p>\n
Instead, CEOs focus on growth and let culture develop organically until they wake up one morning and discover a problem. Fully 70% of top executives delegate issues of culture and engagement to HR, leaving problems to fester until their once-a-year review of the employee survey.<\/p>\n
You can be one of those disengaged CEOs, or you can be proactive about your culture. If you want to win the war for top talent, I recommend that latter option. Make culture a priority and your employees and customers will notice. Word will spread so you won\u2019t have to work nearly as hard to recruit the stars you need to excel.<\/p>\n
Lifestyle, Not Lip Service<\/h2>\n
A culture that attracts top talent has the added benefit of attracting top customers, too. It\u2019s a sweet deal that requires a long term commitment. You can\u2019t simply say, \u201cWe\u2019re a great place to work\u201d if you don\u2019t prove it daily:<\/p>\n
\n- Talk to employees and customers regularly, then act on what you learn.<\/li>\n
- Show sincere appreciation for those that go the extra mile, giving credit when due.<\/li>\n
- Be compassionate and empathic, put not a pushover.<\/li>\n
- Set clear expectations and ensure consistency in actions and communications.<\/li>\n
- Let employees tell you what they want, instead of telling them what you can offer.<\/li>\n
- Accept failures and setbacks gracefully, then share the lessons learned.<\/li>\n
- Encourage openness and trust, leading by example.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
If you haven\u2019t already embraced these principles, start now. Over time, you employer brand will become more well known. As it does, highly desirable candidates will seek you out, eagerly looking forward to the opportunity to join your firm.<\/p>\n
Image by Emre Danisman on FreeImages.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From efficiency and innovation to customer experience and brand equity,employees have the power to help a company sink or soar. Is your business having trouble attracting great employees? Do you get close to making an offer (or even make one) only to be turned down? Hiring in a tight labor market isn\u2019t easy. There are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10012,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[128,92],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387483"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10012"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}