What Workers Want: Employer Branding in a Rebounding Job Market...
"An employer brand is a
billboard for the organization, and the importance of this public
sentiment goes beyond recruitment efforts," said Jim Link, managing
director of human resources for Randstad US. "Clearly, company
reputation impacts attractiveness among potential candidates. It is also
clear a strong employer brand will further drive bottom-line results by
creating a stable workforce, increasing productivity, and engaging key
stakeholders. This affects all aspects of the organization, and when
managed effectively, can elevate leadership and visibility within the
company's industry."
In order to help employers
learn how to develop and deliver on this brand promise, Randstad took a
closer look at what workers expect and want from a prospective employer.
Key findings include:
Show Me The Money...And, Give Me Security And A Nice Working Environment
Top Three Factors in Choosing a New Employer
1. Competitive salary and benefits
2. Long-term job security
3. Pleasant work atmosphere
Over the last several years,
many Americans have witnessed or personally experienced salary freezes,
temporary furloughs, layoffs, and even long periods of unemployment.
Given these recent strains, along with continued unease around the state
of the economy, it may come as no surprise that US workers seek
financial security first and foremost. Even so, money isn’t everything. A
pleasant work atmosphere follows closely as one of the top factors in
choosing a new employer.
- A majority of workers want recognition for their good work (52 percent)
- Around half of employees tout the importance of open and honest communication (51 percent)
- Forty-nine percent of America’s workforce wants the respect of their colleagues
Pique the Interest of Peak Talent
- Just over half of workers find a job interesting when it makes good use of their existing skills
- Even so, 43 percent of employees are interested in the acquisition of new skills
- For 39 percent of US workers, a job is considered “interesting” when new ideas are valued
Spread the Word
Employers should research what
people are already saying about the company when drafting a blueprint
for their employer brand. In a social media age, word of mouth
communication is both accelerated and amplified. Company decision makers
should use these digital conversations as an informal focus group and
consider what’s being said online as a benchmark for their brand value.
Employers can facilitate positive social mentions by encouraging current
employees to serve as brand ambassadors. Additionally, engaging in
dialogue with potential candidates will create an online talent
community, which will establish a pre-employment connection with
prospective employees.
A strong employer brand not
only attracts high performing talent, but it also promotes retention,
creates a stable workforce, and increases organizational success.
Moreover, high retention rates reduce search and selection costs and
help employers more effectively manage their cost structure, driving the
company’s bottom line. With a strong employer brand that clearly
defines and delivers on its promise, organizations can attract and
retain great talent, enhance productivity, and elevate market
leadership.
Survey Methodology
Randstad’s
Employer Branding survey is based on perceived attractiveness of
companies amongst 7,000 students, employed and unemployed workers
between the ages of 18 and 65. Samples are based on national
demographics with a slight emphasis on respondents aged below 40, as
potential job seekers, or those most likely to be in the job market, are
the target audience of the survey. Each sample is representative of age,
region, gender and education.
Respondents
are invited by means of online interviews to select the companies they
know from a random list; each company is set to appear approximately
1,500 times at random during the entire survey.
The
margin of error on a sample of 1,500 is plus or minus 1.245 percentage
points at the 95 percent level of confidence. This means that there is a
95 percent chance that the responses of the target population as a
whole would fall somewhere between 1.245 percent more or 1.245 percent
less than the responses of the sample (confidence interval of 2.49
percent on the worst case percentage of 50 percent).
For the Award, the
attractiveness of the company is defined by the number of people that
like to work for a company compared to the number of respondents who
know the company (not the total sample); the higher respondents’
awareness of a company, the more observations can be measured for this
company.
