ESCON: Fun Theory

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.

It’s All About R-E-S-P-E-C-T

• 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

A pleasant work atmosphere is linked closely with job recognition, open communication, respect, and even fun and friendship. A good first step in building and sustaining an employer brand is to craft a culture that values employees, recognizes their contributions, and celebrates successes. Encouraging social connections among workers will not only nurture a sense of team spirit, it will also strengthen and solidify a feeling of shared commitment and accountability.

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

People seek employers that offer the opportunity to acquire new skills while making use of their existing capabilities. In order to attract and retain top talent, companies must provide an avenue for continued learning, whether through traditional training channels or participation in cross-functional teams and activities. Supporting professional development initiatives and fostering career advancement will go a long way in retaining talent and maintaining a high performing workforce.

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.