Develop a Strategic Hiring Plan to Keep Up with Hiring Demands

There is a 3% economic growth forecasted for 2015, according to experts at Goldman Sachs, which is above the most recent U.S. economic trend. Some of the positive contributing factors that are affecting this number are the solid increases across key areas of private domestic demand, like home building, along with an increase in consumption and an increase in investments. The recent decline in oil and gas prices will also positively affect spending and growth in 2015, leaving dollars on the table to be spent on other expenses, such as hiring new employees.

2015 has begun with a 5.6 percent unemployment rate, which is the lowest U-3 unemployment rate since 2008. The U-3 rate counts the total number of unemployed as a percent of the civilian labor force. This figure is thought to be a bit misleading, because it does not account for those that are marginally attached to the labor force and/or those that are underemployed. This number gives the illusion of being near full employment, but leaves a huge segment of the market without full-time employment. This statistic can play into your favor when creating and implementing a hiring plan, because there are still many people who are looking for employment this New Year.

The outlook for 2015 has many positive aspects—the most important being an eager and skilled labor pool still available. Armed with this knowledge, each business owner needs to assess their staffing needs and develop a strategic hiring plan that will accomplish several goals. Some of these goals should include:

• Making the most of financial resources and keeping costs at a reasonable level
• Finding the most cost-effective way to market open job positions while reaching the desired audience
• Hiring the right people for the job
• Aligning hiring goals with corporate goals to demonstrate congruity and singularity of mission
• Looking at all viable staffing options from partnering with a staffing firm, such as direct, temporary and temporary-to-hire services

Putting a hiring plan in place begins with understanding your staffing needs, the economic cycles that affect supply and demand, as well as prioritizing your goals related to production or provision of service. It is also critical to have a full understanding of the labor pool that you rely upon to meet staffing needs.

To get a better understanding your hiring and staffing needs, follow these three steps:

• Define critical staffing issues to begin creating your hiring plan. During this phase of the process, identify and prioritize your most critical staffing issues and select those for which specific staffing strategies are required. There is no need to examine staffing needs for the entire company; only look at segments of the company that require a specific plan.

• Define staffing gaps and surpluses. This second step looks at developing a staffing model, forecasting staff availability, comparing supply and demand and calculating staffing gaps and surpluses for each job during your planning horizon. Having intimate knowledge of your staffing needs is the basis of a good strategic plan.

• Develop and outline staffing strategies and plans to meet the identified needs. This part of the process is where you will consider all of the hiring and staffing options available, such as hiring full-time verses part-time employees, temporary or permanent workers, or choosing direct hires.  Not every position or staffing need requires a full-time, permanent direct employee. For example, some jobs are primarily high volume, and as a result, require a great quantity of laborers, but may only be seasonal in nature. On the other hand, some jobs can be purely operational, only providing support services to the critical functions of the company and could possibly be provided by a staffing firm, which will reduce expenses as they relate to recruiting, hiring and training.

When creating a hiring plan, it is important to identify potential staffing issues, or in other words, create a scenario plan that accounts for unexpected changes in operation. This is a strategic planning method that some organizations use to make flexible long-term plans. Some of these considerations are:

• Changes in business focus
• Business expansion or contraction
• Changes in markets or customer base
• Major capital expenditures/projects
• Changes in production technology
• Changes in competitive positions
• Productivity/quality improvements
• Changes in organization structure
• Merger and acquisition activity

Having a hiring plan in place will help to manage one of the most important functions of any business. Taking in in-depth look at staffing needs will help to manage peak times of production, as well as cyclical lulls. It is vitally important to understand the number of employees needed throughout the year but to also understand what types of people are needed to meet the company’s needs. Creating and implementing a hiring plan is an ongoing practice that will take away the fear of the unknown by considering all options.

If you’re looking for more information about creating your hiring plan for 2015 or the benefits of working with a staffing firm, click below to visit our Employer Resource page!

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Keeping the Edge: Building Business Success in the New Year

Business owners and managers face the end of the ye ar with a mixture of relief and uneasy questions. Were the deadlines conceived in January abandoned by June? Why was that nagging employee problem left unsolved? Was the summer rush a result of good planning or a fluke of good fortune? But the most important question lingers tantalizingly unanswered: how can we do better next year?

Building success year after year is a process of looking back while still continuing to think ahead. To prepare for success next year, it’s important to arrange a checklist of both the hits and misses of the last twelve months as well as another set of goals to strive to accomplish for the upcoming year. Here are our suggestions to start off a checklist of your own this year:

1) Begin with the obvious.

The first step is an overall system review of your business that examines everyday practices, with an eye toward efficiency and added value. Are your policies and procedures really productive, or have you grown attached to familiar practices that are wasteful or inefficient? You may find trending problems in everyday operations; future disasters hidden in plain sight. But in addition to any lurking problems, keep an eye out for any potential solutions and/or emerging opportunities.

2) Review moments of success and challenge.

Once you’ve looked at everyday practices, try this exercise:  list the 10 most memorable incidents of your business year. Be mindful of what makes it onto your list. Does your mind fly to incidents of drama and crisis, or do you see moments of success — as well as areas for improvement?  If your list is unbalanced — either all good or all bad — you may have an unrealistic view of your company’s situation, or your business may be in real trouble.

Moments of success and challenge reveal both what your company has in spades, and what it lacks. Additionally, take note of the individuals who rose to a challenge, or who made a difference. Ask them how they were able to take on the crisis, and also be sure that they are recognized for their achievements. Gather all the lessons from your crises and successes to shape your goals for next year.

3) Take a fresh look at business affiliations.

Go over all of your business relationships so far. Are they mutually beneficial? How long has it been since you sat with vendors to value your contracts? Do you renew contractor agreements out of a nostalgic sense of loyalty or do they provide necessary services efficiently and at a fair price? Ask providers for insight as to how you can improve your relationship.

4) Lighten your load.

Have you outgrown your offices? Are you stumbling over clutter, awash in a sea of old files?  After an honest appraisal of your space and equipment, ask yourself if it’s time to invest in more space or to take on an office purge. Engage your staff and ask what organizational changes will make your workspace more efficient.

5) Listen to your marketplace.

Take some time and reflect on your client base. Are your best customers the ones you hear from most often? Or are your most profitable clients silent and steady? Can you identify a few needy clients who consume more than their fair share of you mental energy? When it comes to customer service it’s not uncommon to find your client base is upside down, the supportive majority getting less attention than the vocal minority. Resolve to redistribute your attention and deepen ties with the clients who really do the most for you. Let them know that you care about their needs and ask for constructive feedback.

6) Position for success.

Once you’ve determined how well your company achieved last year’s goals, it’s time to ask if the year was a success. There’s more to success than bottom line profitability and it is always possible that your business can have a successful year even with abandoned business goals. Quantifying success is an objective process, as it involves an assessment of strengths and weaknesses and available resources. Success can start with having the right people where you need them. Building your talent bank is easier when you work with a professional staffing partner.

This list is only the beginning of the planning that can be done for your business’ upcoming year. For more advice about best managing your hiring for the New Year, feel free to contact our staffing professionals at TWG Staffing. Click below to view our contact information!

The End of the Year is Approaching — and That Means Employee Performance Reviews

Halloween is over, and we’ve officially switched over to Daylight Savings Time, which means that the end of the year is approaching.  With the new calendar switch comes an important step for every business’ growth: the employee performance review.

The purpose of an employee performance review is to, like all reviews, address any problems, track performance and acknowledge success and improvements.  Performance reviews are often personal and done on an annual basis, but they should never be ignored.  Sure—it can be hectic to begin employee performance reviews while you’re simultaneously attempting to wrap up your business’ fourth quarter or finalizing the last of the reports for the year; however, the benefits of employee performance reviews far outweigh the cost.

If your business does not already have an employee performance review process in place, it can be daunting to start entirely from scratch.  It isn’t a simple task to measure performance through a set of finite questions or scales, so we’ve compiled a list of tips to plan a new review process, or to help strengthen your current one:

• Plan for performance reviews in advance. Ideally, the best option for employee performance reviews is to start as early as possible, preferably setting up a checklist or goals when the employee is first hired.  If that’s not possible, set up short meetings with all your employees at the beginning of the year to discuss the goals they plan to accomplish by the end of the year.  Having notes for those goals ahead of time makes it easier to begin a new review and see what has been accomplished in twelve months.

• Structure your review as a conversation. Going question-to-question guarantees a one-sided discussion, without guaranteeing much—if any—true development. By structuring the employee performance review to be more of a give and take discussion, the employee will be more relaxed and more receptive to suggestions or constructive criticism.

• Create the opportunity for success. The employee performance review is a chance for further growth. You can provide suggestions to each of your employees to better improve their strengths or weaknesses at work. Additionally, this is the opportunity for your employees to pose any questions they might have run across in the last year and address any issues or concerns.

Preparing for employee performance reviews will help set your company up for success in the new year. In addition to performance reviews, there are other steps that an employer should take to close out the fourth quarter. Click below to download our free “Closing out 2014" checklist for employers!

Oh, the Horror! The Cost of a Bad Hire

Congratulations! Your business is doing well, production is up and you’re looking to hire new staff to meet demand. Or maybe that’s not your story—perhaps you need to replace staff who are moving away or just moving on. Hiring is part of the cost of doing business. Even if you are brilliant with digital office systems, you can’t be everywhere at once. Even Superman needed to bring on help to cover the office. You’ve got to have help to prosper; after all, these are the people who help you bring in the money. Whatever your need, hiring can be risky. Sure, you need the help, but hiring the wrong person for the job can be one of the most expensive blunders a business can make.

Hiring is costly to begin with. We don’t tend to think of the cumulative cost of a new hire because it’s incremental; it sneaks up on you in nickels and dimes. But there’s time and effort involved in writing and placing a job ads, screening candidates, making phone calls, sending  emails, arranging and conducting interviews, checking references and so forth.  You may also be paying for extra costs such as resume scanning or background checks. With all that time, effort and money spent, you want to be sure that you get it right the first time.

Picking the wrong person for the job isn’t just one decision; it’s many decisions. A single bad employee can trigger an avalanche of time-consuming counter-productive corrections, administrative errors and client dissatisfaction. Unfortunately, many companies make bad hires. In the U.S. alone, some 66 percent of employers report being affected by a bad hiring decision at some point. Tony Hsieh , CEO of Zappos, illustrates the disruption and expense of a bad hire: that one bad apple has the ability to cost company millions. In fact, his own bad hires have cost the company an estimated 100 million dollars.

Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, states that “making a wrong decision regarding a hire can have several adverse consequences across an organization”. Ferguson adds, “When you add up missed sales opportunities, strained client and employee relations, potential legal issues and resources to hire and train candidates, the cost can be considerable. Employers are taking longer to extend offers post-recession as they assess whether a candidate really is the best fit for the job and their company culture.”

Never mind the money. The real cost of a bad hire is brought to light in other ways. An unmotivated, incompetent or intransigent employee can act as an anchor to the entire team, impacting productivity and team morale. Training the subpar employee needlessly consumes valuable resources. Taking up slack by correcting incomplete or incorrect work can destroy workflow and throw an entire department into disarray. There’s no win in this situation; the bad employee isn’t going to get any better and devoted team members end up frustrated and dissatisfied.

If your bad apple is in a management position, the downhill trend may not be isolated to a single team. Depending on their level of responsibility, the effects of a bad hire can spread through their own hiring decisions. Poor performers tend to hire poor performers, not because they want to bankrupt you but because their own standards are low. Weak managers tend to hire employees who seem easy to manage; incompetent bosses hire nominally competent teams. Productivity plunges and costs soar.

So what’s one tried and true way of avoiding the dead weight of a bad hire?  The simplest, most effective answer: partnering with a staffing firm to “try before you buy”. Temporary and contract employees may not come to you with a money-back guarantee, but it will feel just as rewarding when you calculate the costs and expenses saved from a potential bad hire. Since contingent staffing allows you to bring new talent on the job without making that long-lasting hiring commitment, your management team can make sure that this candidate is both a skill and culture fit before added to your full-time payroll… and the savings only begin there.

Want to learn more about the benefits of temporary staffing firm services? Click below!

Benefits for All: Top Advantages of Working with a Staffing Firm

From September 15 ^th – 21 ^st , The Work Group is celebrating the accomplishments of temporary and contract employees all across the country during National Staffing Employee Week .

Temporary staffing was born in the late 1940s as a source for companies to find typists and seasonal workers, but that image is long out of date. Temporary workforce solutions address all kinds of work in any discipline imaginable and play a significant role in the economic recovery. In 2012, 36% of companies hired contract or temporary workers, up from 28% only 3 years earlier.

In 2013:

• 3.0 million people were employed by staffing companies every week.
• 11.0 million temporary or contract employees were hired in all.
• 79% of staffing employees work full time.

Small businesses are taking advantage of the opportunities offered by temporary employees. Traditionally, businesses have worked with staffing firms to cover employee absences or illness. But at need, staffing provides employers with flexibility that can make the difference between growth and stagnation. Temporary staffing can be the manpower solution that gives an economic edge to a small businesses that are positioned for growth but aren’t ready to hire full-time employees. A firm positioned for recovery from the economic downturn can benefit from temporary staffing to return to healthy operations.

Staffing firms also offer advantages for skilled workers and displaced professionals. In this employment market, contingent staffing creates a path to reentry into the workplace for downsized professionals. Temporary work can be the perfect bridge to a career transition or a supplement to early retirement. Statistically, that means that:

• 88% of staffing employees say that temporary or contract work made them more employable.
• 77% of staffing employees say it's a good way to obtain a permanent job.
• 80% of staffing clients say staffing firms offer a good way to find people who can become permanent employees.

Since most staffing firms offer training, contract workers enjoy a training advantage over their permanent counterparts. A professional working in a variety of environments is more likely to be exposed to new solutions and technologies. Through experience as a temporary employee, professionals can cultivate a diverse bank of valuable skills, making them more employable. According to the American Staffing Association:

• 90% of staffing companies provide free training to their temporary and contract employees.
• 65% of staffing employees have developed new or improved work skills through their assignments.
• 40% of staffing employees say they choose temporary or contract work as a way to obtain employment experience or job training.

Even if the temporary assignment doesn’t translate into a full-time position, these positions offer a wealth of advantages for the worker. For those who have experienced unemployment, a temporary job can keep your head in the game. Long periods of unemployment can be demoralizing and unemployed workers can fall out of their work habits. Temporary employment keeps those habits fresh and when a full-time position does come along, it makes the adjustment to full-time work that much easier. Temporary assignments keep a professional network fresh and functional—a huge plus to have during a job search.

For the last few years, finding work has been especially challenging for younger workers. New graduates can benefit from working with a staffing firm because they offer the opportunity to build new skills and find experience to build an impressive resume. For workers who have family or educational commitments, the flexibility of a temporary assignment has real appeal. A temporary worker has the ability to structure their employment around their other needs, being able to choose when and where they’ll work.

For both workers and employers, temporary staffing offers many advantages from a period of introduction until a possible lasting professional commitment. After almost 60 years, temporary staffing has grown into a fundamental tool for developing successful businesses.

Back to School... and Back to Professional Development

The end of summer affords business owners and managers a chance to reassess their plans for the year. With the close of vacation season, it’s time to measure achievements and readdress the critical goals set for the year. One area of assessment that influences all the rest is staffing. As the economy continues to recover and growth possibilities appear strong, are you positioned with the staff you need to take advantage of these opportunities?

Once you’re sure you have the right people in place, it’s time to ask if they are equipped to deliver. What would transform your staff into a well-trained and well-motivated team? Is the atmosphere conducive to optimal performance? Are there professional weaknesses that keep your team from achieving their best performance? As the last quarter of the year approaches… what can you do to help your employees succeed and thrive?

According to a Gallup study , it is clear that, “employee engagement strongly relates to key organizational outcomes in any economic climate.” Another study shows that up to 1/3 of engaged employees are happy to work even after hours via their mobile devices. Clearly, engagement is key to company’s success and developing your staff in tune with company goals makes engagement a very profitable choice.

Another study by Deloitte states that professional development is rising in tandem with the economic recovery. “With greater financial stability, U.S. companies are committing more resources to training and development.” Professional development can also foster new levels of commitment and provide a boost in productivity.

Some suggestions for increased engagement through learning and development are as follows:

1) Re-onboarding/Orientation

Appropriate onboarding has been shown to create long term stability and satisfaction in new hires. Re-addressing the onboarding process later in the employment lifecycle is equally beneficial. Different from the initial process, reorientation helps experienced employees realign their understanding and commitment to a company that may be profoundly different from the one that hired them. Reorientation creates opportunities not only to refresh employees understanding of policies, procedures and goals; it affords management an opportunity to gather insight into a team’s dynamics—always bringing a boost in productivity.

2) Professional Development

Traditional training efforts that result in new skills and certifications have a double benefit. It makes employees feel that their employer values their contribution, which in turn helps productivity . When an employee is encouraged to develop their professional skills, they are more likely to remain with the firm that invested in them and are generally a positive influence on their peers.

3) Social Learning

We tend to think of training and learning as classroom based. Yet, some of the most meaningful and engaging experiences of our working lives happen outside the classroom. Social learning is an informal process where people share knowledge, boost employee morale as colleagues turn to one another for help or insight. A social learning experience can happen over lunch or in a process meeting. Social learning is particularly useful in capturing the experience of current leaders before they leave the field. Opportunities for social learning may be scarce in an office environment, so you may have to allocate time for these events in your team calendar.

Professional development enhances every aspect of an employee's working life. By fostering trust and engagement, team communication is enhanced and ultimately brings your goals and your team that much closer.

If your team needs additional support to meet year-end goals, consider working with a staffing firm to help you find the right individual to keep your team growing.

Three Ways to Take Your Employees Back to School

As the summer winds down, kids are getting ready to go back to school and, for business owners with an eye on the bottom line, it’s time to take the company back to school too.

According to Fortune , companies with leadership development programs rank among the most admired companies in the country. Corporate training is among the highest ROI investments a company can make and it pays off for years to come. It’s obvious that training leads to increased productivity, but it can positively influence other aspects of company life as well.

Good training can decreases turnover by up to 70%. Training among sales staff can have a huge impact, increase sales by as much as 80% and boost profits by as much as 37%. Human capital investments, such as training, affect an organizations’ financial performance in ways that may not be immediately apparent. Training may seem like an expensive luxury, but it turns out that total return on initial investment grows year after year.  In other words, a well-trained employee continues to improve and grow from training up to a year later.

A few classes here and there may produce positive results, but the real payback comes when companies create a high impact learning culture that starts with new hires and extends through the whole term of employment. Here are three opportunities to leverage training to increase employee satisfaction, retention and productivity:

Onboarding

Starting strong with good onboarding can make the difference between a lackluster hire and a stellar career. Good onboarding is really an extension of the recruitment process and can lay the groundwork for future success.  At its best, onboarding extends past the initial 90 days of employment and should include mentoring and peer support.

Hard Skills and Procedures

Since the need is obvious and the results are easy to measure, in some companies, training begins and ends with communicating the ‘how-to’s of any job. However, technology is changing the name of the game. Familiar tools and protocols are becoming obsolete, and the pace of change is increasing. Keeping employees skills fresh is essential. Training employees future skills pays dividends for years to come.

Soft Skills

Training staff in soft skills can enhance communication and problem solving abilities, resulting in better workflow and productivity. Leadership training creates effective management culture and can help you retain your most promising staff.

Corporate learning doesn’t just improve productivity—it has long term implications for your company’s health, longevity and ultimately, your bottom line.

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Under Pressure! The Cost of the U.S. Employee Stress Epidemic

At some point or another, every professional encounters some degree of work-related stress on the job. We encounter all different kinds of stress in our daily lives; paying the bills, caring for our families, keeping up with our homes. A little bit of stress does the body good, keeping us motivated and on-the-go. However, when stress goes from mild to severe, both workers and their companies can suffer consequences—costing American companies more in losses than you could imagine.

A telephone survey of 1,019 employed adults found that a whopping 83% of Americans are stressed by at least one thing at work—a 10% increase in stressed workers since 2012. Another survey by APA’s center for Organizational Excellence found that one-third of those Americans experience chronic work stress. The numbers show that the amount and intensity of workplace stress continues to increase, even with an improving economy.

Unfortunately, Employee Stress is Something to Stress About

So what’s all the commotion about this through-the-roof number of stressed employees? The bottom line is that, according to The World Health Organization , stress costs American businesses between $200 and $300 billion dollars in losses each year. This number is estimated as a result of higher medical and insurance costs, reduced productivity levels, employee absenteeism and turnover.

For example, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has found that job stress causes longer periods of employee disability than any other kinds of work-related illnesses or injuries do. Workers with high-stress jobs visit physicians 26% more often than those with low-stress jobs. With estimates like these, it’s imperative for employers to take the stress epidemic seriously and pinpoint potential stressors in their work environment that may be causing employees to suffer.

What Causes Extreme Employee Stress?

While employees experience several different stress triggers, a study by Harris Interactive and Everest College has found the leading causes of tension in the workplace:

• For the third year in a row, workers were the most stressed out by their compensation, or lack thereof (14% of participants)
• A close tie with compensation, 14% of employees were most stressed by an unreasonable workload—a 5% increase of stressed workers from the year before
• 11% of employees were most tense because of unfavorable coworkers in the workplace
• 11% were most stressed from commuting pains
• 8% suffer because they don’t enjoy working in a job that isn’t a chosen career path
• 7% suffer from poor work-life balance
• 6% fear they will never advance in their profession
• 4% fear being fired or laid-off

The above findings—especially unfavorable compensation and unmanageable workload—may be attributed to aftershock of the recession. Those who worked through the recession experienced companies downsizing firsthand, placing extra pressure on employees to take on a heavier workload with fewer resources. While companies are starting to hire again, post-recession fear still comes into play, causing employers to have the tendency to accomplish more with fewer resources. If this becomes the new norm for the American workforce, the prominence of workplace stress may continue to increase in years to come.

How to Reduce Employee Stress

Some industries are more hectic to work in than others, but there are several ways to help reduce stress in all professions before it gets out of control. Some easy ways are encouraging employees to take their vacation time and promoting a positive work environment.

To learn more about reducing employee stress, click below to read our latest article “Four Ways to Squash Employee Stress”. Trust us—your employees will not only appreciate it—they’ll be happier, healthier and more productive, too!

Don’t Get Burned: Encourage Employee Vacations

There are only a few days until summer officially starts, and your employees are most likely planning getaways and much-needed time off with family and friends.

Or are they?

According to a new study by the U.S. Travel Association and Oxford Economics, more than 40% of American workers who receive paid time off did not take all of their allocated time last year. On average, Americans didn’t use 3.2 of their paid days off in 2013, totaling 429 million unused days. In fact, 61% percent of American employees have three or more vacations days left over at the year’s end.

Why aren’t employees taking their well-deserved time off? According to Harris Interactive, this is why:

• 28% fear getting behind of their workload
• 17% fear losing their job
• 19% hope to be favored over a colleague for a promotion
• 13% are competitive and want to outperform their colleagues

While our previous blogs have touched on the fact that employee vacations prevent burnout and lack of productivity, a new study concludes that employees not taking time off results in harm to something else important to us—our economy.

If U.S. workers used all of their allotted paid vacation days, the economy would see more than $160 billion in total business sales and $21 billion in tax revenues. This amount of revenue would support 1.2 million jobs in all industries, including manufacturing and transportation.

Even if employees didn’t take all of their paid time off—the economy would significantly benefit if they took only one extra day of leave per year. That one extra day translates to $73 billion in output for our economy.

In addition to an improved economy, there are several other reasons why management should encourage employees to take their earned time off. Rested workers benefit a company in many ways:

• Increased productivity: In addition to reducing stress levels, vacations give employees a more positive outlook and fresh perspective on the job, increasing their motivation to excel at work. 77% of supervisors consider employees who take all of their vacation time more productive than those who don’t.

• Better health: Rest, relaxation and stress reduction are all very important for the well-being and health of your employees. Less stress translates to better health, and better health translates to lower health insurance costs and decreased use of sick days.

• Lower turnover: Studies show that employees who take all of their vacation days are more satisfied in their roles, resulting in a lower employee turnover rate and higher job satisfaction. Providing vacation time for relaxation and creating a culture that encourages employees to use that time can go a long way in increasing employee morale and loyalty.

In conclusion, the benefits of providing employee vacation time are obvious and shouldn’t be ignored. Encouraging your employees to step away from their jobs for a break will do nothing but good in the long run.

While it’s evident that there are benefits for providing time off, it can also be difficult to keep up productivity levels while your employees are away. That’s why many organizations explore their options for working with a staffing firm to cover employee absences. Staffing firms can provide temporary workers that will maintain daily work levels and also bring additional skills to your workplace.

Click below to learn more about the benefits of hiring a temporary worker and to have access to download our free flexible staffing checklist !

A Powerful Employer Brand: It’s Worth the Investment

Companies spend countless hours trying to improve their company brand experience, but how much time do they spend on improving their employer brand? Can you say that you spend an equal or close to the same amount of time on both?

If your company is enriched with a strong employer brand, it is considered as a unique place of employment, with attractive brand values and rich opportunities. A strong employer brand helps you recruit highly-skilled employees. It also helps you to retain top talent, because it increases employee loyalty and identification within your company. It raises an organization’s visibility in the job market and helps it to stand out among its competition.

Look at Google. They were awarded the number one spot on Fortune’s 2014 top 100 list of companies to work for … for FIVE years in a row. They are also one of the most successful companies in the world. Sure, they are also one of the largest companies—but would they be so large and successful if their employees had negative experiences on the job? Would this company have come this far if they didn’t offer a promising and rewarding work environment?

Google continues to harvest some of the most innovative products and services, and if you think about it, some employee came up with the idea of each one of those innovative product and services. If a specific employee wasn’t employed at the company at some point, would Gmail or Google Glass exist today? It’s something to think about.

In late 2012, LinkedIn published a whitepaper about the state of employer branding . The findings are interesting and concluded that overall, employer branding is seen as important “everywhere”. The studies conclude that the investment in employer branding is worth every penny. Here are some key findings and statistics from the study that explain why a strong employer brand is imperative to thrive in today’s competitive job market:

1) 83% of global recruiting leaders agree that employer branding is a critical driver of their ability to hire top talent.

2) More than half of surveyed companies have increased their employer brand investment.

3) 40% of surveyed companies have maintained their spend on employer brand.

4) A strong employer brand – as indicated by an individual having a positive impression of your company as a place to work - is twice as likely to be linked to job consideration as a strong company brand.

5) A strong employer brand was important for attracting more junior employees (staff and managers) and candidates under 40, and those from outside the US.

6) Potential candidates under 40 years old are 61% more likely to have their job consideration levels associated with employer brand.

7) Companies investing in their employment brand enjoy lower cost per hire and lower employee turnover rates.

8) Companies with a weaker employer brand report a cost per hire that is almost double that of companies with a strong employer brand.

9) 85% of employees are attracted to companies that have a reputation for providing career opportunities.

10) If an organization has a strong employer brand, especially one that resonates with current employees, it will also have a signi­ficantly lower turnover rate (28% lower, to be exact).

It’s clear that both employers and candidates are placing a higher importance on a favorable employer brand experience. Not only is a powerful employer brand important to attract top talent, but it’s also important to retain key employees in your organization .

Now that you have a good understanding of why employer branding is important in today’s competitive job market, take the right steps to strengthen and improve your brand. Click the button below to learn how you can improve your brand to attract top talent like a magnet!

Image Credit: LinkedIn’s State of Employer Branding Whitepaper