How will you attract the frontline employees you need to prosper and thrive this year?
There are a few exemplary organizations showing the way. What they share in common, besides their legendary success, is that they know how to attract, select and retain the best. They are magnetic.
And it’s not because they pay top dollar. They know that a paycheck is not what motivates most employees, and a new poll from Forbes Advisor concurs. Offerings of life insurance, pension and retirement plans, mandatory paid time off and mental health assistance rounded out employees’ top preferred benefits, respectively.
No, it doesn’t take top-dollar wages to become magnetic, but you do need to become known as an “employer of choice” among your target group of applicants.
To pinpoint ideal candidates, ask yourself what kinds 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? Who is your competition for employees? What does your competition offer that you don’t?
Every employee-selection system should include online, pre-employment attitude testing, because testing promotes fairness and raises the quality of new hires across the board. As compared to reference checks, previous experience, interviewing or academic achievement, testing is the best predictor of success on the job.
Finally, people who work for magnetic companies are having fun. A good example of workplace fun is Southwest Airlines. Job applicants and customers 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? With the right hiring system and a good culture, being an employer of choice is easy because – let’s face it – recruiting is about image, but employee retention is about reality.