Nowadays, almost every company must survive in a competitive environment and fight for its place in the sun. While many people might consider the core of any company its executives and managers, the true driving force of any business is its staff. Only employees can make any business a benchmark and motivate others. This is why it is of vital importance to lure potential workers and become the best employer. Many companies try to provide various benefits in this situation, starting with significant opportunities or a friendly and open-minded team and ending with free lunches or, if free snacks are not enough, free cooking classes. As a result, becoming this kind of employer of choice that can entice brilliant and open minds becomes the goal for many businesses.
As seen from the introduction, an employer of choice is a notion used to describe a company with an exceptional workplace environment. With the help of its attitude towards employees and the benefits it offers, many candidates are willing to work for this same company. As a result, the acceptance rate might rise with time due to the large number of candidates. However, it must be noted that an employer of choice does not mean a company with a specific approach but rather a combination of skillful leadership and management. In this situation, a company shows exemplary leadership, inspiring and motivating workers to provide the best results (Eacott, 2018). At the same time, the company shows good management skills, administering day-to-day processes and ensuring that everybody completes their tasks accordingly.
In the following decades, the core part that every company will have to pay close attention to will be personnel. Organizations will have ongoing challenges in recruiting, attracting, optimizing, and retaining the talent needed to support their clients in these difficult times, which are worsened by a competitive labor market. Employers who genuinely motivate exceptionally qualified employees to join and stay with the company will be the most productive. However, the reason for becoming an employer of choice is not only the attractiveness of the organization. In fact, there are many reasons why more companies will incorporate such an approach in the near future.
The first reason was covered briefly earlier and had to do with the recruiting processes. An employer of choice will discover that recruiting process will become much simpler and faster as the firm becomes more generally acknowledged as a great workplace (Herman & Gioia, 2000). Potential employees will even contact the organization on their own, asking about available positions. This popularity will save the business a lot of money in promoting and recruitment to get the person they want and need.
Thus, such an approach will allow companies to focus on evaluating only the potential employees with outstanding experiences or values who applied on their own rather than engaging a legion of recruiters. The majority of candidates will be of excellent reputation, making the employer’s decision challenging. The goal will move from just encouraging individuals to apply to selecting the best and the brightest. Therefore, each company will have an opportunity to have one of the strongest workforces in the industry or sector.
Moreover, the firm’s hiring process will be significantly more efficient and simplified as a result of its improved branding, reputation, and, therefore ability to attract the personnel they require. This method will also function as a pre-employment assessment, weeding out unsatisfactory candidates who the company does not wish to consider (Herman & Gioia, 2000). The firm’s attraction to significantly more experienced and knowledgeable applicants will lead to increased profitability as well as increased efficiency and productivity in the recruitment and retention processes (Herman & Gioia, 2000). Because the firm would be more appealing, the need for extensive marketing and advertising for recruiting will be significantly reduced. The cost of recruiting will fall considerably.
As a result of choosing the best and the brightest candidates, the employer of choice will immediately optimize the performance. Since the organization has the ability only to hire the type of candidates it truly desires, it will be able to assist employees in achieving a better level of performance more rapidly and effectively (Herman & Gioia, 2000). Tasks will be completed more promptly, thoroughly, and precisely when an employee with high-quality knowledge is appointed. Such a person can contribute their more remarkable experience to the company’s well-being.
Consequently, such employees working on the task will be more confident in what they are doing, and the time will be spent far more productively. Business executives might sail in unexplored seas of new enterprises with confidence, understanding that they are accompanied by individuals who have a solid foundation and are prepared for tasks of different complexity. With a team that is not motivated and not dedicated to the business, such objectives will be challenging.
Additionally, when an employer of choice has a solid foundation and perfect branding, employees are less prone to resigning. Individuals will be quick to decide to work for an employer, and subsequently, they may be reluctant to leave if the question ever arises. When employees stay with a company for an extended length of time, the degree of continuity benefits for the employer increases significantly (Herman & Gioia, 2000). Once teammates build a connection with each other, they start to function better together because there is a greater sense of security and trust.
In this situation, it is vital to understand that long-term workers become more efficient and productive in collaborative work because they develop an understanding of the processes, suppliers, and consumers. People who have made the decision to join the firm and stay there will feel better about working there since it has an excellent organizational climate. The employees will be familiar with the workplace, tasks, and coworkers. On the other hand, a constant shift in the workforce will be stressful, and the team will not feel united.
The last benefit to becoming an employer of choice is the attractiveness to investors. Employers of choice will be more appealing to investors since the firm will be regarded as reliable and capable of adapting to potential opportunities and volatility more efficiently (Knowsley, 2019). Such companies will be more financially stable as a consequence of their longevity due to huge amounts of money flowing into the company and the money that will not be spent on current retraining workers and promoting recruits. Investors seek organizations with a stable future and growth. The more consistent and bright the future, the more appealing the firms are to investors. Thus, such employers will be successful in attracting more financial resources with a secure workforce, allowing them to prosper and develop, giving them an even more competitive edge.
When it comes to the ways of becoming an employer of choice, there is a variety. The main goal of any organization aspiring to be an employer of choice is to acknowledge the achievements of their employees, reward them, and encourage them to learn and broaden their fields of knowledge. Among the ways to gain the respect, trust, and admiration of employees and potential candidates are enticing benefits, the ability to share feedback with managers, and challenging work assignments. By incorporating such approaches, businesses will gain numerous benefits that were described previously.
The first way is to provide employees with appropriate benefits constantly. The benefits provided by an employer of choice reflect the importance they place on their workers (Knowsley, 2019). A generous benefits package is known for large expenditures, so it makes sense for a company to prioritize employee benefits that align with the company’s interests. Such an approach can be viewed as a double investment; the benefits package invests in recruiting and maintaining the level of a talented workforce, but individual benefits can also be used to invest in individual development, which, as previously discussed, will eventually enhance organizational performance. By concentrating on those aspects, the company’s workers will be more competent, skillful, and active.
The second way to become an employer of choice is to encourage feedback. Employees’ faith in their executives and confidence that their ideas are appreciated are critical components of thriving employee culture, yet they are very simple and inexpensive to establish. Executives that are respected do this by focusing on three basic things: awareness, openness, and sincerity (Knowsley, 2019). Employees believe their leaders when they can quickly contact them and communicate their worries or ideas. Employees are, therefore, more eager to make commitments, be active, and efficient, and stay with the company if they are well-informed about the situations at the workplace, even if it’s simply through frequent business meetings.
The last beneficial and effective way of becoming an employer of choice is through the management of challenging and exciting work. Depending on the department or worker, attaining this combination may look quite different. Together with maintaining workers’ daily routine enjoyable, the company must also provide possibilities for continuing growth and promotion. This includes a clear route to advancement, ongoing assessment, new coaching programs, and mentorship opportunities to improve people’s progress in the proper way (Knowsley, 2019). By paying attention to employees and their basic needs, a firm will benefit either in reputation or profits. Every employee desires to be challenged and has an impact on current conditions.
Hence, being an employer of choice means having a reputation as a reliable and respectable employer. Every employer of choice tends to cater to the needs of their employees, respect their choices, acknowledge their achievements, reward the workers, and encourage them to learn more and expand their area of expertise. As a result, the company not only gains admiration, dedication, and loyalty from the workforce but receives numerous applications from candidates who want to work for them. Aside from these advantages, organizations that are employers of choice will benefit from the level of productivity of the workforce as well as from the attention of potential investors. It can all be achieved by giving meaningful benefits to employees, increasing feedback, and, of course, assigning people challenging and exciting work.
References
Eacott, S. (2018). Beyond Leadership. Springer.
Herman, R. & Gioia, J. (2000). Employer of choice. Oakhill Press.
Knowsley, R. (2019). How to become and remain a small law firm employer of choice. Australasian Law Management Journal, 1-3.