As the economy recovers, companies must distinguish themselves as employers of choice to attract top talent in a competitive market. Strategies include offering unique benefits, improving company culture, and ensuring employees feel valued and engaged. Despite falling unemployment rates, challenges remain, such as a declining workforce participation rate and demographic disparities in joblessness.

1. Sharpen your Edge
Attract Top Talent
As the economy rebounds and more employers adapt to filling
executive and management positions in the candidate-driven market, it
becomes increasingly important for companies to distinguish
themselves as employers of choice, to attract top candidates. The most
recent Gallup annual Work and Education poll revealed that only 47
percent of American workers are completely satisfied with their jobs,
indicating employers are better positioned than ever to attract
candidates who are ready to move out of current roles.
So then how does a company become known as an employer of
choice that attracts star talent and makes employees never want to
leave?
“In today’s job market, aggressive salary and benefits packages that
will potentially beat out counteroffers are not enough to lure top
performers to new companies,” says Rob Romaine, president of
MRINetwork. “Employers need methods to attract candidates into
their companies and away from competitors.”
Employers need to connect with their employees, find out what is most
important to them and then provide programs and services that will be
of value. This entails providing career advancement opportunities,
ongoing training and continuing education programs, atypical benefits
packages and employee perks that will make any employee think twice
about leaving. Some companies have gone to great lengths to achieve
this, providing unlimited sick and paid time off, flexible work
schedules, game rooms and employee appreciation days where catered
lunches, massage services and field days are brought in-house for staff
enjoyment.
SAS Institute, a North Carolina software company, became the
employer of choice in its industry by providing its employees with
workplace amenities like an on-campus gym, no limit on sick days,
company gates that don’t open until 7 a.m. and close promptly at 6
p.m., and maybe most importantly – free M&Ms. These perks resulted
in a turnover rate 16 percent less than competitors.
So what strategies can companies use to establish themselves as
employers of choice? “Companies must realize they can’t become
an employer of choice overnight,” says Romaine. “It takes a
collaborative effort from multiple teams within the organization,
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focused on developing and implementing strategies that attract
star candidates and retain key employees. Each department must
look at what they can do to contribute.”
The following steps help companies become an employer of choice:
1. Know the company culture and the type of employees the
company hopes to attract.
2. Develop a sound employer branding strategy that is focused
on distributing consistent messaging about the company culture
and mission to clients, investors, employees and candidates.
3. Conduct periodic employee surveys to determine employee
satisfaction with the company. This provides staff an
opportunity to express their feelings on everything from
benefits and career opportunities to a variety of company-wide
practices, while identifying areas that can be improved.
4. Review the feedback from employee surveys and develop
strategies to improve areas of concern.
5. Look for unique ways to create the “ultimate employee
experience”, reasons that make employees never want to leave,
including anything from on-site cafeterias, gyms or daycare to
parking and transit privileges.
6. Submit a company nomination for an Employer of Choice or
Best Places to Work award in your industry. These awards
invoke employee pride and bring increased credibility to the
company brand.
While hiring managers may not always have the authority to
implement the above strategies, there are things they can do to
help retain employees. They can create career tracks for each
position, so employees have a clear path for advancement in the
company. They can also provide ongoing training, development
and mentoring opportunities. Managers should additionally create
an environment where creativity and outside the box thinking is
encouraged. Finally, managers should reward employees for a job
well done via company announcements and awards, or
performance-based bonuses, promotions and raises.
Retention of happy, top performers is the most critical strategy for
companies to become employers of choice. This is where the status of
being a choice employer begins – promotion of the company’s values
through the ambassadorship of employees.
Source: Department of Labor
Submitted by: Jim Spellacy, CSAM
Management Recruiters of Cleveland-Southwest
>Experts in Global Search
(330) 273-4300 ext. 102
Jim@MRCSW.com
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2. The United States unemployment rate took a
slight dip in August, falling to 7.3 percent,
on the strength of 169,000 nonfarm new jobs
created during the month. While job growth was
seen in retail trade and healthcare sectors,
information saw a reduction in employment and
experts said the month’s advance was smaller
than expected.
While rates fell to their lowest level since
December 2008, signaling a potential return to
pre-recession figures, economists expected an
additional 11,000 jobs to be created during the
month, according to Reuters. While the
unemployment rate beat economists’ estimates
that it would hold steady in the month, revised
job count totals saw 74,000 fewer positions
than expected in June and July.
Year over year, the jobless rate has fallen .8
percent, as it stood at 8.1 percent a year ago.
Demographically, the unemployment rate for most
major worker groups showed little change during
the month. Long-term unemployed figures were
relatively unchanged, holding at 4.3 million -
accounting for about 38 percent of all
unemployed. However, these figures have
declined by 733,000 in the past 12 months.
The participation rate, which tracks the share
of Americans either currently working or
looking for work, dropped to its lowest level
in more than 30 years, which has economists
worried. It has fallen 1.6 percentage points in
the past four years, implying people are
dropping out of the
workforce either through
retirement or discontinuing
their job searches.
“Clearly the labor market is
losing momentum,” managing
director and chief economist
at firm Sterne Agee, Lindsey
M. Piegza, told ABC News. He
mentioned “inorganic
reasons” for the decline of
the unemployment rate.
Job growth in the month was
strongest in the retail
trade industry, which added
44,000 jobs and nearly
400,000 in the past year.
Clothing outlets and food
and beverage stores saw
growth of more than 10,000
each in the month. Leisure
and hospitality positions
were also seen to experience
gains.
Healthcare employment also
increased during the
month, with 33,000 positions added - 27,000
of them in ambulatory care services. Employment
in professional and business services continued
to rise as well, with an increase of 23,000,
having bolstered their ranks by 614,000 jobs in
the last 12 months.
Manufacturing employment saw a rise of 19,000
during the month, recovering from a decline of
10,000 jobs in July. Many new jobs returned
recently laid-off workers to companies’ ranks.
Government payrolls increased by 17,000 during
August.
Mining, construction, transportation and
financial activities saw little change during
the month, while information suffered.
The motion picture and sound recording
industry, in particular, lost 22,000 jobs
during August after seeing gains in July.
Average workweeks in the month rose by a tenth
of an hour, currently standing at 34.5 hours.
Manufacturing hours saw a boost to 40.8 hours
per week, while overtime rose by a
fifth of a point. Production and nonsupervisory
employees’ hours remained the same, at 33.6.
Average hourly earnings rose by five cents
during the period, hitting a new total of
$24.05 hourly - over the year, earnings have
risen by 52 cents in total, an increase of 2.2
percent.
Unemployment gaps were especially large when
considering education
levels.
College graduates saw
unemployment rates of only
3.5 percent, according to
ABC News, while those who
haven’t graduated high
school saw their rates reach
11.3 percent.
June’s employment figures
were revised, dropping by
16,000 jobs, while July saw
major losses, falling by
58,000 positions.
The Labor Department’s
jobless claims report said
the number of Americans
applying for unemployment
benefits has neared a five-
year low, while private
payroll provider ADP saw a
drop in its monthly rates
with overall increases of
176,000.
Employment Summary August 2013