How to Attract the Best:  A Strategy from Compensation to Work Environment

By Anne Caldwell, President and Founder, Outsourcing Solutions

In a job market like the current one, attracting and retaining the best help is challenging.  The key to finding and keeping good employees is creating an environment in which they would want to work.  We have all heard about surveys that demonstrate that it is far more than mere compensation that motivates employees to stay where they are.   It is the same when potential candidates are assessing their options and choosing which opportunity they will accept.

Finding a Comprehensive Benefits Package

 

There are many good plans for medical and dental, and a good broker or consultant can help you choose a plan that works best for your staff, is convenient to administrate, and doesn’t break the bank. You can decide what percentage of the premium you will pay.  Some companies pay 100% for the individual employee, and then those employees with dependents can pay that portion of the premium themselves.  Others pay a standard percentage of the overall premium for all employees, usually around 70-85%. There are also additional benefits you can make available at a good rate with little or no cost to you. Some of these include legal packages, pet insurance, employee assistance plans, vision care, credit union memberships and auto club discounts.  By providing the vendor with a pool of employees, you automatically qualify for group rates, which can be paid by the employees who want the benefit.

 

Defining Performance Expectations and Recognition Programs

 

If you are interviewing a candidate and cannot give him a clear picture of what will be expected of him, or if you give her the impression that you are winging it, this will certainly increase their concerns. Nothing enhances an employee’s chances for success more than being clear about what is expected of them, and good candidates know this and look for it in the companies they consider.  Knowing where they stand, and what they need to do to increase their compensation or be considered for a promotion provides a powerful incentive to come on board, and then to stay. If in the interview, you can explain to them the potential career path, and a clear definition of how to reach their financial goals, you can be sure you will have impressed and interested them.

 

Talk about your recognition program. Let candidates know that you acknowledge the efforts that people make.  When an employee feels like their contribution is noticed and appreciated, it solidifies their connection with the company.  I often ask management groups to close their eyes and remember a time when they felt that their efforts were entirely understood and totally acknowledged.  It usually takes them some time to come up with something, but when they do, it’s a vivid memory.  This tells us first, that it doesn’t happen very often, and second, it feels so good, we remember it for years.  Why not make it part of your routine to remind your staff that you appreciate their contribution?  Be specific. Don’t just tell them they did a good job.  Tell them how effective it was that they found such an innovative way to turn that irate customer into a satisfied, even delighted one.  I often suggest to skeptics to try it for a month as though they really see the value, and they are often surprised with the result.

 

Creating the Right Environment

 

Companies are rare who establish their corporate culture by asking, “Who are we and what do we want to stand for?”  Few interviewers discuss the working atmosphere in any great detail. When potential employees hear how much thought you have put into creating an environment where people are appreciated and acknowledged, they will be drawn to consider your offer more seriously than other companies. 

 

Share with your applicants the ways in which you are committed to helping employees keep their work fresh in order to avoid burnout.  Tell them that you meet with staff on a quarterly basis to give them the opportunity to trade some functions, which not only keeps them from being bored, but also creates a cross-trained pool that can be useful in a crunch.  Take a half-day off once a quarter, splitting the crew in half if you need to maintain coverage.  Take them to lunch and let them decide what to do with the afternoon - miniature golf, shooting pool, maybe even playing board games together.  Everyone appreciates being taken out to lunch and having the company spring for some entertainment, and it renews relationships within the group as well, releasing some of those resentments and differences that build up between co-workers.

 

Getting Creative

 

Talk about the company’s desire to find ways to let employees acknowledge each other in some creative ways.  Go to the local pawnshop and pick out the gaudiest bowling trophy you can find.  Present it to a member of your staff, but make sure they’re chosen for a specific act of going beyond the call of duty.  It then becomes their responsibility to pass it on after it sits in glory on their desk for a week.  They need to select someone carefully, based on a specific act.

 

All in all, people will tell you that a good salary is great, and a comprehensive benefits package is attractive.  But the one thing you cannot undervalue is a positive, productive and appreciative environment.  Everybody wants to work there, and if you can communicate this clearly from the outset, candidates will be lining up to work with your organization.

 

Anne Caldwell is President and Founder of Outsourcing Solutions (www.azoutsource.com), a human resource consulting firm committed to helping businesses succeed.  She is the author of “Communicating with Your Employees,” published by Creative Alternatives, which will be available late 2001. She can be reached at 602.220.4233 or pres@azoutsource.com.