Undoubtedly this is true, but it also presents a pretty fundamental challenge.
How do you retain your top people and how can you attract the right talent to help your business grow?
Top talent, with the right skills are a scarce resource, there is real competition to hire them, the big blue chips have lots of advantages and they spend fortunes on attracting top people.
Recruiting and retaining the right people is key to business success. But, recruiting and retaining the right people is also very hard.
I run a recruitment company, we recruit these people, people that make a difference. When I talk to them what they are looking for in their next moves varies wildly and is personal to them.
There are though common themes and there is also one specific common denominator, they all want to work for great companies.
Here’s the 7 common factors I’ve found in great places to work:
They have a shared purpose, a mission. This is more than having a mission statement, it’s communicating what the business stands for, what they believe, what they are trying to achieve and then giving their people the chance to make a difference. Everyone there understands and everyone knows their role in achieving that purpose.
The work is Stimulating, it’s the type of work that is interesting, challenges, makes the team curious to step outside of their basic skill set to work out complicated and difficult challenges
They reward well, great companies don’t always pay the most but they make sure their team is paid in the upper quartile of the pay scale for the skills they’ve got. Money isn’t and shouldn’t be the only motivator but it is important.
They help people get better through training and development. Their staff are encouraged to learn and develop and they support this with training. They have training programs, on the job and formal certifications and they both pay for and give the time for this training.
Open communication. They treat people like adults, share information, listen and seek out their ideas, act upon those ideas and trust that they are responsible enough to know the best way to do their jobs.
They treat people as people. Work is important but people have lives outside of work that are also important, they understand and support this. They realise that allowing for a work life balance builds loyalty and commitment and that loyalty and commitment is a two way thing.
They say thank you. They let their people know they are appreciated and important. This is more than taking someone out for lunch or giving half a day off (although that’s important as well). In great places to work, people feel valued, it’s pretty simple they say thanks more often.
Image: team via Shutterstock
