Attracting talent includes some new hurdles that were less common before the pandemic. Job candidates, particularly younger ones, have different expectations of what a job should provide for their career and their life.
Here are five factors potential employees may want in their next job:
Although some people are fine reporting every day to an office environment, most will want some choice in when they show up at work and when they work from home. Others will prefer the option of working remotely all the time, perhaps even in a completely different geographical location from the office. The more flexible your company policy is on hybrid work, the easier attracting talent will be.
This is not a new consideration for job candidates, but a perennial plus. If you can offer job candidates the chance to work with emerging technology, whether that’s public cloud, green energy, artificial intelligence or an innovation specific to your industry, that can be especially alluring. Same for being able to demonstrate a pattern for giving people responsibilities beyond their current job experience, or for promoting quickly from inside.
Most job candidates will be expecting more than just talk about DEI. Is your top leadership team diverse? Are there programs in place to support career growth in women, people of color and other groups that might have been impacted by unconscious bias? Do your benefits embrace the many different types of families and unique needs reflected in today’s workforce? All that counts more than ever in attracting talent.
The stress of the pandemic has created a new emphasis on having safety nets in place. Job candidates will want benefits that include comprehensive healthcare, mental health benefits, financial wellness programs and other support. They’ll also appreciate a retirement savings program and bonus plans that will help them build their financial security. Offerings like tuition reimbursements can be attractive as well.
Working from home during the pandemic created the opportunity to spend more time with spouses, partners and kids, which in many cases enriched those relationships. Skipping the commute allowed employees time for exercise or other interests that improved their work-life balance. Attracting talent now may mean letting job candidates know that your company is a place they can live a good life as well as do their best work.
