Increasing and measuring your company's employer attractiveness
What do we mean by employer attractiveness?
Employer attractiveness is basically the metric that shows how popular your company is with your employees or potential ones. It refers to your company's ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified workers.
As you can see, employer attractiveness is not only about recruiting new employees, but also about keeping current ones and about your employees' satisfaction. High employer attractiveness can help attract and retain talented employees, which in turn drives the company's growth and profitability. It is many-sided and often comes up in connection with terms such as New Work, skilled labor shortage, employee retention .
Which factors influence how the company is perceived?
Employer attractiveness is determined by a wide range of factors, which can of course vary depending on the industry, the region and the individual preferences of employees. All the same, they all play an important part in shaping how a company is perceived as an attractive employer.
1. Company culture
How well your team sticks together, the sense of belonging, a productive and motivating mood in the office, the company's norms and values: all of these things influence company culture. Your employees have to feel comfortable; after all, they spend up to 8 hours a day in this company. If these factors are right, that had a considerable influence on how your company is perceived by potential employees as well as by current ones.
The example of Kawentsmann shows how powerful a lived company culture can be: owner Max Bayer-Eynck describes the bond in his team like this:
"There is a willingness to help each other that is just incredible … People who were not so happy in their previous companies are completely happy with us." – Max Bayer-Eynck, owner & managing director, Kawentsmann
2. Pay and benefits
Another important point is pay. A company can have as good a company culture as it likes: if an employee feels they are not getting the pay their work deserves, they may not feel valued and may feel sold short. But quite fundamentally, good pay is an important factor in employer attractiveness. The level of salary, benefits such as healthcare, a pension scheme, extra vacation days and other financial incentives can make you a considerably more attractive employer and will also have a positive effect on retaining employees.
Benefits, incidentally, can take many forms. To support your employees' health you could, for example, provide bicycles for the daily commute instead of company cars. Other companies offer their employees a company-funded gym membership when they are hired. That way you make sure your employees stay healthy and fit in the long run, have fewer days off sick, and you make sure your employees know that their health matters to you just as much as good performance.
3. Development opportunities
Employees need incentives, challenges, variety. If you want to keep your employees for a long time, you have to give them the chance to develop. That can be done through further training, promotion opportunities and by developing your employees' skills.
4. Working environment and working conditions
The working environment covers above all factors such as office equipment and a pleasant atmosphere at work. Factors such as flexibility in working hours, options for remote work and job security play an important part when it comes to working conditions and can be decisive in recruiting new employees. But advanced work processes can also strongly influence employer attractiveness. Inefficient processes and a lot of paperwork chaos can put new employees off. So put your money on digital, modern processes too.
5. Work-life balance
The balance between the demands of work and personal commitments matters to many employees. Especially if you want to hire younger employees, being able to reconcile private life and work is an important factor in deciding on a company. Companies that support this are perceived as more attractive by so-called millennials and Generation Z.
6. The company's reputation
The public perception of a company, including its reputation for ethical conduct, social responsibility and the experience of other employees, can strongly influence employer attractiveness. So your brand's image also has a direct influence on your employer attractiveness. And don't underestimate the influence of word of mouth! If your employees speak positively about you as an employer, it is considerably more likely that friends and family can picture you as an employer too.
7. Employee engagement and satisfaction
The satisfaction and engagement of your current employees can affect how potential new employees perceive you. A positive working environment and satisfied employees can therefore increase your employer attractiveness and leads to your employees staying with the company longer.
How can employer attractiveness be measured?
Employer attractiveness can be measured in various ways. For your company you should combine several approaches to get a comprehensive picture, because as you mentioned earlier, the factors influencing employer attractiveness are many and varied. The same goes for its effects.
1. Employee surveys
A classic measurement method is the employee survey. With anonymous online questionnaires your employees can give you and the managers in your company honest feedback. The surveys can be open, meaning questions your employees answer with text, or closed, meaning they indicate for example how strongly they agree with a statement. That gives you insight into their satisfaction, their engagement and their perception of the company.
Tip!
You should run employee surveys regularly in your company to ensure consistent employer attractiveness and to keep an eye on employee satisfaction at all times.
2. Applicant feedback
Applicants' experiences during the hiring process can provide valuable information about the first impression your company makes. By gathering this information you can collect feedback on the application process itself, the application experience and the perception of the company, in order to identify room for improvement.
Tip!
You should ask applicants for feedback above all when applicants repeatedly decide against you or leave the company early.
3. Recruiting metrics
Recruiting metrics are very numbers-based measurements. They relate to analysing application numbers, the applicant conversion rate, time to hire and the attrition rate. These numbers can also tell you something about how attractive your company is. A high number of qualified applications and a fast hire can point to a strong employer brand.
Tip!
You should keep an eye on recruiting metrics at all times so you can step in early enough. But this method makes most sense above all if your company has its own HR or personnel department.
4. Reputation and rankings
Online there are a great many portals where employees can rate their employer, for example Kununu or Stepstone. Employees thinking of applying to you will probably take a look at these portals first before sending off their application. Because these portals allow not only star ratings but also written comments, a potential applicant can get a very good insight into the atmosphere at work in your company. So these platforms have a direct influence on how you are perceived as an employer from the outside.
Tip!
You can also encourage your employees to rate your company on these platforms if you are not yet strongly represented there. All these applications are anonymous, so your employees can be honest.
5. Exit interviews
Another important way to measure your employer attractiveness is to hold exit conversations, that is, to seek one more conversation with employees who want to leave the company. Use these conversations to find out the reasons for their decision and to draw conclusions for yourself and your company.
Tip!
You should never miss an exit interview. Depending on why the employee is leaving the company, you can also use the conversation to make a future return possible.
How can you increase employer attractiveness in your company?
As you can see, employer attractiveness is influenced by many different factors. The atmosphere at work, flexibility and working conditions have a big influence on how your company is perceived. That includes how things run at your place – from time tracking to scheduling to communication in the team. If these processes still run on slips of paper or outdated systems, that is often off-putting. Especially when you are hiring younger skilled workers. With clockin you get to grips with it: everything your team needs day to day, in one app.
With clockin your employees record their working hours digitally via the app, from anywhere – whether on the job site, at the customer's premises or in the office. They can see their hours at any time, can organise where and when they work flexibly and always stay in touch with you. This transparency creates trust and the freedom that modern teams need. clockin takes unnecessary bureaucracy off your team – so that everyone can focus on what they are really there for.
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