BrightHR’s Alan Price discusses the ways in which employers can stay competitive while attracting and retaining top talent.
Hiring has become a minefield for employers. Why? Many business owners are facing challenges with recruiting and retaining top level staff. Employers are locked in a competitive battle to attract new talent, with the added pressure of retaining existing key players.
So, it’s time to assemble your benefits packages to come out ahead of your competitors, lock down that ideal candidate and win the war for talent.
Act fast or miss out
The employer-employee dynamic is shifting. In the UK for example, 40pc of employers are turning to counter offers to keep hold of staff who are thinking of leaving.
The power once yielded by employers has now passed over to the employee. Right now, it’s more likely that a candidate will be able to turn down multiple job offers, with them having the pick of the bunch, than it is for an employer to turn down or lose good candidates.
Do your research on salary
Of course, salary will always come up trumps for jobseekers, with three-quarters prioritising it when looking for a role, so, salary research is a must for employers and hiring managers.
Without it, how can you expect to attract the right kind of talent – the type of person that has the right experience and qualifications and is likely to stay loyal to your company for years to come?
It’s tough for already overstretched employers to keep on top of salary research in a market that’s constantly shifting. When you take into account different locations, plus seemingly ever-increasing inflation, it can become a daunting task.
However, using a salary calculator tool can do all that time-consuming research so you don’t have to. By entering your job title and location, you can instantly access the average salary to help you make an informed decision when it comes to making an offer.
Avoid those awkward salary questions cropping up and banish those unexpected demands further down the line by ensuring your staff feel fully compensated from day one.
The current economic landscape is hitting everyone, leaving lots of businesses unable to fork out extra for the most competitive salary, even though wage growth is at a record high. Having a tool to help with salary research means you don’t need to inflate salary expectations to stay competitive. With accurate research, you can hit the mark every time without breaking your hiring budget.
Give your employee benefit scheme some love
Salaries are important, sure. But with ‘the great upskill’ upon us, 92pc of employees see learning and development opportunities as a non-negotiable in their roles. In fact, they would go as far as to describe it as a ‘deal-breaker’.
That’s why having a Learning Management System (LMS) in place is a great way to attract and retain staff, by investing in their development and their career journeys.
In light of the current economic landscape, employees and jobseekers are increasingly relying on discounts and offers to maintain a good standard of quality of life. Employers can use benefit schemes that enable them to reward staff with access to thousands of money-saving perks online that make their salary reach that bit further.
Need another cost-effective addition to your employee benefit wheelhouse? A bit of employee recognition can go a long way to keeping your staff happy and engaged and you can use recognition platforms to instantly acknowledge and celebrate your top performers. You can even turn it into a fun game with a gamified leadership board for an added bit of friendly competition within your team.
Even if that higher-band salary is beyond your means when it comes to attracting or retaining staff, you can still stack up against even the big corporates, but only if your salary research tools and benefits package measures up.
By Alan Price
Alan Price is the CEO at BrightHR and COO at the Peninsula Group. A version of this article was previously published on the BrightHR blog.
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