How Can Your Company Become a Preferred Career Destination?
Ms. Pomerantz has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Mary Pomerantz Advertising for the past twenty five years. She was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of Pomerantz Staffing, which grew to be one of the largest privately-owned staffing companies in the US under her leadership.
Every December, Glassdoor compiles a list of the 100 best American companies to work for in the upcoming year. Their version of what essentially is a preferred career destination list includes only companies with 1,000 or more employees and at least 50 approved employee reviews. Glassdoor examines these reviews, in which employees were asked about company culture, CEO leadership, overall satisfaction, career opportunities, work/life balance and compensation.
Facebook took the number one spot this time around, with Bain & Company and Boston Consulting Group rounding out the top three. If you’re a small or medium-sized business owner, you may not have a chance to crack this list, but you can still learn from it and transform your business into a preferred career destination by following the three principles below.
1. Value Your Employees In and Out of the Workplace
A large part of the reason for Facebook taking the top spot this year is the company’s unprecedented commitment to employee support. According to a current Facebook employee who participated in this survey, “You won't find a place that cares more about its people" than Facebook. One of the positive features of Facebook’s work environment cited by this employee was the “most fair and well thought out review process you will find anywhere.” Other examples of how Facebook makes its employees feel valued include “incredible benefits,” “lots of autonomy,” and “great perks” (including compensation, health benefits, food, environment, transport, and bonuses).
Even though Facebook is a relatively large company, this level of support makes employees feel that they are recognized as unique individuals. In the words of one reviewer, they felt “treated like you're a person and not a number.” All employees appreciate being valued for their unique, individual strengths, instead of feeling like they are a replaceable “cog in the machine.” When you give employees the sense that you respect, appreciate, and reward their contributions – it becomes much easier to attract and retain a highly skilled and motivated workforce.
2. Focus on Career Development and Training
Money is only one way to recognize your employees, and it’s certainly not the most imaginative. Coming in at No. 4 on the list, In-N-Out Burger’s employees raved about the company’s amazing training, advancement and career-development programs. If your company isn’t a place where your employees will spend five, 10 or even 20 years, make it a place where they can learn some key skills to help them in the future. Providing the opportunity to learn new skills makes any company much more likely to be seen as a preferred career destination.
Career Ladders
Career ladders are the (often hierarchical) progression of jobs in specific fields in an organization
Career Paths
Career paths are more analogous to horizontal planes that sometimes can even be outside of the organization. Source: SHRM
No employee likes to feel like they are “stuck in a dead-end job,” making career development and training a critical piece of any successful company’s retention and recruitment strategy. If a fast-food restaurant can make its employees feel like they have the potential for advancement and are learning new skills on a regular basis, your business certainly can as well. Sometimes, it just takes a looking at your training methods and systems in a new way to inject new life into them, making your employees feel like they are always learning something new and have the potential to put it into practice.
3. Build a Well-Established Company Culture
It’s not a coincidence that household names like Facebook, Google, Southwest Airlines, Microsoft and Zillow made this year’s list. These are all companies with well-established company cultures, they aren’t just going wherever the wind is blowing. Employees change, clients change and goals change – the one thing that must remain constant is your company’s culture. What do you stand for? What qualities are important to you? It is these bedrock values that solidify a company’s reputation as a preferred career destination. And, when employees know they can rely on a company “sticking to its principles” (whatever they may be), they can be more effective as “brand ambassadors,” helping to share stories of how your company’s culture is “lived” on a day-to-day basis. This, in turn, can help to recruit candidates who will be a great fit for your culture, moving forward.
Source: Gallup
Employees of Bain & Company (#3 on the list of Best Places to Work) sing the praises of their company’s culture as a major reason why they love their jobs. One reviewer even stated that “Every day I enjoy the company I am in and continue to feel inspired and challenged! Work life balance has always been stressed here as well, and the culture still surprises me sometimes with how great it is!” Another Bain employee cited a “supportive work culture with people who invest in each other” as a key “pro” to working for this company. How do your employees talk about your company culture when they are “off-the-clock?” The answer to this question can have a big influence on how successful you are at recruiting the workforce of the future for your business.
Transform your Company into a Preferred Career Destination
Highly skilled and motivated employees are the engine that drives a company’s growth and profitability. And, there is no time like the present to find the right people for your company’s open positions. Attracting the best employees starts with following some of the principles forged by today’s “best places to work.” If you are having trouble with any of these areas, Mary Pomerantz Advertising’s sister company, TPG HR Services, can help you transform your workplace into one with the qualities that make it a preferred career destination, while MPA can help you “get your message out” to the candidates you want to attract and recruit. Contact Mary Pomerantz Advertising today at 732-214-9600 to make your company a preferred career destination for the candidates you need to succeed!
