Becoming a Top Employer

It’s a big question, but it has to be asked: how do you create a company that’s the best possible employer?

It seems that all the management experts say the same thing: you have to have highly committed leaders who actually believe, and are passionate about, the rhetoric of employees being their most important asset.

If your leaders are suspect or self-serving, there is no way your organisation will reach anything like ‘best employer status’.

Leaders in the best companies:

• Hold a deep belief that people are their greatest asset;
• Deliver on their promises to their employees;
• Are champions of their organisation’s values;
• Create a compelling picture of the future;
• Instil a culture of accountability; and
• Grow and stretch their people.

Employers who can be classified as top employers, almost always have more highly engaged employees. Equally, they do a better job aligning their HR strategies and practices with their business goals and strategies. In addition, managers in the best companies are better positioned to build sustainability of their businesses in the hyper-competitive, rapidly changing marketplace.

With talent shortages affecting even the best companies in most industries, it is even more critical to be an employer of choice.

Apart from ensuring that the best people are easier to attract, other advantages of being an excellent employer, include:

• Generally positive PR helps to strengthen the brand image no matter where the company is mentioned in the media;
• Retention rates for current employees tend to be higher than average;
• Maintaining the corporate culture is relatively easy, as all employees and the public "assist in maintaining it;"
• Customers and strategic partners are also attracted by its favourable image; and
• Employee motivation can be easier to maintain because of a shared pride/vision.

In the 21^st century, flexibility is much admired, probably in all things, but especially at the workplace. Workers give great credit to an employer who can be flexible on an individual basis. A couple of examples that highlight the value of flexibility relate to telecommuting and volunteering.

Telecommuting can entail working from home or from some other remote location. Obviously, it works best where the productivity of a job is easily tracked. If some office presence is necessary, the telecommuter can come in to the office during peak hours or for weekly mandatory meetings. Whatever the case may be, the best employers have the flexibility to at least consider telecommuting as an option.

Similarly with volunteering. Some people link their quality of life very closely with being able to ‘give back’ to the community. Companies can accommodate them by providing time during the day or week for these activities, and letting employees make up the time after hours. This is flexibility. And very often there is no reason why it can’t be done, it’s just that it has never been tried.

To remain a top employer, you need to recruit and keep the best people. One thing that the best and brightest employees really value is having the opportunity to develop their skills.

For many people, learning new skills is just as important as the money they make. There have now been numerous surveys where the majority of the respondents say they would consider leaving their present employer for another job with the same benefits, if that job provided better career development and greater challenges.

Apart from everything else, most excellent employees like to be measured. They know they are good workers and they like objective measures to confirm this.

Evaluation and measurement must surpass normal accounting procedures like profit and loss, but include measuring turnover, customer satisfaction, employee attitudes, and management effectiveness.

There are clear benefits from completing a cultural audit on a regular basis, which measures employee's feelings about pay and benefits, care and recognition. The top employees really appreciate this approach and it is a practice that can help maintain a company’s status as an outstanding employer.