3 Important Hiring Factors You May Be Overlooking

3 Important Hiring Factors.jpeg

Your team can make or break your company. One bad employee can poison the minds of an entire organization, while one stellar team member can set the bar high and inspire everyone around them to achieve more.

Attracting and retaining the very best talent should be one of your key priorities as CEO, but it’s about more than just offering a sizable salary and lucrative perks. These three hiring factors are as important (if not more important) than benefits and pay in bringing the right types of candidates to your door, but they’re often overlooked.

Office Appearance/Location

Office location.jpeg It might seem superficial, but the appearance and location of your office are literally the first impressions you make on a job candidate before they even set foot in your door.

Who wants to be pulling up for an interview at some shady-looking office park next to a pawn shop? It might be enough to make me turn the car around! Make sure your company’s physical appearance matches the reputation you want to build for yourself and your brand.

Is employee wellness a priority? Choose a location that’s close to a gym or wellness center. Are family values important to your company? Pick a family-friendly suburb for your headquarters or choose a location with convenient childcare.

If you struggle to compete with your rivals on salary, these non-monetary factors are something that can set you apart in the eyes of a top candidate.

The interior of your office says a lot about you to a job seeker, too. An in-demand employee might have his or her pick of a crop of great companies to work for, many of which will have embraced a modern, amenity-rich workplace over the dreaded row of cubicles. How do your office digs stack up?

If you’re in an industry (like technology, for example) where the culture is shifting toward a non-traditional work environment, consider embracing the trend to help you better compete for talent.

Brand Perception

We typically think of brand perception as it pertains to our prospective customers, but there’s another equally important segment of the population we must consider: job candidates. How is your company viewed in the employment marketplace?

In a 2013 study by HR and staffing firm Randstad, 96% of prospective employees reported it would be important for their new company to have a good reputation among its employees, while nearly as many (86%) said it was important to have a good reputation in the community.

Just as customers browse your Google reviews before deciding to fork over their hard-earned cash, your prospective employees are doing their research, too, checking you out on sites like Glassdoor and LinkedIn.

If you’re a small company, you might be thinking but I only have 5 employees! I don’t need one of those pages. Sometimes, though, the absence of these profiles is even worse! If a candidate can’t find anything about you online, it may not seem valuable for them to invest time in your interview process.

Make sure you’ve created profiles for your business on the most important professional social networks. At a minimum, we recommend LinkedIn as well as Glassdoor, which you set up by leaving the first positive review of your own company. It’s also a good idea to belong to any forums or social networks that are specific to your industry.

Next—and this is very important—if you receive a negative review about working for your company, respond to it. This is your chance to address anything that’s inaccurate or share how you’ve worked to correct any past issues within the company.

We talk more about handling negative reviews in this post. It’s geared toward customer service, but many of the same principles apply when you’re managing the reputation of your brand in the eyes of prospective employees.

Company Culture

Company culture.jpeg …or the lack thereof. Your company culture is the set of values, norms, practices, feelings and beliefs held by the staff. In a nutshell, it’s your company’s personality.

Do employees stop to chat when they pass each other in the hallway, or does everyone keep to themselves? Are there informal social gatherings outside work hours, or is it strictly business among colleagues? Does everyone call the CEO by his first name, or is Mr. or Mrs. generally used?

None of those answers are necessarily right or wrong, however, they should be in line with the type of candidate you’re trying to attract.

If you operate a company that’s heavy on customer service, it would make sense to cultivate a company culture where social, affable people thrive. If you work with high-pressure clients and big-dollar deals, it might make sense to cultivate a company culture where work ethic and professionalism are valued over likeability.

In this 2015 survey of 1,400 CEOs and CFOs, more than 50% said corporate culture influences productivity, creativity, profitability, firm value and growth rates. Yet, only 15% of those surveyed said their firm’s corporate culture was where it needed to be.

Company culture is lived by your employees, but it’s defined by you. If you shape it based on the type of candidate you’re hoping to attract, you’ll be more likely to win over the best talent for your field in the long run.

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