How Low Unemployment Will Continue to Impact Business

The employment picture in the U.S. currently poses some challenges to businesses. The unemployment rate is the lowest its been in decades. It’s a far different picture from the scenario employers faced 11 years ago, during the Great Recession. Then, employers had many willing job-seeking candidates. Now, it may be difficult to recruit enough people to fill open positions.

As a result, businesses need to position themselves to be attractive to potential employees. With almost everyone who wants to work being employed, you have to be able to lure employees who are currently working from their employers (passive job seekers) and to be perceived as more attractive than other companies to those who are looking (active job seekers).

Here are three tips on how to do that.

Make sure your salary and benefits are competitive 

The first task is to make sure your salary and benefits are competitive with comparable companies in your area. If you are currently working with competitive data that might be several years out of date, it’s time to upgrade the data! Many employers are likely reviewing their salary and benefits packages in light of the competitive employment picture. If you’ve never done a competitive analysis versus other employers, it’s time to start.

Salary is without a doubt the most important consideration for most employees. You must at least be perceived as equal with the salaries comparable companies offer. Frankly, to be perceived as an employer of choice by the most qualified employees, it can help your recruitment efforts to offer a premium.

Benefits are the second most important consideration. See how your competitors are doing with benefits such as health insurance, vacation time, paid time off (holidays and sick leave), and retirement plans, if applicable. As with salary, you need at least to be competitive. Offering more comprehensive or better benefits can help you recruit top performers.

Focus on perks 

Perks are important for two reasons. First, they are attractive to employees and can help your recruitment and retention efforts. Second, they are important in establishing good word-of-mouth among the pool of potential employees about how your company treats employees.

Perks have two essential elements: 1) they reward employees in some way and 2) they are tied to an appreciation of effort and good work. Aside from that, many different elements can be included under the umbrella of perks.

Free lunches are perks; so are employer-sponsored (and paid for) happy hours. A van that transports employees to work can be a perk. The opportunity to attend training or development classes can be a perk.

Perks, too, can be subject to competitive analysis. If a company in your industry and area offers free lunches every Friday, for example, it can help recruitment and retention if you do as well.

Focus on your company culture

Company culture is also very important to employees, and therefore can help your recruitment efforts. In a nutshell, cultures that make employees feel appreciated and heard, and that reward them, will be more popular than cultures that don’t contain those elements.

Make sure your onboarding process, for example, is comprehensive and welcoming. It sets an essential tone in making employees feel that they are appreciated and have come to the right place.

Contact a Staffing Firm Today

Do you need to recruit more employees? We can assist in competitive analyses and develop a plan for recruitment and retention. Staffing agencies are pros. We’re happy to help. Contact us today.