4 Things Today's Job Applicants Look for in an Employer

 When it comes to hiring top talent, the truth of the matter is the recruiting strategies your company used just five years ago are, by and large, no longer effective. With more generations in the workforce than ever before, your applicants are going to have different needs today, and they will search for employers who can meet those needs. 

In the Talent Board’s Candidate Experience Report, 74% of the employers surveyed rated their ability to attract candidates as industry-leading, while only 53% of job candidates gave employers a four- or five-star experience rating. This shows quite a discrepancy between how the employers and employees view the recruiting process.

While employee turnover is an unfortunate reality for most companies, it might be worth it to examine a few aspects of your own hiring process to help minimize turnover and attract the types of workers who can truly make your business thrive.

1. Maximize Quality of Hire by Giving Candidates Room to Grow

Certainly, job applicants are looking for a job that pays the bills and the mounds of student loans.

However, they also are focused on growing their career. Applicants will look positively at companies that maintain a well-developed and publicly recognized internal recruiting process, but they also want to know that their career will be enhanced whether they stay with your company for just a few years or on a long-term basis.

Companies that meet this need have a great opportunity to attract some of the best applicants available. For example, Apple made the decision to offer full reimbursement for continuing education classes because they knew this would attract the type of talent they wanted.

Additionally, many employees believe that strong internal leadership is even more important than salary increases. A study conducted by CareerBuilder showed that 37% of employees who are likely to leave their job say that it is because of poor leadership, while only 28% say it is because they didn't get a pay increase.

2. Attract Top Talent with a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Today's workers want to know that they can have a successful work life and personal life. To meet this need many companies are offering extra benefits that make it easier for their workers to maintain a positive work-life balance. For example, Discovery provides an in-house wellness center to allow their employees to go to the doctor without leaving work. General Mills offers three weeks of vacation to all new employees, and Kiva gives their employees a half hour fun break once a month that includes games, music, and free food.

3. Aim for Transparency in the Pre-Hiring Process

Remember that job applicants today have access to massive amount of information about your business – both the good and the bad. The more honest and transparent your company appears, the better your odds will be in attracting top talent, including Millennials. Jeff Gunther, CEO of Meddius, says that "employees, especially the younger work force want transparency." To meet this demand, his business makes all department quarterly goals open to the public.

Companies should be as clear as possible during the entire recruiting process. This means creating detailed and accurate job descriptions, and informing applicants of any type of background checks, such as criminal, social media, and credit. Most employees already assume businesses run these types of checks, but they respect companies that are upfront and honest about it.

Additionally, research shows well-informed job applicants are 35% less likely to be dissatisfied with your hiring practice, which can help your business attract top talent.

4. Give Them the Opportunity to Make a Difference

Today, most employees want more than a paycheck from their work - they want to be actively engaged in their jobs. For years, companies have enjoyed the benefits of expanding their customer base by being active in the community and sponsoring local events. These same companies are discovering that this community support is also generating quality job applicants.

After all, employees want to know that they are making a difference not just in their career, but in the community where they work and live.

Cummins saw the benefit of this type of community involvement and enacted the Every Employee Every Community project. They now have more than 27,000 employees volunteering in their communities.

These strategies will help you attract top quality job applicants to your open positions. However, it is important to note that just because someone may qualify as top talent intellectually, it doesn't necessarily make him or her a good culture fit for your company. In fact, research shows that 60 percent of millennials have left a job after less than three years because it wasn't a good culture fit for them.

This is where pre-hire assessments can be extremely helpful. These assessments can match your specific work culture with the type of culture job applicants not only want, but will thrive in. This is done by measuring specific characteristics, such as a candidate's skills, abilities, and motivation to ensure he or she will work well within your unique work environment. This allows you to find the top quality job applicants that are best for your specific company.

Learn more about how simulations can help you make the right hire by downloading our free whitepaper How Can Simulations Help You Hire Better? or by speaking with one of our talent selection specialists today.