Usually, when your HR department comes up with a new buzzword or slogan, you smile politely and move on with whatever it was you were doing, not ever taking the time to analyze and digest what you have just heard. In most cases, that’s usually a good idea.
But not always. There’s an increasingly popular buzzword around town that bears looking into. It’s called being “an employer of choice.”
Before your nausea alarm goes into full cycle, hear me out.
For most, if not all, American business leaders, labor issues are the No. 1 concern. Quantity. Quality. Reliability. Cost. I guarantee that worrying about some or most of those issues consumes a lot of your time and attention.
Finding workers of quality, who are smart enough to operate and function at whatever tasks you need them to perform; finding them in sufficient quantity to perform all the tasks your growing business requires; finding them at a reasonable cost that fits in with your operating margins; and, in the current period of low unemployment where we are trying to squeeze every last person in the universe into our labor force, finding enough intelligent workers at the right price who show up on time and who actually work while they’re there -- these are just some of the challenges today’s employers face on a daily basis.
Think about what that costs your company in terms of time, money and aggravation. Think of how much money you’ll save if people really wanted to work for your company and, given a choice (which in today’s tight labor market, they do have), they would choose to work for, or remain with, your company.
It’s no different from that old sales adage that it’s a lot easier to keep an existing customer than it is to find a new one. The same is true when it comes to your employees.
Oak Hill Press just published a book by Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia entitled “How to Become an Employer of Choice.” In it they outline, using examples from real life companies we’ve all actually heard of, hundreds of examples of programs and policies a company might consider which, if adopted in whole or in part, would likely lead to that company being perceived as an “employer of choice” in its community or region.
And this is not a job for your HR department. This is a job for you, because being an “employer of choice” involves a strategic vision that cannot be put into place overnight.
This is not a Pollyanna-ish, I Love You, You Love Me type of concept. Much of what Herman and Gioia is simply an updated version of the principals we used to rebuild our armed forces from the dismal aftermath of the Vietnam War to the euphoric heights of Gulf War.
Leadership principals don’t change much over time. How to apply those principals does.
That’s what it will take to make your company an employer of choice -- leadership.
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