What determines whether or not a company will be number one among their competitors? If turnover is low? Or if profits will continue to grow year after year? The simple answer, hiring the right employees. Your organizations success depends upon having valuable human capital that you can rely upon without reservation. Easier said than done, right? While no one questions the difficulty in retaining talent there are steps you can take to secure your place on the market as a choice employer.
Moreover, they don’t even have to be cost-associated benefits. There are many available benefits employers can offer that do not have a direct expense to the company. Benefits such as flexible scheduling, working from home and the like all provide excellent opportunities for employers to exercise options for appealing employee benefits. Taking the time to consider and offer your current and future employees exciting benefits will not only help attract superior talent, but drastically reduce your risk of turnover.
Recently Fortune Magazine released their 2008 rankings for some of the “Best Big Companies to Work For.” Although the reasons many of the companies made the list were diverse, they all shared one commonality, attention to their employees. Realizing that competition for attracting and retaining exceptional talent is ever-increasing, companies large and small alike have found themselves in a position to offer nontraditional perks that appeal to the type of individuals they are looking to have on their team.
For instance, Valero Energy, who ranked number 67 on the list, offers employees access to the company’s corporate jet in the case of a medical emergency; moreover, health premiums are covered at 100%. Similarly, Starbucks, who ranks number 7 this year, offers full and part-time employees medical benefits, a hallmark of the organization.
Other companies have found that offering benefits such as stock options are enticing ways to draw interest and loyalty from talent. Ranking again at number 1 this year, Google is a pioneer in the realm of offering stock options to 99% of its employees. Likewise, Goldman Sachs, ranking in at number 9, saw it’s compensation and benefits rise 23% for employees-totaling $20.10 billion.
Conversely companies like Nordstrom, ranked at number 36, have found success in promoting the advancement of women in their organization. In fact, 63% of all executives and senior managers are female. Whereas Adobe Systems, ranked at number 40, have found success in establishing employee councils to offer management with ideas and following a policy where the CEO responds to emails within 24 hours.
Ultimately, the war for talent is only going to intensify as the Baby Boomers prepare to exit the workforce. Companies who are ill prepared to offer greater and bigger benefits packages may find themselves loosing traction among their competition in the marketplace as talented candidates look to join organizations who promote exciting, first-class benefits that invite dedication and loyalty from employees.
