I’m seeing many business leaders with metaphorical ice-cream headaches. Why is that? If you think about the employment experience that any business offers, there was a time when you could attract talented people with a pretty vanilla employment experience.
However, in a tight labour market, when it comes to attracting and retaining talent, no-one likes vanilla ice-cream any more. In fact, people want all kinds of exotic flavours and combinations, and they are expecting employers to deliver them.
How can businesses make their employee experience stand-out? Here are a couple of tips:
- Boost your benefits. Statutory holidays and sick pay isn’t cutting the mustard any more. Offering a few more days above statutory minimums is now becoming the market norm. If you can better harness the energies of talented people, this will likely compensate for any lost productivity linked to additional days off.
- Talk about the work. Many employers miss a trick here. Chances are, the work that you get people involved in has a lot of intrinsic benefits and rewards. A recent survey showed that many people would be prepared to take a pay cut in exchange for more meaningful work. Shout about the work with your existing employees as well as in adverts for new recruits.
If you like vanilla ice-cream, that’s fine. But when it comes to your employee experience, you may benefit from trying a few other flavours.