Written by UT Center for Industrial Services’ Workforce Development Consultant Tim Waldo. Originally published on November 16, 2023 on the The Optimized People Development System Blog.
Every employer is a competitor in the race to be a preferred employer, that employer that draws people in and keeps them engaged for long stretches of their careers. There are some leaders who have a watchful eye toward the goal of being an employer of choice. However, there may be quite a few who aren’t watching the race at all. If there is a list of 50 or 500 employers in your neighborhood, your company ranks somewhere on the scale of great, good, or bad places to work.
My last post advocated that a good first step toward improving your position is to understand the nature of the competition. Recognize your competitors, get to know them, learn from them, and develop a strategy to move up the rankings. The second tip has to do with choices.
It’s not one-sided.
Most literature promoting the idea of becoming an EoC is written with the employee as the one whose choice is of paramount importance. While it is true that they are the focus of this competition, they are not the only ones making choices. Employers must also make important choices, and these decisions inform the EoC rankings by communicating with current and potential employees about the company’s attitude toward people.
Consequences of choice.
Bad hiring decisions can harm any previous efforts taken to become an EoC. If, for example, a poor choice of candidates is made because the organization’s people development system is unclear on the team’s needs, the new hire will likely leave prematurely and perhaps with a not-so-good review of the experience.
Some choices made by employers are made well before the hiring process. Long-term decisions to support or not support training delivery will have future impacts on the morale of the existing team and therefore the atmosphere within the organization. Culture is the key to becoming (and continuing as) an EoC. Having a great benefits package within a poor culture won’t move your company up the rankings in the minds of employees. The point is that, in addition to hiring decisions, leaders and stakeholders of the company’s people development system make other crucial choices about the way the system is administered and supported. Those decisions feedback into the employer of choice calculus.
Positioned to choose.
The company’s PDS is the primary system within the organization that nurtures culture. It is the system that facilitates communication with employees. Ultimately, the PDS is the system that decides if you are an employer of choice or not. This is why it is important to ensure that it operates effectively and efficiently.
Do the choices being made regarding the PDS support the success of all the functional areas (recruiting, onboarding, training, retention, and performance management)? Does the system provide data that informs decision-making? Are choices made from long-term perspectives or near term? Is culture at the forefront when decisions are made about developing people? Does the PDS accurately inform the hiring process?
It is more than simply having people choose your organization over others from a list of prospects. An employer of choice is one who makes good choices and one who has made good choices. The best way for that to occur is to have all stakeholders engaged in the development of people. And that will be the topic of our next post.
The University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services (UT CIS) proudly serves as the One Stop Operator for the East Tennessee American Job Centers. If you are interested in seeing more blog posts from Tim Waldo, check out his Optimized People Development System blog