Employer attractiveness: What factors count today?
There is often a gap between desire and reality when it comes to employer attractiveness: In a recent study by Suite&Co, in which 873 professionals and 51 HR managers were surveyed, opinions diverge significantly when it comes to jobs. The reputation and size of the company hardly play a role anymore. More important are individual factors such as proximity to home or workplace design.
Viktor Gilz, co-founder of Suite&Co on the employer attractiveness study: "What makes a company sexy today are different things than just a few years ago. Above all, applicants want to feel good. A prestigious name alone is not enough to attract skilled workers." Below are the six most important attractiveness factors for companies:
Rank 1: Proximity to home
Seven out of ten professionals surveyed (74 percent) rate proximity to their place of residence as important or very important. This means that this criterion is the one that most determines how attractive a company is to applicants. "Proximity to family, friends and one's own four walls underscores the importance of work-life balance. Most people see proximity to the workplace as a luxury they like to reserve for themselves," says Gilz. However, HR managers underestimate this factor. Only one in four HR managers (25 percent) considers proximity to home to be very important.
Rank 2: A nice working environment
Ranked second in the evaluation of employer attractiveness is the working environment and equipment. An attractive workplace is of high importance, as this can have a positive influence on the workload. In addition, a company's furnishings also reflect its working and overall culture. "At the latest since Google first showed what a workplace could look like a good ten years ago, the picture has changed. Employees no longer want to languish in a lifeless gray office building, but in an appealing work environment. And above all, they want to feel comfortable," says Lisa Mellinghoff from Suite&Co.
Salary: Money and bonus definitely play an important role
Despite the proximity and beauty of the workplace, no one wants to do without appropriate compensation. Salary is one of the top three arguments for attractiveness. 71 percent of skilled workers expect a high salary from their employers. Personnel managers are aware of this. 70 percent agree unanimously with this statement. Regular bonuses also fall into this category.
If you want to be attractive, you have to reward individually
Likewise, individual incentives and special achievements are extremely important to both professionals and HR managers. A person is more motivated when he or she is not one among many, but is valued as an individual. Good personnel management today means investing more time in the individual and breaking down the contribution to business success to the personal level. As a result, people will appear more convincing and work more efficiently to gain the favor of the boardroom.
Career planning makes companies attractive
Continuing education in everyday working life also plays a central role in the topic of employer attractiveness. For HR managers, the opportunity for workshops, career planning and the like is extremely important. Eight out of ten HR managers want their workers to stay permanently up to date and keep developing so that they don't lose out in the constantly changing world of work. By comparison: Only 63 percent of workers appreciate this and expect their employer to offer further training and opportunities for advancement.
Size and familiarity less important - reputation more so
The name recognition and size of the company are only of minor importance today - compared to the other factors. While baby boomers and Generation X attach great importance to the name of the company, for the younger Generations Z and Y the name of the company counts only to a limited extent as a means of adorning their CVs. A company's good reputation, on the other hand, is much more significant, which gives smaller companies the advantage of not being immediately excluded despite their smaller size and lower profile.
What is surprising here is that many companies underestimate the relevance of certification systems such as Top-Job or Kununu, where employees write reviews about companies. Although many professionals obtain information via this medium, only 27 percent of the companies surveyed use such a system.
You can find more interesting articles on the job world at www.suiteandco.de
