Following several years of dormant hiring activity, the economy is gaining momentum, the unemployment rate continues to drop and the engine of commerce is starting to rev higher. Many organizations that hunkered down during the lean years find themselves with a need to infuse their ranks with new talent. To ensure your business is ready to accelerate from zero to 60 as new growth opportunities surface, you may need to ramp up hiring activity at a time when your talent attraction strategies may just now be emerging from hibernation.

As you evaluate your workforce and identify gaps that need filling, key questions surface. What are the most effective ways to attract the right talent? Do the same incentives that worked a half dozen years ago still apply? To what degree do a social media presence and reputation factor into your efforts? Do workers differ in what they find attractive about a job offer or a company by profession or generation? Spherion’s latest Emerging Workforce Study provides some enlightenment.

What’s Important… Besides Money?
When we examined what factors outside of salary influence the decision to join a company, we found far and away the most important was the commute or location. This is likely due in part to an increasing desire and expectation among workers today for work/life balance, which can often lead to less stress and greater productivity on the job.

Ranking second among job candidates is the reputation of the company. In the age of digital job search, job seekers turn to online reviews to identify the companies most worthy of their talent. Job seekers are especially interested in hearing what your current employees have to say about benefits, business practices and working conditions. It is these employee reviews that make a company’s reputation in the job market so valuable, especially among technology and customer service professionals. Accounting/finance workers, on the other hand, are the least influenced by company reputation and location/commute. They care more about “the person I will be working for.”

How Does Age Influence Attraction?
We found significant differences among generations. For Gen Y workers, the ability to work remotely was nearly as important as company reputation. For Gen X and Traditionalists, the person they will be working for emerges as an important decision-factor. In fact, the most mature workers did not place much importance at all on location or commute. On the other side of the spectrum, Baby Boomers ranked location/commute far more often than other generations.

How Critical Is Company Reputation?
Even at the height of the Great Recession, desperate job seekers turned their backs on companies with a less than stellar reputation. In addition to our own study, a survey from Corporate Responsibility reported that 75% of Americans would prefer to stay unemployed rather than work for a company with a bad reputation. And 87% of currently employed workers would consider leaving their current job to take on a role with a company that has an excellent corporate reputation. They’d even do it for a minimal increase in salary.

A bad reputation adds to the cost of recruiting and retention. Perhaps that is why our study found more than six in 10 companies today now have a dedicated resource to manage, track and measure their online reputation. While the transparency engendered by digital media makes it impossible to hide flaws, the underlying message is not about cosmetic makeovers but the need to examine your company culture to identify the good, the bad and the ugly and then establish action plans to eliminate two out of the three.

Where Will You Find New Talent?
Just as priorities have shifted in terms of what is important to a job candidate, so too have we seen changes in the sources, effectiveness and popularity of job search tools. For job seekers, referrals continue to rank at the top of the list with four in 10 workers landing their last job in that way. Not surprisingly, while a third of workers prefer a digital venue to find a new job, 14% rely on a classic tool, answering classified ads. Others rely on the guidance of a staffing agency or professional networking. Which method works best differs somewhat, based on both profession and age. For example, accounting professionals are most likely to use professional associations/networking, while customer service and administrative workers prefer classified ads and company websites. IT workers gravitate to online sources. Manufacturing workers utilize a staffing agency.

With the need to lure a diverse array of talent, understanding different worker groups will determine how well you can source and attract the talent you need to grow your business. As companies vie for top employees, any competitive edge—from tailored recruitment strategies to effective social recruitment—become must-haves in today’s landscape. 

Local Spherion owner Michael Chalmers and his team have been serving the recruiting and staffing needs of Macon metropolitan area employers for more than 22 years. Founded in 1946, Spherion is a $2 billion national workforce leader with a distinct local focus. To learn more about how Spherion can help you, contact 478-956-1700 or visit them online at www.spherion.com.