Do Luminary Leaders really need a pirate ship?

Create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent.?If you hire brilliant people, they will make work feel more like play.?

- Richard Branson

Many of you will have heard about the 'war for talent' that is currently being waged across the marketplace. The National Skills Commission reports 286 occupations across the country are dealing with skills shortages and many organisations have gone above and beyond to try and attract great people. The Hays Australia's Salary Guide 2022-23 indicates that four out of five (88%) employers will increase wages when hiring in an effort to secure good talent. Last year there was a distinct shift where companies went on the defensive, with a much greater focus on the retention of staff, warding off lucrative offers from competitors.

In this environment, many companies have put efforts in place to become "employers of choice." Such efforts are usually focused on creating a great experience for their staff.?Many organisations are fitting out their workplaces to look fresh and clean, adding ping-pong tables, bean bags, sleeping pods, or even pirate ships. Yes, pirate ships. Others are throwing money and perks at candidates. I recently was speaking with an executive whose son had just completed his engineering degree and as a graduate was receiving a salary of $110K with a car, accommodation, phone, and computer all provided. Not bad for a 21-year-old.

While all these efforts are worthy and can make coming to work a little more exciting, executives and senior leaders need to remember that they are only one piece of the puzzle. A beautiful workplace and high salary without great culture, a profitable business model, and happy customers don't make you an employer of choice. Efforts to improve the employee experience need to occur within the context of improving the entire organisation. Rather than solely focusing on being an employer of choice, the focus should be on becoming an organisation of choice.

An organisation of choice is one where the experience of interacting with it - in whatever capacity - is so good that people consistently choose it over others. For customers that means they are a service provider of choice. For investors that means they are the option of choice. And for staff, it means they are the employers of choice.

Becoming an Organisation of Choice

Becoming an organisation of choice is based on pursuing balanced results. I've written about pursuing balanced results before. It’s about ensuring that senior leaders - and therefore the company - are focused on achieving organisational, employee, and customer results. When one of these is lacking, the experience of different stakeholders begins to suffer. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll explore each of these in a little more detail. For now, let’s focus on the employee results.?

Achieving employee results is really focused on building great culture. There are many different things that contribute to a healthy culture. I want to highlight three key elements:

Cultivation?

People need to feel like their skills and abilities are being cultivated, that they are being invested in, grown, and developed both professionally and personally. This is more important for millennials, Gen Z, and the younger generations who are expecting up to 50% more development at work than other generations.?

Contribution?

People need to sense that the work they do is making a meaningful contribution, both to the company they work for, but also to its customers. Without it, people lose a sense of purpose reducing their satisfaction at work and their motivation to continue.

Connection

Humans are social animals, made to live and belong to groups - be they families, tribes, or the more modern workplace teams. They need healthy relationships, connecting with, supporting, and caring for others who are willing to support and care for them. The deeper the quality of these relationships, the deeper the connection, and the greater the attraction to the company.?

While each of these is a key element to building a great culture and becoming an employer of choice, they are only one piece of the puzzle. All healthy organisations will have a healthy culture. But not all organisations with a healthy culture will be healthy organisations.?

Leaders who create an environment at work where staff experience cultivation, contribution, and connection, lay the foundation for great culture, which is one of, if the most attractive elements of an organisation.