How to attract tomorrow’s talent – leverage your company culture

Talking about salary and benefits isn’t always enough. Attracting tomorrow’s talent – especially in the engineering and IT jobs markets – means talking about who your company is as well as what you offer.

The talent of today and tomorrow are more focused on CSR than ever before. They consider the Corporate Social Responsibility credibility of brands before they buy from them – let alone work for them.

If you want to demonstrate your commitment to ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) issues to attract that talent, leveraging your company culture is the best way to do it.

How to leverage your culture to attract talent

1) Create a clear brand identity

It’s hard to leverage a company culture if you don’t really have one. The first step is to create a clear brand identity if you haven’t done so already.

This means taking a step back, auditing your current culture, and answering questions about who you are and how you operate, such as:

• Why do you do what you do?
• What sets you apart from your competition?
• What makes you kinder, fairer, more inclusive, more supportive?
• How do you limit your impact on the environment – or have a positive one?
• What positive role do you play for your team, your customers, the local community?

You can then use that to inform and guide your facilitation of a company culture that encapsulates all of those values and things that make “you” you.

2) Walk the walk as well as talk the talk

Writing down your values and who you are is one thing. Actually acting like is another.

Many people have worked for a company where management and culture documents say one thing and the day-to-day practices something else. “Flexible working” becomes “in the office every day”, for example.

Research has shown that the talent of tomorrow – and indeed today – are overwhelmingly switched on to this. They know how to find out whether prospective employers walk the walk as well as talk the talk on ESG issues.

Websites like Glassdoor have provided an anonymous window into the backroom lives of many organisations. Sometimes to their benefit. Sometimes not.

Make sure your answers to all of the questions above are accurate and realistic. You don’t have to be flawless on every issue. Just demonstrate that you’ve thought about it and are honest about where you are and where you’re going.

3) Let your company culture be part of everything you do

Consistency and transparency are key. Your company culture needs to spread out from your brand identity into everything you do – your internal communications, office environment, the way you work.

Anytime prospective candidates spot a disconnect between what you say and what you do, alarm bells will start to ring. It’s not just a matter of persuading this high-flying network manager you want to hire to join you, after all – you want to retain them too.

These days, one out of every two people looking for a new job in IT, engineering, or STEM fields as a whole say that company culture is one of the pillars their decision of who to join rests on.

If you want the best chance of attracting the best of tomorrow’s talent, outlining your brand identity and being authentic and honest about your company culture lets you leverage who you are to find not only the best talent – but the?right?talent for you.

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