The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the business world. About 30% of employees have reported that their work and private life had worsened, prompting business leaders to focus more on talent retention.
Businesses are now struggling to find (and retain) talent. While many factors in the “new normal” influence employee acquisition and retention rates, building a powerful employer brand will make your business immune to socio-economic fluctuations.
Here are 3 tips for employer branding for the “new normal” that will allow you to attract top talent…and retain your best employees.
1. Leads should focus on people and not data
The needs of the modern workforce are constantly changing, even more so in the post-pandemic world. Business leaders need to prioritize the health and wellbeing of their employees, plus their personal and professional needs.
Whether they’re still working remotely or back in the office, leaders should focus on people and not data to make smarter decisions for their teams. It’s important to have regular meetings with your employees to assess their level of happiness in the virtual workplace and address their concerns.
According to Kouzes and Posner’s leadership model, you can inspire and empower your employees by:
- Delegating power to trusted employees
- Acknowledging the individual’s contribution
- Focusing on their feedback to find the key pain points they’re experiencing
- Fostering collaboration in remote teams
- Inspiring a shared vision in your collective
- Leading by example and achieving small, daily progress
2. Relieve your team’s “work-from-home fatigue”
Working from home has been great for many. But it has also been a challenge for companies to adapt to the remote work model. In the “new normal,” we can expect remote work to prevail. But to attract and retain the best employees, you need to optimize remote work in your business.
It should go without saying that employees are now experiencing work-from-home fatigue. So, employers need to focus on:
- Better time management and goal-setting. Following the examples of extremely successful business owners like Bill Gates and Elon Musk, it’s important for your day to be planned out to the minute to ensure positive outcomes.
- Employee appreciation. A great examples of employee appreciation comes from Apple, when the company surprised their employees with extended time off over Thanksgiving.
- Transparent and open remote communication. 3M is a good example of a company that focuses on removing communication roadblocks to ensure productivity and zeal, but they also focus on transparency with one-one-one employee interviews.
- Virtual downtime and team building. Hotjar is a great example how virtual team-building can be fun and relaxing – hosting 15-minute coffee sessions and Wednesday bonfires for the collective to build meaningful relationships.
- Enabling individual contributors for success. Acknowledghe the individual and their work, and delegate power to them. This will free up your time and allow them to optimize their work and the work of their colleagues.
3. Use training and mentorship to retain talent
Another one of the most important tips for employer branding is investing in employee training and growth. You need to invest in your employees’ professional development and reduce training costs without sacrificing quality or failing to address the unique needs of your employees.
To achieve this, you can:
- Develop internal training programs without paying for external consultants
- Create a mentorship program to groom employees for higher positions
- Gather feedback from employees on their professional goals to optimize your programs
- Create an effective training process that you can repeat without incurring more costs
- Use virtual training to cut the need for a dedicated space, commuting, or professional equipment and create a job aid for your employees to help them implement their tasks more efficiently
By focusing on virtual training and workshops, you can keep your expenses low and deliver a great training experience. Investing in employee professional growth helps build a positive employer brand image and will bring value to your company.
The more you invest in your employees, the more they’ll invest in growing your business.
Employer branding is the key to effective employee acquisition (and retention) in the post-pandemic world. By focusing on these best practices, you can optimize your employer brand to attract the top candidates and ensure the growth and happiness of your employees.
Why I Wrote This?
Ongig’s mission is to help you attract top, diverse talent. This starts with creating effective and inclusive JDs to build your employer brand. Please request a demo for a free analysis of your job descriptions.
Shout-Outs:
- Feature Photo by Patrik Michalicka on Unsplash
- Work from Home Fatigue – Why Zoom is Exhausting (by Brett Knowles)
- Why Leaders Should Focus on People and Not Data (by 6Q)
- 5 Effective Ways To Reduce Training Costs Without Sacrificing Quality (by Jenna Bunnell)
THIS IS A GUEST POST FROM NIKOLA SEKULIĆ OF CONTENT WIZARDS:
Nikola is a seasoned brand developer, writer, and storyteller. Over the last decade, he’s worked on various marketing, branding, and copywriting projects – crafting plans and strategies, writing creative online and offline content, and making ideas happen. When he is not working for clients around the world, he is exploring new topics and developing fresh ideas to turn into engaging stories for the online community.
