Is it a watershed moment for company culture? Yes. And a recent LinkedIn 2022 Global Talent Trends report agrees. The report shares the commonly held opinion by many of us in talent acquisition that company culture “is being reshaped in a crucible fired by the pandemic, the acceleration of automation, the rise of millennials and Gen Z in the workforce, and the Great Reshuffle. Employees are demanding—and quite often getting—more freedom to work where and when they want and more attention to their well-being.”
Remote work is our new normal. A recent Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey of 1,000 working adults in the U.S. reported that 39% would consider quitting their job if their employer wasn’t flexible about remote work. That number jumps to 49% for millennials and GenZ. However, a 2021 PwC survey found that 29% of US executives like the idea of employees being in the office at least three days a week (21% voted for five days a week!) for the sake of company culture. A new normal requires a reexamination of what actually comprises company culture—and there can’t be a disconnect for the sake of retention and talent attraction.
People know they have choices and with so many businesses vying for employees in pretty much every industry these days, competition becomes about differentiation in the era of human-focused company culture.
Culture connects to purpose
Employees are four times more likely to feel connected to a job when they believe their work matters. Certain benefits like health insurance and salary are still of high importance, but they aren’t always the decision-making factor. People want to know that the work they’re doing will have a noticeable impact on the larger world around them. Employees want to pursue something they can be passionate about, and in turn, they want to have a clearly defined purpose behind their work. The values that shape your company culture can help define purpose and your unique employer value proposition to the people you hope to attract and hire.
The benefits of a strong company culture for recruiting
With this in mind, why should your organization prioritize reexamining cultural development when it comes to recruiting? Because culture is more than just a buzzword or team-building exercise. It’s a major factor in why candidates choose an organization and why they stay:
- 66% of candidates include an organization’s culture as the top factor when evaluating their career moves (LinkedIn)
- Organizations that “actively manage” their culture have a retention rate 40% higher than companies that do not. (Deloitte)
Make sure the right candidates get the right message
Candidates want to know your values—the real ones—and get a feel for who might be their future coworkers. The Edelman Barometer 2021 found that 53% of people trust people like themselves as a very/extremely credible source of information about a company. The experiences candidates have with your organization, from the first moment of consideration all the way through to their acceptance of an offer, contribute significantly to both internal and external perceptions of what it’s truly like to work at your company. Using talent acquisition technology to elevate that experience by offering an authentic window into the work culture your employees enjoy and delivering on the high standards you’ve put in place will not only advance your employer brand—it will increase your return on the investment.
We are clearly in the midst of a reputation economy where culture, people and what an employer brand stands for are playing increasingly important roles in talent acquisition and retention strategy. This presents an opportunity to both work and hire better and ultimately broadcast those efforts to attract and engage top talent. Think about the ways you can:
- Update and activate consistent messaging that reflects your company culture across all touchpoints and communication channels, including your company’s job listings
- Showcase your employee stories and core values in action on your corporate career site—ideally a career site that’s as easy to update as drag, drop, done
- Maintain consistent and timely communications that demonstrate respect to the candidate through automated—yet highly personalized—email and text/SMS messages
Cultural trends for 2022 and beyond
While the future is impossible to predict, the O.C. Tanner Institute’s 2022 Global Culture Report identified five key trends that are worth considering:
1.) Flexibility Rules: More than just offering remote work options, let employees (and not the employer) decide which type of work they do at home vs. in the office
2.) Rebuilding Connection: Strengthen employee connections to purpose, accomplishment, and one another
3.) Revisiting Engagement: Focus on behaviors that actually lead to great work vs. a single measure of engagement
4.) Personalized Recognition: Recognition should come with meaningful awards—give careful thought to the individual
5.) Technology’s Exploding Role in Building Culture: Replace slow, cumbersome technology and multiple logins with a solution that offers a unified and seamless experience for all
You can use your TA technology to effectively connect the talent you want to hire to your organization’s culture and purpose. The business case for investing in a talent platform has become far more compelling over the past two years, and as a result is top of mind among those planning any HR tech upgrades to set up their recruiting teams for success. As the O.C. Tanner report states, “workplace flexibility and personalization is growing exponentially and the technology employers use to build culture should reflect it.”