All-4-HR Blog Spot: Is your Company Culture Desirable to Top Talent?

Often times when recruiting top talent, to no avail, it may be that your company has lost its “shine”. When I refer to “shine”, I’m speaking to what attracts top talent to an organization. Perhaps it is time to perform an analysis of your company’s culture. After all, are you looking for new talent because your company has one or more open positions (due to losing employees) or is your company growing? If you are recruiting talent due to growth that is Excellent! You want to be appealing and desirable to top talent.

Again, if you are recruiting due to growth, you as a growing company want to be sure to retain the top talent you currently possess, as well as, hire more top talent. Remember your talent is in charge of executing your company’s deliverables to satisfied, happy clients. You also want to take into to consideration you may be losing top talent due to inadequacies in your company’s “culture” or “environment”. Organizational culture is defined as the behavior of humans who are part of an organization and the meanings that the people react to their actions. Company culture is the values and practices shared by the members of the group and therefore, is the shared values and practices of the company’s employees. Is your company culture toxic?

Toxic Company Culture

Toxic employees do not recognize a duty to the organization for which they work or their co-workers in terms of ethics or professional conduct toward others. A toxic workplace can result from increased workplace stress, potential layoffs, workplace bullying. If your company has a toxic workplace, be assured your employees are exhibiting toxic behavior internally and externally. It will most certainly remove top talent from your organization and keep top talent from joining your organization.

Assessing Company Culture

In assessing your company culture, you must look around and take notice of your employees’ actions. What are your employees doing or saying? You as a company owner when assessing your culture, must listen to your employees, your suppliers and your customers. Pay attention and take notice to what is being written about your company in print and online. These are tools for you to assess your Company’s culture. Finally, when receiving the messages, feedback, etc. take immediate action to rectify and improve your company’s culture. Do NOT ignore! Toxic workplace environments do NOT go away on their own.

Appealing to Top Talent

Be Flexible with Recruiters. When recruiting top talent, be sure to be flexible with top recruiters and allow them to do their job. No need for a hawk eye overseeing their every move. You must have confidence in your recruiters you are working with to acquire top talent. If you do not have confidence in your recruiter(s), get a recruiter(s) that you have confidence in.

Allow employees to be a part of the process. Allow your employees that will be working directly with the new hire to be a part of the interviewing and decision-making process. This assures your employees they have a voice and they are valuable to your organization and not simply just a job. Employees feel appreciated and respected when they know their opinion is valued.

Be sure your company exhibits a place of enjoyment and fun. This is simpler than you think. Remember, your employees spend more time with you “at work” other than at home with family. You do not want unhappy employees coming to work full of stress and unhappiness. Paul Spiegelman, founder and CEO of Beryl Co, has built a unique, people-centric culture. Eight Tips to Building Corporate Culture http://www.inc.com/ss/8-tips-for-building-corporate-culture#3. A great company to go to every morning is critical to retaining and acquiring top talent. Because the article says “corporate” does not mean these techniques or just for Corporate. A great company culture is critical to small and large corporations.

Other questions you should ask when assessing your company’s culture are: (1) Is your company customer-focused? (2) Is your company employee-focused (3) Does your company value emotional intelligence? (4) Does your company have a vision and is this vision shared with and by each and every employee in your organization? (5) How important is technology and innovation in your organization? (6) Are your company’s values easily exhibited and transcend throughout your organization?

Is Your Company Culture Desirable to Top Talent? Click here for a free cultural assessment checklist.

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