Have you checked the unemployment rate nationally lately? It is crazy low especially in Winona County.

This is a good sign for the economy and if you are a job seeker. But not so much if you are a company with positions to fill.

What does this mean for companies?

Your company can no longer rely on old school hiring practices. You need to start making your company more attractive to job seekers.

If you are not paying the best, have few benefits or if you have a bad reputation, you are going to have a tough time filling your open spots.

Here are few ideas to improve your recruiting and your company culture as a whole.

Identify What Job Seekers Want

If you want to attract people, you need to understand what job seekers want. In a January 2015 study done by CareerBuilder, here’s a list:

• Job stability – 65 percent
• Location – 57 percent
• Affordable benefits – 55 percent
• Good work culture – 46 percent
• Flexible schedules – 40 percent
• Career advancement opportunities – 39 percent

Careeer Builder went a little further and asked if there were any “extra perks” that would make jobs more satisfying. Here’s what job seekers said:

• Half-day Fridays – 40 percent
• On-site fitness center – 22 percent
• Daily catered lunches – 21 percent
• Massages – 16 percent
• Being able to wear jeans – 15 percent

Which of those could you offer? At first glance some of these might seem costly. But if you stack those costs up against costs associated with stuff like lost production, constant recruiting, repeated training and overworking/burning out your current workers to keep up with demand, you might see that it is much cheaper in the long run.

Put On Your Marketing Hat

Once you’ve identified what it is you can do to make your workplace desirable, you need to put on your sales and marketing hat. In other words, the HR department needs to start thinking like the sales and marketing department.

Find the message that is the most attractive and then make sure everyone knows about. You can do that in your job listings, through media releases and by implementing and following through on those changes within the company. If your employees like what you are doing, they will become spokespeople for your company and may even start referring their family and friends. A company called Big Ass Fans saw this first hand when they started making these changes.

So, what changes is your business going to make to attract the best job seekers? Think really hard about it, implement those changes and get the word out. If you do it right, 6 months to a year from now you”ll have people lining up at your reception desk asking for applications.

Questions or comment? Agree or disagree? Say your piece in the comments below.

Want Some Help?

When you are ready to get the word out, and you’d like some guidance, give me a call or shoot me an email. I can help you create both an attractive job listing and help you figure out how to find job seekers on sites like Facebook and Google.