Attracting Talent
Transcript from Season 1 Episode 5 of the Hardly Working Podcast
Maulik
Today the culture of a company is seen as a deciding factor when joining a company. As important to some as compensation or job title. In certain cases, companies can even leverage their culture to attract the right talent.
And yet many places don’t seem to understand the value of developing their culture.
The first season of Hardly Working deals with company culture, and in Today’s episode, we’re going to be looking at how culture can be used to attract the right talent.
Let’s start with the elephant in the room. We’ve touched upon this before, but it seems like the younger generation is looking at jobs in a very different way than previous generations.
Nishanth
Yeah. It could be seen as a kind of generational gap, but younger generations entering the workforce have a very different view of work, and that kind of companies they want to work for.
That emphasis on loyalty is no longer there. Where people of my grandparents generation might have worked in one company for decades, today changing jobs isn’t as frowned upon. The same with gaps in resume, or career changes or pivots.
The younger generation understands that they need to build a career for themselves, by themselves, and if they don’t feel like a company will help them with that, they will quickly move over to one that does.
Maulik
Don’t you think that’s because there are so many more companies and options available now?
The old giants are still around, and today the hire more people than ever before. You’ve also got the big IT and BPO companies. But you also have the SMEs and regional players. And you have the startups as well. There just seems to be more choice overall.
Nishanth
True. And that’s certainly one part of it. But what’s also interesting is that you mentioned startups.
People of my parent’s generation would strove to work for established and reputable companies. They might not have spent their entire careers there, but there was a certain pride associated with working at a certain companies.
Today, people are willing to take a bet on a smaller company, or a startup, knowing fully well that the company is completely unheard off, and in a few years it might get bought up or go bankrupt. They’re aware of the risks, but are willing to accept them, as they prefer the culture.
Maulik
So then obviously culture is very important to people looking for jobs.
I feel like the culture of some of these older companies seems to have a more hierarchical structure, more rigid job titles and job descriptions and just a more structured way of working.
In comparison, startups and some of these smaller organisations are more about flexibility, they expect their employees to figure things out for themselves and do things that might not be explicitly stated in the job description.
Nishanth
Yeah totally
Maulik
But I still see lots of people who want to work at the former. They want that rigidity. They want to be told what to do, rather than figure it out for themselves.
Nishanth
There’s no “One size fits all” when it comes to culture. Different kinds of industries attract different kinds of people, and create their own types of culture. Even within the same industry, there can more than one way to create a productive work environment.
Problems arise when an employee’s personal expectations of the work environment are at odds with the company’s. Or worse, if the company advertises a certain kind of work environment, but in reality works in a very different way.
Maulik
It’s interesting that you talk about this dissonance between what the employees expect and what is actually in place.
Now obviously every company is going to want to present themselves as a great place to work. Whether it’s on LinkedIn or Glassdoor or social media in general, they aren’t going to want anyone to claim it’s a bad place to work. Of a culture is going to be stressful, why would they want to present that?
Nishanth
If there are actual problems with the culture of a workspace, then organisations need to looks into fixing those first.
But in many cases, a high stress environment may be exactly kind of place an employee wants to work at. Just look at business consultancies like McKinsey. Or investment bank, or even law firms. They’re known to be high stress environments, with long work hours, but they still attract plenty of potential employees.
Maulik
That’s true. Those organisations aren’t afraid to present themselves as high stress environments, and attract the kind of people who thrive in those environments.
I guess if they were to present themselves as a more casual work place, like a tech startup, then employee expectations wouldn’t be met, and employees would leave because of the stress.
What are some of the other ways that a company advertises it’s culture?
Nishanth
Beyond the traditional avenues you’ve mentioned, there’s also branding itself, and the language the brand speaks.
It might seem like the brand is only communicating to its customers, but all that communication is also available to potential employees. That public face of the brand is the impression an applicant will have of the brand, before they ever look at a job posting.
Maulik
I guess a lot of this also falls upon the recruitment team and HR. They need to present the job and workplace for what it is, rather than just try to hire anyone with the right resumé. So they also need to be aware of the work culture, and look for the kind of people who would be a good fit.
Speaking of HR, I think we need to mention onboarding, because that seems like a very important step in introducing new recruits to the culture of the organisation.
In many cases it seems like on boarding is just a formality. Or it’s all done at a very surface level. They don’t actually help employees understand all the processes and what all they need to do to get work done.
Nishanth
That’s true. Employees should always be building on the work that’s already been done. Leaving them to figure out processes on their own, is just unproductive. Not to mention, if an employee isn’t aware of existing processes, then they might try to install their own way of doing things, which will lead to a complete breakdown of the system.
Employees need to be spending their time on the job they’ve been given, and not in figuring out existing things, or filling forms, or jumping through hoops. For that to happen, the company needs a really good on boarding procedure.
Either HR needs to step up and understand the different roles they’re trying to fill, and create an on boarding system that way. Or maybe the manager needs to take their new recruits through the processes. Or maybe even assign a dedicated person to guide people through the systems.
Whichever way, it’s really important to start this new relationship off on the right foot, or they’ll have to again look for someone in a few months or years.
Maulik
It all seems to come back to the importance of transparency which we’ve spoken off before. But in this case it seems to be transparency between the company and the talent pool they’re hiring from.
I guess companies need to realize that people are now looking for more than just a job title or a salary. They’re looking for a cultural fit. And once they understand that, they will automatically understand the importance of having a productive culture internally, as well as how important it is to present the same externally. Many organisations will of course try to take the easy way out and present something that isn’t true, but they will also be left with a high turnover.
On the next episode we’ll be getting more into how companies can make changes to their culture to retain the talent that’s already within the organisation.
Nishanth
If you enjoyed this episode, do subscribe, and do share it with anyone you think might be interested. If you have any feedback, get in touch with us on LinkedIn or Medium.
That’s it from us, and I think it’s time to get back to work.
