Many factors influence employee satisfaction, and companies often have a difficult time understanding what they need to do to be recognized as a great place to work. While it is true that compensation plays a role in the type of talent your company can attract, it turns out that work/life balance, benefits and perks, recognition, career growth, and opportunities for corporate social responsibility are often more important.
Two weeks ago, I moderated a panel at the HR Technology Conference – Becoming a Choice Employer – that explored the traits and characteristics that stand out among recognized employers. The panel included these senior executives: Lee Burbage, Chief People Officer & Coach, Motley Fool; Robert Hohman, CEO, Glassdoor; Janet VanHuysse, VP HR, Twitter; and Jennifer Zumek, Director of HR, Zillow. These HR leaders shared best practices about involving senior leadership, remaining flexible in the face of change, and investing in tools and technology to measure efforts to improve and maintain employee satisfaction. You can get a glimpse of why these companies are so great by watching this video that Glassdoor created for the conference.
Below are a few of the questions these panelists addressed. As your organization looks for ways to become a choice employer, considering these questions may be useful:
- When thinking about improving company culture, where do you begin?
- How much do company values play a role in developing culture?
- Whose job is it to make sure you are offering a desirable workplace?
- What factors most influence employee satisfaction?
- How do you get from employee satisfaction to recognition? In other words, how do you encourage feedback without it feeling like you’re requesting it?
- Why does employee sentiment matter for recruitment and retention?
- What are some best practices for improving employee satisfaction?
- When it comes to measuring and evaluating employee sentiment: What’s working and what’s not?
—Madeline Laurano, VP and Principal Analyst, Talent Acquisition,
Brandon Hall Group
@madtraquin
