Becoming the Employer of Choice
(First in a series)
Close your eyes and imagine that your inbox is filled with resumes from the staff of your top competitors. Their key people are contacting you about joining your company. Every resume you read seems to fit the role you are trying to fill . . . as a matter of fact, there are too many great resumes for you to choose from.
If this seems far fetched to you, then your organization has work to do in order to make it the employer of choice in your market area.
Why become the employer of choice? Look at Google, the current darling of its industry.
Google has the choice of the best minds in the world and, through that, has been able to create a firm that has made its owners billions. By brick and mortar standards, it has created something out of air—a multi-billion dollar business selling adverting on web pages complimenting its web search tools. Yet from this has come the ability to attract some of the brightest people in the world.
Look at Microsoft before that—a company that developed intellectual capital (software) that is mass produced on CD’s and sold through distribution channels. How about Cisco, a firm that went to war to conquer its opponents in the router market.
Great companies share certain attributes that make them the employer of choice in their sector, Over the next few weeks, I am going to look at some of the things that great firms do to make them the preeminent company in peoples’ minds when it comes to employment.
The first quality that great firms have is a readily understandable mission statement or statement of purpose that is constantly reinforced,
A mission statement is visionary. It focuses on what the firm aspires to. It’s scope is broad, rather than narrow. It also includes actions the firm will take to help achieve the mission.
For example, Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. The mission is in two parts—the action in the first is “to organize the world’s information”; in the second, it is to make it “universally accessible and useful.”
In October 2002 Microsoft changed its mission statement from "To empower people through great software -- any time, any place, and on any device" to "To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential".
Yet a mission statement has no meaning or value if it is simply used in the annual report, company website and an occasional meeting. It must be a part of the company’s culture and focal point of decisions.
(To be continued)
Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
jeffaltman@cisny.com
© 2006 all rights reserved.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in technology, accounting, finance, sales, marketing and other disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.
To subscribe to Jeff’s free job search ezine, Head Hunt Your Next Job, go to www.headhuntyournextjob.com. To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you or search for openings, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. For information about personal search services, go to www.vippersonalsearch.com.
If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at jeffaltman@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume)
