Work is no longer just a place to earn money. To a modern job candidate, particularly passive candidates, a great role is an entire package deal.
Passive talent is that pool of great people who could be open to a new role, but aren’t actively searching. If you want to win their attention, interesting responsibilities and a competitive pay package may not be enough – after all, they already have a good job.
Given this reality, when it comes time to hunt for a new team member at your Northern Beaches business, it's all about going beyond the basics. Here's why.
Why is it important to sell the whole picture of a role?
For most Australians, work is a place to push your career, to have an impact on the world and to make friends – it's where people find connection, purpose and belonging.
Great passive talent may not accept your job offer, even if it’s an excellent offer, if you can’t sell them on the dream that your job is more than a job.
For example, how much flexibility do you offer? Flexible working was one of the biggest driving factors for workforce participation in Australia, ahead of incentives like career progression and benefits (ABS).
And another example – what is your company culture? People working in companies that have a positive corporate culture are healthier, happier, more productive and less likely to leave (Harvard).
Pinpointing what makes your job special, different or rewarding (beyond pay) will help you to convince passive candidates already in great roles that your position offers more.
6 key factors that make up a great role
So with that in mind, what factors might you consider when creating new job offers?
1. Benefits, not just compensation
Salary will always be important, but salary is what everyone talks about. What are the other perks of your role? Benefits provide real-world value to an employee, and they’re often easier to wiggle into the budget too.
Common benefits we see offered in the Northern Beaches market include:
-
Above-minimum super guarantees
-
Extra annual leave entitlements
-
Professional development programs
-
Health insurance and wellness incentives
-
Vehicle and mobile phone allowances
-
Regular social and team buildings events
2. Purpose and impact
Purpose-driven employment is the emphasis on how an individual’s role contributes meaningfully to a broader mission. It also encompasses the impact that role can have, particularly on a community or the environment.
Research says these are vital for securing satisfied employees:
-
Purpose is especially important to younger candidates, with the majority of both Millennial and Gen Z talent indicating that a sense of purpose is important to their job satisfaction and well-being (Deloitte).
-
In an IBM study, respondents were significantly more likely to apply for a job from companies which were socially responsible and environmentally sustainable – even accepting lower pay to work at those companies.
To attract socially conscious, purpose-driven candidates, make sure to draw a clear line between your company’s mission, its potential impact and the role that you’re advertising.
3. Team culture
This quote, from author and speaker Bill Marklein, perfectly summarises the importance of team culture on an employee’s job satisfaction:
“Culture is how employees' hearts and stomachs feel about Monday morning on Sunday night.”
New talent won’t last long in your crew if the culture is negative, toxic or, at its worst, harmful.
Want to improve your company culture? Harvard has some great tips:
-
Commit to, and live by, your company values
-
Reward wins and recognise people’s contributions
-
Promote a culture of transparency and honesty
-
Follow words with actions
-
Lead from the top down
-
Conduct regular anonymous employee engagement surveys
4. Build an inclusive team
Inclusivity, diversity, equity – these are not just buzzwords, they have a statistically significant impact on business success.
-
75% of employees support their organisation creating a more diverse, inclusive workplace.
-
Workers in inclusive teams are 8x more likely to be very satisfied and 3x less likely to quit than workers in non-inclusive teams.
-
Inclusive teams are 10x more likely to be innovative and 8x more likely to work together effectively than non-inclusive teams.
Now is the time to explore hiring biases in your recruitment process, and to conduct an audit of your training programs, promotion pathways and leadership team to see how bias here might be holding you back.
Note: This can be quite a difficult process as bias often goes unseen even when you look for it. If you need advice, an outside perspective should help. Give us a call and let's talk about your hiring needs.
5. Job flexibility
Nearly 100% of workers want some form of remote work in their role (FlexJobs), so flexibility is non-negotiable in modern Australia.
But that’s not to say you must switch your office to an entirely remote-first workspace. In fact, there are benefits to both working from home and working in the office – which you can read about here in our article on navigating a return to the office.
Common types of flexible work include:
-
Flexible start/finish times
-
Flexible days
-
Set remote days, set office days
Sit down with your people and identify what works best for their needs. Develop a written policy to request flexibility, or which standardises it for all employees, then advertise this during the negotiation and onboarding process.
6. Career development opportunities
Among Sydney’s best job candidates, no one wants to stay still in their career. If you want to attract high-performing passive talent to the Northern Beaches, it's imperative that you offer not just a great job now, but pathways to a better job later.
When building your role description, ensure that you write in some of the possible job pathways, mentoring programs or upskilling resources available at your company. That way, the road forwards will be clear to all new hires, and you can have meaningful discussions about career progression from day one.
-
Consider this: Career progression doesn’t always have to be ‘up’. Progress can also come from switching departments, functions or roles, or by adding more skills and responsibilities to an existing role – even if it’s not a ‘true’ promotion.
Win passive talent with help from the experts
At a recent Bullhorn event, Bullhorn’s experts said they noticed that two out of five candidates were rejecting offers at the job offer stage. That’s a big percentage, and we can help you solve it.
The Northern Beaches can be a tricky market, but at mme we’re experts in attracting top-tier talent, including luring passive candidates out of larger organisations. We’ve spent years building a highly engaged off-market network of professionals who know and trust our name – because we sell the dream.
When you bring on mme to help win passive talent for your organisation, we’ll:
-
Spend hours getting to know you, your team and your culture, developing a picture-perfect description of your role and business.
-
Go deep on your employer value prop to help you develop a complete job package that goes beyond salary and responsibilities.
-
Utilise strategic targeting of right-fit candidates using active campaigns and our thousands of off-market relationships, which make us 4x more likely to attract the right person than job boards alone.
-
Check that each candidate is a great cultural or boss fit, ensuring you’re 3x more likely to find the right person. There’s a reason our retention rate is 94.8%.