How top companies attract top talent
By Richard Donkin, independent journalist.
One of the best indicators of future success in any job is a candidate's track record. Whatever we may believe about competencies and qualifications there is always something reassuring about a CV that contains some years of experience at a first rate employer.
Graduates are becoming increasingly attuned to the strength of a great employer brand, seeking out the star employers in the formative years of their careers. Blue chip companies such as Royal/Dutch Shell, Procter & Gamble or HSBC can expect to be prominent in any ranking of graduate preferences.
But they do not have the field to themselves. Public sector employers such as the Civil Service and the BBC are consistently highly rated. Then there are those employers that are able to punch above their weight; companies such as Asda, recently named Britain's number one place to work by The Sunday Times.
Asda has emerged as a front-runner for graduate recruits, competing strongly with Tesco and J Sainsbury, the superstore market leaders. Equally the Virgin Atlantic Airlines, a comparative minnow in the airline business in comparison to British Airways, enjoys an employer reputation that matches and often exceeds those of its larger rivals.
Why do some employers stand out from the rest?
How do they achieve an almost magical appeal for potential recruits? What is it that makes one employment proposition far more enticing than another? How does any company achieve that virtuous circle where success attracts great people and great people create more success?
There are no pat answers to these questions. If there were it would be impossible to distinguish the cream of employers from the rest. But the more that companies strive to resolve these issues the closer they are likely to come to employment Nirvana.
The most striking feature of employer excellence is that so many companies are content to stand in the shadow of those that have learned to manage and leverage their hard won reputations. Others, such as Marks & Spencer, once on a pedestal looking down at the Tescos and the Asdas, have lost their shine. Is a formative career at Marks & Spencer as attractive on the CV as it once was? I don't think so.
Reputations suffer. Shell took some hard knocks over its attempt to sink its Brent Spa oil platform but has worked diligently ever since to restore some environmental respectability. Former Andersen employees had to live with the firm's demise and absorption by Deloitte & Touche after the Enron debacle. But the Andersen name still carries weight on CVs.
A reputation for employment excellence has to be maintained
Those who do so have mastered a formula for long term durability that puts employees and customers ahead of short term improvements to the bottom line. Take Southwest Airlines, one of the most profitable airlines in the US. It consistently outperforms its competitors by constantly innovating the way it recruits, develops and motivates its employees. Herb Kelleher, its chief executive, like Virgin's Richard Branson, is known for his sense of fun.
To help them stand out, job applicants to Southwest have been known to submit CVs on cereal packets and bottle labels. Asda has encouraged similarly creative applications. Southwest asks its employees to supply names of possible candidates. It even encourages its best customers to be involved in the interviewing process for flight attendants. The idea is that employees become aligned to the needs of customers from the start.
Quirkiness, however, is not a prerequisite for success. Some great employers, such as the John Lewis Partnership, are relatively conventional in their employment hierarchies. But employers that achieve excellence tend to have something that sets them out from the crowd. At John Lewis it is the Trust company that owns the business on behalf of its employees, referred to as 'partners'. A constitutional commitment to employee happiness means that the partners have acquired some amazing perks over the years, such as chalk stream fishing, ocean sailing, exclusive holiday venues and cheap theatre tickets.
At Mars, the confectionery company, the employment regime is so traditional that people still 'clock in' every morning. But the same rule applies from top to bottom and Mars is known for a management development programme that is second to none.
"The top companies stand out like premier league football teams," says Paul Wilson, managing director of Michael Page Human Resources. "You know, when you see these companies on a CV, that they get the best people consistently. They are tough places to get in to. If you have demonstrated some career progression in one of these companies it means something."
Creating a centre of excellence is possible where managements trust their employees, set the highest standards, commit themselves to first class employee development, seek out opinions and ideas from across the workplace and treasure their employees as they do their customers. Establish this kind of atmosphere and you too can be an employer of choice.
(c) Richard Donkin 2002.
If you would like to ensure that your job brief stands out from the crowd, the Michael Page consultant team specialising in your industry sector would welcome the opportunity to help.
For more about great employers, read Hidden Value, How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People, by Charles A O'Reilly and Jeffrey Pfeffer, published by Harvard Business School Press.
