Attracting staff to your business is easier said than done. Photo / Getty Images
Attracting staff to your business is easier said than done. Photo / Getty Images
OPINION:
There's a quiet war running through corporate New Zealand at the moment, as companies compete viciously to attract staff from the limited pool of talent available.
With unemployment at a record low, workers know that they can easily jump ship and find someone else willing to pay a bitmore, offer a cushier role or something that offers the potential of real growth.
With the heat turned up across industries at the moment, it's an important reminder that recruitment is simply an elaborate sales pitch in which you offer money in exchange for most the waking hours of a person's life.
When every business is essentially selling the same thing, the trick is convincing your target market that you're a bit better than everyone else – and there's no one better at doing this than advertisers.
What makes you different?
Advertising strategist David Thomason tells the Herald on Sunday that recruitment in the current context is a marketing challenge.
"Whether you're trying to sell your business to a customer or an employee, the principle is the same," Thomason says.
"You have to show people what makes you different, what makes you desirable."
He says reading the vision statements of most companies is a laborious chore, filled with inane statements that say nothing about what the business actually represents or does.
He says if you can't properly express what you stand for, then it's difficult to relay to the prospective employee why they should be selling your wares rather than those of your competitor just down the road.
If your entire pitch is based on cliches about being "an innovative business that strives to make the world a better place through technology" then you'll give a prospect little reason to sign on that dotted line.
The best price doesn't always win
New Zealand advertising executive Damon Stapleton recently told the story about a pair of bookstores in a shopping mall on his popular blog.
It was the evening of a Harry Potter book launch, and parents and kids rushed far and wide to get their hands on a copy. The bookstore Stapleton was working for was selling the books for $10 cheaper than the competitor – and yet, when the hour arrived people were queued for hours outside the competitor's store.
"[The marketing director] started to have a meltdown in the copier paper section," writes Stapleton. "He made weird noises and kept saying but our books are cheaper over and over. It was like a weird marketing mantra to keep him safe. But, price wasn't the problem."
The other store had the rich smell of coffee wafting through the air and there were these large leather chairs that just made people feel welcome. The other store, you see, was just a bookstore.
Many decisions we make are driven by emotions. Photo / Getty Images
Whether businesses are selling to a customer or selling employment to a prospective worker, the principles are the same. You might be able to offer a bit more money – but this doesn't guarantee job hunters will buy what you're selling.
There's a reason that hot tech companies can often get away with paying so much less than their legacy competitors. It's the idea that this place is going somewhere, rather than slowly dying.
This is particularly the case at a time when current employers are more willing than ever to match whatever price you're offering to avoid the headache of staff recruitment.
So what exactly are you offering? Is it a leather sofa and the rich aroma of coffee or just a slightly better price?
Reason to flee
The work of behavioural scientists like Daniel Kahneman has shown that while we like to imagine ourselves as rational beings, many of the decisions we make are fundamentally driven by emotion.
Thomason says that this doesn't stop when it comes to the professional setting.
Employees, both current and prospective, don't leave their emotions at the door when they swipe in.
"Employers need to question whether they're giving people a reason to flee the building," says Thomason.
Even profitable and successful organisations can fall into the trap of creating a culture that people simply don't want to be a part of.
The added problem here is that those who flee tend to talk. Word-of-mouth advertising doesn't only work when it comes to selling items out of your garage.
Across New Zealand's small industry clusters, it doesn't take many frustrated current and former staff members to give a business a reputation as a poor employer.
That news will travel and it could be the thing that pushes a prospective staff member one way or the other when it comes to making a decision to join.
Remember, people are emotional. And being a good recruiter often means being a good employer to those currently in the organisation.
