Cast your mind back to the days before Covid-19. How many of your friends and colleagues worked remotely? How many opportunities did you see on recruitment sites for remote or hybrid positions? The mass switch to remote work reflects a new era for the global workforce, where work-life balance, personal values and flexibility compete equally with salary expectations.
Some companies are still playing catch-up in terms of attracting talent, while others are hoping for a backlash against remote working. A quick google search on the topic reveals an ongoing propaganda war on the virtues of pure office versus pure remote.
What is undeniable is that flexible options are here to stay. Companies who choose not to embrace this change must draw on talent locally and gamble that competitors will not benefit from access to deeper talent pools.
The Candidate Experience Guide details the approach employers can use to engage the interest of the talent necessary for their companies to flourish.
So, how to become an appealing employer in a highly competitive marketplace for new talent? Here are three areas the employer can focus on to provide the ideal candidate experience:
- Appreciation of the priorities of the modern employee
- It is eloquently put in The Candidate Experience Guide, ‘We are far past the time of culture and values living only in a dusty staff handbook.’ A company’s values and diversity policy, its culture around flexibility, remote work and work-life balance are right up there with the salary it is offering. It is the same pattern, whether the demographic is Generation X or Millennial.
- According to Globalization Partner’s Global Employee Survey (June 2021) employees are more likely to stay at companies that are making remote work a permanent fixture. McKinsey reports that only 8% of employees with children under 18 would like to see a fully on-site model in the future, while according to CIBRE, 69% of millennials would give up certain work benefits for more flexible working. Some 74% of workers polled in a recent FindStack Survey say that having the option to work remotely would make them less likely to leave a company. Remote working plays into a desire for a better work-life balance, and an understanding of family values.
Companies can create both a mobility policy and working arrangement system that are nimble enough to accommodate the individual preferences and priorities of every single employee. An effective global mobility policy is all-encompassing: It not only covers remote work arrangements, but also acts as a differentiator and major perk to attract sought-after talent. It should delineate, in a clear-cut manner, what the company offers in terms of flexible working arrangements — including visas, work permits, and taxes.
There are other behaviours employees will use to judge if a role is a good fit. For example, the company’s environmental record. A recent report from State of Telecommuting reports that telecommuting reduces greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 600,000 cars. Some 50% of workers said they would not accept a job offer from an employer whose ecological policies did not match their personal beliefs. It makes sense to demonstrate commitment to environmentally-friendly work practices such as remote working.
Candidates also increasingly favor diversity in the workplace. Globalization Partners’ 2020 Global Employee Survey found that 90 percent of employees who work for a diverse company report higher levels of happiness, inclusion, and trust. Building out global teams and taking on more remote workers can be a strategic way to diversify and prepare for the future. A diverse interviewing panel can also be positively perceived during a hiring process.
2. Building a top-class onboarding experience
- The Candidate Experience Guide makes the case that for each touchpoint in the process for attracting, communicating with, interviewing and welcoming a new employee, companies should establish their values, demonstrate their company culture and how they represent a unique opportunity for top talent. A striking statistic from Glassdoor – great employee onboarding can improve employee retention by 82% – reinforces the point.
- A positive onboarding experience influences an employee’s perception of the company which increases the likelihood of employee engagement and retention.
- On the other hand, a poor onboarding experience, a lack of remote employee engagement tools, or failing to provide communication tools for your employees’ voices not only to be heard but echoed can prove devastating for retention.
Onboarding new employees internationally no longer needs to be an intimidating and convoluted practice. The technology exists to make it a seamless process while adding to the candidate’s feeling of being valued. Globalization Partners’ Global Employment Platform™ is fully compliant with employment, tax, and licensing laws in 187 countries, and delivers in seconds what used to take months — allowing you to onboard the best remote talent in the world while minimising costs and risk.
3. Using technology to attract and win over talent
- While high-quality onboarding technology ensures compliance with local labor laws wherever you choose to source remote employees, it also can contribute to a positive hiring experience in other ways.
- These can include anything from one-on-one virtual calls and pre-recorded seminars to live training sessions and interactive lessons, all of which help the new employee bed in, get to grips with the business and build understanding of the role and the tools used to be effective.
- Leveraging technology during the onboarding process allows for faster scalability. It also provides the opportunity for companies to gather data around future improvements to their onboarding program. While challenges remain without the chance to meet and integrate with someone in person, these can be countered by intuitive, end-to-end technology to support new employees.
- Globalization Partners’ AI-enabled Global Employment Platform™ streamlines the onboarding process through the automation of time-consuming administrative and compliance-related processes, freeing up your key people to ensure new employees are happy and productive in their roles from the get-go.
Companies are recognising the importance of offering flexible work options to attract the talent they need to flourish. In a highly competitive recruitment environment, the ability to offer remote work, demonstrate an empathetic culture and values, provide a top-class onboarding process and use remote-friendly technologies can make the difference in attracting and retaining valuable top-tier talent.
Written by Globalization Partners
