In the current talent market, attracting the best and retaining your competitive edge is becoming a more significant challenge every day—yet employers keep applying the same old tricks to maintain and expand their workforce.
As the Great Resignation continues, increasing quit rates coupled with low unemployment rates are making the talent marketplace more competitive than ever—and employees are more choosey about their employers. Sixty-one percent of workers surveyed in a LinkedIn study said they planned on finding a new job in 2023.
To make matters worse, only 1 in 5 employees are engaged with their jobs, with many saying they are actively “miserable” at work.
In the face of such challenges, it can feel almost impossible for employers or hiring managers to stay looped into emerging trends, let alone remain innovative for long.
So, how can businesses cut through this Gordian knot of economic obstacles to attract and retain top talent in 2023?
In times like these, you need an ace up your sleeve to set yourself apart.
Innovative Ways to Attract Talent
Gone are the days when attracting talent meant promising a long-term position with a steady paycheck. In 2023, offering a competitive salary and basic benefits alone just doesn’t cut it anymore.
To attract top talent, you must first understand what talent wants. Empathizing with their goals and pain points shows that you care about the people who work for you—and that you’re willing to put in the effort to give them the comprehensive compensation packages they deserve.
Branding and Identity
More than ever, hiring managers are competing to attract the talent they want. And while candidates may be up for various roles with similar job descriptions, the companies themselves will naturally differ. The ability to communicate the differences between you and your competition and tell the story of who you are as a brand and team is an essential skill in winning top talent.
Branding will naturally encompass much of your public-facing assets, tone, visual imagery, and content choices across your website and social media platforms. However, it also comes across in the causes you support, the style in which you write your job descriptions, and how you and other employees speak about your work experience.
Broadcasting these unique identifiers will set you apart from your competition. Making sure your brand is a true reflection of your company will ensure you’re not only attracting talent who are looking for someone just like you, but also encourage them to stay long term.
Benefits
Simply showing your talent that you care about their needs is one of the easiest and most effective ways to stay at the cutting edge of your industry while attracting and retaining top talent. And crafting an innovative employee benefits strategy is the key.
Further Reading: Download our infographic for an in-depth look at how benefits help retain talent in an uncertain economy.
Why Are Benefits So Important in Hiring and Retaining Talent?
Every year, U.S. businesses lose $1 trillion to employee turnover. Attracting and retaining talent is essential to your success—and it starts with understanding talent’s needs.
Inflation, the looming threat of a recession, and the rising cost of living have put the squeeze on everybody, making the stability that comes with having good compensation packages even more crucial than it has been for decades.
According to a 2023 Metlife report, 55% of employees say they are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 43% in 2022. The number of employees who said they feel in control of their finances also decreased by 6% from 2022.
Providing the benefits that talent wants has a demonstrable impact on employee retention, attraction, and productivity. The same Metlife report found that employees who are satisfied with their benefits are twice as likely to be satisfied with their jobs and 70% more likely to be loyal to their employer. Employees who feel their employers care for their needs are also 56% more productive.
You know your workforce best: Offer the benefits that apply to their situation, but keep in mind that they may not be the same for everyone. For example, let’s say your company offers travel credit to employees. Employees with very young children may not consider such a perk relevant to their needs. Instead, they may prefer parental leave. Or, perhaps you keep the company fridge stocked with beer or hard seltzer. While a nice perk in theory, some of your talent may not drink or may work remotely in other cities, unable to enjoy the beverages with their co-workers in person.
Understanding the needs and expectations of talent is invaluable for guiding your decision-making as you craft world-class benefits offerings for your current and prospective talent.
Crafting a solid employee benefits strategy is about more than just providing compelling incentives for talent’s time and labor—it also shows them that you genuinely understand and care for their needs. That goes a long way in attracting and retaining talent and improving your workforce's productivity.
How to Build an Attractive Employee Benefits Strategy
Offering talent the benefits they want boosts the value of their total compensation package—empowering you to compete with other companies offering even higher salaries but less valuable benefits.
Candidates consider compensation, benefits, and flexibility their top priorities when choosing a new job. Sixty-six percent of employees say comprehensive benefits packages are a must-have.
Economic uncertainty has made these things more important to talent because they help create stability and control over everyday challenges, from staying on top of their physical and mental health to making time for their friends and family.
Offering remote, hybrid, or otherwise flexible options for work is becoming one of the most sought-after benefits. Eighty-seven percent of employees said in a LinkedIn report that they want to remain remote most of the time, and 9 out of 10 remote workers in a Gallup report said the same.
Once considered too costly or inefficient, remote work has been on the rise since 2020. Building a distributed workforce has become an innovative way to attract and retain talent. A 2022 report by Velocity Global found that of the 1,000 tech leaders from the U.S. and United Kingdom surveyed, 95% said their organizations had benefited from building a distributed workforce—and 40% said that it had helped them secure top talent.
Granting equity awards—such as phantom awards, stock options, and appreciation rights—is increasingly becoming some of the most-desired benefits as well and can even lower a company’s attrition rate by 35%.
Can You Offer Different Benefits to Different Employees?
With all the challenges of benefits administration, it can be tempting to take the easy path and prioritize better benefits for more high-net-worth individuals in your organization—but if you want to stand out in a crowded talent marketplace, it’s a misstep you’d best avoid.
When your distributed teams feel like they’re receiving lesser benefits than their co-workers, you risk losing the valuable talent you’ve worked so hard to source, train, and retain. Talent wants to be treated fairly, no matter how their individual needs differ. To remain competitive, your benefits must be inclusive and equitable to everyone, regardless of their unique circumstances.
Ensure benefits equity across your workforce by taking a holistic approach. Consider the specific needs and experiences of various groups within your workforce equally; your benefits offerings should provide the flexibility and care that each group needs. It also shows that you understand and empathize with those needs, which, as we’ve already covered, improves talent retention and productivity.
Conduct an audit of your current benefits offerings to ensure that you understand the needs of your talent. During the audit, look for gaps in your coverage where your current offerings may not meet those needs equally. Prioritizing benefits that support diversity and inclusion ensures that your talent will feel cared for, no matter who they are—which gives them fewer reasons to look to a different organization that can give them what they need.
Start Building Your Global Workforce
Knowing how to attract employees is essential for staying ahead of the curve. Still, building a world-class employee benefits strategy is no easy feat, whether you work for a small firm or large multinational company.
By partnering with a global hiring expert like Velocity Global, you can rest easy as we help you administer statutory and supplemental benefits to talent in your distributed workforce while staying compliant with all local and international laws and regulations.
Let Us Help You Build Your Dream Team With Global Benefits
Velocity Global helps you compliantly hire, pay, and manage anyone, anywhere. We’ve helped over 1,000 brands build distributed workforces by offering competitive benefits packages to global talent.
Contact us today to start building your distributed dream team.
For an in-depth look at the benefits of hiring remote workers, download our guide, Rise Above Economic Uncertainty: How Global Hiring Strengthens Companies Through Uncertainty and Beyond.
