The corona crisis is by no means making it easier for employers to recruit good staff – although many employees have been made redundant.
The rising unemployment rate suggests otherwise: In August, 45,000 more people were on the streets than in July, compared to the same month last year it rose by around 636,000. Nevertheless, companies expect tougher competition for the best talent. This is what the international employer branding consultancy Universum found out in a global survey of 1,130 HR and recruiting experts.
56 percent of the 90 most attractive employers in the world fear that they will have to recruit more “the right employees” over the next few months. In Germany, more than two thirds of all employers are of this opinion.
The hope of well-qualified applicants, job changers and career-friendly employees can grow: Because a hiring freeze or passive recruiting is not an issue for the vast majority of companies, according to an important result of the study.
Worldwide, even 86 percent of all companies firmly reckoned that “the need for new employees will remain the same or even increase in the coming year”. In Germany, slightly fewer, namely eight out of ten companies, take this point of view.
That makes employers attractive
What distinguishes a company and why should people work for this company? “Even in an economic crisis, managers can hardly afford to ignore these questions and thus neglect the development of their own employer brand,” says the Universum consultancy.
That’s why job changers, newcomers and applicants don’t have to be surprised when companies soon put their employer brand even more in the foreground. This can be done in job advertisements, in the company presentation on the homepage and in social networks.
Employers will present their unmistakable core characteristics and offer applicants career opportunities, flexible working time models with an increased proportion of “remote working”, agility in the work process, financial incentives, exciting activities and challenges.
In addition, from the employee’s point of view, personal interaction in companies through respectful behavior is becoming more and more important, as the annual survey by the University of Bamberg on employer attractiveness shows. A sense of purpose, trust and a sense of responsibility should be reflected in the corporate culture.
Because they hope to get a head start in the talent competition, 95 percent of all companies in Germany place a special focus on it. “The corona crisis can also be an opportunity for companies to critically question their employer brand and develop it accordingly,” says Tina Smetana, Country Manager Germany at Universum.
Key factor for the future
Because it’s about being attractive to job seekers – and remaining attractive to employees. Every second company worldwide sees employee loyalty as “a key factor” in order to be successful in the future. For a successful restart after the lockdown, employee loyalty even has top priority: This is what the Stepstone online job platform found out in a similar survey of 8,500 participants. Almost 90 percent came to this conclusion.
It will be shown shortly where exactly the companies start. For their analyzes, employers are also increasingly relying on available data that should provide them with answers to questions such as:
- How is the company seen in public?
- How does the company differ from the competition?
“Data-based analyzes and digital tools are playing an increasingly important role in measuring and developing your own employer brand as well as in classic recruiting processes,” says Stefanie Müller, Senior Director HR at Stepstone.
