What makes something attractive? For a nerd chasing demons and dreams in a virtual world, attraction is the gadget and things it enables a nerd to do. For an actor, attraction means lights, camera and action, with adulation from fans thrown in as a perk. For a voter, attraction could be charisma or the perceived ability of the politician to deliver the goods.
What about a company? What makes youngsters, mid-level professionals and even leaders drool over the prospect of working for a particular company? For any organisation, this attraction quotient is a strategic advantage that has often been ignored by pundits. When the best talent is drawn towards you, success is more or less guaranteed. It is almost like IITs and IIMs. Because the best students are tracked to these institutions, they keep delivering success year after year. Something similar happens with companies and organisations. If the best talent wants, rather dreams of working with you, the decisive edge you enjoy over rivals and competitors in the market place is immense, and invaluable. That apart, happy employees are usually more productive and a motivated workforce is willing to go that extra mile to perform better. It all becomes an unbeatable virtuous cycle. A kind of cycle that pleases even the stock markets and investors.
Let’s face it, virtually every one of the top officials of the 25 companies we spoke to for this Best Employers package was of the opinion that money isn’t everything. This “money can’t buy you love and happiness” philosophy seems to have a strange grip over HR honchos of immensely successful companies. But of course, they also unhesitatingly agreed that while money might be a sufficient condition to nurture a motivated, happy and productive employee, it is indeed a necessary condition. No wonder, compensation packages in all the winners profiled in this package rival, if not exceed, the very best in their respective industries. Greed may not be God or good as Wall Street sharks believe, but a healthy respect for money does matter.
The other key factor common to almost all the winning companies is their ability to convince employees that they care, that they look at employees as partners in an exciting journey. How do you do that? Many ways, actually. Almost all attractive companies offer even more attractive perks, ranging from extended maternity leave to flexible working hours to surprise gifts on special occasions. Almost all companies encourage employees to come up with ideas that can add competitive value to the company. In almost all these companies, many home-grown stars and leaders have emerged as a result of such ideas being encouraged.
The most important factor, of course, is the ability of convince employees that they have a great career and a great future in the same organisation. All successful companies have an uncanny ability to find home-grown leaders who often rise from the ranks. No wonder then that another common factor in all these companies is very low attrition rates. If attracting talent is half the battle won; retaining talent is a war won!
