A few months ago I posted on Why Salespeople Leave which discussed the disconnect between how a company compensates their salespeople and what the salespeople view as a reward. Last week I attended a webinar jointly presented by Monster and DDI and was amazed at the disconnect they found in their research between what employers think candidates desire in a position and reality. Employers, or more specifically hiring managers, listed these items as the top 4 reasons why a candidate takes a position:
- A good manager/boss.
- Opportunity to advance.
- Opportunities to learn and grow.
- Balance between work and personal life.
However, here is how the candidates responded in the survey:
- Opportunities to learn and grow.
- Interesting work.
- A good manager/boss.
- An organization you can be proud to work for.
Now you might be saying that the hiring managers had 2 out of the 4 correct which isn’t bad. True, but what I found amazing was where the other 2 ranked with candidates. “Opportunity to advance” came in at #5 and “balance between work and personal life came” in next-to-last at #9. On the other side, “an organization you can be proud to work for” landed at #8 on the manager’s list. Why is this important? Remember that a candidates base their employment decision on this criteria:
- Need
- Motivation
- Compensation
- Trust
- Urgency
- Format
If you are not aligned with their top 4 reasons, you are not going to be aligned to their motivation. This misalignment makes your chances of them accepting your offer far more difficult. My suggestion – start off your hiring process by selling them on your company and the position by talking about their opportunities to grow/learn, the type of work they will be doing, the manager they will be working for and what makes your organization unique/different.
You know the one question that kept going through my mind during this presentation was do these findings vary based on the demographics of the candidates? According to the study, there is a variance by age classification. It is late on a Friday so that topic will have to wait for another post.