Companies that are winning the war for talent are providing meaning, value and purpose to their teams and their stakeholders. John Ryan, US Regional Vice President for TRANSEARCH International, contributes his valuable expertise to this insightful article by AESC.
"Talent will make choices that reflect their values."
"In some regional markets and in some industries, unemployment isn't 3%. It's 2%. It's that tight. So there is a war for talent, and talent cares where it works and it cares about how it's treated."
"Individuals who make a career transition care quite a bit about an employer's brand. Some of the things that people look for include paternity leave, work hour flexibility, the ability to work remotely or work around children's sporting and school events. People will ask us whether the company promotes all individuals, regardless of gender, ethnicity and so forth."
"I do a lot of recruiting in renewable energy. There are a lot of companies, for example, Google, that are really driving a clean energy, carbon neutral energy strategy, and it comes from the top. The people who run Google actually care about sustainability. It's not an economic decision, but an ethical and authentic decision to try to be carbon neutral. It's Google, and who doesn't want to work at Google? But that's the kind of thing that makes a company like Google an employer of choice, if somebody has options. And top talent always has options."
"Executives look very carefully and very intently at the employer brand of the company. If the company has a brand for treating its employees well, adding in special amenities like onsite daycare, flex hours, working from home, paternity leave, and some other things that are family friendly, these things really do become part of the brand of the company. And that might separate a company like Patagonia or Nike from a Merrill Lynch or GE. With successively younger generations, there is also a rising demand with respect to social responsibility."
"It's also easier now to leave a toxic culture or a brand people don't believe in. It's harder to hold onto really talented people. If you're not treating them well, and if there are hypocritical elements in your culture that they can't stomach, people will just leave."
Read "Leading with Purpose: The New Organisational Advantage" leadership insights 
