In a candidate driven market, standing out as an employer of choice is more important than ever. With the unemployment rate so low, job applicants have more options and you’ll want them to see your organization as one of their top options for employment. How can you do this?

It goes beyond salary; many candidates are seeking a company with a positive culture, steady management and other additional perks. By focusing on the areas mentioned in this blog, you’ll see vast improvements in your recruiting and retention efforts that will set you up for success in any economic climate.

Showcase Career Advancement

Giving candidates a view of potential careers paths is an excellent way to hire and retain committed employees. By showing them a visible career ladder and the opportunities for promotion, you’ll be giving them something to work towards beyond their current role.

If employees feel they will play a part in the company’s future, they’ll take the necessary steps to develop their skills and knowledge. As an organization, you can help facilitate this by offering training and resources that allow employees to continuously grow.

As a result, you’ll see higher employee satisfaction and the benefit will go beyond improved productivity of your current staff. Candidates will see the longevity of the workers and know that something good is happening if everyone’s staying.

Offer Recognition

Recognition goes a long way in motivating employees to complete their goals. Your employees put a lot of effort into the work they do and you need to make sure they feel appreciated before they consider their other options.

One way to do this is through rewards. Whether it be a bonus or setting up a company rewards program, giving employees a tangible benefit once a goal has been completed will increase engagement and enthusiasm. Of course, you won’t be able to reward everyone all of the time. Having a plan on when to use rewards is critical in making sure an employee’s motivation doesn’t become dependent on receiving them.

Other forms of recognition such as certificates or company shout-outs can also play an important role. Although the monetary value isn’t there, when an employee is acknowledged by management or fellow co-workers, a sense of pride is developed. This pride will help maintain their work ethic and continue, if not improve, their level of output.

Strengthen Company Culture

Company culture isn’t just one thing, it’s an all-encompassing idea that covers many different areas. But overall, you’ll want to have a strong company mission along with core values that can be felt throughout all levels of your organization.

Another important factor to developing a strong culture is transparency and communication between employees and leadership. It’s hard for employees to commit to a company when information in being withheld from them and they can’t see the big picture. Having management share the company’s honest plans and issues on a regular basis will have employees feeling that they aren’t being taken advantage of and their interests are being considered.

Improve Employee Perks

This one will not come as much of surprise, but workers want to work for companies that compensate them well. In today’s market, paying a decent wage isn’t going to be enough. By offering perks beyond salary, you’ll have candidates that want to work for you and employees that won’t want to leave. Some common benefits that can be offered include health insurance, time-off or a retirement plan. While other outside-of-the-box examples might be a flexible work schedule, casual dress code or gym membership. Regardless of which perks you decide on offering, know that they can be a key differentiator for job seekers when they’re deciding between two job offers.

Employers of choice attract and retain the best talent. Becoming a top employer is not an easy task and won’t happen overnight. But if you make improvements in the areas of career advancement, employee recognition, company culture and perks, you’ll be on your way.