The employer review site Glassdoor has just announced its ninth annual Employees’ Choice Awards, celebrating the Best Places to Work in 2017 across North America and parts of Europe.
They choose their winners by putting together anonymous employee reviews which have been shared with them over the last 12 months. Users were asked how they rated their workplace, career opportunities, work-life balance and the real deal-breaker; ‘would they recommend their employer to their friends?’. There is one category for the UK; 50 Best Places to Work, honouring employers with 1,000 or more employees. But what we wanted to know is how these companies recruit their best staff in order for them to be rated so highly?
Kirsty Gill is the Executive Vice President of People at software design company ARM Holdings, which was ranked number 2 in the UK. She had this top tip for recruiting:
“Hire for tomorrow, not today. There is a set of well understood pre-requisites for successful recruitment; a strong company brand, a swift recruitment process, skilled interviewers and an attractive proposition… but what truly differentiates is ensuring you bring people into the business that are not just able to do the role advertised, but are going to thrive and succeed in your organisation.
For ARM this is looking beyond the skills and experience required for the role and considering the capabilities, including working preferences and behaviours, that mean our people will grow along with the organisation and be able to meet the challenges of tomorrow.”
Andy Wicken is the People Director at home emergency insurance firm HomeServe, which ranked number 3 in the list. He said:
“When you recruit, seek candidates who not only have the skills for the advertised role, but also those who share the same values as your organisation; who will drive your culture forward and innovate at the same time.
Our values also form part of the interview process so we are able to identify candidates who will enhance and, more importantly, grow our culture and our business as well those who embody what we are trying to achieve. Attracting talent from a mix of backgrounds also gives you flexibility to develop your people so you should look for candidates who can bring something new to your business too, not just in the role they start their career with you in, but in other areas of the company too.”
Catherine Hearn is the HR Director of Resourcing and Talent at the BBC. The public service broadcaster was ranked 18 in the list. She says:
“Having an in-house team responsible for all hiring, aligned to divisions, who are subject matter experts able to support, and where appropriate, challenge. Hiring processes should be as efficient and reactive as possible, but these are transformed by having the recruitment undertaken by people who are connected to the organisation’s strategy and culture. By establishing a single point of accountability we are able to drive a co-ordinated approach to fast-changing needs for all hires, recognising the importance and value to the BBC of the types of hires – including internal and contingent labour. By embodying our values the recruitment team strive to provide an enhanced candidate and hiring manager experience which has a beneficial effect on all our metrics, including time to hire, quality of shortlists and offer acceptance.”
