In today’s job market, who is interviewing who?

Here’s a photo taken from a book published 30 years ago. I’ve updated the quote to reflect the retirement age in 2022. 😂

This quote rang true back then and elements still apply today. However, now there’s more choice.

The power balance has shifted to the employee who can:
✅ Work in a global role from their spare bedroom
✅ Barter for sign-on bonuses if they work in an in-demand skill-shortage role, or
✅ Start a business from their mobile phone.

The pandemic shifted the focus FROM working in a thankless job in order to have sufficient money to retire with some security (thank you, Bryce Courtenay)

TO searching for meaningful work, where you are treated decently, recognised, have development opportunities and you’e not counting down the day til your next holiday.

👉🏽 Those in the job market want to optimise for living a good life, not just a good life after office-hours.

Yet, as I scan job ads, organisations are STILL competing on the same hygiene factors, namely pay.

There's an opportunity here to do things differently and attract outstanding people, with the experiences that you offer at work.

Some are free, like:
➡️ Working for a Managing Director, who on my first day of work, met with me and told me that I was hired because of my crazy ideas (and this was a GOVERNMENT role)
➡️ Support and help finding industry mentors
➡️ Getting experience chairing commitee meetings
➡️ Internal job pivot from Marketing to Organisational Development

Others a bit more flamboyant but incredibly memorable, awesome and life optimising:
➡️ A founder who lent me his Porsche for my birthday week
➡️ Getting to fly internationally to deliver leadership development
➡️ Running a PR event on a boat, tagging barramundi in the Kimberley region.

This list above isn't a cut and paste on how to motivate people (this is the stuff that worked for me), so your role as a leader and company when attracting and retaining employees, is to start and continue a conversation of discovering:

➡️ What lights them up?
➡️ What's possible?

What's been an interesting perk that you've had in a role?

#attraction #hire #retention

Credit: Bryce Courtenay’s book “Recipe for Dreaming”.