Six steps to being a top employer
Many companies that aspire to be an employer of choice often fall short because they don’t have a plan or a consistent approach to the critical issue of employee engagement. Jeff Somerville, partner with Halifax-based Venor Search Group, offers the following tips to help you improve employee engagement and achieve top employer status.

1 Hire the right people
Becoming a top employer starts before an employee is hired. Your company first needs to determine what it wants to be. What are its mission, vision and values? What is its culture? Is your company focused on customer satisfaction as its key initiative? Is it a sales-driven culture or a company focused on quality, and attention to detail? Define your company, then hire team members that will fit with your culture.

2 Develop an effective orientation process
When a new team member joins your company, make sure they have a job description and understand the company’s strategy and how they fit into it. Be clear on what their own objectives are and what success will look like to them. Assign a mentor to each new employee to give them an easy, nonthreatening place to go to get answers to any question.

3 Provide regular feedback
Once a team member knows what the company objectives are and what their role is in achieving these goals, help them establish their own goals so they can clearly see how their performance affects and fits into the overall objectives. Critical to this is providing regular feedback on performance. A suggestion might be short, monthly “Goals Meetings” with each team member to review results, recognize achievements and provide direction and encouragement. Use these meetings to also elicit input and suggestions from team members on how the company could improve its overall performance.

4 Celebrate successes and milestones
Celebrate significant achievements with everyone on the team (e.g. revenue, sales, profitability, market share growth, client satisfaction levels). Achievements may be tied to bonuses, but the more important aspect is to update the overall team so that they can keep key goals top of mind. Milestones to be celebrated may also be significant company anniversaries such as five, 10 or 25 years in business. If you hold these celebrations, don’t forget team members who have moved on either to retirement or another opportunity. They had a part in building the business and current team members will see how their predecessors are being treated and respected for their contribution.

5 Treat everyone fairly and with respect
Ensure that as HR policies (covering a variety of issues from vacation to family leave) and reward systems are developed, that these are applied fairly and consistently. Remember that every time an exception to a policy is granted, a precedent is established that other team members need to understand may apply to them in similar circumstances.

6 Measure success
Lastly, if becoming a top employer is a desired position and we know employee engagement is the route to achieving that status, then you have to measure results. This can be easily done with simple web-based employee surveys asking straightforward questions such as their understanding of the company’s goals, their sense of their role in achieving those goals, their level of job satisfaction and sense of accomplishment. Survey employees anonymously and regularly (quarterly or semi-annually) and share the results with the team.