Note: we updated this article from May 2020 in January 2022 to keep bringing you the most relevant information on corporate films and marketing on our blog.
Every company wants satisfied, motivated employees – ideally ones who work harmoniously in a team, have their own ideas and drive innovation. Who think creatively and can look beyond their own horizons.
Where do you find employees like that, and what can you as a company do to reach and keep these skilled workers? We present some strategies and decision-making aids here.
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Before you think about how to find good employees, we should first define what a good employee is. That differs from company to company, and good doesn’t necessarily mean right.
Your new employee has the best references and certificates, does good work, is reliable and a team player. A good employee, in other words. But are they also the employee your company needs right now? There are crucial differences between a good employee and a top employee.
You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude
Simon Sinek
Of course, professional skills are an important prerequisite – no question!
But for most managers, personality is the most important factor when choosing applicants. This is less about your top employee being particularly charming, funny or easy-going. What is meant is emotional intelligence (EQ), i.e. the ability to perceive, understand and, above all, influence your own and other people’s feelings in the right way.
Skills can be taught; employees have to bring personality and attitude themselves.
Five (EQ) qualities of a top employee
Focus Employees are often given several tasks at the same time. A top employee is able to decide which task is most important and has to be done immediately. They concentrate on the essentials and manage their time and energy efficiently.
A results-oriented way of working Completing successful projects with very good time management – the outstanding employee concentrates on very good results for the set goals and delivers top performance that they often even take for granted.
Active and never satisfied Even when the results are outstanding, the top employee will never be satisfied with their work. They constantly look for room for improvement and question structures and ways of thinking. Of course they are also proud of how they work, but they will always show an interest in further training.
Diplomatic but still brave Some employees are worried and don’t dare raise issues. Your top employee has a sense for recognising these issues early enough and the courage to ask questions – for others too. They are diplomatic enough to raise critical issues outside large Q&A rounds, for example, so as not to put management’s nose out of joint.
Self-motivation A high level of self-motivation is a prerequisite for a particularly good employee. They don’t need to be praised for every step. When colleagues doubt them, their ambition is awakened to push their limits and grow beyond themselves.
The magic formula: motivation!
The key qualification of a top employee is the right motivation.
This is where you as an employer come in. What incentives and motivation can you create?
Your employee offers you their time and individual skills. In return, they expect something, such as salary, security or recognition. But not everything has to be monetary: variety of tasks, autonomy, responsibility and meaningful work are becoming increasingly important, especially for the much-cited “Generation Y” and the “millennial generation”. (We write about this particular target group of tomorrow’s employees in detail in another article.)
All these things you give in return create job satisfaction and motivate employees to perform better. All incentives aim to secure and increase your employee’s willingness to perform.
Examples of employee motivation:
Salary
Security
Recognition
Variety of tasks
Responsibility
Meaningfulness
Reputation
They really do exist, these outstanding employees. They love challenges and will lead your company and your team to success together.
What employees really want and what companies can learn from it
What needs and expectations do your (future) employees have? Is it really a 30-hour week, working from home every day if possible, and climbing the career ladder quickly at the same time?
First, let’s establish why it is so important to know your employees’ needs and wishes: if your employees’ expectations are met, these factors are also motivators. In other words: greater satisfaction can motivate greater performance and effort. So far, so good.
Imagine the following scenario: You have just hired a new employee, Kai Müller, and after three weeks of onboarding he would like to work flexible hours. But since your company operates a three-shift system, you face the problem of meeting this need. If you can’t fulfil your employee’s wishes, he will most likely be dissatisfied and work less productively. If you can arrange for Kai to work flexibly, this may create a sense of injustice among your other employees, who will feel unfairly treated.
What now? The solution can’t be to turn the whole shift system upside down for one employee. To ensure your new employee’s satisfaction, you should ideally already address the right applicants during the application process and later select the right employee – one who is enthusiastic about your criteria as an employer and whose needs and wishes are compatible with your company culture from the start.
Which criteria do employees look at when choosing their future employer?
Location Image of the location, cultural offering, quality of life, proximity to family/friends
Industry Future viability, image of the industry, industry culture
Company Market position, success, internationalisation, innovation, job security, social + environmental commitment, awareness, brand image, identification with products, company culture
Tasks Variety of tasks, challenge, holistic work, meaningfulness of the work, scope for decisions
HR-related areas External image, career opportunities, assignments abroad, pay, flexible working hours, work-life balance, health programmes
Interpersonal factors Working atmosphere, leadership style, team orientation, appreciation, collegiality
Pay is often highly valued, but soft factors such as image, mood, knowledge and behaviour (e.g. support) often come first.
Important: make sure that your advantages as an employer are not only employee-friendly but, above all, actually noticed by applicants. True to the motto: do good and talk about it.
What this means for the company: your employer image (employer brand) is responsible for your company’s attractiveness. Communicate it in the right way to reach the best applicants!
What you as a company can do for your employees
Attractiveness comes from your employer brand. Communicate the brand and the culture associated with it externally and internally, so that people around you ideally perceive it positively.
The right employer branding
As a business owner, you know the term employer branding and the associated positioning of your company as a credible and attractive employer. Remember that this identity is in an ongoing process of development, internally and externally.
Checklist for good employer branding
Starting point: define target groups
set important criteria for all target groups
formulate your own positioning (credible, differentiated and forward-looking)
highlight your unique selling point
name outstanding features of the “service” (working conditions, working environment)
explain good “product features” (job design, prospects)
The right combination of material and non-material incentives is particularly important – this way employees identify more strongly with your company. You can find five examples of good employer branding here (in German).
To stand out positively from other companies on these points, company culture is a central factor.
Conclusion: with a really good employer branding concept, you not only achieve strong loyalty among your employees but at the same time motivate them to move the company forward productively.
The right company culture
Company culture is the heart of a company. It works not only internally but just as strongly externally, and can attract the right employees. A successful company culture is often underestimated – and it’s never too late to optimise, change or completely reinvent your own culture. But no, a table football game in the break room and the annual Christmas party are not enough.
First consider: which culture fits our content and strategic goals?
A flexible, creative start-up can score with flexible working hours and training workshops, for example. A traditional SME, on the other hand, can make its employees happy with pension schemes and a secure job.
Focus on your strengths! Company culture reflects your company’s norms and values, which can be expressed in very different ways: amusing rituals to welcome new employees, a weekly “Cake Thursday” to celebrate successes, a uniform dress style, a shared language …
Certain rituals of company culture often develop on their own, and that’s a good thing. Because in the end it’s the employees who live the culture, so employees should be involved from the start. That also strengthens the sense of community.
A positive side effect: a company culture that motivates internally also has an enormous external effect. You save time, money and resources when looking for employees – and boost your employees’ productivity along the way.
The right recruiting strategy
You have top employer branding that works internally and externally – check.
Your company culture has become successfully established – check.
You know what makes your employees happy and motivates them. And you know: the right new employee is waiting out there on the job market. Now you need to develop the right recruiting strategy to reach this employee.
Important: looking for good employees is an ongoing task and doesn’t only apply when you are expanding or a colleague has left. Look continuously and for the long term for suitable employees on the job market, and above all court qualified specialists.
Think of the search as being like a dating platform. It’s not only you who has to like the applicant; they also have to find your company and the conditions attractive. One rule, for example: the more detailed your job ad, the more certain a good match in the end.
What are the requirements for the applicant? Define the tasks, goals and desired qualifications, but at the same time leave some leeway so as not to put applicants off.
Perhaps, as an IT company, you are looking for a new marketing manager. Do they absolutely have to have studied marketing, or could a highly motivated IT specialist learn the marketing skills with you? Or the other way round: does the marketing manager need IT skills, or can they learn the basics with you?
As soon as you have formulated clear requirements, you should turn your attention to your own attractiveness. After all, the applicant also has to find you appealing.
As we saw earlier, it isn’t only salary that makes a company attractive. One worry of small/medium-sized companies, for example, is that they don’t have the reputation and brand of the large corporation everyone wants to work for. Don’t worry: not every employee dreams of a large corporation.
Instead, work out your strengths and advantages: more responsibility, flat hierarchies, personal contact, a family atmosphere.
The big challenge is neither to underestimate nor to overestimate your own attractiveness. If you have presented your attractiveness correctly, it will automatically influence your company’s image. This way you successfully establish a positive employer brand.
To sum up: the right recruiting strategy should make potential employees enthusiastic about the company or position. To do this, you have to create a positive image and, above all, communicate it to the target group relevant to your company!
A strategic job ad reaches the right applicants
You now know WHAT you want to convey. Now take care of the HOW. Let’s start with a classic job ad.
Here you can use the AIDA formula as a guide.
Attention Interest Desire Action
You can achieve attention with a large, creative image. You then arouse interest with the right keywords and design. Desire is reinforced by the choice of words and the content. And the action (application) is our reward if everything has worked.
Successful recruiting measures
You have an employer branding strategy and a good company culture? Perfect! Next step: where do you reach your target group to find the top candidates for the right position in your company?
In the past, job ads were the main medium for reaching new employees. Today, recruitment also includes your own website, social media, job portals and, above all, networks (offline too).
In principle, all forms of external presentation that relate to your communication as an employer also count as recruiting measures. More and more companies, for example, use videos of their own employees on their website. A really good recruitment video conveys the company culture very authentically and, above all, personally.
Interested in a recruitment video to reach good employees even better? We are happy to help.
When choosing the right measures, remember: you want to reach your target group! Which medium suits your potential employees? Will you find the outstanding employee externally, or are they perhaps already in your company and need to be found internally?
Is your top employee already in the company? – Internal recruitment
In internal recruitment, all recruiting measures focus on transferring or even retraining internal employees. Internal job ads are often placed in the staff magazine, on the intranet or sent by email.
So you can do without a detailed company description, but should still highlight the attractiveness of the position.
Court suitable employees early – external recruitment
External recruitment can use more recruiting tools.
Recommendations from partners or your own employees are often worth their weight in gold, because the applicants already know important information about your company.
A special form of ongoing recruitment is approaching pupils, students and graduates directly – not only once they have finished school or university, but while they are still there. Through internships, open days and working-student positions, companies and applicants can get to know each other early.
In this context, one keyword often comes up: the unsolicited application. Unsolicited applications are enormously important in many companies (Siemens, for example, receives unsolicited applications in the thousands every year). In other companies, however, unsolicited applications are not welcome or create too much work. So it’s best to state on all relevant platforms whether or not you would like to receive unsolicited applications.
How to reach the best applicants!
Careers page on your own website
personal network/recommendations from employees
university partnerships
company tours, internships, working students
magazines, newspapers
unsolicited applications
online job portals
social networks
job fairs/events
These external recruitment measures also serve to present your employer brand. What matters is that all measures are coordinated consistently.
Selecting staff: recognise the top applicant
Your employer branding strategy is working! You are receiving applications.
Time to sort them out? Remember that you are in an ongoing process of looking for employees. Are there also suitable candidates for other positions among the applications?
Can you recognise exceptional motivation that turns a good applicant into a top applicant? How consistent is the CV? Do you see changes of job or promotions that show qualifications developing and performance increasing?
A proven method is to sort applicants into 3 categories:
Applicants who meet the requirements – invitation
Applicants who could be considered for another position – invitation
Applicants who don’t meet the required criteria – rejection
Of course you can adapt the method to your needs. The only important thing is that the selection procedure must predict future job performance and help assess applicants’ social skills and motivation. This is how Google selects its applicants, for example (article in German).
For example, use these points as a guide:
Objectivity Regardless of which person in your company applies your selection procedure, the results should always be the same.
Reliability Under the same conditions, the same selection should be made. Design a structured procedure with consistent criteria for this.
Validity Make a prediction of how an applicant will perform at work.
Your company and your requirements are constantly changing. So the focus of your selection criteria can and should change dynamically.
Some aspects can never be fully determined from an application. That’s why a proper job interview is very important in the selection process.
Finding employees: Covid and Generation Z
To prepare optimally for your new employees, it is important to take their generation into account – all the more so after the Covid years with home schooling, distance learning and difficult school conditions. Generation X, Y or Z? What did this generation grow up with? At what stage of life were they confronted with Covid? At the end of school, during their studies or apprenticeship, or only in their first job?
Different generations value different things in a company and can work better or worse in different working conditions – whether adaptability to working from home, digital networking or mindset for teamwork. It is worth taking these differences into account and scouting specifically for age groups that complement your existing team.
The ideal onboarding process
You have found a new top employee. Congratulations!
To make sure your new employee becomes and stays motivated, you should ensure an ideal onboarding process. This is one of the most important tasks of HR management.
If an employee encounters unstructured ways of working or unprepared colleagues, this can lead to demotivation. The same happens if they don’t understand the importance of their tasks. Then your attractive applicant–employer match suddenly turns into disappointment on both sides.
Make sure new employees are trained in their area of work so that they can take on their tasks quickly, effectively and independently. Strengthen their skills and motivate them to outstanding performance at the same time.
Onboarding workshops and feedback rounds are suitable for this, but so are internal wikis and knowledge sources with which your employee can train themselves independently.
E-learning tutorials, videos and articles are particularly popular. They also preserve the knowledge in your company.
Besides professional integration, social integration also plays an enormously important role. This includes getting to know team colleagues and being actively welcomed into the team. At the same time, you can convey the norms and values of the company culture that inspired your new employee in the first place.
Fiona Hoffmann ist ausgebildete Mediengestalterin Bild & Ton (IHK) und hat vor ihrem derzeitigen Masterstudium in Medien- und Kommunikationsmanagement ein duales Bachelor-Studium in "Journalismus und Unternehmenskommunikation" absolviert.
Sie hat bereits im Bereich Corporate Communications der Deutschen Telekom gearbeitet und ist als Solo-Traveler um die Welt gereist.
Fiona Hoffmann ist ausgebildete Mediengestalterin Bild & Ton (IHK) und hat vor ihrem derzeitigen Masterstudium in Medien- und Kommunikationsmanagement ein duales Bachelor-Studium in "Journalismus und Unternehmenskommunikation" absolviert.
Sie hat bereits im Bereich Corporate Communications der Deutschen Telekom gearbeitet und ist als Solo-Traveler um die Welt gereist.
