HR Weighs In On What Job Seekers Want
“Remember that most people are happiest when they are improving and doing the things that suit them naturally and help them advance.” ~ Ray Dalio
As an HR Professional, I speak with countless applicants every day who are either looking to leave their current situation in search of a better one or who are struggling to find a position that can offer them what they are seeking. When I end my interview sessions, I end with a series of specific questions. One of those questions is (and I specifically ask this of applicants who are currently working as they are simultaneously job hunting):
“You’re actively seeking employment. What is the ‘thing’ you are looking for?”
In a sea of applicants, one answer stands out as the clear front-runner for job seekers across the board.
Growth.
And they don’t just want companies to talk about growth, painting a pretty picture of possibilities that never really come to fruition. The people in today’s workforce want to be surrounded by real-life stories of career growth among their peers and colleagues. They need something tangible to strive for and to use as a compass in helping to create their own career path. They need to see growth as a reality they can achieve and not just a dream that is impossibly out of their reach. They need to be surrounded by people who started at the beginning as an entry-level employee and grew into elevated positions in leadership. They need to know their leadership team supports their desire for growth and extends that support through structured and purposeful employee development plans created and overseen by their leadership team and their Human Resources professionals.
If you can’t or won’t provide this type of upward mobility for your employees, then you will see the impact of that decision manifest itself in a variety of ways, including but not limited to:
A decline in performance and attitude
Quitting without notice
Attendance issues
Lack of engagement
General apathy
Toxic behavior in the workplace (Example: rumors, gossip, unable to celebrate the wins of their fellow employees).
Many job seekers have described situations where they were promised growth and development in order to “hook” the candidate into accepting the offer of employment. Once the candidate takes the bait, they discover that the company is either unwilling or unable to deliver on the promise they made during the interview. Other candidates share stories of corporate incompetence when it comes to proper succession planning. In these cases, the candidate has been a loyal employee of the same company for years. When they express a desire to grow, they are told by senior management that they are “capped out” with nowhere to advance. Many times they are told that they have become irreplaceable in their current role and the company simply can’t afford to advance them without causing a detriment to the department or the company as a whole.
When a good employee leaves a company for a better opportunity, the company may try to pivot and recover by throwing more money at the employee. Many times, they are both shocked and disappointed to learn that money isn’t necessarily a motivating factor (or is just a small piece of a more complex puzzle) in an employee’s decision to leave or stay with an organization. In a recent Team Solutions Dental employee engagement survey, we asked each employee to identify their top two motivators at work. They were able to choose from the following:
Compensation
Benefits
Verbal Appreciation/Recognition
Creative Non-Verbal Recognition
Doing Meaningful Work and Making A Difference
Working with a good team in a great culture
Strong Leadership
Growth opportunities/Career Advancement
Only 31% of our current employees consider compensation their number one motivating factor in our workplace. The rest of our employees selected “Doing Meaningful Work and Making A Difference” and “Growth Opportunities” as their top two motivating factors.
At Team Solutions Dental, we let our actions speak louder than our words. We understand that growth looks different from one person to the next, and as a result, have created development plans that are customizable to the individual while still following a collective systematic approach to the end goal - helping the employee reach their full potential.
We are obsessed with helping our people grow, and we tap every resource available to help them do it. Inside our organization’s walls live incredible stories of growth that resonate with employees - both seasoned and new. There are stories of personal and professional growth and guidance on how to capitalize on the variety of opportunities that surround all employees; Stories of the support extended by the executive team for every employee working towards achieving the objectives outlined in their development plan; Stories where some employees who hadn’t seen or believed in their own abilities and potential were approached by executive leadership who did see it and encouraged them to go for it.
Over the next few months, Team Solutions will showcase those incredible employees and their stories. We will highlight the growth mindset that runs through the veins of our organization. We will feature the Team Solutions philosophy on growth as reflected by its Mission, Vision, and Values. We will demonstrate how the executive team leads by example as we follow the development plan created for our President and Co-Founder, Jason DeFranco, as he invites us to join him on his development journey to a new and elevated position using the company’s structured employee development plan.
We will outline the dreams, the goals, the timelines, and the entertaining campfire stories of the challenges faced and obstacles overcome on the path to individual achievement and organizational excellence through growth. We will also offer our unsolicited and uncensored advice for those Team Solutions employees who wish to grow within the organization as well as those job seekers who wish to do more, become more, and elevate their game both professionally and personally.
Join us as we take you through our series on growth and development featuring our very own Team Solutions family!
Melissa Parziale is the Director of Human Resources for Team Solutions Dental, with a focus on organizational strategy, leadership, and people as a business asset.