We’ve spent the last several weeks preparing for one of the largest hiring initiatives we’ve been involved with in quite some time. Hundreds of manufacturing openings. Multiple locations. Lots of planning (shoutout to our marketing intern!).
We tend to approach things a little differently. We like to learn about the company before worrying too much about the jobs. We walk the facilities. Meet with leaders. Ask far more questions than were probably expected. Somewhere along the way, our notes stopped looking like recruiting notes and started looking more like the story of a company. And the list kept growing.
Healthcare costs that hadn’t changed in years. An onsite health clinic. Birthdays off. Leaders who had started on the production floor. Training. Promotion from within. Values that sounded like a compilation of insights from the people who lived them over the years.
By the end of the day, we found ourselves saying, “This is exactly the kind of company we’d want to work for.” Then we started thinking about how most candidates going through the interview process would never get to experience that same feeling. They’d hear there was an opening. They’d hear the shift. They’d hear the pay. Maybe they’d skim a job description full of qualifications and responsibilities. All important information, but not necessarily the information that answers the question every candidate is really asking.
Why here?
Why this company instead of the one ten minutes down the road? Why build a career here? Why spend the next five, ten, or twenty years of your life helping this organization succeed instead of another one?
That got us wondering how many organizations have quietly built something special over decades but rarely get the chance to tell that story. Companies invest in benefits, leadership, training, safety, and culture because they believe those things matter. We’d guess they’re right. We also wonder how often candidates are making one of the biggest career decisions they’ll make before they’ve heard much of that story.
If the best thing about your company isn’t the job itself, it seems like a missed opportunity to let the job become the entire conversation.
Until next time,
Your Spherion WI & Northern IL team
P.S. No Hiring Happens next week – we’ll be enjoying a little 4th of July break. See you in your inbox on July 10th!