How to Become a Best Place to Work in 2017

Being designated as the “best” at something is a great feeling. Even if the only reward is a certificate with your name on it, earning the title of best is rather satisfying. 

But for employers, being the best place to work doesn’t just mean a sense of pride. It means increased retention, improved recruitment and often higher client acquisition, since customers know happy employees are good employees.

Being named a best place to work isn’t easy, but if you follow the three steps below, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a best place to work in 2017.

Step 1: Build a Positive Company Culture

A positive company culture is the foundation for any successful business. And creating a healthy culture is the first step toward becoming a best place to work.

The companies that are consistently in the black and always have more applications than open positions have a few common traits. For example …

• Executives promote transparency and authenticity by keeping the lines of communication open at every level of the organization.
• Supervisors set realistic expectations for their employees and check in with them regularly.
• Employees use the most up-to-date workplace technology.
• Managers regularly provide constructive criticism and positive feedback to their team. And vice versa.
• Employees are offered professional development plans and given opportunities to expand their knowledge base and skillset.
• Supervisors are supportive of their employees’ lives outside the office and are advocates of workplace flexibility.
• Employees are encouraged to build friendships with their colleagues in an open, collaborative environment.

Step 2: Establish a Strong Employer Brand

Once a positive culture is in place, it’s time to strengthen the employer brand — the identity of the business.

With an employer branding strategy, the goal is to establish your brand as an employer of choice both inside and out, focusing not only on positive attributes of the company but also demonstrating what it has to offer to retain existing employees and attract future candidates.

To develop your employer brand, consider these questions:

• What is your company doing to make an impact on the world?
• What opportunities do you have to offer that your competitors don’t?
• What are some of the most exciting new developments in the works?

Bring in your marketing or PR team and a group of employees to brainstorm. From there, you can build out your brand’s story and decide the best channels for establishing your company as an employer of choice.

Step 3: Communicate Your Employer Brand

A positive company culture and strong employer brand are great, but you need to make sure you get the word out.

To execute an employer branding strategy, you need to take your core values and culture statement and weave them into your website, office design, employee handbook — everything. Here are some practical ways to do that:

• Refresh your website with positive messaging, photos and videos promoting your unique culture and employees
• Upload photos of recent company events and announce staff achievements on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. After your company website, the likely next stop for prospective employees will be these channels, and rarely-updated profiles are no good.
• Post regular updates to the company blog about both internal goings-on and the latest industry news and trends. Have employees take turns contributing to the blog and ask them to write about their experiences at the company.

Make sure your website and social media aren’t just about how great your company is—it’s about how great your people are and why employees love your culture.

Becoming a best place to work doesn’t happen overnight. But while it takes a lot of time, energy and resources, the benefits will be obvious. And maybe you’ll even get a certificate with your name on it.

What else can you do to become a best place to work? Download the free SlideShare, 8 Items to Help Attract and Retain Talented Employees, to find out.