New survey data from Glassdoor, one of the world’s largest job sites, provides insight into today’s top hiring challenges, the top traits hiring decision makers want from candidates, and the long-term impacts of hiring the right candidates.
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Additionally, a recent Glassdoor interview with United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz provides insight into how leadership impacts employer brand.
Survey Findings
Not surprising, 76 percent of hiring decision makers say attracting quality candidates is the No. 1 challenge.
But what exactly is a quality candidate?
Nine out of 10 (88 percent) of decision makers say an informed candidate is a quality candidate. The top three attributes of an informed candidate, according to survey respondents, are:
- Prepared for interview and asks pertinent questions
- Demonstrates the right experience
- Knowledgeable about the job role
Finding the right candidate has numerous long-term benefits. The top three benefits, according to survey respondents, are:
- Better employee retention
- More productive employee
- More engaged employee
Employer Brand
A company’s employer brand is critical to candidate attraction. As Recruiting Daily Advisor has previously noted, a tainted brand presents additional hiring challenges. It also impacts employee retention.
Glassdoor CEO Robert Hohman recently spoke with Oscar Munoz, CEO of United Airlines, on a range of topics, including leadership challenges as they relate to brand and employee retention. The candid conversation took place at a Glassdoor conference and was available via Livestream.
United Airlines received extensive press coverage earlier this year, much of it negative, when a passenger was forcibly removed from an overbooked flight. Yet, Munoz chose to stand by employees.
“It was about supporting our employees because for me, the objective is I cannot lose these folks. As much as people wanted me to potentially blame other people, I couldn’t do it because once they see someone who they think highly of — in this case, me — if they see them in a tough moment giving up on their principles and starting to blame somebody else, I think you start getting at the root and the heart of someone’s true principles, and I could not let that happen. So I had to support our employees despite the intense, massive, ugly scrutiny that we got because of that. It wasn’t them — it was policies and principles that got in the way of them doing the right thing, and those policies and principles I own, my company owns, my people own, and we’re going to fix those,” said Munoz.
Not all companies will face the same level of challenges and scrutiny, but the lesson from United Airlines is that company leaders should 1) take responsibility and 2) remain loyal to employees, in order to retain employees and attract job candidates.