For many companies, recruiting the best and brightest talent is not an easy task. With the People Future 2025 initiative, the IFMA Education Foundation is taking steps to help our industry and member companies develop processes to create awareness and improve perception of the foodservice industry. “Understand What’s Important” is the first of five best practices that companies can/should be doing to improve recruiting the best talent into their organization. There is no reason to wait!
Too often, companies spend their time talking about themselves rather than focusing on areas that are most important to students looking for a career. While compensation will always be important, today's students want more and will walk away from companies that do not have values that align with theirs, or are too reliant on the status quo as opposed to being innovative and cutting edge. This does not suggest that any company should change their values, culture or business approach to innovation. Instead, it highlights that areas like these need to be a part of the story and dialogue with prospective hires to assure there is a good fit.
Best in class companies spend time understanding who they really are as an organization, and then develop an “elevator speech” that can quickly and consistently be shared with others. This exercise may result in a company rethinking who they are, how they are perceived, and then adapt to not only become more appealing to future talent but also to their current employees.
When looking for a career, students and most talent want to be a part of “something that’s bigger than themselves”.
Spend the time now to “understand what’s important”, and then put it into a narrative which tells your story in the most appealing way to the talent you desire.
In our next best practice we will dive deeper into how best to “Tell Your Story”.
If your company is interested in joining the People Future 2025 initiative or to learn more, please contact us at IFMA@IFMAworld.com.