The Hiring Question: Beyond Wages & Salaries

Whether a company is looking to hire 100 or 1,000 people, workforce is at the forefront of site selection decisions. One of the most common questions we hear clients ask is when considering a community “How are we going to hire workers here?” Perhaps the answer to that question also requires the client to consider their value proposition to employees. In other words, “Why should people want to work for us?”

There is no doubt hiring is much easier when you are paying competitive wages, but more and more, employees are seeking intangible benefits. In fact, oftentimes the “employer of choice” in a community isn’t necessarily the one paying the highest wages. Site Selection Group (SSG) has put together a list of benefits current and prospective employers can offer to help ensure employers are successful with their hiring efforts.

Childcare options

Access to affordable and quality childcare is a chief concern among employees, especially female employees. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, childcare costs can be more than rent in some places. To help ease the financial burden on employees, SSG has seen employers provide the following:

• On-Site Childcare: While on-site childcare is not feasible for all companies, it can be a key differentiator for companies that need many employees. This can be a clear differentiator to becoming an employer of choice in a market.
  
  
• Subsidies: We have seen employers provide childcare benefits or subsidies as part of their employee benefits package.
  
  
• Partnerships: Company partnerships with local childcare providers including lower-cost and more widely available options like the YMCA or Boys and Girls Club. We’ve also seen companies partner with community education and training institutions, providing care while also helping train childcare professionals.  
  
  
• Strategic Shift Times: SSG has seen some operations make subtle but strategic changes to shift times to allow workers to better access childcare locations based on closing or opening times.  Even a 30-minute change in shift schedules can make a big difference. 

Transportation Assistance

We consistently hear from employers that lack of access to reliable and readily available transportation is a big hurdle, especially in more rural communities where people travel further for work. Employers even report that some of their best-performing employees struggle with transportation access. To solve that accessibility challenge, companies could consider: 

• Subsidies: Subsidizing bus passes, Lyft/Uber rides, or other public and private transit. Companies can do this, but we’ve also seen communities that are too small for traditional public transit offer a subsidy or local rideshare support. After landing several major biotech projects in recent years, Wilson, North Carolina implemented just such a program.    
  
  
• Carpool Incentives: Promoting carpooling among employees through reserved parking spots, gas cards, or other on-the-job perks is another easy way to help employees and provide reassurance that their employer is making strides to address challenges.
  
  
• Shuttle Services: Partnering with nearby companies to provide dedicated shuttle services to employees. This can be effective in a large, multitenant industrial park, but we’ve also seen it work with just two companies.  

Flexibility

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, both white- and blue-collar workers are putting value on flexibility offered by employers. The Manufacturing Institute says that even for production workers, flexible work is no longer a rarity. For some operations, key processes make it very challenging to implement flexibility. However, SSG has seen some companies successfully implement some combination of the following:

• Alternative shift structures: Allowing workers more autonomy in their shift schedule may help to reduce employee burnout and improve work-life balance. Some examples include four-day work weeks, staggered shifts, and on-demand scheduling.
  
  
• Bonuses for Employee Flexibility: Offering a bonus (and sometimes even a “surprise” bonus) to employees willing to take on an extra shift, work irregular hours, or be available for on-call work.
  
  
• Balanced Overtime: Recognizing that employee attitudes toward overtime can be polarizing, it is essential to examine what other employers in the community offer. Perhaps they require significant overtime – offering more flexible options may allow you to differentiate yourself from competitors.

Whether offering more time off to longer-tenured employees, maintaining a climate-controlled facility to make working conditions more comfortable, or implementing a peer recognition program, the most sought-after employers are finding innovative ways to attract workers. In addition to increasing hiring success, many of the initiatives listed above have been shown to lower the rate of turnover — one of the most costly problems for employers.

Developing a strategy to hire workers in a new market requires understanding the unique challenges facing that specific community. Communities are looking for more than just employers, they are looking for engaged partners that can have an impact far beyond wages and salaries. Data can help narrow the field in a site selection exercise but, on-the-ground intel can help a locationally active company identify the best option and also help determine which strategy to implement.