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What Companies Can Do To Attract More Candidates

• November 30, 2021

What can a company do to attract the widest array of individuals for a new job posting?

Easy.

Offer up the most desirable perks.

In a recent survey carried out by The Graduate Project, we have found that there is a lot of interest in this subject. People are keen to show what they want and possibly expect from the companies they long to apply to.

This survey simply asked ‘What is the most desirable work perk?’

An easy enough question which people happily participated in. This survey found that more than half of the people partaking wanted a four day work week with 52% of individuals opting for this perk over the others. A close second, with 30%, was working from home. Next we had 16% of people wanting more paid time off from work. Then, finally, we had only 2% wanting the added perk of getting a gym membership out of their work position.

What does this say then?

Unsurprisingly, with the boom in companies recently experimenting with 4 day work weeks for staff, this is the most desirable perk for individuals to opt for. This could be due to the current attention placed on the idea, or maybe people just see it as the most likely since some companies are actively putting it into play. This was seen most notably recently with the British retail bank Atom Bank.

This is also a similar situation for those who chose the work from home perk over the others. Working from home is desirable in a number of ways to individuals. Suddenly an individual is saving time and money from not having to commute to and from work every day. This also means that an individual is not limited by location as remote working means they can be anywhere around the world as long as they are available online during their work hours.

Now more paid time off work… I don’t think I need to explain the appeal in this one, but I will anyway. With an increased focus recently on Work Life Balance, the appeal to have more time away from work is desirable and should help an individual’s wellbeing. More time off would sound appealing to anyone, however, it is clearly not at the top of the general public’s desires

from a company. Though, of course, a 4 day work week is a similar kind of perk to this so it makes sense that this category has fallen behind.

Finally, we have the gym membership perk. The reason for this one gaining so little attention is probably easily explained. Though this is an amazing perk, it is just not the top of people’s priorities. Firstly, not everybody may be interested in going to the gym in the first place and so this perk would have 0 reward for them, they simply would not utilise this perk. Secondly, those who it would suit may not feel like they would have the time to utilise this kind of perk - therefore they would likely opt for one of the other three options. And thirdly, people may think that a work perk would be most appealing if it directly related to their working situation rather than just something that would affect their free time.

 What can a company learn from this?

There is a huge appeal at the moment for people to be offered more flexibility in their working situations, be it a 4 day work week, the ability to work from home or more paid time off. It would be sensible for companies to look at this information and apply it to ensure that more people are being attracted to new job roles and will be inclined to stay loyal with the company once they are working there.