There is generally one thing in the way of businesses that are having trouble hiring these days.

You’re just not that attractive a place to work.

I can hear it already. “But we have great pay and benefits, and we keep making them better all the time!” Let’s think through that a minute, shall we? If that thought process made any sense, you should be able to find that the top paying employer never has an open position. As soon as one opened, talented people would raise their hands and go work there.

Then, the second highest payer would fill all their jobs, and so on, and so on, until only the lowest paying companies had trouble finding people. Then they would raise their pay high enough to get everyone they needed and fill all their jobs.

Money is almost never the driver for people to come work for you. And if it is such that you get people based on money only, they will also leave as soon as someone gives them a penny more an hour. That’s just the way things would work if money was all that mattered.

We all fall prey to this incorrect thought process. The thought that “everyone else” makes their decisions based on money. It’s lazy thinking. It makes it easy to put everyone into an economic bucket, so we don’t have to think about what motivates them.

And it doesn’t work. Never has. Probably never will…

What will work?

Here are 4 ways to become a more attractive employer:

  1. Treat people like people, not things. Yes, all your people are motivated by different things, and it can be complicated to learn about them. Using the money argument turns people into things that only want a paycheck. Again, that is lazy thinking. Do so at your own risk.
  2. Challenge them to do great things. I know some of you just thought to yourself, “Hey, it’d be great if they just showed up at work”. That would only be great for you – not them. Think! What would be awesome and amazing for them to accomplish and how can that be tied directly to what your business does?
  3. Hold them accountable. Look, no one that I have ever met wakes up in the morning and says to themselves “Self, I hope I work all day and at 5 PM today, my boss says I am the biggest piece of shit employee they’ve ever seen.” Literally no one I’ve ever met thinks that. People want to do good work that they can be proud of. Again, just yelling stuff at people is NOT accountability. That’s you being a bad leader. Figure out what you want them to do, be clear about it and how you’ll measure it, and then help them achieve those goals.
  4. Move faster. Hell, just move at all and you’ll be a more compelling organization to work for. Remember an old Army saying, “The Leader Sets the Pace.” Don’t cause analysis paralysis – make a choice and move on.

Hey, did you notice that pay more didn’t make the list of things that will make you a more attractive employer? It won’t. It’s lazy thinking and it will not attract talent.

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ActionCOACH of Madison, LLC, is growing a kick ass community of entrepreneurial thinkers who want to think bigger and do bigger, through business, so that we can all live amazing lives full of energy, joy, passion and riches.