Recognise This! – Strong talent always has a choice of where to work and increasingly is choosing an organisation with purpose.

On Monday, I wrote about the importance of culture for organisation success and how to do that through consistent, frequent recognition of employees. But your culture matters long before a new employee ever steps through your door for a first interview.

Your organisation culture is tied up closely with your employment value proposition. Whether you know it or not, your culture is drawing to you right now the type of talent you can hire.

1) Strong talent is drawn to a strong culture.

Tim Sackett, a recruiting pro, wrote recently in TLNT about a client he ultimately fired:

“The company was tough to recruit for because they had a super bad reputation and nobody locally wanted to go to work there, and on top of that, they weren’t willing to pay leaders to make up for their terrible reputation. I’m not in the business of providing bad talent – it won’t keep me in business long – and they could only afford average talent. But average talent doesn’t want to work for horrible companies, unless you pay a premium, so what you’re left with is bad talent.”

Do you want the best talent available to work for you? Guess what – so does everyone else. Top talent has their choice of work environment. Many even choose less compensation to work in an exciting, invigorating culture. But even average talent won’t work for an organisation with a terrible reputation. And that reputation is a result of your culture.

If you want to hire the best, make yourself desirable to the best by creating a powerful culture of recognition and appreciation.

2) Purpose matters

A culture that illustrates purpose is also growing in importance. Calling Brands global research revealed in this news release:

“A new report by global brand consultancy Calling Brands reveals a dramatic shift in employee attitudes towards work – with corporate ‘Purpose’ emerging as a powerful new driver of attraction, retention and productivity that few businesses are leveraging. … The survey also revealed that, on average, 57% of respondents (64% Germany, 58% US, 48% UK) said they would favour joining an organisation that has a clearly defined Purpose. Furthermore, an average of 65% of respondents claimed that Purpose would motivate them to go the ‘extra mile’ in their jobs and 64% claimed it would engender a greater sense of loyalty towards the organisation they work for.”

Is your culture attractive to the top talent in your industry? Does it offer purpose to employees in a way that motivates them to achieve more?