In today’s post-COVID labor market, the traditional roles have been reversed: Job seekers, rather than the businesses hiring them, are now the ones with greater leverage — with the luxury of picking and choosing where they want to work.

Indeed, as companies scramble to refill their ranks and return to prepandemic levels of operation, they’re finding that candidates are far more selective about their options than in the past. People are no longer simply taking the first positions offered to them; instead, they’re looking for opportunities in which they’ll be engaged, empowered, and enabled to thrive.

Which is why it’s so crucial in this climate to stand out as an employer of choice.

Being an employer of choice means a lot more than merely sticking a ping-pong table in the office or stocking up the kitchen with tasty snacks. It’s about finding meaningful ways to attract the best and brightest to your organization — by creating a supportive work environment that puts their needs first.

One powerful tool that can help you achieve this goal is a workforce management solution. Let’s look at a few compelling reasons why.

Flexible Scheduling

Shift scheduling poses a major problem for countless hourly workers. Many businesses still utilize a rigid, top-down scheduling process that doesn’t take into account employees’ availability, preferences, travel time, and work-life balance. As a result, workers become stressed and exhausted, which leads to frequent burnout and turnover.

In situations like these, a workforce management solution that includes a flexible, employee-centered scheduling component can make all the difference. Such a platform can accommodate workers’ availability and preferences while also empowering them to pick up, drop, or swap shifts themselves as needed.

This fluidity and adaptability helps ensure that employees are better able to juggle the competing demands of their jobs and their lives — a huge draw for prospective hires.

Communication and Collaboration

Another key feature of an effective workforce management solution — which goes hand in hand with flexible scheduling — is enhanced communication and collaboration.

Giving employees a mobile workforce app for their smartphones allows them to communicate in real time with their managers and with each other, so that they’re always up to date and in the loop about shifts, availability, and more. It also affords them instant access to important information about their benefits, overtime status, and paid time off.

Many hourly workers struggle with feeling a lack of agency over their jobs and a lack of transparency from their organizations. Providing an interactive mobile tool helps address these challenges and shows candidates that they’ll be joining a trusting, collaborative workplace.

In sum, it’s more critical than ever for businesses of all stripes to consider how they can become employers of choice and attract the great people they’re after. Having the right workforce management system in place is a vital step in this direction and sends a resoundingly positive message to job seekers about the kind of company they’ll be working for.

Want to know what kind of employer you are? Take our survey and find out!

WorkSync offers leading workforce management solutions for your organization. Learn more and request a demo today at workSync.com.