As the competition for employees hots up Amazon is taking the lead again.
25 years ago you could walk into a bookshop and if the book was not on the shelves you could order it. You would have it within three weeks. Today, on Kindle, you can have it in three minutes.
25 years ago over 3 million people were unemployed, today the figure is less than half that.
In the 1990s, aside from the big employers like Marks & Spencers, Dunlop or IBM it was difficult for a job applicant to know much about the employer for whom they were seeking to work. Today we have Facebook, Indeed, and Glassdoor. The competition to be a good employer, and seek good employees, is getting hot. Large employers are taking to develop an employer-brand by advertising on television. But only the likes of Amazon can afford such advertising.
Conversely any employer can afford a digital employee handbook. This is one way that a small employer can show itself to be a good employer. Amazon may or may not be a good employer, but good employees now take care to choose good employers. It may be relevant that, in the last 12 months, we have seen a huge increase in the use of Google to look for an employer‘s online Employee Handbook. Many of these searchers will be job applicants.
So, a digital employee handbook is one way to secure good candidates. Not everyone can work for Amazon.
Malcolm Martin FCIPD
Author Human Resource Practice
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