No matter which way you look at it, creating good leaders is imperative to building a strong employment brand, but it isn’t always easy. Leadership skill is hard to define, and it’s even harder to build and maintain across entire organizations.

In a recent survey of 97,000 employees globally, it’s clear that there is a high level of dissatisfaction among employees about the leadership they experience in their workplaces. It also shows that the quality and style of leadership, as well as the challenging nature of the work people do, are the most critical factors in forming positive attitudes about employers.

If being an employer of choice requires a clear and thorough understanding of what really matters to employees, it’s clear that some of our traditional ways of thinking about leadership don’t hold much value, and we will need to listen and learn from employees’ actual experiences if we want to stand out in a competitive recruitment landscape.

This post is part of our new white paper, Leading by Example, where we detail the differences in employee attitudes across geographies and generations, and note the startling similarities in many of the drivers of overall satisfaction with the workplace. We also outline the key recommendations for organizations looking to improve their employee relations and to move towards a stronger employment brand.