How Challenging is it to Achieve Company Goals - The Three Actions You Must Take

In previous posts I have indicated the difficulty companies will face in finding the right talent for their positions. That time is upon us and on a daily basis I speak with company leaders who say they are struggling. I always ask if it is impacting their ability to achieve the goals and objectives of their department, area, division, company, or corporation. Most think for a second or two and then say, yes it is.

I know that most good leaders favor, embrace or even initiate change in their organization when they know that better results will be obtained. You probably either do that yourself or know those who do, don't you? The one area where I have seen either no action, acceptance of continuing actions that are not producing the results desired or are unsure of what to do is in talent acquisition. I believe the reason for it is that the practices employed by companies are so en grained, that no one has thought about cause, effect, solution.  Don't get me wrong, the worked to a degree in years past, but that is the problem, they used to work.

There are three actions every organization must take in order to participate in attracting talent, gaining the talent they need and doing so successfully against those trying to gain the same talent.

The first action is to review how the company, positions, management, culture, community, and other keys are currently expressed by top management, every hiring manager and HR. Most will find that they us superlatives like, our company is great, it is a great place to work, etc. Every other company says the same thing. Once a candidate is in for an interview, the process is a qualifying process and not one of illustrating to the candidate why they should consider the company, department, manager, etc. When the candidate chooses another organization, everyone wonders why. The organization has to transform into one that is a recruiting organization. Where it attracts talent, makes them understand why it is a great place and why they should consider the company for a career. Everyone who will come into contact with a potential employee must be able to articulate it.

The second action, if your organization has internal recruiting staff, is have them trained to actually be able to surgically recruit passively employed people. Unless they can, you may be better off with employing contingent search firms. You will only pay them when they bring the right person and they can do the less difficult searches.

The third action is to partner with a search firm that can:

• Understands that a vacant position is a problem that is delaying or preventing the achievement of objectives either in part or in whole.
• Help the hiring manager articulate exactly what the right person is for the position from all three dimensions of the position.  That is not a job description as it is barely one third of the information required.  Someone else describing it is only providing an opinion. 
• Can take the information, translate it into telling passively employed people what the opportunity is.
• They can qualify a candidate before their credentials are presented and they have been verified and confirmed.
• Their clients are put into a situation where they can choose which candidate (of 2-3) is the best fit rather than in a position where you are forced to choose the one whom you believe will accept an offer and hope for the best.

That type of firm can find the right person for that position(s) where all other efforts do not work. 

Making the changes outlined above will position your organization to minimize the effect of the severe shortage of talent that will be with us for the next 8-12 years. 

For more detailed information contact me and we can provide details of any or all these necessary actions.