As we begin to reflect on what will happen in 2007, I thought a few ideas on how to maximize your success might be welcome. I have linked to articles I have written so that you can dig a bit deeper in the areas that most interest you.
As I travel around the world talking to staffing and HR groups, I am amazed at how many have no articulated strategy. When I ask a recruiter what the strategy of their group is, they often answer (if they answer at all) that the strategy is to hire people fast, or something like that.
While that may be a noble concept or good general direction, it is not particularly useful. It’s like the airlines saying their strategy is to fly.
Michael Porter at Harvard defines strategy as, “an integrated set of actions that a company [read function/department/etc.] designs to produce a sustainable competitive advantage and thus attain superior performance.” It may be simple, but it will outline what the group is responsible for accomplishing and how they are going to do it.
A strategy should contain three major elements:
The act of looking ahead and predicting trends may be very useful in determining directions and structures. For example, if you predict that the hiring levels may significantly increase you may decide that creating a central sourcing group makes a lot of sense.
It is also critical to know how you are doing today and make changes to direction and structure, as needed, based on current feedback. If you have seen no improvement in the time it takes to present a candidate or an increase in cost per hire, now is the time to figure out some ways to positively change those numbers. To read more about this, see this article.
Every organization needs to have some indication of what talent it will need over the coming year, as well as a sense of what talent is available in the marketplace. The general shortage of talent and the growth many organizations are undergoing globally have forced many organizations to look at workforce planning in a serious way.
They are realizing that it is not enough to just calculate turnover and projected growth and then go recruit the people. The people they need may not exist or they may be very hard to find. Sometimes they are available but in far corners of the globe.
The process of acquiring talent requires more sophisticated thinking and tools than have previously been characteristic of the human resources or recruiting functions. There are fewer traditional jobs and fewer traditional sources of talent that are still reliable. The challenge of supplying talent to businesses will grow and has already created a new emphasis on workforce planning. To read more about this, see this article.
Websites are essential to your success. Candidates rely on them for information about your organization and as the vehicle to actually apply for a position. Websites with interactive content, solid information about jobs and opportunities, and that are written in an authentic style will help improve your overall attraction, selection, and closing rates.
Organizations like KPMG, Deloitte, Federated Department Stores, and Microsoft have all invested in developing state-of-the-art sites. These sites often contain blogs, links to videos, chat rooms, or FAQ links, and many offer a variety of languages. If you are doing college recruiting, you will most definitely need a modern, fun, and interactive site to keep up with the expectations of today’s Gen Y workers.
You will also need to keep your site effective by tracking what works and what doesn’t. Metrics are powerful in letting you see where people go on your site, how much time they spend, and even where they do not go at all. To read more about this, see this article.
Emblazon this motto on your wall (or cube): “Never lose a qualified candidate because we don’t have an open position.” If you believe that talent is scarce and hard to find, and if your organization is spending the amount of money I think it is on sourcing, then you need to nurture and hang on to every quality candidate.
By developing and using candidate relationship management tools and techniques, you can communicate with and build relationships with lots of good candidates. You can create a special website exclusively for the best candidates that gives them inside information about potential opportunities. You can send out special emails or create private blogs just for them.
Whatever combination of things you decide to do, you will be developing a relationship with a candidate. It may make him or her more receptive to a future offer when you do have a position. To read more about this, see this article from way back in 2002!
My next article will be in January, and I wish you all a happy New Year. May 2007 be even better than this one and may you all be wiser, richer, and even better looking.
