As 2014 begins ask yourself: Where’s the value in our hiring practices
29 Jan 2014
One of the significant changes since the 2008 GFC is the relentless cost cutting and shift of management focus away from the value that is so critical to high impact hiring. During the recession there weren’t jobs to recruit to, however, as hiring has returned it has come with the nascent practice of reducing hiring costs as a key objective.
The risks in this approach are already evident and will continue to impact as management collects and reports on data about the cost of hiring but fails to evaluate and report on the outcome of hiring and the impact of cost driven talent management practices.
Evidence shows us that organisations succeeded when they have the right people in the right roles and organisations that outperform peers at talent management return greater value. Thorough and insightful hiring and promotion decisions have the biggest impact on an organisation’s ability to deliver the results they need. To get it right requires high quality talent intelligence – a deep understanding of the skills, expertise and the qualities of the people that an organisation has, what skills they need and what skills are available both internally and in the market place. Talent intelligence goes beyond data. Thorough talent assessments inform and support processes such as hiring, engagement and development.
One way for management to ensure decisions based on high quality talent intelligence is to engage in building deep and lasting relationships with specialists and professional partners who have:-
- the knowledge, expertise and capacity to reliably deliver solutions rather than ‘a product’
- real capability and commitment to know you, know your people, know and intelligently understand the market
- rapid access to high quality, relevant networks for knowledge sharing
- the commitment and capability to be a genuine trusted advisor – where trust is about behaviour and advice is about knowledge and skills
Delivering high value solutions will come at a dollar cost that won’t be the cheapest, but there is no doubt that the results will compound the interest on your investment.
The next crisis will be a crisis of talent. The trend is quite clear that demand for talent will increase and supply decrease. Research tells us that by 2050 the number of people aged 65 and over in the G7 and BRIC nations will have doubled; China’s balance of people in the workforce supporting those who are 65 + will shift from 10 to 2.5 per senior citizen; already, surveys show that many people eligible for leadership roles are not necessarily looking for further promotion; and generational changes in the behaviour and expectations of younger workers require different contracts with the workplace as they expect more than financial return and are prepared to change jobs and travel to get what they are looking for.
It’s hard to imagine any decision that is more critical to an organisation than the recruitment, engagement and development of its people. So why allow cost cutting to be the key objective in your system’s hiring practice?
