March 14, 2017

Help Us to Conquer Cancer Together

 

Meet Ralph – loving husband, father of two beautiful girls, and one of my best friends for more than thirty years. He was also there for my family and me when we lost our father to cancer at the age of 50.

When he’s not spending quality time with his family or on the job as a construction foreman, Ralph hits the road as an avid cyclist.

Despite facing his own health challenges, including a struggle with diabetes that he has successfully kept under control for more than 15 years, Ralph has participated in The Enbridge® Ride to Conquer Cancer® (“The Ride”) a total of four times, raising more than $10,000 in support of cancer research.

In addition to making a donation and helping Ralph raise money for The Ride, my organization, The Talent Company, is partnering with Ralph to support his theme for this year; “Team I’ve Got Your Back”. The premise is that, when you make a donation of $50 or more on his behalf, we will arrange to have the name of your loved one printed on the back of his cycling jersey (shirt) on the day of The Ride.

More than 75% of Canadians have had a personal connection with cancer through their own diagnosis or that of a loved one1. We believe it would be a great tribute to have the names of our lost loved ones and those who have shown courage and survived, represented and riding alongside with Ralph on June 10th and 11th. Please click here to make your donation, so that together, we can help to finally putting an end to the terrible illness.

The Ride inspires cyclists to traverse more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) over a two-day weekend, and has impressively raised more than $155 million dollars for the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre since 2008. We’re proud to partner with Ralph in support of this worthy cause.

 

Thank you in advance,

Joe Minaudo

Senior Partner, The Talent Company

 

1 Most Canadians have been touched by cancer, but many don’t feel prepared to support themselves or their loved ones (2015, March 9). Retrieved from https://www.cancer.ca/en/about-us/for-media/media-releases/national/2015/daffodil-month-survey-shows-need-for-increased-awareness/?region=on

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May 13, 2016

The Top 5 Actions You Can Start Doing Today to Improve Recruitment at Your Organization

Quality1

A recent study by PWC found that 63% of CEOs worry that the availability of key skills will undermine their strategies and plans for growth and 93% of CEOs recognize the need to change their strategy for attracting and retaining talent.

Talent Acquisition leaders have been asking for a greater level of respect and understanding from the business in terms of the Recruitment function over the past number of years.   More and more studies are finally showing the changing attitudes around the importance of the Recruitment function to an organization’s success.

Unfortunately the realities at most organizations are that their Recruitment function is:

  • Not appropriately funded based on the business expectations of the function;
  • Inadequately championed at the senior and executive levels of an organization;
  • Treated as a transactional, order taking and an administrative process.

There are significant opportunities for HR and Talent Acquisition leaders at every organization to take advantage of the current climate within the business on Recruitment.

Here are my recommended top 5 actions you can do to improve Recruitment at your organization:

5)      Focusing on Your Recruitment Strategy – It all starts with a plan.  Most organizations currently don’t have a Recruitment strategy in place.  The role and expectations of Recruitment continue to evolve but the top 2 challenges of every Recruitment function remain the same:

  • Capacity
  • Effectiveness

It’s tough to meet the growing expectations of the function when you don’t have the plan, the resources or the budget to succeed.  The Talent Acquisition leader needs to take this opportunity to re-contract with the business on their expectations and present them with options on how to enhance the function.  Your strategy must be realistic or the function will continue to lose credibility.  Don’t try and boil the ocean and place too many stretch goals in your strategy.  Your Recruitment strategy needs to come directly from the business, workforce and talent plan.  Focus on what is most important for the business rather than trying to cover everything.  Recruitment must be an organizational focus and priority – not just an HR one!

4)      Targeting Your Talent Sourcing – At the end of the day, the success of Recruitment is judged solely on finding and hiring the right talent for your organization.  Don’t be too focused on other outcomes – there is only one outcome that matters in Recruitment, the hire!

With this in mind, I am always shocked with the number of Recruitment functions not focused more on sourcing talent.  There are so many organizations simply waiting for talent to come to them through a post and pray sourcing strategy.  With so much importance on hiring the right talent for your organization, why are you waiting for talent to come to you and hoping the right person sees your posting.  Don’t leave your candidate sourcing approach to chance, change the sourcing mindset of your organization and target the right candidates from the start.

The first thing to do to enhance your talent sourcing is to ensure you are getting the most out of the sourcing tools you are already paying for.  Organizations continue to spend a significant amount of money with LinkedIn yet don’t leverage the platform for everything it can do.

The second thing to do is setup dedicated resources focused on finding the right candidates.  The best-in-class Recruitment teams have integrated a dedicated candidate research and sourcing approach into their Recruitment practices.  There are many talent research and sourcing options to look at to compliment your Recruitment team including utilizing an outsourced approach to targeted research.

Leverage your current top performers within your organization and build a “How can I recruit you again” profile.  Understand what makes them a top performer and why they are so good in their roles within your organization’s culture.  Leverage this data along with understanding how they would approach looking for a new opportunity thinking of how you can find more candidates like him/her.

Never wait for the right talent to come to you – it is too important to the success of your organization to rely on chance with Recruitment.

3)      Developing Your Hiring Managers – Every organization has a handful of great hiring managers with whom the Talent Acquisition team always enjoys working with.  These are the hiring managers who recognize the importance and impact great talent has on the success of an organization.  Unfortunately the majority of Hiring Managers are a challenge at every organization.  From their unrealistic expectations on hiring skills and experience for their open roles, to the organizations’ lack of confidence in their Hiring Managers’ abilities to appropriately interview, assess and select the best candidates for their roles, Hiring Managers are often doing more damage to the hiring process than good.

A few realities exist:

  • Most Hiring Managers might only recruit and interview talent once or twice a year and aren’t naturally comfortable or confident in conducting interviews.
  • Candidates have access to more tools and training on interviewing than ever before allowing them to be more skilled and better prepared.  Websites such as Glassdoor even provide candidates access to the interview questions your organization is most likely to ask them.
  • All candidates will exaggerate their skills, experience and accomplishments on their resume and in an interview – how confident are you in your Hiring Managers’ ability to see through the candidate “fluff”.
  • The majority of Hiring Managers interview candidates solely for the role they have open today and rarely look at the candidates’ long term potential and organizational fit.
  • The goal for every organization should be to develop all of their Hiring Managers to be “great” at conducting interviews and selecting the right candidates.

Best-in-class organizations recognize the importance of investing in their Hiring Managers capabilities through ongoing recruitment and interviewing education, tools and training programs.  These organizations use a number of platforms to engage their Hiring Managers to become more effective:

  • Talent Scouts – sourcing talent throughout their networks.
  • Talent Ambassadors – promoting a positive candidate experience.
  • Talent Assessor – acting as a peer interviewer to select the right talent for their organization.

Recruiters also play a key role as a coach and advisor ensuring the Hiring Managers are properly prepared and equipped to conduct their interviews.  Finally, the most progressive organizations have integrated recruitment and hiring into their core leadership accountabilities ensuring that talent acquisition is an organizational focus and not just an HR priority.

2)      Smart Use of Social Recruitment & Candidate Engagement – We all know the impact social media has had on talent acquisition functions over the past number of years.  Social media continues to have the potential to revolutionize recruitment as we know it.  Unfortunately many organizations are still struggling with how to effectively manage and leverage this platform.

Care

Best-in-class organizations recognize that social media is simply one of a number of different talent acquisition platforms, programs and practices which contributes to their recruitment success.  They understand that everyone uses different social media platforms for very different reasons.  The smart organizations know which social media platforms generate their best talent outcomes with data analytics – they understand where their quality talent is coming from and leverage this understanding to generate more successful results.  They focus on quality over quantity in terms of talent.

Most organizations aren’t very selective in terms of their social media reach and they struggle with the enhanced candidate flow coming into them via their extended reach.  Most often, the quality talent gets lost in the quantity of talent being generated.  We already know that many Recruiters are struggling with capacity challenges and simply don’t have the time to review and screen all the candidates coming to them for every open requisition.  Maybe they only have time to look at the first 20 candidates that appear in the ATS – but what if the best candidate is the 21st candidate on the list or the 121st?  Your organization has just missed out on the best person who likely wasn’t even reviewed by anyone.

Is the higher volume of candidates straining the capacity of recruitment to find the quality talent for your organization – and also hurting your reputation with candidates in the market who never hear anything back from your organization?

I continue to read studies showing that over 60% of candidates never hear back from an organization – of course, many will read this statistic and look at it simply from a poor candidate experience perspective.  My mind goes right to how many great candidates have been missed by your organization and would have been a better candidate for your open position than the candidate you hired.  I have always been a strong believer in a positive candidate experience but work with organizations to push beyond candidate experience and focus on candidate engagement.

Candidate engagement is the next level of candidate experience – and is focused on talent outcomes for an organization going beyond a simple branding perspective.

1)      Hire and Develop Best-in-Class Recruiters – The performance of your Recruiters is the number one factor in the success of a Recruitment function.  It isn’t your Recruitment technology, it’s not the Recruitment tools and it’s not your employer branding or culture – it all starts with having great Recruiters.  If talent drives success within an organization then talented Recruiters drive a successful Talent Acquisition function.

The top 3 challenges of a Recruiter continue to remain the same:

  • Finding good candidates.
  • Filling positions quickly.
  • Engaging Hiring Managers.

The profile and expectations of a Recruiter have increased over the past few years – for good and bad!  The enhanced expectations of an organization on its Recruiters show the increased importance of the talent acquisition function.  The challenge now is ensuring your Recruiters have the knowledge, skills and competencies to being considered a great Recruiter.  Knowing the labour market of Recruiters like we do at The Talent Company, unfortunately only about 20% of today’s Recruiters would be considered “great”.  Many organizations are beginning to hesitate when hiring experienced Recruiters and are looking at alternatives including hiring individuals with more of a sales and marketing background and train them on becoming a great Recruiter.

What makes a great Recruiter in today’s market?  A great Recruiter is someone who is passionate about their role, is authentic and shows a genuine pride in their organization.  They need to understand their organization, industry and the labour market.  They need to coach, influence and build relationships with both business leaders and candidates.  They need to research, network, market, and sell.  Of course, all these skills mean nothing if they aren’t able to close the deal with candidates – it’s should always be about the outcome!

Today’s Recruiter needs to be a true partner to the business and have the knowledge, skills and competencies listed below to be successful:

The Core Knowledge, Skills and Competencies of Today’s Recruiter

Recruiter Competencies

Never underestimate the importance of having great Recruiters to your organization.  A great employer brand in the market is nice but you need a great Recruiter to enable your organization to take full advantage of your brand with great talent in the market.  All the best Recruitment and Talent Acquisition programs, technologies, tools and practices are meaningless without a great Recruiter who enables these platforms to succeed.

 

Simon Parkin is the Practice Leader for Recruitment, Talent and HR Solutions at The Talent Company – www.thetalent.co   Simon is recognized as a global thought leader in the acquisition and management of talent and has successfully transformed the Talent function for organizations of all sizes. Simon works closely with clients to build, develop and innovate their Recruitment, Talent and HR functions. He is a former global leader of Recruitment and Talent for a Fortune 100 company. Simon is a featured speaker at a number of HR and Recruitment conferences across North America and an author of many acclaimed articles on innovative Recruitment, Talent and HR trends and best practices. Simon’s full profile can be found at http://ca.linkedin.com/in/simonparkin1

New Talent Company_logo

May 10, 2016

Happy 5th Anniversary to The Talent Company

TalentCo 5th Anniversary

It is hard to believe it has already been 5 years!  It seems like only yesterday when my friend and mentor, the late Stephen Gould and I, were sitting in a restaurant scribbling on a cocktail napkin the ideas and principles that would become our new full service Human Resources consulting firm. As we both spent a number of years as senior HR leaders within large global organizations, Steve and I often partnered with HR consulting firms that offered a wide range of services.  We looked at what we enjoyed most in working with our favourite firms and what we would change. We compared notes on the firms who weren’t able to deliver to our “Gold Standard” expectations as a client.  It was on that day that we began to design the framework for The Talent Company.

Napkin

Together we saw an opportunity to develop and launch a new HR solutions focused organization that followed our core values and principles:

  • Being a Trusted Advisor
  • Integrity
  • “Gold Standard” Focus on Quality Client Delivery
  • Always Adding Value for our Clients
  • Likeable and Authentic

Recognizing that companies do business with providers who they like and deliver real value, our team would need to have expertise in specific areas of HR yet possess the understanding of what’s its like to “walk in our clients’ shoes”.

I have been very fortunate to pull together a great team over the past 5 years who share the same values and principles as I do – genuine people with deep expertise in Recruitment, Talent Management, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching, Career Transition and Total Rewards.  It hasn’t been easy to find those who “ticked all of the boxes” and share the same focus for delivering quality work.  I am lucky to have the constant support of my business partner Joe Minaudo who has been instrumental in building our organization to where it is today.  I am proud to work with such a great team.  Thank you to all of my colleagues at The Talent Company who are all shareholders in our continued success.

A big thanks as well to my network of great friends and former colleagues who have always been there to support me and The Talent Company throughout this time.  We work with so many great organizations of all shapes and sizes, across every industry and those who have given us the opportunity to be true partners in their business success.  From start-up organizations looking for a foundation of HR practices to support their growth, working with Fortune 50 companies to design programs that develop their next generation of leaders and the numerous companies that choose our firm to find the right people and build talent pipelines for them. We are proud to support our clients to achieve their business goals.

My friend and mentor Stephen Gould unexpectedly passed away last year. This left a large void in my life. I do know however that he is proud of everything The Talent Company has accomplished. And so, 5 years later, as I reflect on the same cocktail napkin, we are still focused on the same core values and principles and I now have an incredible team that remains committed to achieving the “Gold Standard” that Stephen and I originally mapped out together.

 

About The Talent Company

The Talent Company is an HR Solutions Firm. We work closely with our clients to FIND, KEEP, REWARD and TRANSITION their talent.  With offices in Toronto, Mississauga and Markham, The Talent Company supports our clients in building, developing and retaining a highly engaged, high-performing workforce that is focused on achieving their business strategies and goals.

We are an organization comprised of leading Human Resources, Talent Management, Recruitment, Career Transition, Total Rewards and Leadership experts with proven track records of client and organizational success.  Our collective resources, vast experience and extensive industry knowledge enhance our ability to deliver outstanding value to our clients.  Our solutions are customized to address the needs of our clients and are delivered by an experienced team of experts who have “walked in our clients’ shoes”.

We provide our clients with full range of Human Resources solutions including:

  • Executive Coaching and Leadership Development
  • Recruitment and Executive Search
  • Talent Mapping, Engagement and Pipelining
  • Compensation and Total Rewards Consulting
  • Career Transition and Outplacement Services
  • Human Resources On-Demand Resourcing and Support
  • Hiring Manager Recruitment and Interviewing Training

For more information about The Talent Company and our solutions, please visit our website at www.thetalent.co

April 26, 2016

The Top 5 Actions You Can Start Doing Today to Improve Recruitment at Your Organization – Part 2 of 2

Care

View Part 1 here – https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-5-actions-you-can-start-doing-today-improve-your-part-parkin?trk=mp-author-card

There are significant opportunities for HR and Talent Acquisition leaders at every organization to take advantage of the current climate within the business on Recruitment.  My article last week covered the first 3 of my top 5 recommended actions you can do to improve Recruitment at your organization which included:

5) Focusing on Your Recruitment Strategy – It all starts with a plan.

4) Targeting Your Talent Sourcing – The success of Recruitment is judged solely on finding and hiring the right talent for your organization.  Don’t be too focused on other outcomes – there is only one outcome that matters in Recruitment, the hire!

3) Developing Your Hiring Managers – Best-in-class organizations recognize the importance of investing in their Hiring Managers capabilities through ongoing recruitment and interviewing education, tools and training programs.

So without further delay, let’s jump right into my top 2 recommended actions you can do to improve Recruitment at your organization:

2)      Smart Use of Social Recruitment & Candidate Engagement – We all know the impact social media has had on talent acquisition functions over the past number of years.  Social media continues to have the potential to revolutionize recruitment as we know it.  Unfortunately many organizations are still struggling with how to effectively manage and leverage this platform.

Best-in-class organizations recognize that social media is simply one of a number of different talent acquisition platforms, programs and practices which contributes to their recruitment success.  They understand that everyone uses different social media platforms for very different reasons.  The smart organizations know which social media platforms generate their best talent outcomes with data analytics – they understand where their quality talent is coming from and leverage this understanding to generate more successful results.  They focus on quality over quantity in terms of talent.

Most organizations aren’t very selective in terms of their social media reach and they struggle with the enhanced candidate flow coming into them via their extended reach.  Most often, the quality talent gets lost in the quantity of talent being generated.  We already know that many Recruiters are struggling with capacity challenges and simply don’t have the time to review and screen all the candidates coming to them for every open requisition.  Maybe they only have time to look at the first 20 candidates that appear in the ATS – but what if the best candidate is the 21st candidate on the list or the 121st?  Your organization has just missed out on the best person who likely wasn’t even reviewed by anyone.

Is the higher volume of candidates straining the capacity of recruitment to find the quality talent for your organization – and also hurting your reputation with candidates in the market who never hear anything back from your organization?

I continue to read studies showing that over 60% of candidates never hear back from an organization – of course, many will read this statistic and look at it simply from a poor candidate experience perspective.  My mind goes right to how many great candidates have been missed by your organization and would have been a better candidate for your open position than the candidate you hired.  I have always been a strong believer in a positive candidate experience but work with organizations to push beyond candidate experience and focus on candidate engagement.

Candidate engagement is the next level of candidate experience – and is focused on talent outcomes for an organization going beyond a simple branding perspective.

1)      Hire and Develop Best-in-Class Recruiters – The performance of your Recruiters is the number one factor in the success of a Recruitment function.  It isn’t your Recruitment technology, it’s not the Recruitment tools and it’s not your employer branding or culture – it all starts with having great Recruiters.  If talent drives success within an organization then talented Recruiters drive a successful Talent Acquisition function.

The top 3 challenges of a Recruiter continue to remain the same:

  • Finding good candidates.
  • Filling positions quickly.
  • Engaging Hiring Managers.

The profile and expectations of a Recruiter have increased over the past few years – for good and bad!  The enhanced expectations of an organization on its Recruiters show the increased importance of the talent acquisition function.  The challenge now is ensuring your Recruiters have the knowledge, skills and competencies to being considered a great Recruiter.  Knowing the labour market of Recruiters like we do at The Talent Company, unfortunately only about 20% of today’s Recruiters would be considered “great”.  Many organizations are beginning to hesitate when hiring experienced Recruiters and are looking at alternatives including hiring individuals with more of a sales and marketing background and train them on becoming a great Recruiter.

What makes a great Recruiter in today’s market?  A great Recruiter is someone who is passionate about their role, is authentic and shows a genuine pride in their organization.  They need to understand their organization, industry and the labour market.  They need to coach, influence and build relationships with both business leaders and candidates.  They need to research, network, market, and sell.  Of course, all these skills mean nothing if they aren’t able to close the deal with candidates – it’s should always be about the outcome!

Today’s Recruiter needs to be a true partner to the business and have the knowledge, skills and competencies listed below to be successful:

The Core Knowledge, Skills and Competencies of Today’s Recruiter

Recruiter Competencies

Never underestimate the importance of having great Recruiters to your organization.  A great employer brand in the market is nice but you need a great Recruiter to enable your organization to take full advantage of your brand with great talent in the market.  All the best Recruitment and Talent Acquisition programs, technologies, tools and practices are meaningless without a great Recruiter who enables these platforms to succeed.

 

Simon Parkin is the Practice Leader for Recruitment, Talent and HR Solutions at The Talent Company – www.thetalent.co   Simon is recognized as a global thought leader in the acquisition and management of talent and has successfully transformed the Talent function for organizations of all sizes. Simon works closely with clients to build, develop and innovate their Recruitment, Talent and HR functions. He is a former global leader of Recruitment and Talent for a Fortune 100 company. Simon is a featured speaker at a number of HR and Recruitment conferences across North America and an author of many acclaimed articles on innovative Recruitment, Talent and HR trends and best practices. Simon’s full profile can be found at http://ca.linkedin.com/in/simonparkin1

 New Talent Company_logo

For more information on The Talent Company please visit us at www.thetalent.co

April 19, 2016

The Top 5 Actions You Can Start Doing Today to Improve Recruitment at Your Organization – Part 1 of 2

Quality1

A recent study by PWC found that 63% of CEOs worry that the availability of key skills will undermine their strategies and plans for growth and 93% of CEOs recognize the need to change their strategy for attracting and retaining talent.

Talent Acquisition leaders have been asking for a greater level of respect and understanding from the business in terms of the Recruitment function over the past number of years.   More and more studies are finally showing the changing attitudes around the importance of the Recruitment function to an organization’s success.

Unfortunately the realities at most organizations are that their Recruitment function is:

  • Not appropriately funded based on the business expectations of the function;
  • Inadequately championed at the senior and executive levels of an organization;
  • Treated as a transactional, order taking and an administrative process.

There are significant opportunities for HR and Talent Acquisition leaders at every organization to take advantage of the current climate within the business on Recruitment.

Here are my recommended top 5 actions you can do to improve Recruitment at your organization:

5)      Focusing on Your Recruitment Strategy – It all starts with a plan.  Most organizations currently don’t have a Recruitment strategy in place.  The role and expectations of Recruitment continue to evolve but the top 2 challenges of every Recruitment function remain the same:

  • Capacity
  • Effectiveness

It’s tough to meet the growing expectations of the function when you don’t have the plan, the resources or the budget to succeed.  The Talent Acquisition leader needs to take this opportunity to re-contract with the business on their expectations and present them with options on how to enhance the function.  Your strategy must be realistic or the function will continue to lose credibility.  Don’t try and boil the ocean and place too many stretch goals in your strategy.  Your Recruitment strategy needs to come directly from the business, workforce and talent plan.  Focus on what is most important for the business rather than trying to cover everything.  Recruitment must be an organizational focus and priority – not just an HR one!

4)      Targeting Your Talent Sourcing – At the end of the day, the success of Recruitment is judged solely on finding and hiring the right talent for your organization.  Don’t be too focused on other outcomes – there is only one outcome that matters in Recruitment, the hire!

With this in mind, I am always shocked with the number of Recruitment functions not focused more on sourcing talent.  There are so many organizations simply waiting for talent to come to them through a post and pray sourcing strategy.  With so much importance on hiring the right talent for your organization, why are you waiting for talent to come to you and hoping the right person sees your posting.  Don’t leave your candidate sourcing approach to chance, change the sourcing mindset of your organization and target the right candidates from the start.

The first thing to do to enhance your talent sourcing is to ensure you are getting the most out of the sourcing tools you are already paying for.  Organizations continue to spend a significant amount of money with LinkedIn yet don’t leverage the platform for everything it can do.

The second thing to do is setup dedicated resources focused on finding the right candidates.  The best-in-class Recruitment teams have integrated a dedicated candidate research and sourcing approach into their Recruitment practices.  There are many talent research and sourcing options to look at to compliment your Recruitment team including utilizing an outsourced approach to targeted research.

Leverage your current top performers within your organization and build a “How can I recruit you again” profile.  Understand what makes them a top performer and why they are so good in their roles within your organization’s culture.  Leverage this data along with understanding how they would approach looking for a new opportunity thinking of how you can find more candidates like him/her.

Never wait for the right talent to come to you – it is too important to the success of your organization to rely on chance with Recruitment.

3)      Developing Your Hiring Managers – Every organization has a handful of great hiring managers with whom the Talent Acquisition team always enjoys working with.  These are the hiring managers who recognize the importance and impact great talent has on the success of an organization.  Unfortunately the majority of Hiring Managers are a challenge at every organization.  From their unrealistic expectations on hiring skills and experience for their open roles, to the organizations’ lack of confidence in their Hiring Managers’ abilities to appropriately interview, assess and select the best candidates for their roles, Hiring Managers are often doing more damage to the hiring process than good.

A few realities exist:

  • Most Hiring Managers might only recruit and interview talent once or twice a year and aren’t naturally comfortable or confident in conducting interviews.
  • Candidates have access to more tools and training on interviewing than ever before allowing them to be more skilled and better prepared.  Websites such as Glassdoor even provide candidates access to the interview questions your organization is most likely to ask them.
  • All candidates will exaggerate their skills, experience and accomplishments on their resume and in an interview – how confident are you in your Hiring Managers’ ability to see through the candidate “fluff”.
  • The majority of Hiring Managers interview candidates solely for the role they have open today and rarely look at the candidates’ long term potential and organizational fit.
  • The goal for every organization should be to develop all of their Hiring Managers to be “great” at conducting interviews and selecting the right candidates.

Best-in-class organizations recognize the importance of investing in their Hiring Managers capabilities through ongoing recruitment and interviewing education, tools and training programs.  These organizations use a number of platforms to engage their Hiring Managers to become more effective:

  • Talent Scouts – sourcing talent throughout their networks.
  • Talent Ambassadors – promoting a positive candidate experience.
  • Talent Assessor – acting as a peer interviewer to select the right talent for their organization.

Recruiters also play a key role as a coach and advisor ensuring the Hiring Managers are properly prepared and equipped to conduct their interviews.  Finally, the most progressive organizations have integrated recruitment and hiring into their core leadership accountabilities ensuring that talent acquisition is an organizational focus and not just an HR priority.

Stay tuned for the 2nd part of this article revealing my top 2 recommended actions you can do to improve Recruitment at your organization which will be released next week.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————— 

Simon Parkin is the Practice Leader for Recruitment, Talent and HR Solutions at The Talent Company – www.thetalent.co   Simon is recognized as a global thought leader in the acquisition and management of talent and has successfully transformed the Talent function for organizations of all sizes. Simon works closely with clients to build, develop and innovate their Recruitment, Talent and HR functions. He is a former global leader of Recruitment and Talent for a Fortune 100 company. Simon is a featured speaker at a number of HR and Recruitment conferences across North America and an author of many acclaimed articles on innovative Recruitment, Talent and HR trends and best practices. Simon’s full profile can be found at http://ca.linkedin.com/in/simonparkin1

New Talent Company_logo 

For more information on The Talent Company please visit us at www.thetalent.co

February 16, 2016

Struggling to find the time to build talent pipelines for your critical roles?

Proactive

According to our recent study on Talent Acquisition the average Recruiter is recruiting for 28 open positions at one time. That number of open positions per Recruiter rises significantly for larger organizations with many Recruiters responsible for over 50 open positions on average at one time. Recruitment and Talent Acquisition functions are faced with greater expectations from their business leaders with limited headcount, resources and tools. Most organizations continue to be caught in a “post and pray” candidate sourcing practice with a limited capacity to directly engage strong talent in the market.

For the past 5 years, The Talent Company has been one of the market leaders in providing Talent Research and Pipelining solutions to North American organizations. Our team of expert talent researchers work alongside some of the best recruitment minds in the market to deliver our clients a customized solution focused on deep labour market research practices and direct engagement with prospective candidates.

Some of the features and benefits of our Talent Research and Pipelining solutions include:

  • Our solutions reduce our client’s average position time-to-fill by over 40% while increasing their overall quality of hire through an extended pipeline of stronger talent.
  • Our solutions are both scalable and flexible allowing you to leverage our solution when you need it the most – a candidate research tool that can be used as an extension of your recruitment team.
  • Our team of expert talent researchers allow your organization to cast a wider net across the market, significantly expanding your reach for the best talent.
  • We provide our clients with an external unbiased view of the labour market; we deliver labour market intelligence and insights, allowing you to better educate your business leaders on the talent market, enabling your organization to develop better informed talent strategies and make decisions with a broader understanding of the market.
  • Our solution is cost effective and will reduce your third party recruitment agency usage and overall recruitment costs.
  • We enable your organization to build and develop proactive pipelines of prospective talent for key positions across your organization.
  • Our clients own all of the labour market info and prospective candidate data.

For more information on our Talent Mapping and Talent Pipelining solutions, please contact Kathleen Jinkerson at kathleen.jinkerson@thetalent.co or (416) 342-1979.

New Talent Company_logo

For more information on The Talent Company please visit us at www.thetalent.co

February 2, 2016

The Top 8 Things Keeping Canadian Talent Acquisition Leaders Awake at Night?

teamwork business concept - cube assembling from blocks

As a former Talent Acquisition leader from a global Fortune 100 company and now an advisor to a large number of organizations around the globe on their recruitment strategies, programs and practices, I spend a great deal of my time meeting, networking and connecting with Talent Acquisition leaders on a daily basis.  I am fortunate to be exposed to many of the top Talent Acquisition thought leaders around the globe and am always keeping my ear to the ground on the latest Recruitment trends, challenges and best practices.

As part of The Talent Company’s core business and our continued commitment to elevate the Talent Acquisition function to higher standards of performance and professionalism, my colleagues and I were very excited to produce an in-depth study, our Pulse on Talent Acquisition.  Over the past 4 months, The Talent Company’s research team, met with 155 Talent Acquisition Leaders from across Canada within organizations of all sizes and across every industry asking them a number of questions related to the current state of their Recruitment function.

This is now the third major study The Talent Company has conducted on the latest trends and challenges within Human Resources.  Our past studies have included the HR Pulse and the Pulse on Leadership

We will be releasing the results from our full Talent Acquisition study over the next few months.  As a preview of our findings, here are the top 8 things keeping Canadian Talent Acquisition Leaders awake at night:

8) Lack of Candidate Pipelines and the Increasing Competition for Talent – There is definitely a growing concern over the current reactive and transactional state of recruitment within organizations. There is a lack of preparedness for the increase hiring demands by the business over the past number of months.  The limited budgets and resources dedicated to recruitment over the past few years have not allowed the function to proactively develop talent pipelines for key positions.  Talent Acquisition Leaders are concerned to see the changing labour market where candidates are in the driver’s seat and the function anticipates more candidates receiving multiple offers and/or counter offers as the market for talent continues to heat up.  The Leaders want to invest more budgets for candidate research solutions and talent sourcing practices but are continuing to be constrained by limited organizational budgets.

7) Lack of Qualitative Hiring Data – Organizational leaders want more quality of hire data and Talent Acquisition leaders are struggling to find the inputs, systems, and reporting platforms to capture, analyse and report the data.  The Recruitment functions are finding it a challenge to move from the traditionally used recruitment process measures (i.e. time-to-fill, interview to hire ratio, source of hire, etc.) to hiring outcome data focused on the quality of candidates hired into the organization.

6) Ineffective Recruitment Technologies & ATS – Talent Acquisition functions spend a large portion of their overall budgets on various technologies including their applicant tracking systems.  A significant number of Talent Acquisition leaders expressed frustration with the technologies currently in place within their function, which they say aren’t helping improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their recruitment practices and are in fact hurting the function.  Over 75% of Talent Acquisition leaders indicated they are not satisfied with their current ATS providers and said they are currently or in the next 12 months will be looking for a new provider.

5) Ineffective Candidate Assessments – Most Talent Acquisition leaders don’t have confidence in the candidate assessment tools their organizations are currently utilizing to predict candidate fit and future performance.  Leaders have tried a number of different candidate assessment tools currently in the market and feel they are often over sold by the assessment organization without meeting the anticipated results/outcomes.  The majority of Talent Acquisition leaders are currently looking for new candidate assessment providers for their organizations.

4) Organization Salary Levels Don’t Match Candidate Expectations in the Current Market – There is a growing frustration amongst Talent Acquisition leaders that the salary levels their teams are being asked to recruit talent for aren’t realistic to what the current talent in the market is looking for.  This challenge is preventing organizations from being competitive in the market for strong talent, particularly for hot and niche skills their business leaders say are critical for their organization.

3) Lack of Hiring Manager Engagement – Hiring Managers are a challenge at every organization.  From their unrealistic expectations on hiring skills and experience for their open roles, to the Talent Acquisition leaders’ lack of confidence in the majority of their Hiring Managers’ abilities to appropriately interview, assess and select the best candidates for their roles, Hiring Managers are doing more damage to the hiring process than good.  Most Talent Acquisition leaders indicate that the education and training of Hiring Managers in recruitment and selection will be top priority over the next few years.

2) Limited Capabilities of their Current Recruiters – Growing and developing their Recruiters into true business partners is the vision of many of the Talent Acquisition leaders we spoke with for this study.  The concern the leaders have is how they can get their Recruiters to be true business partners.   One of the key challenges they have is just the sheer high number of requisitions their recruiters are working on.  From the study, the average Recruiter is currently working on 28 open requisitions; however, that number jumps quickly with Recruiters working for large organizations (working on 40+ open requisitions at present).  There just isn’t the time to focus their Recruiters on being more consultative, influential and effective with the business.

1) Limited Capacity of the Function – Having to do more with less was the general theme amongst all the Talent Acquisition leaders participating in this study.  Tighter organizational budgets and headcount restrictions have greatly reduced the Recruitment functions ability to execute and deliver on the increasing expectations of the business.  Many of the Talent Acquisition leaders continue to look for ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the function while trying to realistically manage the business’s expectations of Recruitment.  But the ability of the Talent Acquisition function to meet the growing hiring demands of the organization without an increase in the overall investment is definitely the number one factor on the minds of Canadian Talent Acquisition leaders.

 

Stay tuned for more results from our Pulse on Talent Acquisition.   For more information about our recent Talent Acquisition study, please contact Kathleen Jinkerson at The Talent Company at (416) 342-1979 or kathleen.jinkerson@thetalent.co

 

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Simon Parkin is the Practice Leader for Recruitment, Talent and HR Solutions at The Talent Company – www.thetalent.co   Simon is recognized as a global thought leader in the acquisition and management of talent and has successfully transformed the Talent function for organizations of all sizes. Simon works closely with clients to build, develop and innovate their Recruitment, Talent and HR functions. He is a former global leader of Recruitment and Talent for a Fortune 100 company. Simon is a featured speaker at a number of HR and Recruitment conferences across North America and an author of many acclaimed articles on innovative Recruitment, Talent and HR trends and best practices. Simon’s full profile can be found at http://ca.linkedin.com/in/simonparkin1

For more information on The Talent Company please visit us at www.thetalent.co

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January 26, 2016

It Isn’t Just You…..Talent Acquisition is a Challenge for Every Organization and the First Step to Improve is to Admit it!

Uncovering the top talent within your organization

Each year on average, we work with 40 to 50 organizations on improving the way they recruit talent.  Our client list varies across different industries including high tech, healthcare, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, professional services and financial services.  The diversity of our client base is one of the great things about being part of The Talent Company.  One day we will work with one of the largest financial services organizations in the world looking for better ways to pipeline and attract the next generation of banking professionals and the next day we will work with a large North American greenhouse grower looking at new ways to attract and hire a flexible and scalable hourly workforce.  Our clients range in size from 200 employees to 200,000 employees and they do business locally, nationally or around the globe.

The 3 common premises that tie all of our clients together are:

  1. They recognize talent is the main driver of their organizational success;
  2. They recognize recruitment of talent is the key enabler of improving talent within their organizations;
  3. They recognize they need to improve in the way they recruit talent.

Every organization is challenged by Recruitment and no organization has ever mastered the talent acquisition function; if they say they have, then they are kidding themselves.  Many organizations can be considered “great” within certain aspects of their Recruitment functions but continue to have challenges with other aspects of their function.

Last week, I spoke at the national Canadian HR conference in Toronto in front of 700 HR professionals on Recruiting in a Competitive Market.  When I surveyed the room on how many of them felt their organizations were great at Recruitment, nobody in the room raised their hands.  When I asked the follow up question on how many of them felt their business leaders have put more pressure on HR to enhance their Recruitment function over the past year, every hand was raised.

Two years ago, The Talent Company produced an HR Pulse Study (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpJ2FlUBMSw) surveying both HR and Business leaders on a number of hot topics within Talent and HR.  When asked “What are the biggest HR/People Challenges Facing Your Organization”, 47% of Business Leaders responded with the Ability to Recruit New, Skilled Employees was their number one challenge.  Fast forward to a recent study by PWC where they found that 63% of CEOs worry that the availability of key skills will undermine their strategies and plans for growth and 93% of CEOs recognize the need to change their strategy for attracting and retaining talent.

It sounds to me like business leaders are realizing the impact Recruitment has on their organizational success and are recognizing the importance of changing their Recruitment strategies and practices.  As a Talent Acquisition professional the opportunity excites me.  As an advisor to Recruitment and HR Leaders at a number of organizations, my first piece of advice would be to take advantage of the changing attitudes within the business and develop a business case showing the different ways to improve the organizational strategy and focus on Recruitment, the required investment, and the corresponding returns for the organization on the enhanced investment.

The first step to every problem is to first admit there is a problem.  It sounds like more business leaders are recognizing there is a problem with Recruitment and a great leader of Recruitment can guide their organization through the required changes to improve the way they recruit talent.  Recruitment and hiring will continue to increase in difficulty in 2016 for organizations.  The smart organizations will be the ones looking for better ways to improve their Recruitment practices.

One final thought – I don’t fish but have always enjoyed hearing this quote on fishing, “If fishing was supposed to be easy it would have been called catching.”  I guess a similar premise applies to Talent Acquisition, “If the Recruitment function was supposed to be easy, the function would have been called Hiring.”

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Simon Parkin is the Practice Leader for Recruitment, Talent and HR Solutions at The Talent Company – www.thetalent.co    Simon is recognized as a global thought leader in the acquisition and management of talent and has successfully transformed the Talent function for organizations of all sizes. Simon works closely with clients to build, develop and innovate their Recruitment, Talent and HR functions. He is a former global leader of Recruitment and Talent for a Fortune 100 company. Simon is a featured speaker at a number of HR and Recruitment conferences across North America and an author of many acclaimed articles on innovative Recruitment, Talent and HR trends and best practices.

Simon’s full profile can be found at http://ca.linkedin.com/in/simonparkin1

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For more information on The Talent Company please visit us at www.thetalent.co

December 18, 2015

HR’s Top Priority for 2016 – Enhancing Talent Acquisition

Uncovering the top talent within your organization

As I was studying and beginning my HR career in the mid-2000’s I got tired of the often used term “the war for talent.” As a slightly naïve and optimistic individual I didn’t want to describe anything as a war and it seemed to me that describing talent acquisition as a process that set up conflict between talent and the business was short sighted.

In any case, the economic crash that began in 2008 quickly took care of that.

But the Canadian market has seen a few years of slow and steady increases in business activity resulting in an increased demand for talent. So, while I’m not advocating a “war for talent”, I will suggest that Business Leaders as well as HR and talent acquisition professionals need to significantly up their game if they want to attract the talent necessary to achieve their goals.

If you’re not mobile, you’re not in the game.

In a recent survey by the Pew Research Centre, 28% of respondents reported using a smartphone in their job search. To further quote this survey:

“while many of today’s job seekers are enlisting their smartphones to browse jobs or communicate with potential employers, others are using their mobile devices for far more complex and challenging tasks, from writing a resume to filling out an online job application.”

When you consider demographics and the prevalence of mobile browsing in general, this stat is actually higher in certain segments. For instance, 53% of 18-to-29 year olds have used a smartphone as part of a job search.

One reason for the lower than expected result in this survey? Company career sites just aren’t enabled for mobile browsing or applications. This forces applicants to track down a computer where they can confidentially apply or (increasingly) just move on to the next opportunity.

Reject checkbox recruiting

As an employer if you’re still looking for talent with a particular degree from a certain university or demanding experience in a particular version of a software program, it’s past time to ask yourself why. When there were more job seekers than jobs it was easy to layer preferred criteria on top of firm requirements and still build a strong short-list of candidates. While that may still be the case in some sectors, the tide is turning.

More importantly, this approach discourages diversity and innovation. Solution-focused candidates often bow out, left with the impression that you favour process over results.

I’m not advocating that you eliminate requirements completely. Focus on what those requirements demonstrate. Are you looking for evidence of specific results, behaviours or motivation? Then frame it that way and look for the candidates that can demonstrate those abilities.

Business Leaders need to own talent acquisition.

This one will be uncomfortable for both HR and the Business equally. Business Leaders need to take greater responsibility for talent acquisition.

To emphasize this point further, in The Talent Company’s recent Talent Acquisition Practices Study only 5% of companies surveyed responded that the Business/Hiring Managers owned talent acquisition.

I think that most companies recognize that Hiring Managers need to make individual hiring decisions, with the support of HR, talent acquisition and peers. But Business Leaders also need to be more involved in other talent acquisition activities such as employment branding, acting as an ambassador for the organization and building proactive pipelines of talent.

In return, as a true business partner, HR and talent acquisition teams must be accountable for enterprise-wide talent acquisition strategy (formulated to align to business strategy) as well as advising, facilitating, training and coaching Business Leaders on effective talent acquisition behaviours.

 

Talent acquisition has always been a top priority for HR. But with current market trends, and the reality of lean teams, HR and talent acquisition professionals have to be strategic in their focus and where they invest their resources. The three trends that we’ve identified here are becoming increasingly critical and, in our opinion, are past due.

The Talent Company works with organizations every day to help them optimize talent acquisition. Through our consulting work, research and networking we can see that greater progress is still required so that talent acquisition practices can meet the demands of the business.

So, as we prepare for the new year, I challenge you: What are you doing as an HR or talent acquisition professional to create true business partnerships and to ensure that your organization is attracting the talent it needs to meet your goals?

 

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Kathleen Jinkerson is the Director of HR & Talent Solutions with The Talent Company, a human resources consulting firm that works closely with clients to develop, optimize and innovate their Talent practices. Kathleen possesses more than 10 years of experience in partnering with organizations to help them build their talent capacity as well as their HR and leadership teams.

For more information on The Talent Company and our customized solutions, visit http://www.thetalent.co

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December 10, 2015

HR’s Top Priority for 2016 – Engaging all of HR to be true Business Partners

HR’s Top Priority for 2016 – Engaging all of HR to be true Business Partners

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I predict that 2016 will continue to be a period of change and transformation for Human Resources functions. This is true across organizations of all sizes, industries and business models.  I have been an HR and Talent professional for over 20 years; during this time I have worked with some of the top organizations around the globe, across many different industries. I can confidently say that 2015 has been one of the busiest years for all of our four Advisory Practices (HR, Leadership Development, Recruitment, and Total Rewards) since our inception 8 years ago.

Organizations are continuing to come out of the economic slowdown. We are finding that with many of our clients their business’s expectations of their Human Resources team has increased and evolved.  Whether HR likes it or not, the “bar” is set higher now for HR to meet the business’s expectations within their organizations.  The current reality within most organizations is that HR is still struggling for additional headcount to be allocated to their function to meet the increased demands from the business.   Unfortunately, the business isn’t interested in hearing how HR is stretched so thin these days, with limited resources, and their demands are only going to grow in the years ahead.  HR needs to ensure their function is fully optimized, not just in terms of resourcing but also in skills and competencies.

So as an HR professional, focus on what the business needs versus what you think they should want.  Prioritize HR’s focus for 2016. Don’t try and boil the ocean………select the critical initiatives that will have the greatest positive impact on the business and focus on them.  Don’t try and tackle everything at once, have a plan for 2016 and ensure the business is in complete alignment with the plan.  For the plan to succeed, the business needs to buy-in to the “why” of the plan and be surrounded by effective business partners who execute the plan alongside the business.

For HR to step up to meet the business needs in 2016, this is an opportunity for HR to re-engage itself with the business and develop their HR resources to be more effective as true Business Partners in their roles regardless of their specialization within the HR function.  It shouldn’t matter if your HR resources are specialists or generalists, if they are managers or coordinators, if they are in Total Rewards or in Recruitment or Talent. Every role within an HR function should be focused as a Business Partner in the way they work.

I partner with a number of Colleges and Universities across North America on improving the content in their Human Resources program curriculum geared towards educating students of HR.  Unfortunately very few of the HR programs I have encountered had any content geared towards teaching students of HR on being an effective business partner.  Most of the programs are geared towards learning the various specialty areas of focus within Human Resources but very little on the desired behaviours of a great HR business partner.  The most successful HR professionals are effective business partners and if we want to elevate the function to the next level, we need to ensure all HR professionals are focused on being a true partner to the business.

Here are the top 4 steps to follow to become more effective as a true Business Partner within your role as an HR professional:

 

1 – Understand the Business

  • Understand how your organization makes money.
  • Understand the barriers the business faces when it comes to making more money in your organization.
  • Listen and translate the business’s needs directly for your area of focus. Understand the part your role plays in reducing these barriers allowing the business to make more money.

 

2 – Be a Coach to the Business

 

  • Business Partners focus on long-term relationship building rather than a specific transaction or project. Always be focused on the outcome – not simply the process.
  • Don’t be a barrier, be an enabler. Enable your business to be successful. Be a Business Partner who works with the business on improving their effectiveness and being successful.
  • Great Business Partners are always prepared. Be prepared to ask smart questions. Be prepared to challenge assumptions. Be prepared to apply your judgement. The business is buying your judgement, not just your time.
  • Business Partners know how to read the “mood” of the business.
  • “Trust” is the most critical aspect in the relationship you have with the business. Being known for your integrity is the most important factor in being a successful Business Partner.

 

3 – Be a Consultant to the Business

 

  • Be an expert – recognize you are your organization’s expert in your HR area of focus. Invest in your own development to enhance your own expertise – know the market trends, what your competition and other industry leaders are doing within your HR area of focus. Network, network and network. It’s the best way to learn how trending practices are being successfully implemented.
  • Business Partners always provide their customers with Value – your relationship with the business is never more stable than when your business trusts you completely to take care of them.
  • Be accessible. A good Business Partner’s voice is comforting. They are easy to find. They promptly return calls and emails with a sense of urgency.
  • Set realistic expectations with the business – don’t be all talk with no action.

 

4 – Don’t Be Afraid to Deliver Tough Messages to the Business

 

  • The business hates unhappy surprises much more than timely bad news – don’t be afraid to be honest with the business.
  • The business is NOT always right – don’t agree with the business just because they are your client. Always remember you are an expert within your role and the business needs to hear your message even if it won’t be popular.

 

Each of these steps are simple to state but actually pretty tough to successfully execute. The Talent Company provides a number of development and training programs for corporate HR teams including a program specifically focused on HR professionals becoming more effective business partners.

We work with organizations every day to help them prepare their HR, Talent, Recruitment and Total Rewards functions to be more effective in meeting the demands of their businesses.  As an HR, Recruitment, Talent or Total Rewards professional, what are you doing to become a more effective Business Partner in 2016?

 

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Simon Parkin is the Practice Leader for Recruitment, Talent and HR Solutions at The Talent Company – www.thetalent.co  Simon is recognized as a global thought leader in the acquisition and management of talent and has successfully transformed the Talent function for organizations of all sizes. Simon works closely with clients to build, develop and innovate their Recruitment, Talent and HR functions. He is a former global leader of Recruitment and Talent for a Fortune 100 company. Simon is a featured speaker at a number of HR and Recruitment conferences across North America and an author of many acclaimed articles on innovative Recruitment, Talent and HR trends and best practices. Simon’s full profile can be found at http://ca.linkedin.com/in/simonparkin1

For more information on The Talent Company please visit us at www.thetalent.co

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