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:
- They recognize talent is the main driver of their organizational success;
- They recognize recruitment of talent is the key enabler of improving talent within their organizations;
- 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
For more information on The Talent Company please visit us at www.thetalent.co
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