As a workforce strategy consultant in the recruiting and staffing industry, I have the opportunity to help companies define their strategies and execute their plans to acquire and retain their most valuable assets — their people. During these meetings I have come to expect a few regulars seated around the boardroom table: company executives, human resources leadership, talent acquisition teams and a few extra-engaged (read: upset) hiring managers who, for one reason or another, cannot find the talent they need to meet their department’s goals and objectives.
These meetings always start with the same question: “How do we bring in more talent?” A couple of minutes into the discussion, they’ll ask themselves, “How do we stop the talent we have from leaving our company to join _____ (the latest trendy company offering its employees unlimited PTO and energy drinks)?” Eventually someone will declare that there is just not enough top talent in Utah, and complain that government and/or workforce organizations ought to be doing more to fix this problem. Invariably, questions are directed then toward me, and I am asked, “Why can’t we just pull people out of a hat and put them to work?” This is a fundamental flaw: the placement of responsibility on outside forces to solve problems rooted within the organization itself. This misplacement of accountability significantly reduces the chances that they’ll reach an effective and timely solution to this problem. No government agency, community organization or external resource can solely solve a company’s hiring challenges! The solution most often comes from within your company.
Your Talent Marketing Strategy: Even in this ultra-competitive marketplace, many employers seem to have the expectation that candidates should be beating down their door for an opportunity. They forget that the best candidates have plenty of options, and unless their company’s strategy is about the transparent pursuit of the right potential employee, often the candidate the hiring manager really wants doesn’t even know they’re interested. When your industry’s top performers are being courted and receiving job offers from your direct competitors, you and your passive approach will be outmatched even if you are the superior choice.
Too often, companies try to sell the candidates on the job by getting them excited about the culture (using job perks like ping-pong tables in the breakroom and desk massages as their primary selling points) instead of focusing on how the candidate can utilize and expand unique skillsets with your specific organization. Selling your company culture instead of the job sets a bad tone, and when a brand-new hire sees a culture that is too relaxed or a workplace with an unclear mission statement and objectives, they wonder if they have sold themselves short.
Your best candidates are not motivated by the trivial; they want stability, consistency and the chance to do great things in concert with great people. Smart companies are advertising their job opportunities using the mentality of their ideal job candidate: someone who is driven with the right mindset and character. To find and attract that person, you must highlight how your company exactly aligns with what that person wants to accomplish when they go to work every day.
Your Own Personal Talent Pool: As the owner of a recruiting and staffing agency, I make my living by bringing new and fresh talent into an organization; however, I will typically tell a client they should first look inside their organization to fill the role in question. Your organization is filled with engaged torch-bearers who are already infatuated with you, your message, culture and leadership. Frankly, if your organization doesn’t cultivate a culture of seeking to promote from within, your people will soon be looking for advancement elsewhere anyway.
By establishing an organized mentorship and transparent roadmap for advancement, you will decrease turnover, increase morale and engage your most important people. Your top employees want to work toward something, and more importantly, they want you to notice their hard work. In addition to motivating with advancement opportunities, using tools like tuition reimbursement, internships and job shadows are all ways to show your high level of commitment to your employees’ success. Simply put, employees will invest in a company that will invest in them. Knowing this, you have an opportunity to be proactive, and be first to the table with that investment.
Leveraging Strategic Partnerships: This should go without saying. Anyone who does not have your company’s best interests at heart has no business communicating with the talent you want working with you. Too often, especially in my industry, companies get burned by partners looking after their own bottom line before their clients’. Partnering with staffing firms is obviously an advantage, which is why statistics show 90 percent of U.S. companies leverage those services, but partners will only be as successful as the level to which you are willing and able to engage them. They need to have a strong grasp of your culture and benefits, have an in-depth knowledge of job requirements and have a synergistic relationship with your hiring manager.
Your staffing agency should be considered an extension of your HR department and help your brand, not hurt it. Just one substandard conversation with a recruiter who shares inaccurate information, mis-schedules an interview or incorrectly communicates job details ends up reflecting poorly on your company, not the recruiters'. Not only does their unprofessional experience leave a bad impression about your company with the candidate and anyone they know or come in contact with, but it will also leave one with every single person who reads their scathing review of your business on Glassdoor or Google.
In this market, finding a true partner who is willing to strategize on your behalf, point out potential weaknesses in your employment initiatives and philosophies, cast your recruitment net even wider and build you customized recruitment and retention plans, is worth their weight in gold. Taking ownership and striving for improvement is an absolute must in your staffing partnership. If you’re working with someone who is not providing this type of collaboration, it’s safe to assume your reputation in the market is volatile and could already be suffering.
Accountability is about taking matters into your own hands and focusing on solutions within your control. Ergo, if companies don’t take accountability in addressing their struggle to recruit and retain talent and instead place the responsibility on the shoulders of an external source, they will find it significantly more difficult to achieve workforce initiatives. Even with a nationwide shortage of engaged employees, there are companies who are overflowing with qualified applicants. How? They are the ones utilizing transparent marketing strategies catered to attracting top talent, developing and promoting their current employees and creating trusting partnerships with outside entities. Make sure you are one of those companies, too.
Aubrey Robison is the owner of the Boise office of Spherion Staffing and vice president over the five Utah offices.