Hiring the right Talent at the right time is a key element of establishing and maintaining competitive advantage for any business, yet many companies concentrate on their new business and business development strategies while adopting a purely tactical and reactive approach to Talent Acquisition. An approach which often wastes time, resource and money. In fact a strategic & intelligent approach to hiring Talent is increasingly a vital component of the business mix and the most successful 21st century businesses are those who understand this.
So as a Business Leader or HR Director what should you be focussing on right now?
Here are my 6 Top Tips for Talent Acquisition in 2017.
- Monitor the True Cost of recruitment to your business. Until recently the emphasis has been on the “cost per hire” metric but the true cost of recruitment is actually more complex and includes time-to-hire and 1st year attrition (newly hire candidates leaving within the first 12 months). In addition, a report carried out by Oxford Economics reveals that replacing members of staff incurs significant costs for employers: £30,614 per employee. There are two main factors that make up this cost: The Cost of Lost Output while a replacement employee gets up to speed and The Logistical Cost of recruiting and absorbing a new worker.*
- Maximise transparency between internal recruiting stakeholders (C-Suite and Hiring Managers, HR and Recruitment functions) and external stakeholders (Recruitment Consultancies & Candidates). Extended time-to-hire often stems from a lack of clarity between these stakeholders resulting in inefficiencies. Lingering positions lead to lost productivity – and a loss of revenue.
- Understand the drivers and motivations of your prospective employees to pro-actively target top talent pools on an ONGOING basis. Building an up to date Talent pipeline adds real value to your business just as building your New Business pipeline does.
- Think “Talent First.” Bringing the best Talent in to your business is not a “procurement” function. Increasingly the most successful companies are those who understand how to build an Employer Value Proposition to attract top talent – and this needs to be aligned with your Marketing and PR to create a consistent message to potential clients/customers AND potential recruits. In the Social Media age your potential hires are informed and well researched in the same way that your potential clients/customers are. Make sure what they find out about your business is an inducement to join you – not a turn-off.
- Invest now to save later. Establish key recruitment systems, processes policies and procedures early on in your company’s growth. Start-ups take note! Growing via the founders’ own “little black book” of contacts may work at the very early stages of the business but many VC’s will want to see a robust and future-proof Talent Strategy including systems and processes in place before granting next round funding. And even if you are not seeking outside funding to grow your business you will still benefit from getting it right early on rather than trying to patch things up later.
- Keep your valuable existing people happy. Talent Retention is not only an important part of controlling your overall talent costs, but in today’s talent market where your prospective qualified hires can and will research you on social media as part of their decision making journey, it’s also a key part of your Employer Branding. So keeping your current employees happy isn’t just good for morale and for productivity– it’s good for your Talent Acquisition strategy too.
*http://www.hrreview.co.uk/hr-news/recruitment/it-costs-over-30k-to-replace-a-staff-member/50677
Claire Griffin Talent Ltd. www.clairegriffintalent.com works in collaboration with Prolific People Ltd http://prolificpeople.co.uk/ to help businesses recruit smarter, save time and reduce costs. Our TALENT CONSULT Service helps growing businesses lay the foundations to effectively plan, identify and attract great talent efficiently and transparently for the long term. And via our TALENT SEARCH service we specialise in recruiting for Client Services, Business Development, Strategy, Product, Operations and Leadership talent for digital Creative and Technology businesses in London, Brighton and across EMEA.