We’re looking to expand our HR team with some good HR specialists shortly. How do we improve our strike rate in a competitive market?
We’re looking to expand our HR team with some good HR specialists shortly. How do we improve our strike rate in a competitive market?
– Recruitment manager in finance, Sydney
Along with most other knowledge workers, top HR professionals are in demand. As has been well documented, the general employment market remains strong with unemployment rates at a 29 year low with this trend set to continue in most industries. Demand in the professions in areas as varied as accounting, engineering, finance, and the law is strong. High quality human resource professionals are also being actively targeted by companies in most industries to strategise attraction, selection, retention, reward and development strategies that will offer a competitive advantage in a talent short market.
The recruitment strategies that have worked well in the past may no longer be sufficient to attract and retain candidates in a labour short market. There are some key issues to think about when recruiting high calibre HR talent.
The recruitment process is not a one sided discussion. Companies should abandon the inclination to run HR selection processes with an attitude that it’s a one way decision with the main draw card for candidates being wages alone. Many companies aren’t positively engaging candidates from the very first interview. HR candidates, like most others, are looking for the first interview to reinforce their interest, not deflate it. Other areas that are turn offs for candidates include:
• Meandering interview timetables and processes that are not well defined at the start in terms of the number of stages and periods.
• Long time delays between interviews. Awareness needs to be developed that interviewing talent at the back end of a process is a priority, not something to be fitted into available blank spots in diaries.
• Meetings with HR and business leaders that don’t engage HR candidates with a ‘vision’ for what is trying to be achieved.
• A general non-appreciation that the company has to ‘sell’ itself to HR candidates – it’s a two way decision after all.
The companies that have a well defined and managed HR recruitment process with a ‘wow’ impact at the end are attracting and securing top HR talent. Some companies are attracting talent in spite of the recruitment process and others are missing out because candidates become disengaged in the process. It is after all, a talent short market!
Commitment also has to be there for HR to make an impact. HR is being asked to step up to the plate and offer solutions to the business and develop a competitive advantage in a talent short market. One of the key turn-ons for HR practitioners is that the business recognises the importance of this contribution and can clearly articulate this during the recruitment process. One of the key reasons that HR practitioners look elsewhere in the market is if their business hasn’t grasped that acquiring, selecting, developing and retaining talent isn’t as straightforward as it has been in the past. HR professionals are looking to work for companies that are committed to employing high quality HR strategies.
A high quality HR employment brand also helps. One of the most important issues in recruiting top talent in a competitive market is building an employment brand that reaches out to candidates. In the HR market, companies that are addressing their employment brand at the macro level are reaping the benefits with talented practitioners generally being interested in talking with these companies. In truth, most candidates will be open to discuss roles with blue chip companies with a good ‘HR brand’ if the job sounds interesting. Some companies understand that the individual recruitment experience should be as ‘slick’ as the employment brand marketing – many don’t.
The main conclusion that can be drawn is that organisations need to acknowledge that recruitment is no longer a process where only applicants are required to present their case – companies must also ‘sell’ their employee value propositions. Attracting HR talent in a competitive market requires a two way conversation where the organisation’s ability to sell the benefits is just as important as the candidate’s ability to sell themselves. Organisations also need to be looking at offering flexibility, diversity and new forms of employment within a restricted labour market.
Companies that address some of these matters will significantly improve their HR talent acquisition conversation rate.
By Craig Mason, director, The Next Step. www.thenextstep.com.au.
