Your Business Issue:
Hiring AND Retaining Winning Talent
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Talent...in its most simple definition talent is any individual who has the capability to make a significant difference to the current and future performance of the company.
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It is no wonder that more and more organizations are realizing the importance of good talent as a competitive edge. The scary thing is that in the next 10 years, HR professionals expect three out of 10 employees in their organization’s workforce to retire. That’s a lot of talent leaving organizations.
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| Are you ready to replace these individuals without sacrificing productivity? Customer service? |
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In these tough and competitive times, and certainly in tight labor markets, the need to hire the right talent the first time must be a top organizational strategy.
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Some Perspective
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Selection is the process of choosing individuals with the right qualifications to fill jobs. Without qualified employees, the organization’s success suffers. To put this in perspective let’s look at some HR truisms:
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Hire tough, manage easy. It is true; the amount of time, effort and energy that you put into the hiring process may make management of your new employees much less difficult because many problems will be eliminated up front.
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Good training will not make up for a bad hire. When the right individuals are not hired for jobs, employers have much more difficulty trying to fill the gap with training.
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Eventually these poor hires are turned over, either voluntarily or involuntarily, and they have to be replaced. Turnover adds to a company’s costs in numerous ways. One study indicates that 45% of surveyed employers estimate annual turnover cost to be $10,000 to $45,000 per employee. For higher-level professionals and executives the cost can run as much as two times the annual salary of each individual.
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Organizations who can manage their human capital by hiring right the first time have the competitive edge. And, when employees are matched with the right jobs, then the amount and quality of work is more positive. All of this affects your bottom line.
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Some of the inappropriate and poor tactics I have come across in consulting with line managers, supervisors and even some executives about their hiring/interviewing processes are appalling and unbelievable. Here are some actual examples of interview questions:
“What church do you go to?”
“What will your husband think of you working long hours?”
“What nationality are you?”
“Are your kids going to be a problem in making it to work on time?”
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Needless to say, these questions don’t get at the heart of identifying talent, and they drive potential talent away. Interviewing is just one of many issues in the hiring process that needs to be addressed.
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A Solution
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Ownership of talent management and sound hiring practices begins with top management who builds a culture of shared accountability among managers and supervisors. HR plays a role in making sure that managers clearly understand the role they are expected to play.
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The components of a sound hiring process might look something like this:
- A process for defining what you are looking for – typically a position description, job competencies, and questioning strategies.
- A plan for the interview process – hiring strategy, sourcing, resume screening, the interview team, and identification of the great reasons to work here.
- Attention to the steps in conducting the interview – establishing an appropriate climate, conducting the interview, and responding to challenging interviewee questions.
- A process for making the selection – decision- making guidelines, evaluating the candidates, and communicating with candidates.
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The organizational impact of talent management beginning with the hiring process is significant.
- Establishes efficiency in the time to hire qualified candidates.
- Maximizes productivity in finding the right fit the first time.
- Ensures team cohesion by involving team members in a shared process.
- Increases retention of new talent.
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Remember, selection decisions are an important part of successful talent management – perhaps the most important part.
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Talent is only the starting point.
- Irving Berlin
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So How Do We Make the Right Hiring Decision?
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A successful hiring process doesn’t start with the job posting and doesn’t end when a candidate has been selected. Before an open position is advertised, an efficient and consistent hiring process must be in place. That process will enable a manager to identify the job competencies, build the interview questions, and develop the hiring strategy required to win a really qualified new employee who performs well and fits in from day one.
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And What About Holding Onto the Right People?
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In today’s aggressive business environment remaining competitive is “top of mind” for most executives. To remain competitive, you have to hire truly talented people and then you have to keep them. Turnover is not only costly in terms of replacement expense; it impacts productivity, and it’s demoralizing to other team members when they see good people leaving the organization.
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Retaining the Right People!
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Most team leaders are unaware of the total disruptive and financial nature of the loss of a valued team member. Hidden costs and impacts are often overlooked. For example, a team member doesn’t normally just up and leave an organization. A team member actually considers leaving three to six months before resigning, and productivity declines because the individual is no longer a committed team member. This impacts other team members and team morale. |
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If these are problems you've encountered, it makes sense to study the best ways to hire and retain the right people - it's your business at stake!
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Our Recommendation?
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Hiring Winning Talent & Retaining Winning Talent - two courses designed to talk you over the hurdles of these critical business processes.
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Click on each title for a detailed summary of the course or
view them side by side here
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Together, these courses pack a one-two punch!
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We invite you to contact ALD for more information or to preview either course
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Sources: Lockwood, Nancy R. (July, 2005). Talent Management: Overview, http:/www.shrm.org. Grossman, Robert J. (July, 1999). Ensuring a Fast Start. HR Magazine. (44)7. Hiring Winning Talent (2006), Vital Learning Corporation Mathis, Robert L. and Jackson, John H. (2006). Human Resource Management, Eleventh Ed., Thomson Southwestern.
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