ACQUIRING TALENTS IS JUST A PIECE OF CAKE

Talent Acquisition, the well acquainted phrase and globally used across Industries clearly indicates the need of acquiring

talents for their manpower requirements. Recruitment is perceived as a herculean task by companies when the gap between

Production/Operations and HR is apparent, due to several reasons like lack of understanding of job specification, the

recruiter is short-skilled, zero brand value of the employer in the market, bad practices followed in-house spread to the

outside world and a non-conducive work ambience. All these would add on to the woes of a company’s hiring requirement.

Techniques like Psychometrics and its application, Competency based hiring practices in recruitment etc. could help filter out

candidates who would not be a potential resource. These mechanisms could never be perceived as a foolproof tool for the

intelligent lot who are good enough in getting past this hurdle. Hiring an enthusiast and a highly productive resource is what

all companies aim for, but seldom succeed in achieving this goal ending up being complacent with what is available around. If

this is what the Tier 1 companies face, I leave it your imagination to discern what the ‘not so known’ and new companies

would be facing. What the latter would finally get to assess for their manpower needs is a talent pool filtered out by the Tier

1, Tier 2/3 companies compromising on efficiency, integrity and even productivity. Recruiters need to spend quality time

researching on non-conventional sourcing modes to bypass competition at least to a certain extent which certainly would

yield good results.

I recollect a conversation with a Catholic Parish Priest in India who told me about a recruiter from a Tier 1 company who had

organized a recruitment campaign in the Church premises with his permission a few months back. The selection strategy

adopted by the recruiter got him more than what he was looking for. On one side, you will find the parishioners trusting the

recruiters campaign as its been approved by the Parish Priest and on the other side by sheer word of mouth, the message of

a potential vacancy gets spread amongst the community especially on a busy Sunday where people tend to share

pleasantries with one another soon after the Eucharistic celebration(aka mass). In this case, the primary skill that the

recruiter was looking at was good ‘English speaking resources”, for which he had to be around soon after the mass (Eucharist)

celebrated in English. I was overwhelmed by the Priest’s response when he told me that against 50 vacancies, the recruiter

ended up getting 73 potential resources. The recruiter in this scenario is left with a balance 23, which he could capitalize on

in the event of attrition. To my surprise, the recruiter in this context is a non-Christian who did his home work very well to

understand how things work on a Sunday at a local Parish thronged by parishioners on a Sunday before hitting bulls-eye.

Recruiters need to be good researchers as well than just being facilitators or merely being a sales person. A good researcher

is an enabler and would always keep refining his strategies looking at new ways to tap potential resources from the market. A

recruiter cum researcher has the potential advantage of staying in a highly competitive market where everyone is fishing for

the best tuna (talent) and from the same water where the results are more or less predictable. In adverse market conditions,

a recruiter following the conventional path would find the going getting tough every day. A recruiter cum researcher would

possess the qualities viz high levels of confidence, optimism, perseverance, multi-tasking, fire in the belly and a pragmatic

approach whilst assessing alternatives. He would by default have a contingency plan; ensuring business goes on as usual

providing the required manpower for the company on time. A wrong hire would end up taxing the company’s Income

Statement (Profit & Loss account). Hiring a good resource with a good attitude and possessing the right mindset not just to

excel but to go beyond and prove oneself as an outstanding resource is the “dream come true” of all recruiters. If this is not

what a recruiter is aiming for, the cost of attrition is an aspect which would always lie unattended and ends up in filling up a

pot with a hole at its bottom; you just keep filling it again and again without arresting the cause. Once the right candidate is

on-boarded, then comes the task of giving a proper orientation to the new hire, training the new hire for the job (not

applicable if it’s a tenured resource), setting Key Result Areas for the employee thereby aligning one’s tasks to the greater

objective/ organization’s goal, analyze performance, provide feedback periodically, plug gaps identified during assessment

and provide re-training/ training for skill up-gradation if required, reward good performance including a job promotion and

encourage employees to move up the career ladder and become the best ambassadors carrying the

values and owning up the company’s vision.

Let’s look at some of the sparsely discussed attributes which need to be kept in mind whilst hiring and nurturing manpower.

Simulation of a filial relationship works

Man is a social animal and what makes him different from the wilder beasts is his intelligence and civilized nature. A filial

relationship (parent-child) simulated at work but keep an employee highly motivated with a great feel of being taken care of,

understood and rewarded. In a family, the parent-child relationship works wonders if it goes the proper way resulting in

creating a wonderful personality. The basic framework of a family if simulated at work in an employer-employee relationship

would work wonders. A word of caution here would be to not trust your instincts as it might not yield the expected results if

diplomacy and bureaucracy supersedes merit, equal treatment and honesty. This might also find less applicability in the west

where relationships are built on social distances/ space maintained between people where mutual respect precedes any

other aspect.

Marriage of Talent Acquisition & Talent Management

Talent Acquisition should always function as a healthy conduit providing a steady flow of healthy resources to make the

system work well. The Talent Management team keeps interacting with employees on-boarded by the Talent Acquisition

(Hiring) team and helps the employee experience the “life cycle” at work engaging them at work, creating an ambience

where there is fun at work, look at ways of nurturing the innate potential of candidates (music, arts, sports etc.), conduct

appraisals on time, reward the best performers and encourage average performers to scale up and beat the best, bridge gaps

in communication, ensure that the employee is treated well from an organization’s standpoint, by his supervisor and also by

his peers. Well documented and properly communicated policies/ procedures would support this endeavor creating an

environment totally conducive for the employee. This could only be achieved by the Talent Acquisition Team working in

tandem with the Talent Management team.

Employer branding and Corporate ambassadors

An employee who is treated well by his employer would automatically become an ambassador as this is something which

should come from within and without persuasion. Knowing the companies CXO crowd, the revenue (if it’s a public company),

global footprints, awards won by the company, initiatives and employee friendly policies, commitment to the society,

employee headcount, headquarters and other important key facts would help the employee speak for his employer during a

confab which would spread goodwill about the company to the society one belongs to. A happy resource would always look

ways to know his company better. When many tongues speak the same language it results in creating another global brand

to be known as the “Best Employer”. The role played by the recruitment team members even before hiring (pre-hiring phase)

finds immense significance here. An enlightened recruiter would be able to position the brand he represents resulting in a

potential hire or getting a prospect through references. Either way, it works. A recruiter is the best face of any company and

its better if the face is put forth as real and without a mask.

Being empathetic at entrance and exit

All companies do focus their efforts in making the first day at work a delightful experience but there are very few

organizations concerned about making their exit/ separation a better experience than the first day. I’ve had employees

meeting up with me during exit interviews confiding that the last working day was the worst experience they’ve ever had and

would have a second thought joining the company sometime in future because of the bitter experience. This could also

spread around resulting in a prospective employee preferring another company to yours. I recollect a beautiful statement

made by a CEO of an MNC, a Global CEO from Harvard with whom I was associated with sometime back. He said, “When you

terminate an employee on disciplinary grounds or reject an employee during hiring, do so with compassion and an

empathetic gesture”. I have since then, followed it to this day which not only encourages an employee to come back again

for assessment but also leaves an indelible mark of magnanimity exhibited by the employer.

A legacy left behind

The greatest treasure an organization could boast about is directly proportional to the highly skilled, enthusiastic, loyal

workforce it has. This also stands applicable for those who’ve left the organization for various reasons but still cherish the

beautiful moments they’ve had with your company. The goodwill lingers and gets spread like wild fire leaving a wonderful

legacy behind. The role played by the recruitment team in hiring the best resource to an organization has a better outcome

than it is being reckoned to this day solely because the goodwill earned is unfathomable.

The aforementioned attributes if pondered well and stored in the recruiter’s grey cells would make Talent Acquisition/ Hiring

a pleasant experience for both the recruiter and the candidate. For the recruiter, it would soon become his piece of cake.

Copyright reserved by Dr. Anish Mathew John (AFJPJ5518E, Chembanal)

Dr. Anish Mathew John is a seasoned HR Professional with more than a decade’s industry experience and currently manages the

HR function for an IT/ITes company. He also practices Psychotherapy & Counseling in India, which he is passionate about.