How many times have you heard the phrase ‘Our people are our best asset'? And how many of the businesses claiming this can, hand on heart admit to investing the necessary resources to protect and nurture this asset? Many will claim this to be the case. After all, people are key to the continued success of most businesses. Equally, a lack of people resources or, perhaps the lack of talent for a specific role can often leave an organisation exposed, temporarily at risk and haemorrhaging productivity.
Outstanding people, as distinct from best, good or average, are hard to find and similarly hard to keep. Yet it's the very same people who make the difference between success and failure. It's their performance that counts. Whether your task is to cultivate the rising stars or to discover new talent you are faced with the challenge of managing sensitive and sometimes capricious individuals. However, even when you do your best to manage them - some of the buggers leave. So, what do you do then?
Different businesses react in different ways. The ‘Busy Bees', those consumed with the day-to-day demands, are likely to recognise the need to bring new talent on board but then get sidetracked. The ‘Traditionalists' will typically turn to a headhunter – a proven solution, but one that can cost dear, both in time and money. A third approach is exemplified by the ‘Activists', people who recognise the business needs to plug a skills gap quickly and who recognise the talent trends within their business and, critically, move rapidly to find solutions.
Like the Activists, instead of treating resignations as unexpected, we've developed some ways of smoothing the changes in staff you experience. We've also turned our attention to how you can maximise your chances of keeping the top talent you recruit. Called ‘Seventh Sense Recruitment', it's a faster, more efficient way to recruit. It predicts the talent needs within a business and factors in those unpredictable surprises where a stellar employee decides his ascendancy will be best served elsewhere. More than plugging a skills gap, Seventh Sense considers the recruitment process in the context of the industry and business trends as well as understanding what the enterprise is trying to achieve and its modus operandi.
Fundamental to the success of Seventh Sense is the need to creatively identify and sustain a deep pool of excellent potential candidates for the business. The source of these candidates varies. It can include any one or a combination of the following: identifying internal candidates, advertising in trade journals or broadsheets, incentivising recommendations from existing employees, enlisting support of trade, professional and academic bodies, word of mouth, press searches – and more. Whichever the sources, the process requires careful monitoring and management for fast, successful results.
Often overlooked is the fact that each source offers the opportunity to create generic interest in a business as well as specific interest in a targeted position, thereby increasing brand awareness and building a talent pool for both the immediate and longer-term. Planning how best to keep in touch with these potential candidates so as to maintain their interest is also important and ensures an even better return on investment.
So, consider for a moment: What is the value of making improvements to your asset management? What is it worth to your business to shrink the time critical roles are left unfilled or to reduce the stress on managers who are carrying additional responsibilities? How could you benefit from a cadre of outstanding talent ready to respond to new opportunities?
Interesting isn't it? Now, don't let the value slip away.
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