Talent: From recruitment to attraction - Here's how

| 25 Mar 2019

In today's era when lots of candidates' profiles are easily accessible through platforms such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor, we can get connected to a ton of potential candidates. The key to success is how to attract them.

Everal Peh, an HR practitioner in the insurance industry, shares her insights with Asia Advisers Network.

10 years ago, we used the term recruiting which simply means to get someone to join your workforce. Today, recruiting alone is just not sustainable anymore. It is all about talent acquisition now.

The goal should not be just to fill the headcount for your organisation but to find the right headcount to ensure the best fit.

Here are some ways to help you in building and attracting the right talent to contribute, sustain and grow with your organisation.

Understanding your needs – getting the right skills set

Building a job description is the number one item in all to-do list of a typical hiring manager. It is also the most important step in recruiting talent.

Any job description can recruit just anyone but a relevant and right job description not only help to recruit anyone but someone who has the right and proper skills set to perform the job.

A normal job description denotes the key responsibilities of an individual as well as the key characteristics that are required for the job.  Whilst, a good job description amplify not just the responsibilities but the challenges and opportunities of the role.

Talented individuals are always attracted to challenges and opportunities because they constantly seek growth.  

Culture and values

There is no good or bad employee but the right fit or misfit employee. The first factor that decides if your employee stays for 3 months, 1 year or 5 years depends a lot on the organisation’s culture and values.

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Many survey results on the tenure of one’s employment and show that if anyone were to stay in a company for 7 years, they are unlikely to leave and will continue to stay on.

This could be largely due to culture and values. An organisation’s culture and values stipulate the energy, vibes and direction for employees.

An individual might accept or try to embrace a particular culture and values because they are trying to cooperate with everyone. But they will feel uncomfortable and such feeling is often hard to disguise and pretend. The only explanation is because one truly feels uncomfortable in there.

Often, we are unable to ‘get used’ to a certain culture or values over a prolonged period of time. Therefore, after a significant amount of years, we could clearly observe that people who did not fit into the culture and values of the company typical leave within 2-3 years and an individual who surpasses that time period generally are about to continue and contribute within their capacity.

Therefore, setting and understanding your organisation’s culture and values are extremely crucial and vital as they set the direction of attracting the right talent. 

Clear business goals

An organisation without good and structured business goals is like a bus driver driving a bus without knowing the destination. The passengers onboard are clueless about where to go and this is a plain waste of petrol.

Without a coherent strategy and goal, an organisation does not have an identifiable objective. The organisation lacks the focus needed to achieve corporate goals and develop plans that will move the company forward.

Clear business goals drive key performance indicators and productivity and employees who are clear of where to head will likely become drivers for organisational growth and development.

What are the goals of your agency or organisation?

Training & development opportunities

Recent surveys show that one of the reasons why employees decide to look out for a new opportunity is because they find it stagnant. They are not given the opportunity to train and develop. The longer they continue in employment, the longer they feel lost and even lethargic.

Provision of training and development opportunities not only ensure that employees grow but also ensure that the organisation remains competitive and productive.

Regular industry refresher and opportunities to build new skill sets ensure that employees feel valued and they are able to contribute back to the organisation better in terms of return of investment.

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Adequate provision of career development also build ownership in employee’s functionality and ensure growth is constantly on the move.

Unconventional recruiting platform

Lastly, with the above fulfilled, the hiring manager is ready to source for talent to join the family. However, besides the traditional recruitment agencies, there are so many modern platforms and tools to attract talent and they are portals such as LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Facebook where talents today do not look at just the monetary fulfilment. They constantly seek an environment where they are able to grow and be nurtured.

Such platforms allow you to:

  • Build stronger brand awareness and loyalty - posting employees’ stories and videos on career site
  • Build transparency and a true display of working culture and environment - allows potential employees to read reviews on the organisation
  • Aid application – mobile-friendly career site that allows applicants to apply for a job on the move
  • Increase productivity – these unconventional platforms tap on the use of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in the near future could ensure that hiring of best-fit is as true as possible. It increases productivity and recruiters are able to focus on other strategic functions of nurturing talents.

“Protecting the company’s best interests is also about retaining employees and making sure they’re happy in their work environment to optimise potential and efficiency.” – Everal Peh

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