Organisations need to recruit strategically to survive

Guy and Chris have some pretty strong views on recruitment, some are even stronger than mine, they say that “being strategic is not an optional extra”, organisations in every continent will be facing different challenges and opportunities now than they did 5 years ago.  In 2011 the marketplace will have changed again and yet the chances are high that the type of people being employed in your organisation will remain largely the same.

But, will your recruitment strategy have evolved in anticipation of these changes?

Recent research* highlighted that most global CEOs recognise that the volatility and unpredictability of the marketplace is here to stay and will probably increase.  The implications for organisations are significant because the old reliable and predictable products, services, processes and structures can no longer be relied upon to generate new profits, lead to new products and services, provide guaranteed employment or career opportunities.

So, why is strategic recruitment even more important now than ever before if the world of work is seemingly becoming so haphazard?  Simply put, it is because people adapt and recruiters in organisations who rely on “doing the same old thing from the same old sources”, legacy job descriptions and risk avoidance candidate profiles are starving organisations of the possibility of hiring individuals who have a courageous, outward looking view of the world who are able to not only embrace uncertainty but are also able to see and respond to emerging opportunities.

Too often recruitment seeks to perpetuate the illusion of predictability and certainty.  However, this is no longer healthy for organisations or for people who being recruited.

Strategy is all about opportunities and risks

Opportunities and risks are the ‘name of the game’ for business leaders when devising and planning their business strategies.  Organisations (and therefore its People) have choices to make in respect of how they respond to the changing environment and these market forces impact how and what the recruitment strategy should be to best support the business strategy.  As People (employees) implement strategies, the organisational secret recruiters need to uncover is how to translate the business strategy into personal objectives.  By demonstrating this strategic and systematic link, recruiters are basically re-defining and evolving the recruitment profile so that it is in line with and anticipates the emerging organisational realities.

Based on CourageousHR’s experience of working with business clients to develop business aligned People Strategies, they have identified four key phases to how recruitment can become a ‘future-proof’ strategic offering:

• Understanding the key drivers for change and knowing what are the main People implications of these changes and challenges
• Creating a business aligned HR (and Resourcing) Function which can effectively and strategically partner the business
• Work with business leaders to create a People Strategy which supports the Business Strategy and informs the HR Strategy
• Ensure the capability and credibility of the HR Function is sufficient to support the business to deliver the People Strategy and implement its own HR Strategy

How well do internal recruiters know the business?

Recruitment is a service to the business and everything it does has to be centered on the actual or anticipated business need.  The fundamental questions Recruiters need to ask are:

• What are the implications of the key drivers for change for our organisation’s services, products and structure? How could these affect the HR Strategy and core HR Deliverables – specifically recruitment?
• What are the core business challenges, what are the implications for the People Strategy and how do this impact on the recruitment priorities?

Recruiters do not need to understand the business as well as the line managers but they do need to know enough to gain insight into the people implications of the changes and challenges which are shaping and informing the business.

Creating the Business – People – HR Strategic Chain

The purpose of a strategy is to provide a roadmap to the future, articulate an organisation’s direction, create a benchmark to assess alternatives and prioritise resources, provide a measure of success as well as create a psychological sense of purpose for employees.

As a strategy is so important and it has so many uses it is strange that in most cases the people implications are rarely thought through – the emphasis is on capital investments, resource implications, marketing, sales, lead times etc……

Where the business comes unstuck is not putting sufficient emphasis, thought and investment into the people implications of the business strategy, in other words the People Strategy.  The People Strategy is the ‘meeting place’ between the business vision and employee actions and where recruitment can really demonstrate how it can add and create value.

In essence, the People Strategy is where Recruiters can work with business leaders to explore, understand and plan what set of programmes and activities are needed to ensure the organisation’s people know what they need to do to achieve the business strategy.  Creating this Business – People – HR Strategic Chain forces the business and HR to work together to think through the people implications, develop joint responsibility and ensures the practical implications of implementing it are considered and action plans agreed.

The Recruitment Strategy is part of the HR Strategy and is output from the People Strategy – it is not a separate activity divorced from the business reality.  Its focus, priorities and the core Deliverables are clearly linked to the business strategy, reflects the emerging market conditions, has involved business leaders and its success can be linked to business measures.  This is what true business partnership looks like.

Developing capable and credible strategic Recruitment Professionals

For Recruiters to be strategic they need a good scattering of strategic expertise amongst its mid and senior ranking Professionals.  Strategic competence does not automatically go hand in hand with seniority, for many it has to be worked at and developed.  From his experience, Guy says that  CourageousHR have identified a number of strategic orientation traits which are the core ingredients for strategic success:

• Inquisitiveness: Genuine interest in what’s going on in their business, organisation, industry and wider business environment.
• Flexibility: The ability to adapt approaches and shift ideas when new information suggests they need to do so.
• Future focus: Constantly considering how the conditions in which their business and organisation operates may change in the coming months and years. They look for opportunities that may prove valuable in the future—as well as emerging /potential threats that may be on the horizon.
• Positive outlook: Challenges are viewed as opportunities and they have a belief that success is possible.
• Openness: Welcome new ideas from their managers, peers, employees, and outside stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and business partners. They take criticism well and do not react in a defensive manner.
• Breadth: Continually work to broaden their knowledge and experience in able to see connections and patterns across seemingly unrelated fields of knowledge.

In addition, Recruiters also need to demonstrate specific behaviors and attitudes, which we have call thestrategic orientation competency.

The ability to think beyond their own area.  Strategic thinking can be applied to a function or process, a product and market, a business unit or a corporate entity involving various businesses. This competency requires complex thinking abilities, incorporating both analytical and conceptual abilities.

Therefore, ‘being strategic’ requires Recruiters to have and develop a set of personal characteristics that drives them to look beyond their immediate role / objectives and seek to understand and apply their knowledge in a proactive manner for the good of the organisation.

Being strategic is not an option for Recruiters – it is a must

The business world is more unpredictable now than at any other time.  It is because of this volatility that increasingly organisations’ success will be determined by how engaged, productive and innovative their People (employees) are.  As people are increasingly being recognised as the only true competitive advantage for all organisations, the quality and robustness of the Business – People – HR Strategy Chain is becoming more and more critical.

Recruiters have the opportunity to develop their strategic capability and become a strategic partner to the business.  However, they have to work at it, be patient, take risks and believe that it has a legitimate right for their voice to be heard and actioned.

* Five forces reshaping the global economy, McKinsey & Company, March 2010

If you would like to find out more about how HR and Recruitment can deliver real value to the business go to www.courageousHR.com/resources where you will be able to download free practical tools as well as a number of relevant ‘Thought Leadership’ articles.  To discuss your specific HR and Recruitment requirements email me at frank.varela@mypeoplebiz.com

It has always been important to know people, always a positive as you make your way through your career to have the right connections, especially when looking for a new job. There are many ways to get connected, social networks make it much easier these days, but its about being well connected – not just connected. Getting connected can be a huge factor in career progression, as is the ability to help yourself by gathering as much knowledge as possible and putting yourself on a path of self improvement that will open the doors to that next move, a better opportunity within your current employer, or improving your prospects of succeeding with your own business.

Coaching and mentoring have big parts to play in self improvement and in learning to be better connected; which is why mypeoplebiz is entering in to a range of partnerships in the coming weeks with coaching & mentoring organisations, CV providers, behavioural profilers and many more to help provide additional services for our community. The first of these partnerships is with Rockstar mentoring.

Is mentoring for you?

A new biography about Barack Obama by David Remnick looks at the incredible rise of his political career. It’s inspirational, he stared with no connections and he has succeeded without significant money to the top job. The journalist Sarah Sands on ‘job seekers should study Barack Obama’s rise’ commented that “he should be an inspiration in the great race for jobs” and that “connections” are to be nurtured. “He sought out powerful mentors and asked each one if they would teach and help him”. Whilst from a practical point of view this may be difficult to do, Rockstar have created one of the UK’s largest entrepreneur mentoring organisations, with a mission to help people in businesses of all sizes, from start ups to SME’s and large corporates to fast track their potential through access to a team of experts.

Founder and CEO of Rockstar, Jonathan Pfahl’s positive experience of mentoring with his career at Goldman Sachs provided the inspiration to go on and create His own business with Rockstar.

You may be able to get free mentoring with your employer, but if you want to be proactive and invest in your career to get a structured package with chosen mentors, then Rockstar can provide that from £197 per month depending on your requirement and the time and input you need from the mentor.

People tend to forget that a mentor can help with many things from helping you to overcome a lack of connections and showing you how to counter this, overcome impediments, shape your development as well as helping with business planning. When we advise on recruitment, we always focus on a  multichannel recruitment strategy, career development also needs a multichannel approach, coaching and mentoring are important parts of that rounded development for many individuals.

As we say about our referral schemes,  it pays to know people and there is a great story about a politician applying for a campaign role that encapsulates this; as he turns up an official asks “Who sent you?” the would be politician says nobody had sent him, he just wanted to help, so the official replies “We don’t want nobody that nobody sent.”

So there we go, as Sands says about Obama “the new President is a Patron Saint for job seekers without connections”. Getting yourself a mentor can help you take your next step. We at mypeoplebiz hope that our partnership can help you take your career to the next stage, take a look and Join Rockstar Mentoring

Research conducted through various recruitment surveys over the past year indicates that up to 78% of companies are now using social networking and social media to find and attract candidates. Recent surveys of recruiters & HR executives found that over 50% of companies were spending more on business networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and employee-referral programs and less on print and traditional job boards.

And this is not a new phenomenon. T-Mobile piloted a social networking dimension for their graduate recruitment round, as far back 2007, via Facebook. The experiment was a success, with the company’s Recruitment Manager acknowledging that they ‘didn’t think it would take off in the way it did’, and that ‘[social networking] has an important and growing role to play’.

However, it still appears that whilst employers are seeing an increasing percentage of hires initiated through their employees’ social networks, over 50% of companies surveyed by the CIPD admitted that so far they had not utilised an employee referral scheme at all.

Candidates are open to the idea of social networking as a recruitment tool

Importantly, it’s not just employers who are keen to jump on the ‘networking bandwagon’ to revolutionise recruitment. Increasingly, both active job seekers and passive candidates are willing to publish career-based information about themselves on social networking sites, with a view to potential employment opportunities, either from friends or from head-hunters. A recent survey of computer users indicated that 87% of respondents think social networking sites are useful for business purposes including networking, exchanging ideas, getting advice, recruitment, research and selling.

Is the war for talent still relevant in today’s market?

Although the economy has recently presented challenges for most employers, the “jobseekers’ market” is thriving and the war for talent continues to challenge recruitment initiatives. Employers are still struggling to attract candidates with the necessary industry experience and expertise, and the CIPD survey suggests that the problem had, if anything, worsened, with 86% of companies across a number of industries admitting to experiencing recruitment difficulties.

Whilst formal recruitment costs are, in some cases, falling due to the current economic downturn, this tends to be offset by the increase in recruitment spending on temporary and contract workers, filling gaps for which permanent staff are no longer being hired or are deemed inappropriate because of headcount restrictions. If anything, then, the current economic climate indicates that there is an even more urgent need to identify economical ways to win the talent war, whilst simultaneously keeping recruitment costs down to a minimum.

It pays to know people

Incentives such as employee referral schemes can make a huge impact Personal recommendations via current employees’ social networks can be very valuable, as they can efficiently lead to candidates with the right cultural ‘fit’ for a company. In addition, such schemes can save employers considerable amounts of money, reducing the amount spent on agencies and external advertising.

CIPD surveys indicate that 64% of respondents agreed that referral reward incentives for staff have a positive impact – not just on the calibre of job applicants, but on the budget too. A large insurance company which participated in the study’s focus group reported a huge saving of £250,000 in recruitment costs as a result of their ‘refer a friend’ scheme.

Clearly, such schemes can be highly successful.

Golden Hellos can provide the ideal incentive in today’s talent war

As far back as 2008, the CIPD survey, confirmed that 52% of companies thought that candidate incentives have a positive impact.

Attracting the best candidates is always a struggle, so incentives such as sign-on bonuses can ensure that a company stands out amongst the crowd, encouraging potential applicants.

However, these incentives do not appear to be widely offered

Whilst ‘golden hellos’ are becoming more frequent, just 14% of companies currently claim to offer such incentives. Similarly, as discussed previously, despite the evidence that employee referral schemes are beneficial for all concerned many employers are not taking advantage of these either; over 50% of companies surveyed by the CIPD say that they don’t utilise an employee referral scheme at all, and only 37% offer ‘bounty payments’ for these referrals.

Failure to utilise such schemes means missing out on numerous opportunities to attract top talent on a tight budget.

Successful talent acquisition relies on speeding up the recruitment process

A survey of 300 companies in the mobile wireless industry revealed that over 75% had missed out on recruiting high calibre candidates due to delays in the recruitment process. This resulted in an estimated revenue loss of £millions, due to projects that were delayed as a result of a lack of quality employees. The CIPD agrees that this is a common problem: “Good candidates have multiple offers and therefore have higher expectations. As a result organisations have to speed up the recruitment process so as not to lose these candidates.”

Recruitment and Diversity

With regard to diversity, whilst this is a very topical issue, as the CIPD report puts it “nothing much has changed” in recent times and only 55% of respondents to their recent survey even possessed a diversity strategy at all. One of the issues with diversity is opening up the recruitment process to a wider market, and the recent trend to create PSLs and reduce the number of suppliers can have the effect of closing rather than increasing applications from “diverse” candidates. Social networking and referral schemes may help to increase applications from well qualified and suitable candidates from more diverse backgrounds, and as such could prove to be valuable tools for equal opportunities in the future.

In summary, the competitive market for talent shows no sign of abating. Keeping up with the current trends, understanding the needs and motivations of job seekers and ensuring ample incentives can lead to greater recruitment success.

Our experience with mypeoplebiz so far is that approximately 50% of the candidates are coming through recruitment agents, 30% are coming through referrals and networking and the remaining 20% are coming through job boards and direct.

As the CIPD succinctly concludes: “Organisations have to review their reward offering, to ensure they secure the best candidate for the job”.  To do that, as we have written before, it is advisable to have a multichannel recruitment strategy and to ensure that referrals and networking feature strongly in that strategy.

Yesterday, I was speaking with job seekers at Skillscentre Bucks about using Social Media, in particular LinkedIn and Twitter, to network effectively and find hidden jobs. We were discussing the ways to “get connected” and interact appropriately when a member gave an example of being judged incorrectly because of a photo, that someone else had added, on Facebook.

Outside of work, this gentleman is a member of a professional British shooting team and the photo on Facebook was of the team after a professional event. He went into the interview and was hit with “I see you’re pro gun” and, needless to say, he was not offered the job. In my humble opinion, he was probably saved from working for a company that would not have been a good fit but when you’ve been looking for work for a while each knock back can be hard to take, whether the company is suitable or not.

So are we being judged by the company we keep?

I’ve heard stories of people not being offered roles due to the inappropriateness of their profile picture or losing a job because they panned the organisation online but this appears to be worse.

Do I lose a job offer because she's my mate?

If I look around my connections and my friends, included are one of my best mates who loves going roo shooting (pictured), a goth, a rather pierced and tattooed aeroplane engineer and an eclectic mix of people who all add value to the world.  Should I be judged that my husband sings with a German rock band who all wear monks attire? Frankly, no. Yet, if you did not know me you could see the pictures of all these people in my Facebook profile and pre-judge.

So have we taken this too far?

According to Socialized HR, “a survey, funded by Microsoft and conducted in December 2009, by Cross-tab Marketing Services, found that 70 percent of HR and recruiting professionals in the U.S. had rejected job candidates due to what they found regarding those individuals online”. On the basis of that finding, Socialized HR have actually developed a tool to make it easier for HR professionals to drill into our Social Network information. So the judging could get worse!

So what should a jobseeker do? Avoid networking altogether and miss out on a potential opportunity or network but with an awareness of what could happen?

Personally, I have found it extremely beneficial being connected to my network on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook etc and I would rather be on there, monitoring my reputation with the available free tools, than not.

But what do you think?

by Katrina Kollier

Mypeoplebiz provides the market/platform for you to see who is recruiting and to earn rewards by referring your friends and colleagues. Refer a friend and you earn the referral fee listed in the green button next to the vacancies

Find out more about referrals here, if you have already registered you can use your candidate account to refer people to roles, alternatively you can register as a referrer here.

There is currently £255,196 in placement fees available for recruitment agencies to submit candidates on mypeoplebiz.

Its easy to get started and it´s free to join the community, click here to register and you are ready to earn fees. All the business development is done for you, It´s easy:

A: Review vacancies

Browse by industry, role or location and see the placement fees you can earn.

B: Submit CVs

If you have a suitable candidate for a vacancy, you can immediately submit their details. You can keep an eye on the hiring process and get in touch with the employer directly.

C: Receive your fee!

The system will automatically communicate to you that you have made a placement and will send you the invoice details. You submit your invoice and we will collect the placement fee and transfer money to you after the eight-week employment guarantee is met.

Well now you can http://www.mypeoplebiz.com/ the online multichannel recruitment platform that brings job seekers, social networkers, recruitment agents and employers together in one online community

It is free to join and list your positions so you take no risk, pay only on success; and you get a lot of other benefits too. It pays to know people – join us now.

We look forward to helping you

a find new talent

b grow your business

c find a job

As a guest blogger, Katrina will share tips and clues to help you maximise your results using Social Media to recruit or be recruited.

Alasdair Murray is joining the blog bringing with him some insider knowledge of various recruitment and professional industries with a slice of  humor.  Look out for his first post tomorrow…