Why I am a Talent Attraction Troubleshooting Detective
Growing up I was a big Agatha Christie fan. If I wasn’t imagining myself as Miss Marple, I was Poirot! I think this must have conditioned my brain to investigate mysteries at every opportunity. And so, it came to pass. When I found myself in responsible recruitment positions, in various companies and firms, I put my ‘natural’ talent for sleuthing to good use, by finding the reasons for why some roles were harder to fill than others. I investigated all the reasons from internal behind the scene reasons to external factors and I never failed to identify the mystery of the ‘impossible to find talent' and solve the problem.
Many companies go into a reactive fight phase when they can’t find a particular candidate through their normal acquisition channels. They start throwing every resource at it, from hiring agencies, increasing Linked In and other ad spend, even going to Executive Search firms for roles that Executive search are simply not interested in. The recruiters moan the candidate is, ‘Just too hard to find’. The hiring managers moan, ‘The recruiters are not good enough’, and so the blame game begins. While everyone involved gets bored, apart from the hiring manager and their overworked team. The result being a lack of growth in profit or output in that team and a turnover of staff due to being overworked.
Yet, there is often more than just a shortage of candidates in the market to stump a recruitment campaign. After all, if there are people doing this role in your economy elsewhere, then they are potential candidates, so it’s not that reason. What are the problems?
The problems can be:
Bad company reputation
Bad team reputation
Under market rate salaries
A difficult to work for People Manager
Un-enticing work
Poor employer branding
Being unknown
Punching above your weight
Poor recruitment strategy
I can go on. But I think you get the picture. Often when you are internal you can’t see the wood for the trees. It takes an external, impartial, person with your best interest at heart to get to the root cause. When the cause or causes are established then a plan for improvement can be put in place. It may only require small improvements, but a little change can go a long way to attracting the right candidates for you.
Hiring 'Talent Optics' for this 'detective work' has an additional bonus. If you know the reason why a campaign is failing but it’s not worth your job to report it to Management, it is much better coming from an external consultant. We don’t have jobs to lose and you won’t get blamed. This is particularly important for when there is a bad reputation involved, such as a disliked Hiring Manager, or the company is punching above their weight or not paying market salaries.
Let me put my detective hat on for you. If you are struggling in an area or multiple hiring areas, I can help you find out why your campaign isn't working and put a plan in place with your team to change things for the better. Get in touch with us today and let’s get to work.
To discuss your talent acquisition problem email me, Clare Reed MD at Talent Optics www.talentoptics.com or book in a call.
