Winning the Talent Race

At senior levels in an organization, there are a finite number of people who have the requisite skills and experience to take an organization to the next level.  Most of these people are employed.  So, when your organization has an opening that needs to be filled, what does your organization need to do to attract and hire those individuals that can elevate your organization’s performance?  These two simple suggestions will help your organization win the talent race.

  • Know what the organization needs
  • Do not delay!

Know what the organization needs

Beyond a job description, understand what the organization needs and whether alignment exists at various levels in the organization regarding this position.  For example, if the hiring manager believes a “change agent” is required, is the rest of the organization supportive of hiring a person that is capable of delivering that change?  All too often, peer departments and subordinates are uncomfortable with change if it means they will lose power or have to change the way they do things.  To that extent, it is important to get alignment within an organization for what is required so that whoever is hired can come in and deliver to the expectations of the hiring manager and the organization’s goals.  If this step does not occur a few things will happen.  One, an organization may waste a lot of time interviewing candidates to have them shot down by other parts of the organization because a vision alignment does not exist.  Or two, a candidate may be hired who ends up being frustrated because they don’t have the organizational support to do the job they were hired to do.  Both of these scenarios result in the loss of time and money.  Furthermore, turn-over or disenchanted hires result in bad branding for the organization and make it that much harder for an organization to attract good talent in the future.

Do not delay!

When an organization is trying to hire a candidate away from another employer it is important for them to understand that they are engaged in a sales process.  They are trying to convince a person to leave a perfectly good job to come work for them.  They need to sell themselves and the opportunity.  To that extent, one of the mantras of sales is “Do not delay!”  Momentum is a very important part of sales.  Long time periods between interacting with candidates kill momentum.  While it is understandable that it is often difficult to coordinate schedules for large groups of people so that they can interview a candidate; delays in interacting with a candidate send the following damaging messages to a candidate.  One, the organization may not be very interested in me as a candidate for this position.  Two, this position may not be that important for the organization.  Three, this organization may not have their act together.  .  All of these things diminish the attractiveness of an opportunity for a candidate and make it that much harder for an organization to make a sale, or hire a candidate as the case may be.  The courting process provides another analogy.  If you went out on a date with a person and they took a long time to call you again, what would you think?  The same applies when trying to hire a candidate.  So, before starting a search make sure that the organization can generate and maintain the momentum needed to successfully “close the sale” and conclude the search.

Organizations that follow the two simple suggestions above will have an advantage over their competitors.  And since it is quite likely that the candidate they are interested in will be talking to other employers, following these two simple suggestions may be the difference between your organization winning the talent race or losing top talent to a competitor.