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Targeting talent in an employer’s market

B2B Editor24 April 2014

Targeting talent in an employer’s market

The worm has turned and finally market conditions are in the favour of employers. Hallelujah! Staff retention rates for Canberra are at an all-time high, and advertised jobs have reduced significantly
So there must be a real glut of great candidates to dip into right? Eureka!!

Now must be a great time to shed some ‘dead wood’ and rebalance the team with premium talent? Mustn’t it?

According to the recent publication, the third in a series by Deloitte titled ‘Positioning for prosperity – Catching the next wave’, in short – yes! Now is the time for Australian businesses to gain significant operating advantages through ‘prosperity levers’ such as expanding on core competencies and enhancing people strategies.

Deloitte’s report states: A rapid way of increasing a company’s competitive advantage is to develop superior talent. The focus here is on enhancing recruitment, motivation, day-today management and training practices to find, retain and develop the best people.

So let’s get recruiting! This is the point where things seem to go wrong for many of our clients. Whilst most recognise that the days of popping an ad in the paper are over, the days of job boards like SEEK as your primary recruitment tool are also rapidly fading. In a busy recruitment market, often the best candidates are passive and they look at career moves extremely cautiously. So how do you start targeting the elusive top 10-15% of talent?

1. Actively farm your networks

The best people come through trusted referrals; from those you know.

Have a structured plan for activating your network, work consistently through that plan over time, and offer incentives for referrals.

2. Partner with a high performing specialist recruiter

Deloitte states: …companies can partner with third parties to expand their areas of competency and create unique capabilities. This might include forming alliances with technical specialists, and outsourcing commoditised work that doesn’t deliver an opportunity to differentiate.

Don’t multi-list your roles across several agencies. This is a dying practice particularly for permanent recruitment and leads to a surface level, transactional service that is based around speed and luck.

3. Reach out through multiple channels

With the rise and rise of social media and technology more generally, there is no magic bullet that will reach the majority of the market anymore.

You need to generate multiple ‘touch points’ to create a ‘funnel’ large enough to secure the very best talent. This is time consuming and there can be additional costs, so don’t consider this the quick part of the process typically associated with ‘popping an ad up’.

4. Improve your interviewing and selection process

Australia’s relative weaknesses in recruitment and talent management practices were highlighted in a recent study undertaken for LinkedIn by PWC titled ‘Adapt to Survive’.

Almost one quarter of all people who get a new job in Australia quit within the 1st year because the job does not live up to expectations

When targeting the best talent in the market, you have no room for error. Your recruitment and selection process not only needs to identify someone who is great. You need to carefully manage their expectations and ensure that communication is crystal clear on what the move really means for them, now and in the future.

If you are interested in a discussion about transforming your approach to talent and adapting your business, now is the right time. HorizonOne is well positioned to advise and guide you on the ‘how’.

Please contact Simon Cox, Director at HorizonOne Recruitment on 02 6108 4878 or[email protected] Level 1, 27 Torrens Street, Braddon www.horizonone.com.au

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