Discuss HR: Attracting, Engaging and Keeping Talent....the future of ...

After his emotionally intelligent last
post, Paul Goring returns to discuss one of my favourite topics, namely
talent management at every stage of an employee life cycle. (Ed
Scrivener)

Attracting, Engaging and Keeping Talent....the future of your business.

I am often staggered by the imbalance between the huge amount of money, man hours and effort that is spent on marketing, branding and selling product compared to the employer brand in many businesses and indeed the flippant way that some significant decision makers talk about candidates, recruitment spend and the concept of employer brand generally. Strangely in my experience they also seem to be the first to blame the candidates, the labour market and their line managers for causing vacancies and turnover and not being able to retain people!?

Of course the easy answer is that there is a lot of talent to pick from just now with qualifications and unemployment both high but the best talent still have a wide scope options for their career path and career partners. Generation Y particularly (and the Gen X talent who share the Gen Y career values of mobility, training, social conscience and career chapters of two years at a time) want to connect with an employer with an employer brand and EVP that they can relate to, trust and believe in.

The brutal truth is that your recruitment web-page, career fair presentation, adverts in that grad magazine or flier must quickly create an engagement and must communicate the right messages to your target talent and this is where relying on having famous, elite or successful sales and product brand is not enough. It is also not enough to just do what everyone else does and hope it works.

Employer Brand, Employer Value Proposition, Attraction Strategy...they all eventually merge into one simple question; what is it like to work here? And the challenge is whether we as employers we can represent that answer honestly, clearly and attractively to those that will be asking it.?

Short films of your staff telling their stories and enjoying their work embedded into your recruitment web-site will work brilliantly if done well ? if done badly they can blow the whole deal ? authenticity is key here. Show how it really is, not a saccharin rose tinted version because after 3 months your recruited talent will leave and you?ll have to start over and spend again!

Try augmenting your main brand with something specific to your employer brand ? a strap line that compliments the main product / client brand but also retains an identity that can be communicated to the talent you need. The best company web-sites winning the NORA Awards each year have energy, freshness and a genuine feel about them that succeeds in really engaging with their target talent. Social media means if you get it right then people will know about you and your vacancies very quickly.

Then once your chosen talent is in the door you then need to start working even harder to prove that you can walk the talk and deliver on the promises you made in attracting them. Cost per head is important for sure but of all the recruitment metrics for me it?s the most short sighted; tenure, turnover and exit interview analysis tell you so much more in a period when the best candidates are still very picky about who they associate their brand with and they are happy to walk away if you don?t fulfil your part of the bargain and they will tell others in the most powerful way ever through social media where ?likes? and personal recommendations are everything.

It is I guess really important to ensure that anything you do in this space you do with 100% commitment because the whole rounded, detailed, authentic and considered brand that you represent to the candidate world has to work, has to make sense and stand the ultimate test ? someone joining you and working for you, staying with you and saying good things about you while they are with you and afterwards.

Just as with your product brand there is no point saying that you make the best shoes in the world, comfortable, good looking and well-made if they fall apart after a few miles of walking! Employer Brand and subsequent talent management is worth intelligent, considered and long term spend every time....?

Discuss HR is the HR blog written by members of?Human Resources UK, the 10,000 member strong LinkedIn group dedicated to the HR professionals in the UK.? Discuss HR is published twice weekly and looks to take an insightful, informative and sometimes irreverent view on the world of HR ? all with the purpose of generating a discussion.
If you would like to be a guest writer for Discuss HR, you can find more information here.? Our next guest writer week is the week commencing 26th?August.

Source: http://discusshr.blogspot.com/2013/06/attracting-engaging-and-keeping.html

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