Company Growing? 3 Ways You Need to Adjust Your Talent Strategy

What is your best talent strategy as you grow your company for the future?

Optimize your human capital by focusing on the full talent management spectrum – from sourcing and recruiting to employee development and retaining your top performers for the long term.

Recruitment: Balancing Skills and Culture

HR pros continually debate whether to place a higher priority on a candidate’s skill set or their cultural fit. Ideally, you need a combination of the two.

• Companies that hire based on cultural fit feel that while you can train for job skills, you simply cannot teach key interpersonal qualities like teamwork, communications and problem solving. You may want to interview for both.
• Start with your culture interview. Judge success by how well a candidate aligns with your corporate core values. If they fall short, you can stop here. It doesn’t matter how technically savvy an individual is. Businesses are only as successful as their employees. Those who fit company culture tend to be happier and, thus, more productive.
• There are possible risks. Onboarding may take longer. You may lose employees who wind up being incapable of learning the job.

Development: Critical at All Levels

Continuous learning is a key strategy for a sustainable career. Job seekers at all levels are more concerned with opportunities for development than with any other aspect of a position.

• Studies show that up to 90 percent of learning activities take place not in formal training programs, but rather on the job. They occur through new and challenging assignments, management feedback, and mentoring and coaching.
• Much rests with an employee’s direct supervisor. Candidates’ top priority is to work for people they respect and can learn from. Facilitating employee development should be a non-negotiable requirement among your managers.
• When Google’s people analytics team examined data from thousands of employee surveys, they found that the top behavior characterizing the most effective managers was coaching to help develop their people. Gallup research yielded similar results. Your managers need to get excellent performance out of their team members while at the same time helping them to grow.

Retention: Avoid a Financial Disaster

Retention is often overlooked, yet it is the third leg of the stool balancing on-point talent management. When you consider the expense associated with employee turnover, the picture is crystal clear:

• When an entry-level employee resigns, it costs 30 percent to 50 percent of their annual salary to replace them.
• The price tag skyrockets to 150 percent for a mid-level team member.
• At a high level or in the case of a highly specialized role, your cost will be upwards of 400 percent.

Focus on these retention success factors:

• Career growth opportunities: Although competitive pay and benefits still matter, employees increasingly look for opportunities to grow their careers. They don’t necessarily only care about getting a higher salary, but may simply require a title change and/or added responsibilities.
• Robust performance evaluations: Make sure your team members know how they are doing and what they need to improve. Timely performance reviews provide key insight for both employees and employers.
• Internal communications: Effective communication is a must for retention. Make every employee feel like the stakeholder that they are. Get their input on a regular basis and take thoughtful action based on it. They will answer with loyalty and hard work.

As you grow your company, consider partnering with BrainWorks for better talent acquisition and HR management results. You’ll benefit from our extensive industry expertise, experience and business intelligence. Contact us today to schedule an introductory meeting.