Why talent hunt goes beyond employee hiring

It takes time and resources to find an ideal candidate to fill a vacant position. FOTOSEARCH 

By Canute Waswa

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The Federation of Kenya Employers estimates that at least a third of business failure is due to poor hiring decisions and inability to attract and retain the right talent.

A 2010 survey by McKinsey concluded that the average cost of replacing a manager or professional is 1.5 to three times their salary. And the PwC Employee Satisfaction Survey of 2011 explained how the cost of working around an under-performer can run as high as six figures.

The long and short of it is the fact that the cost of consistently failing to attract and retain good talent – including declining productivity, morale, culture and reputation — is inestimable.

Getting the best employee, and keeping the talent you have is becoming intensely competitive. Most corporate officers say that the biggest constraint to pursuing growth opportunities is talent.

One of the most frequently asked questions is what is the difference between recruiting and talent acquisition?

The easy part of the answer is to define recruiting. It is nothing more than filling open positions. It is an entirely tactical event.

The more complex part of the answer is the definition of talent acquisition.

Talent acquisition takes a long-term view of not only filling positions today, but also using the candidates that come out of a recruiting campaign as a means to fill similar positions in the future.

These future positions may be identifiable today by looking at the succession management plan, or by analysing the history of attrition for certain positions. This makes it easy to predict that specific openings will occur at a pre-determined period in time.

Alignment

Traditionally, a recruitment need occurs when an individual either leaves or is promoted to another function. That’s when panic can set in, especially if no suitable internal solution is found, a situation that is known as — “under the bus syndrome”.

The core concept of talent acquisition is to get away from the ‘fill in the box’ thinking to one that is more proactive and much closer to building the skill sets required to achieve business success.

Organisations sometimes find it hard to look to the future when the present is so demanding. Clearly, a business has to meet its short-term responsibilities and obligations to customers and clients. Even so, not looking ahead could leave it stranded in future — or without a future—if it does not manage its talent well, especially its most promising “up and comers.”

Most managers- rightly so- look at hiring only when there is a ‘box’ vacant on a purely transactional basis. Yet the reality of the market is today’s top talent has a very short shelf life; therefore you must have a sense of urgency in bringing them aboard, job opening or none.

This tactic is considered very risky by some managers, but at the end of the day not making an offer the day a ‘top’ performer comes to the job market, you will most certainly lose them.