TM - August 2007 - (Page 10) [foundations] by Kate DCamp A A What’s Wrong with Recruiting? s the supply of talent continues to dwindle, HR staff members easily can get caught up in a cycle of constantly recruiting to fill current open jobs. Expanding recruiting staffs, adding contract recruiters and putting several search firms on ongoing retainer are usually the first steps to respond to this business need. The trouble with this approach is that it easily can become the HR department’s principal focus, and it is not a longer-term solution to the talent supply problem. Don’t Fill Jobs — Manage T alent in which most businesses have not invested. This is unfortunate because the lack of a strategic framework creates a very low return on the time and resources invested in hiring. There is the cost of giving the new work to new hires rather than making it available as a developmental opportunity to existing staff members, marginalizing the potential returns from people you already have and increasing turnover risk because the market might provide better growth opportunities than you do. Also, there is the cost and disruption of inserting an outsider who might have experience similar to the work in the job being filled but has not been tested as a good culture fit. be part of this planning — there will not be enough people to replace the current staff, person for person, within the next decade. In each instance, the option to redeploy some existing resources, redistribute the work or automate, discontinue or outsource some existing operations or tasks should be part of the analysis. Succession planning should be integrated into this plan, with expected key openings taken into account and alternative organizational designs contemplated. Get Started Involving finance (especially the It is understandable that there a lot of jobs to fill when your business is ramping up to cover customer requirements or expand into new territories. If you look at most of your organThe process of resource ization, however, there are fewer and fewer definable, planning should include multi-incumbent jobs. Yet, the very premise of ramping up recruiting assumes the need to constantly bring in candidates to fill the jobs you have today, or at best, to create a supply of candidates for frequently open, multi-incumbent jobs. The problem with this approach is that your managers hire for the role they have open today, based on their view of the skills required and without any visibility to needs beyond the job they are filling. This approach can lead to many single points of failure because someone hired for a specific role is not likely to see the big picture when changes in the structure of the work are needed. A better approach is to think of every opening as a chance to realign the work to develop existing talent. Strategic Planning Applies About the author Kate DCamp is the senior executive adviser at Cisco. She can be reached at editor@TalentMgt.com. a longer-range forecast of the growth potential in the business. Further, there is the static nature of jobs and job descriptions, which is not conducive to the fluid, flexible organizational structure that will be needed to adapt to the changing competitive landscape. Use All Your Tools Long-range strategic planning of future talent needs is an approach The process of resource planning should include a longer-range forecast of the growth potential in the business, with several scenarios based on where resources could be applied. The forecast should include the capability of the business to afford the investments required, including the cost of recruiters, learning curves, training investment, management time and the expected return. An assumption of a consistent increase in productivity also should forecasting and strategic planning functions) is the key. Develop a connected plan that points out future problem areas and change the discussion with senior leadership from “What’s the time to fill and cost per hire?” to “What are the talent-supply risks in the next decade, and what are the plans to mitigate them and increase our return on human capital?” Although you are busy filling jobs, pull back 5 percent of the resources to work on a longer-range planning approach. Use employee turnover data and feedback from managers to quantify the issues that the existing hiring approaches cause (or at least do not solve). Approaching the basic work of HR with a bigger-picture, long-range view is the only way to get — and stay — ahead of the curve. 10 August 2007 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com
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