TM - November 2007 - (Page 4)

[from the editor] by Mike Prokopeak A A Here Today Gone Tomorrow , n organization is only as good as its people. That’s not a particularly groundbreaking observation. But given the importance of people to an organization’s success, it’s sometimes surprising how little time and effort are dedicated to finding the right people. Every company has its own methods to find, recruit and interview employees. Usually, it starts with a job posting. Then, hiring managers rapid growth of China’s interior boomtowns. According to writer Peter Hessler, entrepreneurs often set up factories nearly overnight, hiring workers and churning out products in a few short weeks. The hiring process isn’t complicated — factory bosses simply post a handwritten job notice on the factory gate listing job requirements, and the candidates pour in. Hessler notes that one employer listed the job requirements as “willcompetition for skilled workers and qualified managers, indicate a smaller pool of qualified workers. As the talent pool shrinks, more and more talent managers are realizing the critical importance of not only recruiting qualified candidates but also ensuring they’re the right fit for the organization so that they’ll stay. In the new marketplace, organizations that can find and retain the employees they need to achieve their goals will have a distinct advantage. Shave a couple of percentage points off that 20 percent failure rate among candidates and, suddenly, your organization has a leg up on the competition. And although most companies have a more formalized process for recruiting and hiring candidates than the ones described above, in many cases, it still boils down to a gut feeling about how people present themselves in a job interview — it can be as scientific as throwing a dart at a dartboard. There’s no shortage of tools for employers to use to find out whether a candidate is the right fit, from simulations and virtual job tryouts to virtual environments such as Second Life. Our cover story lays out a few simple things talent managers can do to make the hiring process more successful. It’s not just about finding qualified candidates — it’s about finding candidates with the right fit. What are you doing to ensure your job candidates are the right fit for your organization? Send me a note at mikep@TalentMgt.com. According to research cited in this month’s cover article, nearly one in five hires an organization makes for salaried positions ends in failure. review resumes and invite the best candidates in for an interview. If a candidate looks good on paper and interviews well, that person gets the job, usually with a cursory call to his or her references. It’s a pretty standard process — we’ve all been through it, and we all know what to expect, for the most part. In most cases, it works out in favor of both the employer and employee, and the potential candidate becomes a valuable member of the workforce. But it doesn’t always work out that way. According to research cited in this month’s cover article, nearly one in five hires an organization makes for salaried positions ends in failure. Given the competitive nature of today’s marketplace, that rate of failure is becoming increasingly unacceptable. In some places, there’s a surplus of candidates for available positions, so when one candidate doesn’t work out, it’s pretty easy to go back to the well and find another. Last June, National Geographic ran an interesting article about the November 2007 ing to eat bitterness and work hard.” Despite the harsh rhetoric, there was no shortage of applicants willing to “eat bitterness” and work 50-plus hours a week for wages that hover around 40 cents an hour. Given the seismic demographic shift happening in China, it’s not surprising employers can cherry-pick their candidates from the vast pool of potential workers. The Chinese economy is growing at an incredible rate, averaging 11 percent growth annually over the past three decades, fueled in part by one of the largest human migrations in history. So far, an estimated 140 million rural Chinese have left their homes for the nation’s industrial cities. In the next few years, demographers estimate another 45 million will leave the fields for the factories. Given those numbers, there’s no shortage of potential workers willing to fill a position, whatever the requirements. In other nations, however, the workforce demographics aren’t tilting in favor of employers. Baby boomer retirements, as well as increased Mike Prokopeak Editorial Director mikep@TalentMgt.com 4 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - November 2007

Talent Management - November 2007 Editor's Letter Contents Letters to the Editor Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Viewpoint Finding Candidates with the Right Fit Turning HR Data Into Business Intelligence Compensation Technology: Drive Higher Performance, Gain Competitive Advantage The Art and Science of Influence Training the Ethical Workforce Making the Best Managers Application: Pre-Hire Testing Drives Down Employee Turnover at Advnace Auto Parts Dashboard: The Role of Learning Business Process Outsourcing Insight: Nationwide Insurance: On Employees' Side Advertiser's Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

TM - November 2007

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