Talent recruitment is important — learn how it can pay off for your organization
In today’s global market, human capital quality and a strong talent pipeline are two of the central factors that will determine your organization’s success or failure, according to the recent Talent Pipeline Draining Growth report from accounting organizations AICPA and CIMA.
Whether your company is in a period of growth or a period of stasis, losing key employees can have an overwhelmingly detrimental effect. An unexpected employee vacancy can create operational delays while your organization tries to find, hire and train a replacement.
Urgent job candidate searches are also often costly endeavors; particularly if they don’t turn out well.
Hiring the wrong person — which more than half of employers in the 10 largest world economies have said negatively impacted their business, according to a CareerBuilder study — may cost more than you think. Twenty-nine percent of companies in Germany, which reported the most expensive bad hiring issues, experienced costs of 50,000 euros (more than $65,000) or more related to faulty hiring decisions.
The problem is magnified if you lose a significant number of crucial employees, which may position you to experience a serious skills gap — and suddenly off-course succession plan that can be difficult to correct
Pipeline intelligence can help you proactively (and continually) engage talent in each critical job family within your company. When an employee leaves, you’ll be ready to fill the open position by hiring qualified candidate who should be able to get up to speed quickly and efficiently.
Not all organizations dedicate time to talent pipelining, however. If you haven’t revisited your current strategy lately, consider the following three steps to strengthen your talent pipeline:
First, assess what roles are critical
HR will, in many cases, need to spearhead the effort, according to Personnel Today, because senior-level teams may not be able to be impartial, potentially overemphasizing their roles’ importance. Talk to team leaders, and find out what positions could truly impede business, if employees leave.
Anticipate what new roles you’ll create
A robust talent pipelining plan also allows for new positions that your organization will add, due to expansion or other factors, in the future. Looking for good candidates for those new roles? Hiring employees from your competitor is one way to find workers — which, according to Inc., in some situations, may need to be handled carefully, but can ultimately deliver new employees who possess a solid understanding of your business.
Recognize your limitations
A 2012 LinkedIn study found that only 2 percent of organizations had a long-term approach to sourcing passive talent, due, in part, to a lack of time and resources to commit to regular talent pipelining work. Many companies, according to the study, didn’t have access to technology or other tools that could help them track passive talent before positions opened up.
In some cases, conflicts of interest may prevent organizations from reaching out to talent who worked for competitors. If your organization doesn’t have the time or other resources to continually monitor passive talent, you could be facing a hiring process bidding war — or losing out on key talent when you need help most.
If your organization, despite some talent pipelining efforts, finds itself scrambling to fill suddenly vacated positions, our recent blog post on creative ways to find new talent may help. For examples of how some organizations have handled talent pipelining, check out our pipeline and competitive intelligence case studies.
Need more assistance? Receive a comprehensive Talent Intelligence recruitment and succession planning strategy assessment — at no cost — to find out if your company’s current efforts are on track.