Part 2: Build and Retain a Strong Talent Foundation
The key to building a solid talent foundation is to proactively and continuously have eyes out for great talent.
TIP 1: We recommend staying in contact with great people over time makes it much easier to eventually fill roles with great talent since the relationship is already built (Segment 2, 1:40 ? 2:23).
TIP 2: To help attract the right talent, companies can be asking themselves the following two questions (Segment 2, 3:48 ? 4:41):
1. Why would somebody be interested in working for us?
2. Once they are employed, why would they want to stick around?
Who should be making the hiring decisions?
A big AHA moment for our clients is when we tell them not every hiring manager is EQUAL.
TIP 3: What we mean by this is that they need to ensure that the hiring managers who are making the hiring decisions are high caliber and considered “A” players in the company, because ONLY A players hire other A players. (Segment 2, 4:10 ? 4:40).
Organizations cannot train culture.
Since culture is not trainable, we recommend companies get clear on why people will join. Companies need to know their selling point: what makes them different from everybody else? (Segment 2, 6:35 ? 7:09)
TIP 4: Ask yourselves, why would somebody want to leave his or her company and come work here? What is the culture here? And what are the reasons why our top talent stays?
How can you retain top talent?
Although free lunches, game rooms and happy hour nights may entice people to join, it’s not going to retain your top performing employees (Segment 2, 8:39 ? 9:27).
TIP 5: Invest in training & development. Top talent wants learning, development & career opportunities, good bosses, great culture ? not the perks (Segment 2, 9:50 ? 10:18).
What is the difference between talent and experience?
Experience is important, but it doesn’t determine if a candidate can actually do the tasks WELL in a job description. We recommend focusing on what a candidate needs to DO in the job to be successful, rather than only what experience they need to HAVE coming in. (Segment 2, 10:34 ? 12:09).
TIP 6: Make a list of what a candidate needs to accomplish by 6 months? 12 months? What do they need to DO to be a good culture fit?
Coming up in Part 3: What are the norms of the hiring process that we challenge?
