Effective Talent Acquisition: Strategies for Long-Term Success and Employee Retention (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Hi everyone, it's Sue Firth here, just giving you a few tips on something that I know is really important as an issue and that's talent acquisition, it's the recruitment process and it's also the retention. Now the first thing to note actually is that talent acquisition and recruitment aren't the same thing. Acquisition is really more about your long-term strategy, how is it that you put things in place and how can you get your team involved in the process of being able to go on the hunt for the right kind of people who might suit your environment, your culture, your values, the whole fit and really the recruitment process is more like the immediate short-term selection of somebody to fit a particular role that you've got a problem with at that point. So the talent acquisition process if you like is really something that I think is worth having a think about because what that really means is your employees need to get on board. Now the way they can do that is often fairly simple from a first tip it would be let them get in touch or stay in touch with people who are circulating in their own peer group. What that means is they may not currently work for you but they may be becoming unhappy in another business and that could make them right for the interest of being able to come and join you. The fact that the individual is then paying attention to the talent that that person has got and what they've got to offer and then they come and tell you gives you the heads up probably even before that individual is actually out on the hunt really looking on the market. The second thing is I think you could also as an owner or as an entrepreneur or as an exec be staying in touch with people. That's those who circulate within your own peer group, those who have become unhappy for some reason in a business that's alongside of you perhaps or even those who have actually left your business but whom you rather regret losing or who needed to leave for whatever reason. Staying in touch with them through LinkedIn, through social media is always a good thing and I think if you therefore stay on the hunt almost permanently perhaps on the back burner of your mind you've then got this talent pool. Now it's a misnomer to believe that this talent pool is in existence all the time. I totally accept that but I do think that if you have it more as a strategy, as an overarching strategy, you're paying attention to the probability someone will come across you quite frequently or you'll come across them. Now the next point really is to pay attention to something that's sort of bigger. In other words the appeal that you've got. So that's more about the process of being able to retain talent but also then how they talk about you. So pay attention to your branding, to the whole employee experience, to the process of recruitment strategy that you have, to the interest that you've got from the point of view of how they talk about you, how do they experience working for you, what do they write about, where is the social validation of how they think about you and indeed that often goes up on sites as well. Now you as an individual wouldn't have time to do this but asking employees to be able to stay in touch with this and your top team to do so is really quite a useful thing. Social validation is not to be underestimated. A lot of people do say a lot about you and because they use all the channels that they can. I think recruitment is clearly vital and to be frank it's often the immediate response to the role that you've got and how you go about your recruitment process is also quite important. Don't leave people hanging about waiting for answers. Make sure that the selection process is fair. Make sure that you yourself have got a diverse populace within your organisation so that you appeal, so that you are attractive and so that people are circulating around you. And then I think perhaps the last one, although blindingly obvious, is the age-old adage. Try to recruit for, if you like, attitude really rather than just skill or even instead of skill because a 21-year-old who may not yet have the experience but who's got really great drive and willingness to learn could be a really super growth potential for you. So often this isn't a straightforward simple series of ideas but there were a few tips for you and here's a good book as well. Now this one I read some years ago but I would like to recommend it. This is by Jeff Smart and Randy Street and it's Solve Your Number One Problem which doesn't surprise me now that I've come back to talk to you about it and I do hope these tips have helped. So take care, I'll be in touch again.