What I have learnt about Talent in the Facets business
One thing I am not surprised with anymore is people. The key comment that has stuck with me throughout my time managing the team of Facets growth consultants is ‘your biggest challenge will be people’. It’s not a unique situation but I feel most companies can have average employees with a few big hitters and they’re fine. The corps are a different world, mediocrity is rife but that’s a wider issue.
I’m unsure if we have cracked it yet, but we have started 2022 totally differently when it comes to talent / recruitment. We will improve, we have to improve because to believe we have cracked it will mean we will miss out and our clients will miss out too.
Most businesses do not have an individual running talent exclusively. Yet it is a serious job. I won’t bore you with any stats around the “Great Resignation” or how hard it is to attract and retain good talent in 2022. Talent comes in two forms; acquisition and attraction or generation and demand.
You need someone within your business to headhunt for acquisition. To start building up an ecosystem of people who on paper (only) are a good fit. Then it’s each team member, the CEOs brand, the company’s mission, the type of work, place of work, etc etc that all attracts.
The days of a job board and/or LinkedIn ad bringing in hundreds of applicants for the team leader / boss to sift through at a time that suits them is gone. The power has shifted from the business to the candidate. It’s not all candidates, but they want to feel wanted, they need effort.
When someone calls them out of the blue and says (paraphrasing) ‘I like you’ it plays to their ego and makes the company desirable. When that person is a talent lead, it means even more because they are an experienced specialist.
When this is coupled with an attraction strategy where they can speak to any employee, read about the business on the website etc, then they feel like the business is trying to speak to them even though much of the communication is one to many. It’s a strategy, put in place purposely.
Most CEOs / Founders are arrogant, blind to their business and tied up in the process. That’s why they shouldn’t be the person (often). Most employees are worried about their job and also (if a manager) ego and pride comes into it.
We should match personality with that initial touch point, the most engaging person in the business who’s passionate should be the lead. That first impression is vital and we have feedback that it’s because of Sam, our talent and recruitment consulting lead, that our clients (and us) are often winning the recruitment battle.