When business instability is estimated to have increased two to four times since the 70s, static business planning is a lot less useful. In today’s market, it’s about quickly taking advantage of a constantly changing environment.
We see what happened to Blockbuster, Toys’R’Us or Kodak and are tempted to think: they should have adopted this technology, or they should have seen that customer trend coming. Hindsight is 20/20, right? But nobody can guarantee that they will always see market changes coming.
What business leaders can do is increase their chances of weathering - or taking advantage of - sudden change by surrounding themselves with the best people, and allowing them to grow and learn quickly. Technologies, business strategies, market knowledge… Everything else is improved from having great talent on board.
Modern Talent Acquisition is organized around engagement
This is why Talent Acquisition is getting a seat at the executive table. As recruiting is shifting from becoming a cost center to a source of competitive advantage, TA leaders are shifting their approach to recruiting to become more long-term based, more strategic.
The focus for modern recruiting teams is to build an ongoing relationship with exceptional candidates, and to be ready to take advantage of an alignment between a newly defined role, and a great candidate with a positive attitude towards the company.
Recruiting priorities are shifting
Where does your recruiting team stand on this spectrum? How proactive are you? Are you thinking about talent attraction in terms of applications, or in term of talent engagement?
Hiring for an undefined future
A candidate who checks a wish list of defined skills is great, but what happens when those skills become obsolete after a couple of years? When the product that employee is working on is no longer relevant? When the company changes its strategic direction?
Modern recruiting teams worry about hiring people who fit the company’s culture, and who are passionate enough about its mission to keep learning and growing with it. Finding these ideal candidates requires time, multiple interactions, and an indication of sustained interest from the candidate.
The role of the Talent Acquisition team has acquired an additional layer: it needs to be able to compete for great talent now and in the future.
It takes only a few years for a market to be completely disrupted, and for incumbents to be taken out by emerging startups. Instead of investing in this technology or that resource, shrewd business leaders know to invest in hiring the best people.
State of Talent Engagement 2019 report
The results of the State of Talent Engagement 2019 survey are in! You can download the full report here for statistics and data on how companies plan to engage with talent in 2019.
