CEO at Talroo.
getty
Each year around the winter holiday season in Virginia, there is a breathtaking exhibit of pageantry and excitement in Colonial Williamsburg referred to as the “Grand Illumination.” The doors are dressed in pineapple and magnolia leaf wreaths and the lights sparkle, especially as dusk falls and the period firework spectacular begins. Later in life, I began to realize it was more than just a holiday light show.
Today, businesses across the world are learning that team members and the talent they attract are more than just employees. I believe that great people grow great companies, and talent is your competitive edge. It certainly has been in my experience. Often, the companies that embrace these ideals and ensure alignment across the organization succeed; the ones that do not, fail. Even in Jeff Bezos’ letter to shareholders, he vowed to become “Earth’s Best Employer.” Recruiting and retaining talent is crucial for growing a business.
This talent has become even more sought after post-pandemic. With the labor force dwindling due to the departure of Baby Boomers, more job opportunities have opened up and it has become an employee’s market. Parallel with this shift in generational workforces is the shift in the mindset of how employees view work and what factors are important to them when seeking employment.
Filling roles with the right talent is often even more challenging than it has been in the past with so many companies all vying for these individuals. This challenge also presents the perfect opportunity to be the company where potential candidates want to work. This isn’t to say that a company should do something that clearly goes against their necessary operating models or doesn’t align with their company focus or mission. Rather, this is an opportunity to reflect and decide if your company is an organization that others would want to be a part of over the alternatives.
Flexibility has become a focal point for many as of late, and it weighs heavily in the minds of the new majority of the labor force. As individuals prioritize what matters most in life, work is not really anyone's top priority anymore. Whether it is the ability to work from any location, or with a more flexible schedule that can meet the needs of their personal lives, the leaders that accept and understand that traditional working norms have changed will be the ones to succeed. There is no better opportunity to try something new and evolve than when “this is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t working.
There is an illumination happening. My organization kicked off our first sales summit earlier this year with interviews from a few customers. The pain of recruiting and hiring is real, and it’s impacting business revenue everywhere. One fast-food franchise owner shared that she loses revenue due to early store closures because she can’t find people to staff her business. She spends most of her time hiring and recruiting. Simply put, it’s strategic to her business now. That was not the only story we heard of this kind.
Talent drives revenue — especially the right talent.
Talent and all things human resources should never be analyzed as a cost center, but rather as a revenue center. Yes, hiring costs money, but it is an investment in your business. You need the right talent to grow a great company. Few things are more costly than a bad hire.
Just like sales and marketing, HR needs to lead with data. There's a symbiotic relationship between talent acquisition and human resources. Many of the fundamentals of marketing can be applied to acquiring top talent just as marketing organizations can help sales acquire customers. Build pipelines of great high-intent leads and close deals. Sales drive revenue, but people drive sales.
The first step is to gather your business partners and determine your HR key performance indicators (KPIs). Create metric-driven KPIs for each HR function, including your talent acquisition tools and career site. The career site is one of the most important tools as it’s the first stop when research begins. Your candidates are like customers — there is a journey before they buy. Bring your hiring managers into the process and ask them to share how much revenue or productivity they may be losing by not finding talent. Just as a sales team may not hit their revenue goals, if marketing is not generating enough leads you need to take a look at your processes.
Hiring is a process and, in my opinion, a sales and marketing process. You are building a pipeline of candidates that you screen and interview and, in the end, some sign your offer letter. Like in customer acquisition marketing, your talent acquisition team needs to fill the pipeline of candidates. Your company brand is one of the most important tools in attracting high-quality candidates to your pipeline, and, in many cases, that starts with your culture.
Culture should be top of mind for all leaders across an organization. When there is organizational cultural alignment, innovation happens. Your team members can feel empowered, guided by your company values to take chances. That's when innovation really happens. The benefit is not only internal to a company, it's external for the talent you may want to attract. If you don't know where to start, hold a workshop and share life experiences with your team. Be vulnerable and transparent; let them know how you handled situations and how you wish, looking back and based on what you know now, you had handled the situation. Like a great company brand, culture takes time to build. There are no overnight successes.
As I witnessed the Grand Illumination in Virginia year after year, I realized it wasn’t about the fireworks or the wreaths. It was the ultimate feeling of gratitude, hope, love and togetherness around the winter holiday season. Today, recruiting and talent acquisition strategies are being illuminated across the world as integral to growth. The ultimate outcome will be economic growth, professional fulfillment and business innovation. It’s more than just hiring people — 2021 is the year of talent illumination.
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