Putting the Value-ADD back into Recruiting.

...When King Leonidas of Sparta, asked his sentries to gather an army to march on Xerxes & take on anywhere between 70,000 to 300,000 of his Persian soldiers, there were two armies that arose after all their recruiting efforts.

Army I: 300 (made famous by the movie, eh) of thoroughbred, flawlessly trained, unsullied, war-ripe, strategically sound Spartan sentinels, trained of both - mind & body, warriors of the highest sophistication.

Army II: 10,000-12,000* (exact numbers may vary a bit) pseudo warriors with day jobs like painter, potter, sculptor, baker, chariot maker, etc. were assembled alongside the 300.

Cut to present day. Companies - Old & New, looking to scale, scale, scale, scale. Doing a million campus interviews, newspapers ads, recruitment drives, hiring by the hundreds & thousands, across geographies, mobilizing their modern day armies to get that prized lion's take of the market share.

But. Are they hiring Army I or Army II?

It IS just a number, isn't it?: As recruiting teams get to the task, the writing on the wall boldly reads "Numbers + Deadline". Job descriptions are a formality, interviews - brief, uninterested, heartless, unprepared for (even on part of the interviewer many a times), a thousand distractions & pressure situations later, even when 5 of 10 boxes are checked, sometimes a hire is made. "We will tweak as we go, firing non performers, & hiring for fallen soldiers...", is the official memo. In such cases, does top management peek in every now & then to see what kind of teams are being created? Or do they only find out when wrong/incompetent hires cost them the war?

HR, Business, please kiss & make up: As the war for talent & market share heats up, Business needs to join hands with HR, not just be co-operative BUT collaborative. HR should be seen as an enabler, a glue of sorts that binds the organization together & makes it war ready. Often more than not, Business & HR end up being like 2 wives living in the same house with their one husband. (I swear I'm trying to think of another analogy, but this one just hits the nail on the head.) Business needs to support HR & vice versa, like fingers of the same hand, to enable positive recruiting trends & best practices to put the Value BACK into recruitment. A collaborative effort that combines business acumen & recruiting precision to bring on board the best of talent, & brings up the over all responsibility of conscious hiring.

Weapons of Scaling

RecruitZing: Putting the Zing back into Recruiting. Overhauling old job descriptions, old school/obsolete recruiting methods, irrelevant interview panels, dicey referral policies, faulty bulk hiring, using of newer sourcing methods (sites/portals/recruitment startups/social recruiting),  rewarding fitment, renouncing shoddy hires, training all internal stakeholders & not just the recruiting team in using hiring software/following the brand new policies to a T., etc. It is the single most important function of a company & needs to be seen as that. With a lot of power, comes a lot of responsibility. But that needn't be sad, boring, humdrum & taxing. Get your recruiting teams to make it the awesome, exciting function it really is. An engaged recruiter will get you engaged/high fitment employees, EVEN while recruiting in large numbers.

Employer Branding: A much ignored, taken for granted all important tool, that can not only help you leverage your employer brand value proposition to get the right people, but also get your business - additional customers! Something I was discussing today with a professional acquaintance I'm consulting..& he concurred saying, "Yes, most of our customers are on Linkedin/Facebook/Twitter/New portal to advertise, etc." when I told him..."When you do employer branding, not only do you attract the right talent but also customer eyeballs. Dual benefit." But I digress. Coming back to the point: Decide what your company stands for as an employer brand, what are your values, how happy your employees REALLY are (initiatives like the Best Place to Work, etc. can easily find out if you're faking it & if actually your employees are superbly unhappy & looking to move out!) & what is your Employer Brand USP. Then highlight it, share it, advertise it, so if you're a young, exciting furniture/interiors startup which has a Green heart, & does it's bit for the environment / only deals in eco-friendly/green furniture, you may find yourself employees who relate specifically to you that very way & shall help you begin a lifelong romance, of perfect fitment to job roles, being super engaged in taking your business to new heights! Not actual romance, please. You guys know what I meant. Or maybe yes, if your company doesn't mind inter office romance? See.. you could put that as your employer branding USP. A dating/matrimonial services startup could actually use this one. :)People today look beyond a paycheck while job hunting. They look for culture, values, the impact they can make to your company & the world at large. Make sure yours is visible & attracting the kind of people you want!

No nonsense, no frills, no false advertising: While communicating the employment value adds to prospective applicants, pls ensure you paint a very true picture of your company offerings, goals, vision, growth prospects & culture. Sites like Glassdoor  have made the job market a lot more transparent as disgruntled employees don't waste time in telling the world what's behind the glass facade. You're living in the age of information sharing at the speed of light! So be legit, transparent, don't exaggerate, you will reach where you want to with success stories built on your persevering work! The Best place to work initiative highlights some of the best employers to work for based on those very success stories & these guys have no trouble getting the best talent to work with them. Who wouldn't want to work in a great place, huh?

And as Sun Tzu said, in the Art of War, "Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win"; win the recruiting war & then Go to market. :)