Читать книгу Shapers - Jonas Altman - Страница 18

The function of the talent manager is not to promote a job but to sell the company DNA to the most fitting candidate. HR is really a marketing initiative; the product is the company and the consumer is the future employee. ‘Good talent managers think like businesspeople and innovators first, and like HR people last,’ insists Patty Mccord, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix. A successful campaign results in identifying and selecting applicants who have the potential to adapt and grow.

HR is really a marketing initiative; the product is the company and the consumer is the future employee.

So instead of hiring staff largely based on the boxes they check, talent managers must consider an alternative approach. They must seek out and lure candidates that are eager to create and skill up in categories yet to be defined. ‘Companies want misfits, yet they want to hire them the old‐fashioned way. They want revolutionaries, yet they want their most conservative leaders to identify them,’ says storyteller Jeff Wasiluk.

Progressive talent managers should ask themselves:

 Can our employees galvanise around an authentic, clear, and compelling purpose?

 Do we positively treat our people like adults?

 What does our company culture say about us as a destination to work?

 What specific functions do we need to perform and how can we resource them in the smartest and most ethical way?

 Is the traditional 40‐hour week the optimum way for us to utilise all or part of our workforce and, more importantly, enable them up to do their best work? Is a shorter work week or job sharing an option for us?

 How does a distributed workforce and remote work enable us to advance our mission and let our people do their best work?

 Do dynamic external workforces (talent networks) provide a viable solution to meet our current and future needs? And if so, how do we build an inclusive culture that treats these workers right?

‘Employee Experience Design’ is the cheeky catch‐all answer. A relatively newish approach evolving over the past two decades, it is much more integrated: employer branding, interviewing, on‐boarding, 360 feedback, perks and rewards, wellness, events, mentorship, training, off‐boarding, and anything that will enhance the working environment and experience for an employee. The ushers of this modernised practice are no longer Chief Human Resource Officers, nor so much even talent managers, they are People and Culture Brokers.

Such brokers ensure that those destined to work most closely with the new candidates are involved in the hiring process. Some even ditch the resumé in favour of really getting to know a candidate through ‘try before you buy’ approaches like wine and cheese parties, day‐long workshops, or short work assignments. Indeed, when hiring managers have access to so much revealing data, it's increasingly challenging for anyone to fake it. Companies can gauge a candidate's potential fit, and the candidate can discern if a company is all it's cracked up to be.

Recruiters must tell a gripping story that attracts the new candidates they seek. The most effective way to do this is by inspiring existing staff so they do the bulk of the marketing. More than 30% of required skills on job specifications are rarely met, so recruiters need to be less picky about finding all the right skills in a single candidate. It's those candidates with an insatiable hunger to learn–rather than ones that just meet job descriptions–that are the true rock stars.