Tonmoy Shingal
An increasing shortage of skilled talent continues to add to the mounting challenges faced by organisations worldwide. This impedes the achievement of their growth targets and of critical business outcomes.
In a majority of cases, the shortage of talent can be attributed to two main factors, inefficient hiring processes and a lack of competent resources with adequate potential. Most companies tend to assume that they will have an endless supply of candidates if they maintain the status quo, and that is where they usually go wrong. The truth is that the competent and experienced candidates whom these organisations look to hire, are selective in choosing their potential employers.
Hiring for leadership roles is concerned can be a major challenge for employers. No matter if they choose to hire for these roles internally or externally, they end up with those mediocre outcomes if they fail to make changes to their employee engagement strategy. In the absence of an organisational culture that fosters talent and emphasises on holistic employee growth along with that of the company, employee attrition will continue to be a challenge for businesses.
The only way, then, to turn employees into loyal assets and long-term growth drivers, is to adopt innovative and proactive strategies to keep employees motivated.
Adopting creative hiring strategies
The growing talent war between companies only emphasises on the pressing need for them to adopt a more efficient hiring strategy. Finding the right managers or leaders is imperative to build high-performing teams and augment business growth. This, however, can only be done once organisations ditch age-old policies and introduce creative ways to attract higher quality talent.
Probably the best place to start is by rethinking the remuneration strategy and making the salaries for top managers and leaders more competitive. The cost of employee attrition due to inadequate or stagnant remuneration can be much higher than the expenditure made by the organisation towards the individual’s annual salary.
Along with the unforeseen costs of having to acquire fresh talent, the wrong hiring decisions, especially for leadership roles, can potentially end up affecting revenues and business growth, sometimes irreversibly. This is why organisations should focus on choosing the right people with the right skills and necessary experience.
Nevertheless, while a critical factor for any organisation in hiring, money is not the only one. There are other equally, if not more, important factors that influence the decisions of candidates when choosing their employer. Here are other important elements that companies must focus on to target long-term hiring success across all levels:
Creating an engaging workplace culture
More organisations are focusing on building a diverse workplace today. But without the right engagement strategies, a diversified workplace won’t do much for an organisation if it is constantly dealing with stress from disruptions in productivity.
An organisational culture that takes a proactive approach in the growth and development of employees and recognises their contribution is the key to retaining them. Moreover, such effective engagement strategies cannot only augment their productivity and efficiency, but also increase their loyalty towards the employer. After all, employees are an organisation’s most important brand ambassadors and how you treat them reflects a great deal on their business practices as well as their treatment of clients.
Offering competitive benefits besides pay
The rising competition among organisations to attract the best talent has led to many employers going out of their way and modifying policies and rules to offer greater flexibility. Achieving the right balance between monetary and non-monetary benefits can be the key to attracting the right talent while also ensuring that existing employees remain engaged. Some organisations even offer high-quality candidates the option to work remotely, and give them the freedom to innovate in their role if they are confident of the returns on their investment. Such an approach can make employees feel valued and relevant to the organisation.
With time, organisations are increasingly recognising the necessity to reinvent their hiring strategies. They are also changing the way candidates are assessed by integrating more intuitive ways to derive the desired impact from their hiring processes. While identifying the right talent is easy, retaining it is what takes the most effort.
Assessing the personality of potential candidates through psychometric and cognitive tests can ensure more effective outcomes from hiring campaigns. It can also help them achieve higher rates of employee retention and gain a competitive edge in the market. This is essentially why a data-driven hiring strategy could be an extremely effective tool, along with the aforementioned, for organisations to achieve this.
The writer is co-founder and chief operating officer, Mettl
Source: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/expert-columns-2/hiring-for-leadership-roles-who-to-hire-and-how-to-hire-3206191.html