Talent acquisition

3 posts

Navigating The 2024 Maze: A Guide For Small & Mid-Size Growth Companies

The past 18 months have painted a picture of economic ambiguity, with predictions ranging from smooth landings to potential recessions. Geopolitical tensions add further complexity, making future outcomes elusive. While perfect foresight remains out of reach, proactive risk management can equip mid-size growth companies to navigate these uncertainties and achieve resilient growth.

Challenges And Opportunities In A Tightening Credit Landscape

Regional banks, traditionally a financing mainstay for mid-size companies, are facing constraints, leading to tighter credit and higher borrowing costs. This necessitates exploring alternative financing solutions like private credit, even though they may differ from traditional bank loans in terms of structure and cost. Equity financing, while dilutive, might become a last resort. Asset-backed lending offers possibilities for asset-intensive companies, but collateral risks require careful consideration.

Top-Line Growth In A High-Interest World

Interest rate increases, high interest rate concept

As interest rates rise, companies must prioritize debt reduction and focus on value creation for both customers and shareholders. A comprehensive understanding of the value chain within each business unit is crucial, enabling informed capital allocation and ROI maximization. Operational efficiencies alone won't suffice. A C-suite equipped to understand and leverage the "value equation" is essential for driving growth through strategic investments, sales, and capital deployment.

Supply Chain Resilience In A Geopolitically Charged World

Woman in warehouse thinks about supply chain management

The current geopolitical climate poses challenges, but proactive mitigation strategies can lessen their impact. While predicting specific outcomes remains impossible, companies can identify and address supply chain vulnerabilities through comprehensive assessments and diversification strategies. This includes diversifying sourcing locations, suppliers, and production facilities. Additionally, contingency planning, buffer stocks, and contractual flexibility offer further safeguards in this complex global landscape.

Technology Innovation In A Capital-Constrained Environment

IT operations, information technology concept

âJustifying IT investments in a cost-sensitive environment demands clear demonstrations of cost savings and business value. For mid-size companies, this challenge becomes even more crucial. Trade-offs between IT security, infrastructure upgrades, and other needs are likely to arise. Identifying and prioritizing critical IT needs that directly support growth is essential. Continuous tracking and communication of the value delivered by IT investments are key to securing future funding.

Building A Thriving Culture In A Hybrid Workforce

Woman working remotely for a hybrid company attends a virtual meeting

The post-pandemic era has redefined the traditional office environment, presenting challenges for company culture and talent acquisition/retention. Creating or maintaining a strong culture while embracing hybrid work arrangements is paramount. Aligning values and fostering engagement when staff are physically dispersed requires open communication and hard conversations about roles, compensation, and expectations. While small and mid-size companies can operate remotely, sustained growth often necessitates fostering a strong in-person element as well.

Adapting To A New Interest Rate Regime

Financial, accounting, stock market, graphs, interest rates concept

As the U.S. economy recalibrates to a 3.5% to 4% interest rate environment, mid-size growth companies reliant on regional bank financing must adapt. Exploring alternative financing solutions, stabilizing supply chains, building a strong culture, retaining talent, and driving innovation are crucial for navigating this new reality and achieving sustainable growth.

Below are examples of consulting interventions to address these challenges:

Scenario Planning: Facilitate scenario planning exercises to help clients anticipate and prepare for diverse economic outcomes.
Financial Modeling: Develop robust financial models that account for varying interest rate environments and financing constraints.
Operational Efficiency Assessments: Identify and implement operational improvements to enhance cash flow and reduce reliance on external financing.
Supply Chain Mapping & Risk Management: Conduct comprehensive supply chain assessments and develop mitigation strategies for potential disruptions.
Talent Acquisition & Retention Strategies: Design and implement talent acquisition and retention programs tailored to the hybrid work environment.
IT Investment Optimization: Guide clients in prioritizing and justifying IT investments that deliver demonstrable value and support growth objectives.

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Navigating The 2024 Maze: A Guide For …

Executive Spotlight: How To Improve Talent Acquisition

An effective talent acquisition strategy focuses on the organization's long-term goals and a good candidate experience. Improving talent acquisition is crucial in order to attract, assess, and recruit top talent, all while creating an inclusive and diverse hiring process. So, what are the best talent acquisition practices to ensure the future success of an organization?

We recently asked our leading executives for their best tips on how to improve talent acquisition.

Here are their responses...

Kirsten Yurich, Executive Coach & Vistage Chair

âAcquiring talent is on the minds of every executive. If not on their minds, itâs on the minds of their immediate team. Having employees that turn your strategic vision into operational excellence is one of the most critical priorities for any leader.

That said, according to a recent report, 84% of leaders feel their strategic recruitment efforts are failing. Why?

In analyzing the data from experts, it comes down to one thing: impression.

Weâve all heard you donât remember what people say, but you remember how people make you feel. Itâs no different when it comes to talent acquisition, onboarding, and employee retention.

Why is your company failing at talent acquisition? You are leaving candidates with a bad impression.

If your companyâs reputation is poor â your potential applicants are left with a bad impression.
If your hiring team is unprofessional, inexperienced, or using antiquated methods â your potential applicants are left with a bad impression.
If your internal culture is toxic or behind the times â your potential applicants are left with a bad impression.
If you provide barely a glimpse of what the job entails â your potential applicants are left with a bad impression.

Leaders who struggle with talent acquisition need to evaluate a few key areas:

Does the recruiting team first embody and second infuse the companyâs core values into the talent acquisition process?
Does the recruiting team have the skills and knowledge needed for todayâs job market?
Does the recruiting team have the resources needed to produce the outcomes expected by the executive team?
Does recruiting have the same at your leadership table as sales and marketing? Their need to outsell the competition is no different.

When the recruiting team has the same level of expectations as sales and marketing, why do companies treat them as less than?

Kirsten Yurich is a former CEO and current Vistage Chair. As a clinician, professor, author, and executive, she leverages this unique blend and creates learning environments for executives to become better leaders, spouses, and parents.

John Schembari, Senior Education Executive

First, the hiring process has become ridiculously elongated. We lose candidates to other organizations with processes that are more efficient. Can some of these stages be combined? Impression, as Kirsten says above, matters. If you don't value my time as a candidate during the hiring process, how will you value me when I work for you?

Hiring is biased. We all have implicit biases so it stands to reason that the more ways one is similar to those interviewing them the more likely a connection is to follow. While it might be more fun or easy to work with those like us, the organization itself might need different talents to succeed. There are many ways to reduce, if not eliminate, these biases.

Then, once hired, what are we doing to help our new employees succeed? After all, if employees leave too soon, we are back at the hiring tableâand this is costly! Yes, many organizations encourage ongoing feedback meetings between supervisor and subordinateâthese should continue. However, a supervisor is not an impartial mentor. We can do better in offering coaching programs to our staff. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

John Schembari is a current K-12 teacher/school leader academic improvement coach and former school building and district administrator. He loves to draw, travel, swing dance, and read nonfiction.

Ana Smith, Leadership Development & Learning Strategist

Enhancing talent acquisition and unleashing the power of human connection. I'm excited about this key topic and will share some ideas on how organizations can elevate their talent acquisition strategies to attract and retain top talent. In today's competitive job market, companies must adopt a holistic approach that embraces both technological advancements and the power of human connection. Let's explore some key strategies for improving talent acquisition.

1. Embrace Innovative Technologies: Leverage the potential of cutting-edge technologies to streamline your talent acquisition process. From AI-driven applicant tracking systems to video interviews, these tools can help save time, enhance efficiency, and ensure a seamless candidate experience. By automating repetitive tasks, recruiters can focus on building meaningful connections with candidates and making data-driven decisions.

2. Personalize the Candidate Experience: Treat candidates as individuals, not just resumes. Tailor your communication and engagement strategies to resonate with each candidate. Personalized emails, engaging content, and thoughtful interactions throughout the recruitment process can significantly enhance the candidate experience and showcase your company's commitment to its success.

3. Cultivate an Employer Brand: A strong employer brand is essential for attracting top talent. Showcase your company's values, mission, and culture through compelling storytelling. Leverage social media, employee testimonials, and thought leadership content to create an authentic brand narrative that resonates with potential candidates. Highlight the unique opportunities and growth prospects your organization offers.

4. Develop Strong Talent Pipelines: Talent acquisition should not be limited to immediate needs. Build and nurture talent pipelines to tap into a pool of qualified candidates for future roles. Engage with potential candidates through talent communities, networking events, and professional development initiatives. By fostering long-term relationships, you can quickly fill positions with top talent when the time is right.

5. Prioritize Diversity and Inclusion: Embrace diversity and inclusion as a core value in your talent acquisition efforts. Create a hiring process that eliminates bias and fosters equal opportunities for all candidates. Proactively source candidates from diverse backgrounds and promote inclusive hiring practices. By cultivating a diverse workforce, you'll not only enhance innovation but also appeal to a broader range of candidates.

6. Invest in Employee Referrals: Tap into the power of your existing employees by implementing a robust employee referral program. Encourage and incentivize employees to refer qualified candidates who align with your company's culture and values. Employee referrals often result in higher-quality hires and a smoother onboarding process, as candidates already have a connection within the organization.

7. Continuous Learning and Development: Foster a culture of continuous learning and development within your organization. Demonstrate your commitment to employee growth by offering training programs, mentorship opportunities, and career advancement initiatives. Emphasize the potential for personal and professional growth as part of your talent acquisition strategy to attract ambitious candidates seeking long-term career prospects.

Remember, talent acquisition is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Continuously monitor and assess the effectiveness of your strategies, leveraging analytics and feedback loops to refine and optimize your processes. The key lies in balancing technological innovation with human touchpoints to create a meaningful and engaging candidate experience.

Ana Smith helps people & organizations achieve their full talent potential by developing and co-creating people strategies and customized solutions, and turning them into impactful outcomes and collaborative relationships, using coaching as the "red thread.

Michael Willis, Sports Business Operations Executive

Talent acquisition should be viewed on the same timeline as the organizationâs growth plan. The vision of the company should be looked at in terms of decades. So should the hiring and retention plans.

Employee branding is what we want our teams to look like in ways of education, experience, culture, and readiness. The labor market needs to catch up to the talent acquisition processes. It might seem unfair, but we must realize itâs the employerâs choice. Employers have the right to retain their best by offering certain employees the latest training in their field, offering management training.

Level up the quality of employees by offering existing employees referral awards for recommending âhigh performs.â This practice allows companies to hire the best at low costs.

Make Recruiting a Priority â Build an outside talent pool of positions that might be needed within the company and build a relationship with these individuals to pull from when the need presents itself. This will be a great way to have talent ready when there is an immediate need to shorten the hiring process.
Build a Strong Management Program â Build a program that recognizes strong hires for additional management training. I think these types of programs should be transparent so that they are available to all that fit the criteria. These types of programs are where your vice presidents and future C-suite executives are born.
Train HR â Lastly, HR should build a database that includes every employee. This database should include the service date, promotions, awards, and performance. Non-promoted employees should be flagged and discuss with their managers why they are stagnant in their progression.

Michael Willis has 18+ years of experience working with accounting & sports organizations and has managed P&Ls of $10M - $125M+ with budgets of $3M-$50M+. He worked for the NFL for 22 1/2 years, mainly with the game officials working on the financial/accounting side of the business.

Lisa Perry, Global Marketing Executive

âIn todayâs competitive job market, attracting and retaining top talent has become a priority for organizations across industries. Employer brand marketing is a powerful tool that can significantly improve talent acquisition efforts. Remember, talent acquisition is not just about finding suitable candidates; itâs about attracting individuals who align with your companyâs values, culture, and long-term goals. Here are several ways employer brand marketing can improve talent acquisition and secure the best candidates.

Define Your Employer Brand

To improve talent acquisition, developing a strong and authentic employer brand is crucial. Start by defining your companyâs core values, mission, and culture. Conduct internal surveys and interviews to understand employee perceptions and experiences. Use this feedback to define and articulate your employer brand proposition, highlighting what sets your organization apart. Ensure that your employer brand aligns with your companyâs overall brand image and resonates with your target talent pool.

Craft Compelling Employer Brand Messages

Once you have defined your employer brand, craft compelling messages that effectively communicate your unique value proposition. Develop a consistent narrative that showcases the employee experience, career growth opportunities, and the positive impact individuals can make within your organization. Tailor your messaging to resonate with different target audiencesâexperienced professionals, recent graduates, or specific industry segments. Highlight testimonials and success stories from current employees to add credibility and authenticity to your brand messages.

Leverage Digital & Social Media

Digital and social media platforms offer immense opportunities to showcase your employer brand and engage with potential candidates. Establish a strong online presence by optimizing your careers website and creating engaging content that reflects your employer brand. Leverage social media channels to share employee stories and company news and showcase your company culture. Encourage employees to become brand ambassadors by sharing their experiences on social media platforms. Engage with candidates and respond to their inquiries promptly, creating a positive and interactive online experience.

Enhance Candidate Experience

Improving talent acquisition involves providing candidates with a seamless and positive experience throughout recruitment. Ensure that your application process is user-friendly and mobile-responsive. Communicate job expectations, responsibilities, and career progression opportunities to set realistic candidate expectations. Regularly update candidates on the status of their applications and provide constructive feedback, even if they are not selected. A positive candidate experience, regardless of the outcome, can enhance your employer brand reputation and attract future talent.

Nurture Relationships With Passive Candidates

Employer brand marketing isnât limited to active job seekers. Develop strategies to engage and nurture relationships with passive candidates who may not be actively looking for a job but could be valuable assets to your organization. Identify and connect with potential candidates through networking events, industry conferences, and professional online communities. Share through leadership content, provide insights into your companyâs achievements, and create opportunities for passive candidates to learn about your organization's culture and career opportunities.

Engage Employees as Brand Advocates

Your employees are your strongest brand ambassadors. Engage and empower them to share their experiences and promote your employer brand. Encourage employees to create and share content on their social media channels, participate in employee referral programs, and contribute to employer brand storytelling initiatives. Recognize and celebrate employee achievements to foster a positive work environment and enhance employee advocacy.

Measure & Iterate

Continuous measurement and analysis are vital to improving your employer brand marketing efforts. Use analytics to track the impact of your employer brand marketing campaigns, such as website traffic, application rates, and candidate quality. Collect feedback from candidates and employees to identify areas for improvement and fine-tune your strategies. Regularly review and update your employer brand messaging to ensure it remains relevant and resonates with your target audience.

Investing in employer brand marketing can attract top talent and establish your organization as an employer of choice.

Lisa Perry helps companies build leadership brands, driving loyal customers & delivering profitability. She does this through a process that builds brands consumers love. Her goal is to help companies develop, monetize, and grow their brands.

What are your best tips for improving talent acquisition? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily's Executive Program.

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Executive Spotlight: How To Improve Talent Acquisition

Great Resignation, Great Downsizing? You Need A Talent Architecture To Improve Retention!

As you can imagine, there are many leadership areas in which CDAOs focus on collaboration with HR, recruiting, and technology. In their role as the leader of the data analytics (DA) practice and as executive general manager for the firm, current concerns for CDAOs revolve around recruiting, management, and retention of DA talent.

With more firms adopting the center of excellence (COE) and practice model (often Agile at Scale practice models) for data analytics (DA), success begins with designing and implementing a world-class talent architecture.

Let's Start At The Beginning: Why Do We Need Talent Architecture?

human resources, data analytics, talent architecture concept

Just as a building plan defines the elements of a house to be built, a talent architecture (TA) clearly explains the elements of the jobs to be done. TA is leveraged to understand what skills and competencies are to be recruited, how they should be managed, and what expectations new hires (and current team members) should have regarding job performance, competencies, career progress, and compensation. A finely tuned talent architecture will achieve these goals and set the practice up for organizational, business, and team member success.

An Impactful DA Talent Architecture Has Two Prime Elements With Multiple Powerful Benefits

Hiring manager talks to a job candidate during an interview

Fit for Purpose Job Descriptions: To provide robust, well-defined job descriptions that clearly define role profiles within your organization. These profiles describe the boundaries of the role, years of experience required, and technical/business qualifications. This is important for honing your recruiting strategy and spelling out the expectations for the existing team of each roleâwhat the role is, what it does, and what spells success.
Career Path and Salary Range: The talent architecture creates spans and layers within each job function that makes it clear to existing staff what it takes to get to the next level, the expectations of those occupying each role, and the salary band for that particular job. When you design the spans and layers, HR will coach the CDAO to be people agnostic and not to think about the existing team but rather what roles are needed for the function and how they will calibrate to the market and best practices and the desired end state organization.

Benefits Include:

Credibility and Professionalism: Ensures DA roles are filled with actual data analytics professionals. The talent architecture helps create credibility for the organization's role and the team, with all stakeholders aware that the position is part of an endorsed competency center of excellence. Historically, there were issues with hiring managers slamming people with connected skills (but not the required ones) into a job, only to have them leave or to create sub-optimal results for that particular role. [We all know folks in roles where we scratch our heads wondering how they got there based on required qualifications. Talent architecture helps avoid this syndrome.]
Business Competitiveness: Roles are clearly defined and are priced to the market via regular surveys. Calibrating to the market allows adjustment within your compensation strategy to attract and retain talent. The salary banding should be reasonably broad to allow for flexibility for advanced, hard-to-find talent/skill sets in data science, engineering, and AI.
Career Path: Team members know where they stand with a defined career pathâ'I know who I am, where I am, and where I can go.' Everything is published and why people hold their roles becomes less of a mystery.
Organizational Transparency: Clarity of job functions and associated levels creates and builds trust with the professionals on the team and rational thinking and understanding of the function by management. I find the higher the trust amongst the team, the lower the turnover!
Teamwork and Collaboration: Workflows and handoffs are known with understood roles and responsibilities. Very often, there is confusion between data scientists and data engineering regarding the handoffs and who is building what aspects of the tooling. TA brings that clarity and helps engender collaboration with clearer handoffs and job scopes.

An Example Of A Talent Architecture

human resources looking for a job candidate concept

A talent architecture is a living, breathing system of job families and functions calibrated in content and compensation with a market study. This architecture defines all subject areas, job functions, and categories within an overarching job family. There can be many job functions within this architecture, each with a role profile having the following essentials:

Role Title
Role Description and Key Responsibilities: The essence of what the role does. These activities should be stated if the role leads people, uses platforms, and supports the business.
Competency Level: The level of knowledge that the holder of the role should possess, for example, from Knowledge of to Competent to Expert level capabilities. These levels often help by translating to salary bands, and specific skill sets help define a role profile. For example, the number of years of experience in machine learning in data science can be a differentiator between the salary paid for the role and the level.

Illustrative: (There are more jobs than these two)

Title	Executive Data Scientist	Data Science Manager
Role Description	Leads a team to apply statistical methodologies on big data platforms to help business lines improve decision-making. Focuses on enterprise customers.	Working team leader manages other data scientists using machine learning to transform data into predictive models applied to solve business problems for business partners.
Key Responsibilities	Leads the team to design, build, and execute client data science projects. Engages with key executives on the integration of data science work products across the organization Advocates the data science vision.	Collaborates with business partners to define the business problem. Selects and builds the appropriate data science or statistical tools with a small, focused squad.
Key Competencies (Including COE/Practice skills, Organization and Leadership skills, and Technical skills)	Rated by knowledge level. For example: Data science: Expert Business knowledge and translation skills level: Expert Technical skills: Advanced	Rated by knowledge level. For example: Data science: Expert Business knowledge and translation skills level: Advanced Technical skills: Expert

Tips On Designing A Talent Architecture Governance And Management

In alignment with CDAOs and their Drs, HR owns and governs the talent architecture.
Hiring managers can customize business focus but not competencies. In other words, hiring managers don't get to change the job family at will. They must leverage the governance model to update the roles based on the desired end state and market calibration.
The dedicated technology team works with HR to make the role profiles and full TA available to enterprise recruiting and LOB teams.
People analytics teams should be formulated to understand the key insights that can benefit talent planning from the talent architecture.
LOB leaders/clients are sponsors of data analytics projects. They can be part of the hiring process and give input into the business scope of the role.
Third-party consultants and best-practice firms should be leveraged to guide any necessary calibrations to the talent architecture. Get in touch with me if anyone wants recommendations for these providers based on my experience.

I hope this paints a picture of some of the critical elements of talent architecture and how CDAOs help with its design. This post should also paint a picture of some of the future of work (FOW) leadership dimensions CDAOs are involved in. As always, the devil is in the details, but I believe I've left much here for you to ponder. Please send your thoughts, comments, and suggestions.

Stay tuned for future posts on What it means to be a CDAO, the critical elements of the job, and the success factors.

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