Is Your Organization Ready To Hire The Right Talent?

There has been quite a bit of talk about how to hire the Right Talent. Organizations have been working towards building strong employer brand, designing superior candidate experience and scientifically assessing applicants, in order to attract the top resources. Anyone from the Talent Acquisition team in any industry can easily tell you about the ‘war of talent’. The pressure to hire the right talent in short time span is enormous.

Major corporations and market leaders visit the premium institutes – the likes of IIM, ISB, IIT, etc. – to bring in the best of people who can lead the organization with innovation. The expectation from candidates may vary with seniority, but organizations value result orientation, problem solving, accountability and critical thinking across levels. Investment of time, resources and money run high to search, identify and hire such candidates.

Managing aspirations of highly competent and right talent

Millennials comprise of major workforce today, and they are advancing to leadership positions. Following them is Gen Z. Their exposure and accessibility to information have understandably created a strong perspective on what makes a great employer. It is not about only finding a job anymore, they look for employers who match their values and provide opportunities to learn and grow. Today employees want to build careers which have real impact.

Attracting the right talent is a challenge. Keeping them onboard is proving to be a critical issue for many organizations. This often leads to negative impact on company growth, productivity, reaching business goals and costly hiring cycles.

Let us take a look at Graduate Engineer Trainees (GET) and Management Trainees (MT). A lot of hours are put in bringing together an interview panel, campus branding, planning seamless onboarding and induction. Many of such hand-picked future leaders often leave the company within their first couple of years, causing quite some financial loss to the organization.

How to retain the right talent?

Following are a few ways to ensure retention of these trainees,

Mentor Readiness:

 These cherry-picked GETs and MTs are enthusiastic, experimental and have high risk appetite. Project guides or mentors need to be prepared to manage, yet flow with this high energy. Readiness of mentors to be reverse-coached, facilitate their growth and share timely constructive feedback, is critical for retaining the new hires. While project guides are highly skilled experts in their own field, this is also an intense journey for them, hence organizations must invest in coaching and inducting them to the process. Identifying the right mentor is as important as to hire the right talent, yet many organizations overlook the significance of project guide selection process.

Plan to Engage: 

Targeted communication and continuous engagement are imperative for creating a connect with the organization’s value proposition and vision. Focused engagement with GETs and MTs are often limited to a few months when the orientation is still in progress, or when occasional reviews take place. A clear roadmap of their journey is non-negotiable, more importantly open and consistent communication with the trainees is the only way to enhance their experience.

Aspirational Spirit: 

This generation is becoming known for their independence and entrepreneurial outlook. They want to be a part of something big. They want to achieve great things, be known for their achievements, and if possible retire early. Keeping the right Talent is possible only when companies make a concerted effort to understand what motivates its employees.

Continuous Learning:

People want to grow. Employees are concerned about what will they learn from this experience. Vertical learning, interdisciplinary learning and cross functional exposure need to be encouraged. This will only make an organization better. Often learning is limited to classroom sessions without an opportunity to implement at workplace. This can be discouraging because one isn’t experiencing real change or self-growth.

Willingness to Act

While best of minds are hired, does your organization culture allow an employee to go to a manager with a better way of doing something? Again, listening to ideas is not enough, does the employer show willingness to act? A conducive environment to pursuit an idea even if it may fail is what keeps the great talent and helps organizations grow. Listening to suggestions big or small without any action will only increase disengagement amongst employees.

Respecting the People

It is quite simple, companies that show respect for what people do and have faith in its employees, earn their loyalty. Experienced managers, supervisors and guides need to be understanding and open to changes when they work with these trainees. This will build lasting relationship with the top talents.
It is not possible to completely predict the challenges companies will face in the future, but when it comes to navigating changes talent is the key to success. Hence reinventing talent practices to ensure preparedness of an organization to keep the right resources is no more an option. It is rather a necessity to remain competitive in a fast-changing world.