R & D

 

Every single day of a job fair or career expo organized by companies always packed with people seeking job. Thousands of jobseeker looking for their dreamed jobs stand at the isles in front of those companies booths at such an expo are becoming common sight from opening until closing time everyday.

We probably often heard people say "it is hard to find job these days" and I am referring to those job seekers with good and some of them even having outstanding academic achievements whom I talked to during those session. Some of them were actually unemployed because of the downsizing efforts by companies where they worked before.

Is it appropriate to say that finding job really that difficult then?

On the other side of the equation, many companies are finding it more challenging to recruit good quality people. The fact that many companies are trying to get good quality candidates from participating in such an expo shows us the paradox of the situation.

My own years of experience in business and as professional, as well as the experiences from various other people who either own businesses or also working as professionals, reveal that many organizations actually are indeed finding it difficult to get good quality people but at the same time haven’t done enough in preparing existing people in their organizations to step into various positions including the management positions.

There is certainly a gap that is caused by the paradox.

R & D: Recruiting and Developing

What went wrong?

Most leaders and/or managers tend to recruit or promote people who think and behave like them. As the result, the companies then missed the opportunity to have an enriched team with views and skills that will be complementing each other.

Many problems related to human resources in companies are actually started from the beginning of the process, the recruitment. Companies must rethink how they recruit and not only in training, utilizing and rewarding people. All those that looks like separate problems in many companies are actually caused by the overlooked recruitment process.

Many companies in their effort to find solution to the problem are even making things worse. Those companies are just spending monies in either training sessions for their employees without first rethink about their specific internal or industry problems, or just leave those human capital problems into the hands of their human resources departments.

The first step is to understand our situation by looking closer or maybe digging deeper into the problems that we are facing in recruiting and the person that we must first get in touch with is the CEO or the COO to get their view on recruitment plans and the overall business plans.

We can actually avoid wasting time and resources in our various attempts to solving those issues by simply start having a recruitment planning in our business plans. And after we understand our situation, in order to have a good recruitment plan we must first set clear objectives and expectations of what our businesses need from those candidates once they join our companies. A thoroughly thought and appropriately communicated job description can help both sides have mutual understanding.

The third step is to ensure that we select the right people and provide the new recruits with a series of orientation assignments to help them to better understand the entire company – not just their own respective function or department.

How lean can we go?

Many companies strive for efficiencies and maximum productivity in all their operations, but don’t take me wrong on these because it is indeed very important for companies to have efficient operations and high productivity. It is, however, at the same time companies should avoid an over specialization situation and must develop all team members to think beyond their departments and/or divisions. 

Too often for the sake of cost efficiencies and productivity, overall performance of their companies were poor because managers only look after the departments that they are leading without thinking about collaboration with other departments to pursue business goals. 

Hence, the role of CEO or COO is very crucial to ensure that every effort in increasing productivity and efficiencies not only must be well-planned and in accordance to the overall business plans but also still provide ample room for people development  so that our companies have people ready for either lateral transfer or promotion.

What to do next?

Talent Management

Top management, senior leaders and managers together with human resources department must have full commitment and high level of engagement through all the processes of recruiting and retaining good employees. Involvement such as attending regular orientation sessions for new recruits is just a minimum that top management and senior leaders must do. Top management must do regular at least once a year comprehensive review with senior leaders and line managers to really understand how the pipeline of talents is and follows it up in every quarterly reviews.

Well handled and efficient hiring must be followed by development of the talents from time to time as their careers progress. Even those talents with high potential need support when they are having new assignments. When we have talents from various departments, provide them not only regular training and coaching but have them connected with one another to share best practices and innovative ideas that could enrich their perspectives.

Regular assessment and tracking of leadership potential is also needed as leaders are made not born. Those talents might have developed their leadership capabilities as the results of the various combined assignments and training that they have.

Last but not least, we need to measure how well the company retains key employees and high-potential talents. Involve the managers when we review the measurement so that they feel more engaged in all the process from recruiting, developing and retaining good employees. By doing so, accountability for results is clearly defined at all levels.