Workwear Outfitters

Organizations are required to adapt quickly or get left behind as innovation, technology, and transformation push our businesses. As we moved through a global pandemic and “The Great Resignation”, that was particularly true for the world of talent acquisition. These teams faced challenges, had to develop solutions and future strategies in the never-ending evolution of the employee lifecycle; attract, engage, develop, retain.

One of the biggest evolutions in talent acquisition is how we seen recruiters evolve into talent partners. The recruiters role of taking orders, posting job, and coordinating interviews has evolved into a partnership with executives, hiring managers, and peers. There is more emphasis on that TA partner to truly understand how the opening fits into the business, organizational design, compensation philosophy, and the impact they will have. Essentially, having a business case as to why do this role is needed and how it fits into the organization. By having this kind of insight, it empowers our TA teams to have recruiting strategy discussions, research, and be a subject matter expert on their markets and develop clear outbound recruiting tactics. In the market, a post and pray methodology doesn’t attract good talent. As TA professionals are focusing more and more on outbound recruiting, they are positioned as that first point of contact to highly desirable candidates. They are engaging them on opportunities so in this highly competitive market, that ability to attract and sell adds credibility and legitimacy to the partnership. It is easy for executives to read articles on employment data but now more so than ever, they are partnering with their talent acquisition departments and hearing first-hand what they see, feel, research, and talk to every day.

  The perfect candidate does not exist. We have the valuable insight into our internal workforce, so we need to use the competency knowledge to develop our internal talent through new roles and opportunities. 

Amidst talent shortages, TA leaders are increasingly prioritizing internal mobility. Career pathing, re-skilling, and upskilling current talent. The perfect candidate does not exist. We have the valuable insight into our internal workforce, so we need to use the competency knowledge to develop our internal talent through new roles and opportunities. Not only will it help with retention, but it will also increase engagement and allow for managers to flex that management muscle of development. To successfully have an internal mobility culture, this messaging needs to come from the C-suite; a top down message. If the executive team isn’t bought in, then it is an uphill battle for TA to lead.

A recent Korn Ferry survey shows that over 51% of professionals believe employee turnover will continue to increase this year. The fact is there are more jobs than people and it is not going to change. The perception that if we “recruit harder” we will find someone is antiquated. If higher turn-over is the new normal based on economic data, generational needs and compensation than what can we do as an organization to model jobs to get the best out of an employee while they are working at your company. If we say it really takes one year to be fully up to speed in our complex business, then how can we shorten that time period so an employee is operating at full capacity within 6 months or even 3 months. To model your jobs in a more effective way in a high turnover market, you have to think differently about the work and become a true partner to the business. This allows for the blame game of “human resources isn’t working hard enough on retention” and shifts that turnover ownership to the business as a whole and will allow you to partner together to make better jobs.

The War for Talent is over… talent won. It is time to settle in and accept the fact that this hiring environment is the new normal.