In the wake of unprecedented global events and rapid technological advancements, the employment landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. As companies navigate this evolving terrain, adaptability and resilience are paramount. Whether it’s attracting top talent, retaining skilled employees, or staying ahead of the competition, organizations must embrace innovative strategies to thrive in the current employment market.
In conclusion, thriving in the current employment market requires companies to be agile, adaptable, and forward-thinking. By embracing flexible work arrangements, prioritizing employee well-being, leveraging technology for talent acquisition, focusing on diversity and inclusion, adapting to changing skill demands, and fostering a culture of innovation, organizations can position themselves for long-term success in an ever-evolving landscape.
In a world where skilled staff with the right skills, experience and attitude are scarce and time to hire seems to be more drawn out than ever, how do you compete for the people that are going to secure the future for your company? How do you get ahead of the game?
What if you identified the roles in your organisation that were crucial for your success (now and in the future, say in 2 years time)?
What if you had a picture of the competencies, skills and experience you required for each of these roles?
What if you used your business plans to estimate the number of staff you were going to need in these roles to hit your business goals?
Wouldn’t this would give you a staffing target to aim for?
Now, if you then assessed your current team against the criteria for each role and looked at your staff turnover history you would have a gap analysis of the talent you will need to hit your goals.
This is the first part of a solid talent map.
The second part is researching to find where the people you are going to need in the future are now. Are they studying, or working with competitors? Are they available locally? Are people with the skills you need available at all, will you need to train them?
Now you have a staffing strategy to enable you to deliver your business plan.
Why would you want to invest in this?
Many organisations have found that a good talent map has dramatically changed the success of their recruitment and hence their companies results. The talent map allows you to get ahead of the recruitment game. It gives you the information you need to start identifying people now that you may need in the future. It means that when you do have a vacancy to fill you may already have a target list of people to approach. It also means that vacancies are filled quicker with people who have a better chance at success. More sales are made and more customers are kept happy.
Talent mapping is not the domain of big companies. It is the domain of all companies who are planning to be successful.
Most organisations have a solid understanding of the skills a good employee needs to be successful. But how many companies really understand the attitudes that are important for success in their organisation? How many hiring managers or recruiters know how to determine whether a candidate’s true attitudes reflect those required to succeed in your business?
Mark Murphy, in his book “Hiring for Attitude” describes an approach to discovering the attitudes that matter in your organisation and the methods needed to uncover whether a candidate has those attitudes or not. And the good news is that it can be replicated by all organisations, large and small.
Below is a brief summary of Murphy’s method.
1 Define the attitudes that make a difference in your organisation
The temptation is to write down a long list of traits we want to see in all employees, including for example honesty, reliability integrity etc. The problem though is that these traits often exist in both successful and unsuccessful employees (there are plenty of honest reliable but unsuccessful employees out there). They do not help us separate those people that have the best chance of success in your organisation from the others. We need to find two distinct groups of attitudes, those that only exist in the successful people in your company and those that only appear in the unsuccessful people in your company (the differential characteristics).
Murphy suggests uncovering these attitudes by questioning the people in your organisation who will have witnessed them. But the trick is to get very specific examples of and descriptions of the behaviours. But don’t get fooled by “fuzzy language”. Descriptions like ‘maintains the highest level of professionalism’ or ‘leads by example’ are open for interpretation. What you understand as professionalism can be quite different from my definition. Murphy’s test is to ask yourself ‘could two strangers have observed those behaviours’?
The output of this phase is a table with two columns, one listing the positive differentiating attitudes (those that exist in successful employees), the other listing the corresponding negative differentiating attitudes (those that exist in employees that do not succeed).
2 Create Interview Questions that highlight the difference
Creating these questions is a four-step process:
Step 1 – Select one of the Characteristics from your table
Step 2 – Identify a differential situation to highlight characteristic
Step 3 – Begin the question by asking “could you tell me about a time you …” and insert the differential situation you have identified
Step 4 – Leave the question hanging
Seems simple enough. But simple doesn’t mean easy, finding the right situation takes some effort and usually need you to look back at the examples you were given when you were surveying your colleagues.
And what does step 4 mean? Murphy explains that too often good behavioural questions are spoiled by leading the candidate to the solution, e.g. “Tell me about a time when you had to adapt to a difficult situation. What did you do?” Well you have just said that they should adapt to it. Leave the question hanging means not leading them to the answer.
3 Creating answer guidelines
Why do we need answer guidelines? For two main reasons, to ensure we have a consistent understanding across the organisation and to give interviewers cues to listen for in the interview.
To get the full picture on hiring for attitude please consult Mark Murphy’s 2012 book; Hiring for attitude; a revolutionary approach to recruiting star performers with both tremendous skills and superb attitude.
