Rethinking Recruitment

“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.” – Lawrence Bossidy, GE.

- Lakshmi Murthy

In the last two decades, recruitment as a function has transformed from the age of only referral hiring to print media sourcing to now technology-based sourcing. This pace of development is primarily due to globalisation of the workplace caused by changes in policies at the regional, national, and international levels.

Organisations and countries have evolved programmes to attract students, temporary workers, and immigrants. Global talent has never been so mobile as today. According to a 2015 Jobvite survey, in today’s economy, 86% of recruiters expect fierce competition for talent. At the same time, 58% of them say that their biggest challenge in hiring quality talent is the lack of skilled or qualified workers. However, there is a huge unemployment rate of skilled as well as unskilled workforce prevalent at all levels.

This is a gap which creates a nightmare for the recruiter to find the right talent at the right time at the right price point.

The differentiating factor is in discovering new ways to attract and interact with passive talent as the ones who are available are applying everywhere. According to a 2015 LinkedIn report, passive talent forms 55% of the talent available, of which 87% are willing to change and about 52% would change for better compensation, and only 31% for work-life balance. (Linkedin Talent report) 

In view of the above trend, HR needs to build its strategy around digital sourcing and brand management on social media. The talent acquisition team today cannot just post a job profile and expect footfalls.

The biggest challenge in attracting talent is building an employer brand in both existing and new markets as the context and tool of hiring keep changing.