A client once told me that he could not find people that would fit into his company. He had looked to replace many positions in his company for months and he never found the right people.
If you are telling yourself that, you’re probably having a problem you need to fix. So I asked him, “Why do you find it so difficult to find the right people?”
He replied me, “Our company is different. People need to know how to adapt.”
What makes his company different from any company? It’s what I call culture. Systems, people, leadership, processes, and values form the culture. So my next question to him was, “What is the right type of people that can fit?”
“Adaptable people, of course!” I could tell he was getting frustrated.
“Adapt to what Mr Client?” I must keep frustrating him in circles of endless questions.
“Adapt to our culture, the way we do things here, the way we handle business here, the way we interact here,” he said.
“What’s so special in your business that all these candidates out there could not seem to do right?”
“We need people who go with the flow. If they come from a structured environment and have things done professionally and systematically, they won’t fit in. If they have used big systems to do their work, they won’t fit in. If they had followed strict policy guidelines and don’t know how to bend the rules when situation arises, they’re not right. Most of these candidates come from large companies where they’ve been trained to speak up, be visible, be inquisitive..get excited! I can’t accommodate their dreams. I want people to listen to me and do I what I ask them to do.”
“Mr Client, if that’s case let me be frank with you. Let me walk away now. My purpose is to find good candidates. I don’t think I can find you ‘good candidates’. I’m very sorry to have wasted your time today.”
Companies need to understand that attracting good talent comes with a big price. This price is what I call the FIX price. It’s not about change. You can keep changing and nothing you do will ever attract talent because the change does not add value to your supply chain. Mr Client has inherited problems over years of running a business that compromises its values. The company has lost its integrity, its transparency, its excellence, and humility. It has disconnected itself from reality. Employers like Mr Client often find themselves not only having trouble hiring but also trouble retaining people. They talk a lot about talent management but they have no idea what that big word entails. If they don’t care about fixing the problems in the company to streamline their processes and create a conducive environment for their employees, forget the whole nine yards of employer branding and talent attraction. What goes on in the company determines how people view the company and whether they can attract the industry’s top talent.
Branding can be as simple as providing the basic necessities of proper office equipment to work, a pantry to catch up with colleagues for a cup of coffee, a system to automate all the mundane tasks, subsidized lunches, cutting the fat at the top, free employee parking, flexi-work, proper pay for performance structure, non-discrimination against race, gender or religion; all of which don’t cost companies a lot compared to chauffeurs, lavish cars and executive lunches for directors that cost a thousand each, unnecessary business travel when a simple skype call could have easily done the job, etc.
Fix It. If you fix the unnecessary expenses that suck up almost fifty percent of your operating expenditure and move that to eighty percent of the staff force, it’s one simple way to get the attention of the public in a good way. Why has the concept of branding become so difficult and full of dazzling frameworks when the basics isn’t right?
Job Seekers Unanimous 