Domain 1: Acquiring and Hiring Talent
Seven in ten employers globally report that they can’t access the talent that they need. To help remedy this, companies using the Talent Sustainability Framework can work to improve efficiency and productivity in how they acquire new talent. This means using data-driven hiring decisions to find the right talent quickly and efficiently, building a culture that attracts workers, and getting them up to speed rapidly through effective onboarding.
Using the Talent Sustainability Framework, employers can create an approach where staff feel connected to the business from their very first contact with the company. Creating a strong Employer Value Proposition is crucial so that potential and current workers recognise their value and the value they get from the organisation. Companies that have strong EVP and a healthy brand are more successful at attracting top-quality candidates, reducing time to hire, and retaining talent. From first contact, through the onboarding process, all the way to when they leave the company, HR teams can ensure individuals feel they belong and are fully committed to the organisation. Part of this can be through putting in place the right policies, such as flexible and remote working where appropriate, to attract candidates and meet the needs of workers. But leaders should also be looking to build a culture where workers feel they are genuinely valued.
Businesses working to create a sustainable talent ecosystem aim not only to build affinity with their current talent, but also to keep their alumni engaged and identify potential candidates who could be a good fit in the future. By cultivating pools of talent outside the organisation as well as within it, businesses know that there are workers available to them who have been identified and nurtured. When the time comes that the organisation needs more people, it can take its pick from a talent pool of candidates who already have some familiarity with the organisation, are aligned with its values, and can be onboarded quickly and efficiently.
In essence, we need to be much more critical of wasted talent across the board, so that organisations can become efficient and sustainable. Recruitment is key to this, and businesses should be working to minimise the time it takes to get the right workers in their roles. At the other end too, it is vital for employers to take responsibility for workers whose skills they no longer need. Instead of just laying off, are organisations taking responsibility for their leavers being able to take their skills elsewhere? Are you keeping your people employable in the long-term, even if not at your organisation?
The acquisition of talent into an organisation and turning a new worker into a productive one requires meeting best practices across six elements, as set out in the graph:
