| |
| |
|
Management Information |
|
|
|
Talent Recruitment Challenges of High Technology Companies
As a result of the dot com meltdown and the decline of the NASDAQ in 2001, many organizations had no alternatives but to lay off many talented IT professionals. Currently, the pool of available talent in the labour market is large. Over the long haul, the impact of shifting population demographics on the labour pool will be staggering. As the baby boom generation continues to age, we can expect acute labour shortages similar to the ones we experienced in the high technology sector during the dot com boom. While there is still a surplus of talent in the market, it is important for organizations to take proactive steps to attract the brightest and the best and thereby fuel their organization's growth. The days of placing ads in the newspaper and receiving a flood of resumes from qualified applications are drawing to a close. Companies that want to ensure that they have a steady stream of applicants will have to think outside the box to broaden their repertoire of talent recruitment strategies. For high technology organizations, attracting, hiring and retaining the right talent is critical. Add the right players to your team and you have a key source of competitive advantage. Attract the wrong talent and you will have difficulty meeting your strategic goals and objectives. Your first challenge is to generate a large enough talent pool from which you can draw when searching for top talent. The second is to develop an effective process for screening and selecting the best candidates. Out of the Box Recruitment Strategies Putting the right long and short term strategies in place will ensure that you attract the right talent now and into the future. Short term strategies to explore include: - talent auditions; When we recently conducted our behaviour based interviewing workshop in Singapore, a Vice-President who attended the session indicated that his company had sponsored an employee's participation in a high profile sporting event. The company received so much publicity and exposure that it was more than worth their while to allow the employee to take time off to attend practices and compete in the event. Longer term strategies could/might include: - giving executives and senior managers time off to become actively involved in the leadership of professional associations or the alumni associations of universities and secondary schools from which they graduated; - giving executives and senior managers time to broaden their network of up and coming professionals by teaching at university or community college (this can be done on a part-time basis or through sabbaticals); - summer and co-op placements for high school and college students; - providing scholarships for high potential high school graduates from low income families in exchange for a certain number of years of service; - sponsoring tutoring and upgrading programmes at elementary and secondary schools with high failure and drop out rates; - partnering with local juniour high and secondary schools to arrange field trips and site visits to company locations. Some of these strategies may seem far fetched but the talent has to come from somewhere. If we don't help the schools to grow it, the talent may not be there for us to buy when we need it. Other long term strategies involve positioning your organization as an employer of choice. A lot of it has to do with the corporate culture that you shape and the way you treat your employees. During the last recession, some employers took advantage of the fact that it was a buyer's market. They offered new employees rock bottom wages and treated the members of their team in a harsh and demanding manner. When the economy picked up, those organizations experienced a mass exodus of talent and severe talent retention challenges. It is important to learn the right lessons from their experience. Some long term strategies to explore include: - initiating tele-commuting, flex hours, job sharing, and part-time work to tap into the female labour force on a long term basis; - investing in the members of your team by providing opportunities for training and development, an area that is typically cut in turbulent markets; - increasing your organization's public exposure by making it possible for employees to participate in high profile activities (e.g the Olympics and other major sporting events, acting) even if means giving them some time off work. Like Home Depot and McDonald's, you can then feature them in some of your advertisements; - attracting media coverage and publicity by shaping a unique and vibrant corporate culture and environment where up and coming young professionals will want to work. Key Skills for Turbulent Times Once you have ensured that your organization has access to a pool of talented IT professionals, the next step is to be rigorous in your screening and selection processes. To be successful in the turbulent high technology industry, employees need much more than strong technical skills. They must also be able to: - embrace change; It can be challenging to assess how well candidates will fit your environment. During periods of job shortages and intense competition the job market, candidates develop strategies to present themselves favorably during traditional interviews. Many candidates receive: - assistance in designing resumes; This preparation can mask a candidate's deficiencies. Although interviews are the most widely used selection tool, they are not the best predictor of on the job performance. Strategies such as assessment centres, job samples and rigorous reference checks will uncover much more reliable data. Whenever possible, these strategies should be used in conjunction with selection interviews. Interviewing Do's and Don'ts To ensure that interviews yield the best possible data on which to base selection decisions here are some tips to share with your executive and management teams. First let's look at some interviewing pitfalls: Avoid questions which make it easy for candidates to bluff their way through interviews. For example, if you are still using such dinosaurs as: - Tell me about yourself? as part of your standard battery of interview questions, you will miss key information that you need to assess potential employees. Don't inadvertently screen candidates out because they don't fit your non-job related pre-conceived notions about your ideal candidate (e.g. Caucasian, attractive, mid thirties, plays golf, no foreign accents). Make sure that you don't inadvertently "telegraph" the right answers to the candidates (e.g. "We are a very fast-paced company. How well do you deal with pressure?") This is a very common interviewing error. Don't be fooled by a smooth interaction style during an interview. Dig deeper. You may be dealing with a charmer or a con artist who will, at best, fail to produce results and, ultimately, cost you money. Don't neglect to contact the candidates last 3 immediate supervisors for references. Some candidates try to impress potential employers by supplying as references the names of high profile executives with whom they are personal friends. Sometimes, these individuals have no direct knowledge of an individual's work styles or habits. Don't get so caught up in the intense pressure of a turbulent industry that you fail to do some long term manpower planning. Decisions made in haste because filling a particular position is left until the need is urgent can be costly. Don't leave the bulk of the hiring up to inexperienced managers and then fail to give them adequate training or tools. Their mistakes can cost you time, money and even get your company involved in a human rights complaint or discrimination in hiring lawsuit. Here are a few ideas to help your team improve the effectiveness of their selection interviews: To improve your selection decisions, use a panel of 2 - 3 interviewers instead of relying on the judgment of one person. Pre-plan the interviews with structured interview guides and questions. Develop a clear picture of the type of corporate culture you want to foster and the values that will support that culture. Design behaviour based questions to give candidates an opportunity to provide specific examples of when they have demonstrated those values. ("Please describe a specific situation in which you took a stand regarding a tough ethical dilemma at work even though there was a personal cost.") Develop a realistic picture of the constraints of your working environment and prepare questions to help candidates describe when they have successfully performed under these constraints. ("When have you successfully executed a project within a tight time-frame and with a limited budget? What project management tools and methodologies did you use to ensure success?") To get a balanced picture of a candidate's skills, develop some questions to give candidates an opportunity to describe when they have not handled situations effectively. ("Tell me about a time when you became so overwhelmed that you were unable to deal effectively with a change at work that you did not support.") Make training available for all inexperienced managers and for experienced managers who have made poor hiring decisions. Ensure that all managers involved in the hiring process are thoroughly familiar with the legislation that has a bearing on hiring and selection. This will help you avoid negative publicity and time consuming human rights complaints. © 2005 Executive Oasis International - All Rights Reserved Reprint Rights: Ezine publishers may reprint this article, as long as the following information is included: - the summary about the author and her company (see below) This permission does NOT extend to trainers, speakers or consultants with competitive services or companies that want to place articles on their intranet. Contact us directly for permission. Anne Thornley-Brown is the President of Executive Oasis International, a Toronto based firm offering executive retreats and consulting for rapidly changing organizations in Canada, Jamaica and Asia. Anne has extensive experience in recruitment and selection interviewing. In partnership with FIK International, Anne has travelled to Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, India, and Thailand) 7 times and trained over 1000 executives, managers and professionals to improve their talent recruitment and interviewing skills. Petronas, Malaysian Airlines, Digi, Thai Airlines, Mobil/Exxon, and Dell Computers have sent delegates to her sessions in Asia. Anne designed and executed the behavioural interviewing strategy at Bell Mobility. For over 4 years, she helped their vice-presidents, directors and managers in finance, engineering, sales, and marketing improve their hiring decisions. Executive Oasis International, Specialists in Executive Retreats http://www.executiveoasis.com Competency Based Interviewing http://www.thetrainingoasis.com/cbi.html FIK International http://www.fikintl.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Tap Employee Passion For Business Success Meriwether Lewis set the stage for the Corps of Discovery's success before one single "employee" had been hired. From the outset Lewis and Clark engendered a communications culture that brought in the right prospects, then kept morale high and increased the productivity of those eventually hired. Allowing Employees Responsibility Merely assigning a task with detailed instructions is not effective delegation. An employee cannot grow without the freedom to make decisions on how the job should be done. Why Your Company Needs An E-Mail Policy Everyone at the office thought that using the company e-mail system to share jokes and funny stories was great fun. That is, until one offended employee decided to sue his employer for having helped to create a hostile work environment. Five Strategies for Profitable Services Growth In today's era of Professional and IT Services competition and consolidation, some small to medium-sized companies are proudly delivering 20%-50% annual growth.Unfortunately, the vast majority of firms have experienced two consecutive years of fee erosion, commoditization, client defection, and company identity crises. Key Control - Who Has the Keys to Your Kingdom? Key control, or more accurately the lack of key control is one of the biggest risks that businesses face.What is the risk?Imagine, you have fired a trusted employee, unknown to you that person had a spare key to your business, they come back after hours and steal business secrets, account lists, equipment or anything else of value. Making Assumptions - A Critical Communication Mistake In Business And In Your Personal Life! We draw conclusions about people through observation, their behavior, past experiences, other people's comments, etc. We assume who people are, what they think/need/want with such speed we fail to recognize how our own viewpoint colors the way we connect with and relate to people and situations. The Power of "Ask" For Call Center managers, it is not a pipe dream to improve employee moral while increasing productivity. It may even come easy to some to find fresh, new ways to reduce performance problems. Computer Consulting 101 Hiring Tips (Part 1 of 2) Does your business need the services of a computer consulting firm? Before you rush out and hire the first techie or slick-salesperson that knocks on your door, be sure to consider these favorite Computer Consulting 101 hiring tips for screening and interviewing local computer consulting firms. In this first in a two-part series, we'll look the root of the problem, as well as the four most basic criteria that you'll need to ask about when searching for computer consulting vendors. Treat Employees Fairly, Car Wash Entrepreneur sets Industry Standards I believe that whether corporations expense their stock options is besides the point, especially when the stock is worthless. We have studied over the years the rift between employees and employers and we have discovered many great brand names are eventually destroyed from internal strife and friction within the company itself. 5 Ways to Work More Effectively With Your Administrative Assistant Stop hiring new administrative support staff. And learn how to retain your existing administrative staff. Business Innovation - Tacit Knowledge Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas. Three Professional Services Resolutions for 2005 With client expectations higher than ever before, and the gradual industry recovery ahead, consulting firms will need to focus more than ever on carefully identifying and serving the right clients.Based on a recent interview with Brad Smith, VP of Research at Kennedy Information Inc. Understanding How Change Has Changed There seems to be an assumption that change is a single traumatic event that is thrust upon us and over which we have no control.In the recent past this was definitely true, in industry there would come a sudden realisation at the end of the financial year that unless we did something radical we were going to the wall. Pitching to Employees The senior flight attendant on the WestJet flight was starting the routine safety talk: the bit about flotation vests and emergency exits that we ignore at the beginning of every flight."If we could have your attention, please, we would appreciate it - in fact we'd be downright shocked," she said. Human Resources: The Misidentified Subject Interest in the field of human resources has exploded in recent years due to the promises it offers for a better understanding of human beings at work. The term is now as ubiquitous as it has once been obscure. Ten Business Reasons Why Asking for Help Works In fact, bringing your people - any of them - into your confidence and asking for help, is a very powerful tool indeed. The form of words' "I need your help", works best. What Is Business Sense? What is the principal thing you need to succeed in your business today? Money. Sure, you need it, but it is not the main ingredient for success. Poor Employee Performance: How to Deal KEEP WRITTEN RECORDS: "Document !Document! Document!" Keep a record of periodic performance reviews, incidents of unsatisfactory performance, conferences where warnings are administered or terminations are announced. Issue warnings and terminations in writing as well as verbally. The Changing Boss-Secretary Relationship THE CHANGING BOSS-SECRETARY RELATIONSHIP: Imagine a partnership at work. One member is outlining the agenda for the annual stockholders' meeting, the other is managing the logistics. Workplace Security Plan: Does Your Company Have One? Consultant's Perspective..
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
