Collectively, we’re doing a lousy job of attracting great talent. That’s a tough thing to hear, especially since it happens to be true. But I didn’t say it first; you did -- via the collective voice of your peers.
Over the past several months, Leadership IQ has been conducting one of the largest talent-management studies ever done. We’re looking at executives from more than 1,000 companies, folks strategically selected to represent every company size, every industry, and every major country. Our goal is to learn what’s working -- and what’s not working -- across the full talent management continuum (e.g. recruiting, hiring, developing, engaging, leading, retaining, etc.). It’s a massive undertaking that’s already presented us with tremendous amounts of information. And one thing that’s coming through loud and clear is that the current trends in recruiting definitely aren’t working.
One thing we asked the executives participating in the study to evaluate was their companies’ talent pipelines. And we asked them to consider in particular how successful they were in sourcing the following four categories of talent: executive, professional, technical and unskilled. The feedback we got, frankly, is not good at all, and here’s what I mean. For each of the four talent categories named above, fewer than 10% of the companies said they were doing an Excellent job at sourcing that talent. Uggh. And, at least 65% of the companies said they were Average or Below Average in sourcing talent in each of the four categories.
Now some people look at that 65% and say, “Huh, I could live with being average -- it’s better than totally stinking.” And I guess to some extent that’s true; technically speaking, being average is better than totally stinking. But average isn’t good enough to get the talent you’re after. This is an issue I see so many organizations getting wrong that it’s worth taking a minute to really nail it down.
I don’t care if you’re hiring a housekeeper, an engineer, a nurse, or your next CEO; you want somebody in that role who "gets it" -- who wants to be great at whatever they do. As a leader in your industry, it's not your job to hire people that aren't totally awful. It's your job to hire high performers, the people who have the right skills and the right attitude to succeed at your organization. But the people you want to drive to your organization aren’t always going to come knocking on your door.
High performers aren’t looking for an average job opportunity, you know, a place to go five days a week just to kill some time and get a paycheck. They want more than that, they want ongoing success. They want a job where the culture fits their personality, and where there’s a clear path in front of them that always leads to being a high performer. But these great people aren’t just sitting around waiting for your call. Generally, they’re employed someplace else. Or even if they are in a career transition, you can bet they are going to carefully choose their next job, and not just jump at the first place that offers a steady paycheck.
Ok, you might get lucky and find that your next high performer is in a weakened negotiating position. Maybe he’s been out of work for a while or she's just entering the workforce. Or maybe you found a true "diamond in the rough" that nobody else has discovered yet. But I wouldn’t make hope or luck the foundation of your talent strategy.
Thinking competitively is a pretty typical and, for the most part, accepted mindset in the sales world. You have competitors, and those competitors have customers that you most certainly will try to steal away. You’ll identify those customers, try to find where they’re hurting, figure out how to solve that pain, understand what drives their purchasing, hone your pitch, highlight your advantages and call, call, call. Welcome to Sales 101.
The thing is, we understand and even celebrate this need for competitive differentiation and pursuit in the world of sales. But when it comes to sourcing talent, we often operate as though there’s millions of high performers sitting around with nothing better to do than jump at our job ads. We act like all we have to do is describe our open positions and, voilà, the best of the best will be lined up outside our door.
It’s time to grasp the reality that unless you want to remain trapped forever in a world where fewer than 10% of leaders have "excellent" talent pipelines, you’re going to have to change the way you recruit for the talent you want.
