5 Keys to Attracting and Developing Talent.
11 de January de 2022
11 de January de 2022
It’s more important to surround yourself with the best than being the best yourself and, more often than not, the first is harder to achieve than the latter. No man is an island in the professional world, where companies compete to develop synergies that will help them identify, attract and foster loyalty in the emerging talents. In recent years, organisations have witnessed an exponential development of their recruitment, headhunting and HR divisions. Working out a workforce plan is not enough anymore. It has now become imperative to have the best workforce and guarantee the maximum possible satisfaction levels.
Employees don’t build their whole career in the same company anymore. The market is mobile and ever changing and companies have adapted to a new work culture. That’s why, talent management departments have opened up to new strategies, other than a tempting salary, in order to get the professionals they want.
1. The ‘Everywhere’ Paradigm: Flexibility Is Here to Stay
Confining ourselves in offices is going out of fashion. The pandemic and the lockdowns have proven flexibility to be of great value for workers and that it has accelerated the change towards a more open paradigm. Working from home, whether full-time or as a hybrid format, is gaining strength as one of the goals of the future.
In some sectors, such as the tech industry, a large number of companies have opened up the field even further by attracting the so-called ‘digital nomads’. Nowadays, companies can have their headquarters in Hong Kong and their employees scattered around the world. They can also have several headquarters… or none at all. Offering alternative ways of achieving a good work-life balance is a good way to get talents to choose your company. Mark this concept: The Everywhere Paradigm.
2. Money and… Is That It?
Experts in attracting talent know that money is not everything. There’s always someone willing to pay more. Of course, a good salary is essential, as well as fair conditions and, if possible, better than what the competition has to offer. However, this trend is changing towards fostering productivity: goal related bonuses in order to complement and increase salaries are becoming more common. Companies must always be up to date in this regard and not lose touch with the market’s reality.
ELately, companies have been using the concept of ‘emotional salary’ in order to stand out amid all the competitors and to provide incentives for talents looking to complement their salary with upgrades in their standard of living. Watching over the wellbeing of the workforce, making employees feel assisted and understood in their interests and needs can build up loyalty in them and increase their commitment to the company, but it can also turn them into true brand ambassadors that can bring along other professionals.
3. Having More Leaders Than Bosses.
Bosses are crucial for the development of employees. Human resources professionals know that, often, ‘people quit their bosses, not their company’. The new trends of work and business call for more leaders than bosses; a fluid and horizontal relationship between them and their teams instead of the traditional ‘command and control’, where the culture of ‘feedback’ primes and there’s an overflow of ideas based in mutual trust.
These new types of leaders seek to make an impact on employees — just like a coach would. Their attitude is positive and not self-critical. They watch over the well-being and the development of their subordinates, making sure there’s a good atmosphere, being there for them day-to-day and taking part in the processes instead of just establishing goals and then stepping aside.
4. Fostering Employee Growth.
Talents need a plan. It’s not that common today —and it will become less and less common in time— to retire in the same company in which you got started when you were 25.Mobility is an inevitable and even necessary reality. That’s why, in order to get the best to join your company, you need to offer them a Career Plan, a development forecast that respects the professionals they are, that makes them evolve and feel like they are in the place that best suits their career plans.
Companies are becoming less afraid of training and supporting their talents even if they will eventually take a leap into an entrepreneurial project of their own in the future. This is a natural movement and trying to retain employees who are looking for new challenges or making it difficult for them to move forwards is just absurd.
5. Reputation Is Everything
The only thing that will set you apart from competitors is what people say about your company. Reputation is crucial. And you can enjoy a good one if you take the following elements into account: flexibility, financial incentives, emotional salary and employee development plans. A company’s good reputation feeds back the process: the best come with the best.
Staff departments are paying more and more attention to the concept of return on talent. Workers will eventually leave your company —that’s inevitable—, but their experience can encourage other professionals to choose to join it. Employees are brand ambassadors that add to the values and corporate culture that companies show to the world at all times and with every action they take. But, be careful: reputation is not earned just by deciding and pretending to have it — it’s earned with honest and fair strategies for and with employees.
Article created in collaboration with:
Javier Crespo, Director of the HR programmes at EAE Business School.
Ignacio Terry, Project manager at Manpower.
Jhon Mario Gil, HR Manager at Aromasynt.
Belén Bueno, Head of Talent and Culture at Paradigma Digital.