Are We Doing It Wrong?: Build Talent Capital in Your Organization that Costs Less AND Makes Sense

Hiring as an Investment, Not a Cost

Scrap transactional talent patchwork and hire the best people. Easy enough, huh? Treat them and pay them better than anyone else. Do interesting work that people want to do. And your talent game will rise, along with your client satisfaction and margins. It actually is that easy, but few are willing to invest and put the time and effort in to make that happen.

The methodology saves money in the long run, both in hard dollars and in perceived market value. Short-term thinking about hiring, results in short-term success and impact, and isn’t sustainable. Your hiring view should be months and years out, not hey we’re busy or need people to fill a need, let’s hire!

People will cringe when you or others say, “We just need some bodies.” “They’re just labor.” Or “We need butts in seats.” But that’s real and that’s the culture you’re representing. These are still people and those who remember that and act as such, will make an impact well beyond the bottom line or stock price.

Get It Right the First Time

As I was thinking about this week’s OpCo, I realized I once flew to Minneapolis for three interviews for talent partner roles, essentially internal recruiters working on behalf of our client. I recommended we hire two of the three. And they were two of our best and have had successful tenures in recruiting since.

Yes, you read that right, I didn’t fly to Minneapolis for interview myself, I flew in to interview three candidates. This was before video calls were big, but the in-person interview allowed us to connect and decide.

Why is this important? Because I had the flexibility to take the time and money to do things right, one last check to have peace of mind that this was a great hire. 

This also made me think, what other situations have come up that were similar. Where the trip made business sense, even though it was brief and expensive based on time in location?

I have traveled to Poland, in and out in less than a day, en route to Switzerland. Spent short time at specific plants in Germany. And have been to NJ, STL, DFW, Chicago, Denver, Peoria, and Detroit (many times), for one day, there and back.  

Was it worth it each time, no. Not all of these trips were at my discretion or created equal, but the point is, I had the flexibility to do what felt necessary, and it pushed me to ensure I got the most out of each visit. It also took the excuse off the table, oh, I don’t have budget to travel…so I won’t take the steps to get it right, or manage a partnership the best way possible.

Hiring is About a Quality Fit

Is your company hiring thousands to deliver on value-add business, or to patch the hole? Volume hiring is necessary at times (truly seasonal, project-based, or major growth in short term, and similar situations, but many times it’s limiting the churn of turnover, by improving your associate retention that allows you to have the capacity to produce results. Continued volume hiring is usually patch work. You need to solve your process, people, or tech problem. Not hire to replace all those leaving. And many times over-hiring creates significant challenges later, which I’ll leave for another day.

Do you really need that many people? Yes, because there is a hole in the business and people are walking right out the door. Sometimes it’s growth, but quite often those hiring projections are a product of broken process, organizational dysfunction, or less-skilled leaders looking to hire every time something is not perfectly right. Hiring to fix problems is the one of the route causes of poor business actions.

You can continue hiring to hit that arbitrary number, headcount, or roster, but it’s a never ending cycle because you’re not treating the disease, rather, you’re treating the symptoms. And believe or not, the talent pool will dry up eventually depending on the market you’re hiring from, but all markets have their limits. We saw that post-pandemic. Rates, demand, supply, and market conditions, will limit your supply. Don’t believe it? Even Amazon raised pay rates, struggled to hire to demand, and then cut thousands.

Tech and Touch

Focus on what actually drives excellence in talent.

• Talent cultivation

• Care for people

• Service

• Activity

• Connection

• Community

• Support

• Value Proposition

Simplify

What would you do if you were trying to attract candidates?

Do that.

If you’re not putting as much investment in your current people and recruiting, compared to your sales efforts, don’t expect a great talent influx. You invest where you need quality and volume inputs, and often the outcomes we expect are not aligned with our investment, and even more important, our commitment.

Commodity vs. Premium

You want premium recruiting, leadership, and premium associate care, show me in your action and investment. Does your time, spend, focus, and communication reflect that? The culture with your treatment of people and mentality of the way you view talent, is what crafts your future and the market view.

Think…

• McDonald’s vs. Chick-fil-A

• Sams Club vs. Costco

• Wal-Mart vs. Target

Same business, one may be bigger, but that doesn’t make it better. Quality and reputation make it better. Hiring better quality talent for your business makes them better. I’ve seen a lot of high volume and technical or professional recruiting or hiring. In the long run, businesses end up becoming the latter, or they evolve their tech to replace people.

Do you want to be more of a shot gun approach, or a rifle with talent? Spray and pray, or a laser-focused ballistic? I tend to like quality in the long run. Technical, professional, or high volume work. Sustainable, profitable, culturally-aligned, and common sense - Quality Wins.

Hopefully, this added a little value to your business or your career. Thank you for reading. Please repost or share with someone who may benefit from this edition.

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