Why all HR professionals should have talent acquisition experience

Having experience recruiting new talent into an organisation is invaluable for all HR professionals in understanding talent, both external and internal. Like sitting in on a frontline customer service call and hearing customer issues firsthand, recruiters are in touch with the talent market in a way that’s impossible to replicate working with existing staff alone.

At the time of writing, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics insights cite the country’s unemployment rate at 3.4 per cent. In Applications are up – how to manage the load fairly and equitably, HR Leader showed that SEEK’s latest data indicated that job advertisements were down, month on month, by 3.7 per cent. But it’s still a candidate market, and you can bet that your current staff know it, too. 

Recruiters at the forefront of the battle to win staff know that, quite aside from finding people with the right skillset and attitude, it’s not easy to entice candidates to roles when there’s a plethora of opportunities in front of them. So, what does a recruiter know that other HR and people leaders should also learn?

Remuneration

Now isn’t the time to skimp on salary – either when you’re recruiting or when it comes to your current staff. Thinking of throwing a flashy Christmas party while employees are asking for a pay rise? HR Leader’s last weekly roundup contained a cautionary tale on this: “As reported by HR News, CareerWallet has conducted a survey which found that 94 per cent of workers would rather company Christmas party budgets be spent on employee bonuses. HR News says this is due to the cost-of-living crisis.”

Pay matters! For HR business partners advising their stakeholders in the organisation on how to retain employees, they need only sit in on an interview with a current applicant to know that candidates are aware of what they’re worth, and they’re asking for it.

In ‘More pay, please!’ Are you ready for this conversation?, HR Leader reported that: “Eighty-one per cent of people in APAC aren’t scared to ask for a pay rise if they think it’s due, according to ADP’s report, People at Work 2022: A Global Workforce View”.

Culture

It’s a no brainer that candidates are going to pick and choose their next workplace based on where they think they’ll be happy. Recruiters get asked all the time, “What’s it like to work there?”, “Are the people nice?”. We all spend so much of our life at work that choosing an organisation with a bad workplace culture is something to be avoided at all costs.

But when was the last time your internal HR team asked employees what they think of the culture? Not workplace satisfaction surveys, or happiness surveys, but what people really think about the culture of the workplace. And following on from this, what do they think about leadership and the culture that emanates from their example?

In Salary critical, but culture is key to success, originally featured in Accountants Daily, Philip King reported: “The salary bubble will eventually burst and firms should focus on establishing an attractive culture that will draw staff to them regardless, says Janet Daubney, head of people and culture at BDO Australia.”

'Culture' and 'values' — what do they really mean? revealed managing director for Q5 Australia Lyndal Hughes’ insights on culture, including: “How culture is intertwined with leadership and organisational health”.

Respect

When an organisation is courting a new employee, if they’re smart, they’ll make sure they keep in regular contact with that person, listening to their needs and doing what they can to accommodate them. Quite often, the application process is the point at which the person is shown the most respect by the organisation, as they try to win them to the business.

But is the same amount of energy and respect given to existing staff?

HR should advise line managers to treat employees like they would if they were trying to secure them as a candidate. Fail to treat your people well and they’ll be easily enticed away by headhunters who will be replying to their emails, putting attractive packages in front of them, and making them feel valuable.

You wouldn’t cancel an interview with a prized candidate at the last minute – don’t cancel 1:1s with employees at the 11th hour. You wouldn’t hold back in sharing an exciting upcoming project with a new applicant – don’t silo employees away from interesting work. Treat your employees like you would a candidate and you’ll be in a much better position to keep them.

It’s time for businesses to end the disconnect between how they treat candidates and how they relate to existing staff. The recruiters in the business and the HR and line managers who know just how hard it is to secure talent are an organisation’s strongest retention tool.