HR Pulse

Technology is changing approach to recruiting talent

Fifty years ago, education was based on “the three R’s” of reading, writing and arithmetic. The pace of life was slower then. Today we live in a very different world: as employers and employees. Is your firm in sync with the way top talent searches for jobs? Because, knowing what methodologies to use could mean the difference between attracting top talent, or not.

In many professions there are skills shortages. So there is massive competition among employers and recruiters: to attract, acquire and retain talent. Among the reasons for the skills shortage is the world is changing so fast we can scarcely keep up.

In a post by futurist and author, Graeme Codrington, on 28 September 2015, he “tracks disruptive forces shaping the world right now, and attempts to predict where some of these will take us…”

A whole lot of shaking is going on

Codrington names the naughty guys in the classroom. Put more articulately, the disruptive forces stirring up massive change include ‘technology, institutional change, demographics, environment and ethics and changing societal values’.

So what steps do you take as an employer seeking Mr or Ms Rare Skills-Set when competing against other employers in the race for candidates from the same pool of talent?

Place an advert? Or network among industry associations and your connections? Do you use recruitment or the more expensive search technology? Alternatively, once you find a likely solution do you pray like crazy that your new recruit stays with the firm at least a few years after signing their employment contract?

All these options could work, but they may not be as effective in the medium to long-term as your competitors’ methodology of acquiring and retaining talent. And in an increasingly fast changing world superior talent is the route increasingly to competitive advantage. As a result smart companies are introducing increasingly innovative ways of edging out their competition.

Offering increased remuneration isn’t enough anymore. After all, your competitor employer just needs to make a counter offer beyond your company’s budget and you’ve lost that dream candidate.

Companies like Apple and many others know this. That’s why they are pulling out all the stops to improve their mix of benefits including, among others; wellness centres, the option to work remotely, additional leave days for parents and even sabbaticals. In South Africa many companies are following suit with this line of thinking.

“South Africa is a complex employment environment,” says Brett Bowes, CEO of TerraNova, a company seeking to uncover new trends in talent acquisition through an online survey across industry sectors in the country. “Technology is driving massive change in the workplace, and the values and ethics that companies expected to be almost universal, are no longer a given,” explains Bowes. “And at the same time the needs of both employers and employees are changing rapidly. Companies who believe that the recruitment marketplace is a perfectly competitive one with no differentiation should think again.”

The survey digs deep to uncover these emerging trends and expects to draw some firm conclusions on how best businesses can acquire and retain talent in a highly competitive landscape. All human resources managers participating in the survey will be sent a summary of the survey results and are free to engage with TerraNova regarding more detailed findings.