Whether your organization performed better than you anticipated in 2011, or less than ideal—the question remains, “Do you want to set your business productivity, performance, and revenue goals higher for 2012?” The obvious answer is, “Yes, of course!!” Then the next question is, “But how?” And the only answer is, “By hiring top-talent!”

If the most recent economic turbulence has done nothing else, it has given companies the free pass they needed to make budget cuts, slash jobs, and restructure and streamline business processes for the long term. Unfortunately, they haven’t come out of this unscathed. The workforce, “top talent” included, has been pushed into a corner and now they’ve lost “trust” in companies. Their overall loyalty to hiring organizations has waned. Top candidates have learned to look out for their own needs and because they are in high demand—they can afford to.

It would be wise for your business to concentrate on talent management and recruiting strategies that keep you ahead of the game rather than always trying to play catch up—the following are some strategies to put into place in 2012 to help your organization win the war for talent:

Strategy 1: Search for Top Talent Needs to be Continuous

Waiting for the moment you actually need top talent is NOT a strategic way of fulfilling your company’s hiring needs. Your organization needs to take a proactive approach to hiring by constantly being on the lookout for talent. The business landscape has changed dramatically in the last few years and although, there are a lot of candidates looking for work—the number of qualified, skilled, and highly-educated top talent is limited. Workers have lost confidence in companies, so they are always “open” to the next good opportunity.

This justifies the argument to always have a steady, ongoing pipeline of candidates ready for your hiring process. Your company can do this by continually building relationships with top talent in the areas you need through networking. Always keep a “recruiting” mindset and keep the conversations going so that your well of talent doesn’t dry up when you need it most!

Strategy 2: Talent Acquisition Needs to be a Priority

In general when companies look at their physical and financial assets, talent isn’t a priority—but it should be. All of the best thought-out plans in the world aren’t enough to move your company forward alone—it’s the high-impact talent that moves those plans forward.

According to research published by McKinsey & Company in their publication titled, The McKinsey Quarterly: The Online Journal of McKinsey & Co., “Our research suggests that executive talent has been the most undermanaged corporate asset for the past two decades. Companies that manage their physical and financial assets with rigor and sophistication have not made their people a priority in the same way. Only 23 percent of some 6,000 executives surveyed strongly agree that their companies attract highly talented people, and just 10 percent said they retain almost all of their high performers. Perhaps more alarmingly, only 16 percent think their companies even know who their high performers are.”

Strategy 3: Approach Talent Acquisition Holistically

The days of relying only on the Human Resources department to worry about the hiring process solely should be over to say the least. If it’s high-impact talent that drives growth and revenue, it’s in everyone's best interest to be involved—the hiring process should be viewed as a “holistic process.”

Your company needs to hire top talent to move innovation forward—so it’s important to use talent management strategies that use resources within the organization from the top to the bottom to help keep a pulse on what is needed when it comes to not only hiring, but also retaining good talent to help drive that innovation. As the business environment changes, it is important for your company to keep up not only economically, but also structurally since in the end it is your best people that drive the innovation and ultimately your profit.

Strategy 4: Revamp HR’s Role

Since HR is the “hub” of talent acquisition and management, its role needs to be revamped and so does the investment into the resources that helps keep HR up-to-date with the latest talent acquisition and management practices and tools.

It’s apparent that companies are relying more on HR for information and advice on what impacts business at the end of the day. According to an article written by Maura C. Ciccarelli, titled, Trust at the Top (published on the Human Resource Executive Online website), “CHROs reported spending around 14 percent of their time with the CEO, 13 percent with individual executives and 9.5 percent with the executive team as a group. These connections comprised the largest component of their day after time spent with HR individuals (18 percent). That tells you how important those executive team/CEO connections are to today’s CHRO.”

Strategy 5: Take Advantage of External Recruiters to Help You Find Top Talent

In 2012, it makes sense for your company to use executive recruiters as a resource to help your organization locate, approach, screen, and acquire the best candidates you need to help you strategically augment your hiring process in 2012. These professionals spend a lot of time networking with the “best of the best” everyday. They have expertise in finding top talent quickly and can help with the “loss of trust” factor that has resulted because of cost-cutting during the most recent recessionary times.

In a recent article published by Management Recruiters International titled, First Friday Preview, Rob Romaine, president of MRINetwork, stated, “The type of top talent you want to recruit aren’t going to answer the phone when a competitor calls them—much less be actively applying to job openings—automatically screening out some of the best new staff you could bring aboard…that exact same candidate though, will likely not only take a call from an industry recruiter; they may be working with one.”

Changing Your Mindset and Moving Forward in 2012…

It’s time for smart companies to move forward and win the competition for finding the best talent that drives innovation, productivity, growth, and revenue by adopting a new mindset when it comes to attracting, searching for, and acquiring that top talent. Since good candidates are difficult to come by, everyone in your organization should roll up their sleeves and be committed to getting the best employees to move your company forward in 2012.

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Biography

Dave Dart is the Managing Partner of the Morisey-Dart Group, an executive recruitment firm that specializes in recruiting for Managed Print Services (MPS), Managed IT Services, Document Management Solutions, Health Information Management (HIM), Health Information Systems (HIS), Banking and Financial Services, and Legal industries. He began his career in the executive recruiting business in 1999; his goal is to meet the needs of each company and job candidate by helping them make decisions that are mutually beneficial. Dave understands that finding and hiring the top-performing professionals in any industry is the most critical element to business success. 

Contact Dave by visiting his website  http://www.morisey-dart.com

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