The battle for new talent is on. As Boomers are retiring in record numbers over the next few years, finding a workforce that can replace a Boomer's experience, ethic and diligence is going to be a tall order. In fact, too many organizations are resigned to the fact that they won't be able to replace their retiring employees as well. That to me is bullfeathers. Only one thing has to change - the Human Resources Attitude.
Corporations are competing with each other now more than ever over potential employees who don't speak the same language as the people trying to recruit them. It's not done purposely. It's just that Gen Y's fresh out of university don't often get appointed to the post of HR Director. Therefore the people doing the hiring now are older than the people they're hiring and the truth is that the recruiter and potential employee may not speak the same language.
Once upon a time, a Human Resources manager was pretty much the go-to person if you had questions about company benefits or wanted to confirm your number of vacation days. Outside of those two things, most employees were at a loss to explain what HR really did. So, what exactly is HR's responsibility in the corporate world today? Outside of what any HR professional would care to explain, ultimately the job is Sales. HR pros, you can go ahead and argue this one but if you do, you're missing my point (and probably a lot of really good people in the process).
Every job is sales and service. Think about it, sales and service is the starting point to how every company grows and prospers. If your organization is looking for the future stars of tomorrow then you've got to start finding them, attracting them and selling them on why they should come to your organization. That means you're in sales. And you had better be able to speak the language too.
Now, don't get me wrong. There are plenty of people who are willing to drop their resume on your desk in the hopes that you will hire them. There are a lot of people looking for work throughtout the USA and Eastern Canada. There will always be a steady flow of applicants. But what I am talking about is the top talent - the talent that every organization would love to have and the kind of talent that probably already has a job and is in high demand.
So, as an HR pro, consider stealing away valuable people from other organizations. If you want the good people you will have to go out and get them. Their current employers are probably trying to keep them too. Getting them to talk to you is going to take a little selling.
(Note: If your good people are being lured away and not near as many good people are joining your organization, then you have a corporate culture problem. You are going to have to sell even harder now to change that culture.)
The new Gen Y worker doesn't speak "Boomer" and has a resume that looks more like a road-trip hotel itinerary than a Curriculum Vitae. HR pros need to brush up on the jobs they are trying to fill. They need to know exactly what is entailed in every job (probably wouldn't be a bad idea to actually spend a little time in each department getting to know the inner-workings of your own organization if you expect to be able to attract and sell that top talent to come work at your place).
The new HR pro had better know their competitors too. Potential employees will want to know how you stack up against your competitor and you had better have a really good answer - something more than just platitudes of "honoring employees" and "respectful communications" and (ugh - my favorite) "a team-focused environment." Be real. Tell the truth. Acknowledge your weaknesses and show a potential employee how their contribution will actually make a difference to the organization and the culture.
So let's see: HR people have to know the language, need to be able to see through the gaping holes in resumes, need to know virtually every job in their own organization (that's called Product Knowledge), they need to network where these new workers are and lastly, they need to know their competitors and find that competitive advantage. Yep, sure sounds like Sales to me.
Attitude Adjustment: the HR pro that looks at the job as a sales position will be the winner in the search for top talent. If you think the job is some ivory-tower position, the best you'll ever do is to get is the leftovers after the good ones have already been picked. Start reading the books on selling and you'll quickly move further ahead than the HR person who refuses to believe that good talent needs to be acquired, schmoozed and ultimately, communicated with on a completely different level than the person who walks in with a resume hoping that you're hiring today. The marketplace is changing quickly. So should you.
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