Strategic Hiring | Anderson Sterling Associates Talent Acquisition

PRODUCTIVITY

Consider the bottom line for your HR department or manager. How do you measure their department’s contribution to the company? One metric should be data-supported productivity. You should expect and reward accountability from these departments concerning new hires. Can it be shown that efficiency has increased as a result of past talent acquisition? More output and revenue, however you measure it, should be a major percentage of the evaluation score for anyone in charge of staffing.

COOPERATE WITH SKEPTICS

Many times it's the CFO who looks askance at the hiring budget and successfully derails HR’s efforts to gain new employees who could greatly contribute to your company. Collaboration, if you can get it, is the solution. When identifying and resolving staffing issues, share and work together on recognizing the costs of weak hires and forecasting the effect of strong hires on the long term bottom line of your organization. Communicate well when addressing current needs and issues with the numbers in mind, and allow the bean counters to have their say.

LET DATA DRIVE

When making a case for your staffing choices, nothing speaks louder than hard data. Historically, most HR actions seem to stand on relationships, loyalty, and subjective "feelings" about performance. We agree that it is hard to fire someone who is liked by the entire office. However, when you look at a hugely successful company like Google, it is hard to argue against moving toward a more scientific approach.

"Almost everyone has by now heard about Google’s free food, 20% time, and wide range of fun activities, but realize that each of these was implemented and are maintained based on data. Many of Google’s people analytics approaches are so unusual and powerful, [we] can only describe them as 'breathtaking.'"1

Retention and talent acquisition algorithms, predictive modeling, quantifying the value of top performers - all are part of Google's highly successful experiment with data-based staff evaluation.

MOBILE PRESENCE

If the small screen is not a major capability of your recruiting messaging and communication, it's time to take a look at your effectiveness. We're well into the mobile revolution- in fact it has become a way of life for most of us.

BETTER ASSESSMENT

What does your candidate REALLY need to contribute to your business? The ability to impress in an interview? To diplomatically answer probing questions about themselves? Perfectly designed resumes? Think about doing away with some of the old standbys and trying new techniques that show you what you actually want to know, like their problem solving ability, how they present ideas, their technical skill, or their managerial performance.

TEMP POLICY

Revisit your approach to temps or contractors. What eventually makes a contractor a full time hire? Make your approaches clear and well-known so there's no awkwardness when the end of the period arrives.

INTERNAL ADVANCEMENT

The best person for the job might be the someone who is working for you already! Create an intentional movement path for every employee. Define the skills, training, requirements, attitudes and means of internal movement. Even sideways shifts! It is motivating to your employees and a lot cheaper than performing an external search.

RETENTION

Candidates look your company up on Glassdoor.com, so it pays to keep your reviews positive. When a candidate sees a high number on the average duration of employment, that's a good sign that all is well. Onboarding and training can be like parasites on a company with high turnover. Retention needs to happen in tandem with great recruiting!

Anderson Sterling Associates is a California based talent acquisition firm specializing in the high tech industries. For 30 years we have delighted our clients by providing the best staffing solutions possible, under budget and on time.

1 http://www.eremedia.com/tlnt/how-google-is-using-people-analytics-to-com...