5 Keys to Successful Talent Management

Recruiting for Stars not Duds

The old saying is that you get what you pay for. I feel that you get what you prepare for.
Recruiting top talent is a full time position that requires patience, tenacity, and practice. I like many others consider talent recruitment the skill that separates the good companies from the bad companies. You must hire right to get the right outcome. People plus process equals achievement and you can’t get the end results without the other. Here are five tips to help you recruit the “best”:

1. Anticipate the need – always be hunting for talent even when you have no job openings. We used to call it “anticipatory interviewing” and our management team made us interview two candidates a quarter when we had not available openings. The company wanted the Talent funnel full for the time when we needed to open the spigot.

2. Prepare for the Interview before you even schedule the candidates. Create an interviewing process that will work with every position in the company. Spend the time to create a Win-Win, No Lose hiring tool.

3. Use assessments to confirm the talent and start their development. Use assessments to measure what is needed in the position and allows benchmarking by position for future development and succession planning

4. Focus on your competitors and realize that most of the talent is employed and working for someone else. If you want specific skills, behaviors, and people with a positude, then make sure you look for them in all the right places. Use the five business card recruitment technique and then make sure you follow-up and stay in touch with your recruits.

5. Don’t hire the borderlines……if we are referring to our “gut feeling” or “flipping a coin” technique, then cross the candidate off the list and start with someone new.

Richard Hohmann is a management development consultant who has written articles for many national publications, participated in television forums, and has been asked to speak at many national meetings/conventions. His company, Innovative Leadership of the Delaware Valley, LLC is a performance improvement company that integrates leadership training, strategic organizational development and performance coaching with a variety of adult learning processes to make organizations more effective. He has worked collaboratively with many organizations to create Leadership Institutes and believes that employee engagement starts with your manager.