Winning the War for Talent

Tanya Iyer

Winning the War for Talent

The following paper gives you a few ways or strategies of organizations that want to attract, recruit and retain good talent. Major multinational corporations in the world are using the strategies mentioned in the paper successfully. There is also statistical data and empirically testable data to support this.
In this day and age good talent is really difficult to find. In employment markets characterized by high competition, obtaining suitable human resources becomes increasingly problematic as the number of applicants per vacancy declines (Wilden, Gudergan, & Lings, 2010). There is so much competition and talent is rare. But how do you know which is the best for your company? More over once a company or a firm acquires the correct talent to retain this talent within the firm or company is becoming even more difficult nowadays. This constant struggle has turned into a fight. This fight is called the ‘war for talent’. Steven Hankin of Mckinsey & Company in 1997 coined the term war for talent (J.L.H.D, 2012).
There are a few strategies that people or companies use to attract, recruit and retain talent in their firms. One of these strategies is ‘employer branding’. Employer branding is defined as the benefits of an organization that potential employees associate the organization with (Wilden, Gudergan, & Lings, 2010). With proper employer branding an organization can promote itself in such ways that they can attract proper talent. Employers have to constantly manipulate their branding in order to attract better talent every year. In order to do this organization has to have a good presence on the Internet. They should invest in a proper website and have appropriate pages on Facebook and twitter and such social media forums. They should make sure that their presence in the media is positive. People like to work for companies that have a positive image. A recent survey by social media platform LinkedIn found that 70 per cent of companies rank employer branding as one of their biggest priorities in 2013 (Hendy, 2013). Some of the key ways to make your employer brand reliable and genuine are:

1) Know your target audience: portray your message in such a way such that it reaches the correct target audience and thus reaching the correct talent segment. You should portray different messages to appeal to different groups of people (Randstad Canada).
2) Create synergy with the corporate brand: employer brands are usually in sync with the overall brand image of the organization. They should posses the values of the corporate brand that they represent or are a part of (Randstad Canada).
3) Deliver your brand experience: the message and the culture of the company should be everywhere and in everything that the company does. As soon as someone steps inside the building they should be able to feel and see the values of the organization being reflected everywhere (Randstad Canada).
4) Walk the walk and talk the talk: do not portray any message that is not true. Even if the information that you provide is not very positive and is not in your favor you should be honest in the messages that you are portraying of the company or organization (Randstad Canada).
New research conducted by Australia-based Employer Brand International of more than 3,000 organizations shows that, while the economic outlook remains uncertain in many countries, the smart companies continue to invest in their employer brand strategy with 39% of companies planning to increase their investment in the coming year. Interestingly, 57% of survey respondents said their companies are planning for a growth phase and only seven percent said business is declining (Minchington, 2014).
Another major strategy that companies use to win the war for talent, which is applicable especially in today’s world, are flexible information technology (IT) policies. Now more and more people are willing to work if their work permits them to use social media to work or to use the technology to work from home.
This was a survey conducted where they asked 500 employees across Australia and New Zealand where they found these results: Flexible IT policies such as the ability to use technology to work from home or use social media play major role in overall employee satisfaction and retention. Employees without access to flexible IT policies are less satisfied with their job. Only 62% of employees without access to flexible IT policies report feeling satisfied at work. Up to 83% of employees with access to flexible IT policies (such as social media access) report feeling satisfied at work (Simes, Thomas, & O’Mahony, 2013). Since people want flexibility to do their work and they would like the option of having flexible work hours and working from home. If they do not have the necessary technology or IT services that are required to do their work their work will not be flexible and they will not be motivated to do their work well. So to retain the talent organizations will have to start making the IT technologies more flexible in nature. People like having a good work life balance and this flexibility helps improve this balance. Flexibility is good for parents who have young children and parents who are expecting children. They get to spend quality time with their children, which is now very crucial in this day and age since both the parents of a child or children work nowadays. And it is especially crucial for single parents. Many people report that their home IT is better than that at work – they rate their home technology as more user friendly, more up to date and faster. This has raised employee expectations of workplace IT, especially among Gen Y and Gen Z workers (Khadem, 2013). But with any strategy that you implement there will always be some disadvantages. Some people need a strict environment to work so that they are disciplined. This concept of flexibility in the work place is not good for people who are easily distracted. They need someone to supervise them most of the time and with flexibility this will not happen. Also this flexibility cannot be implemented everywhere. For example an institution like a bank cannot have this flexibility. But for the most part if organizations did introduce flexibility and especially in the technology that they use more people will be more will be motivated to join a company that has this feature.

Another strategy that companies use is the reward system to retain the talent that they have. Some of the rewards or perks that can be implemented are: 1) Have a system of differential salaries: pay the top talent significantly better so it motivates people to become better and better. The compensation policy should be attractive to the top talent 2) Offer ongoing opportunities for personal and professional development: Smart people want to become smarter and better. So give them opportunities to improve their skills sets by sponsoring their education or train them by hiring experts. An investment in training and development sends a strong message that management cares about employees believes that potential is worth developing, wants them to grow, and aims to promote internally to fill key positions (Mcdormott, 2001). 3) Employee recognition: employee recognition fulfills the psychological needs and desires of employees. Schemes such as "sale person of the month" or "employee of the year" certificates help boost morale as you recognized the employee for his outstanding efforts (Davoren). 4) More responsibility: When people perform well and they are then given more responsibility they should feel more motivated. Giving them more responsibility gives the employee the message that you trust them and that they belong more and more with the company they are working for. 5) Promotions: if an employee or employees are continuously performing well for a good period of time to show your appreciation for them an organization can give them promotions or a raise in their salaries or raise in their bonuses. They can also give them bigger and better perks like bigger cars or houses. 6) People get bored of doing the same job over and over again. Their skills do not improve and they do not grow much. So when people perform well their rewards can be job rotations and challenges or undertaking projects of their choice. They should constantly be learning and should be able to see the contribution they are making to the company’s bottom line.

If organizations find it difficult to attract and recruit the kind of talent that they need they can always grow their own talent. They can hire entry-level professionals and build and develop their skills further to suit your organization and get them to grow in the organization as the organization grows. Pay for their education and training in good institutions and then get them to sign bonds. Do this only for the most talented employees. Show them a value proposition in career growth.
These are a few of the many strategies that a company or an organization can use to effectively win or have an upper hand in the war for talent.

Bibliography 1. Davoren, J. (n.d.). What Types of Rewards Would Motivate Workers in an Organization? Small Business . 2. Hendy, N. (2013, Febuary 18). Employer branding is giving canny businesses an edge over the competition to attract staff. New weapon emerges in war for talent . 3. J.L.H.D. (2012, October 23). The continuing war for talent. Which MBA . 4. Khadem, N. (2013, June 07). Tech-friendly businesses can save millions and win the war for talent as workforce shrinks. 5. Mcdormott, L. C. (2001, April 1). Winning the Talent War. Executive Excellence . 6. Minchington, B. (2014, Febuary). Despite economic uncertainty companies still invest in their employer brand to attract the best talent. Employer brand helps match talent . 7. Randstad Canada. (n.d.). Build your employer brand: A strategic approach to recruitment and retention. Retrieved from Randstad : http://www.randstad.ca/downloads/072711_build_your_employer_brand-staffing.pdf 8. Simes, R., Thomas, A., & O’Mahony, J. (2013). The Connected Workplace. Deloite. Deloite Access Economics. 9. Wilden, R., Gudergan, S., & Lings, I. (2010). Employer branding: strategic implications for staff recruitment. Journal of Marketing Management , 26 (Nos 1-2), 56-73.