Published in Kingstown College Coaching Magazine 2020/2021
The war for talent is fierce and if you want the best you must think beyond compensation.
Paul Huffman has been recruiting in Canada and the United States for 8 years. In this article he weaves a story of personal reflection into what he sees as an emerging model for recruitment consultants and employers to work more closely to find and develop talent.
Like many professions and industries, recruitment is going through a phase of self assessment. Not just in respect of the roles that are emerging, but also looking at how we operate as a service to organisations.
What’s happening now?
I recruit primarily Mid Manager to VP Level roles in Sales, Marketing and Operations in the consumer, home and construction product industries. Recruiting was hit hard in North America in the first quarter of 2019 due to COVID19. Slow improvement was evident from June and thankfully this has continued.
We have definitely seen a shift in type of roles being filled. Sales and Marketing roles are slipping but we see big increases in Operations and Supply Chain, especially in Food and Home Improvement industries.
Existing roles are also under the microscope as a result of the disruption. Looking into the future many firms are predicting quite a bit of movement in the Leadership and Executive ranks as good and bad leaders become more obvious.
Change is inevitable, and so is opportunity. Good organisations will recognise the need to invest in leadership development to fit the future of work.
Time for some Self Reflection
The inevitable change and opportunity presents itself to me also. It’s an opportunity to reflect and reset.
During my recruiting career I have had a wonderful time meeting, coaching and assisting 1000s of people during their career journey. The financial rewards earned have been fantastic and allowed myself and my family to enjoy a wonderful life and to also help out in our community. Despite all these fantastic perks and opportunities, I was still left feeling a bit empty and unmotivated.
My world had become transactional. Clients and competition demanded speed, technology facilitated that speed and I got really good at utilizing the tools around me to find people, build rapport and satisfy my client’s current pain point. Then I moved on to then next client. Often times not connecting with client or candidate for years afterwards or ever at all.
This lack of communication was welcomed by both myself (had to move on to the next client) and the client (moving on to the next fire to put out). Neither had time or will to develop a long term partnership.
Simultaneously, there were certainly clients I have meaningful partnerships with, and this forced me to reflect on what was different about these two distinctly different types of clients. After much thought and reflection, it really came down to one thing: people.
The Future: Coaching and Recruitment
Reflecting on all of this I see that the future of the recruitment business and my own aspirations were aligned. There is tremendous value for my clients when I operate within my values.
I see coaching and recruitment working in unison to catapult good organisations to great organisations.
These firms that I had formed partnership with truly valued the people, coached them for performance and often became return clients when the placement was promoted. Upon further reflection I determined what they did differently during the recruitment process and three key things came up:
- feedback – provided to both successful and unsuccessful candidates,
- momentum – these client used momentum to there advantage and rarely left candidates feeling isolated or out of the circle during the process
- retention – they all were able to retain candidates long term.
Retention, I believe, is where coaching and recruitment intersect and have an immense impact on the performance and culture of an organisation.
Shout it from the hill tops and watch the top talent flood your candidate pools.
Attracting Top Talent
In order for organisation to attract and retain the best possible talent they must develop a comprehensive plan that includes targeted headhunting, a seamless interview process with feedback, a fun and engaging on-boarding process, and training and development opportunities. This includes a mentoring/mentorship program and leadership development coaching.
A high percentage of millennials (and high potential employees in particular) expect some form of coaching or mentoring from their employers. It makes sense to deliver this as any organisation should be actively developing their high potential employees. While it is just one aspect of what they are looking for, it is imperative that strong leadership development and mentorship programs are part of your talent acquisition and retention strategy.
For this strategy to be effective it must be included in, and promoted, during the talent recruitment phase of the employee journey. Millennial and high potential employees expect organisations to invest in their development so to attract the best talent you must emphasise these program in your job descriptions or ads, along with compensation details. Other “why’s” are important too, like a culture focused on performance, built by developing people, earning profits while protecting the planet etc.
If you miss any of these three aspects a high performer will leave and find a different organisation that will meet these needs.
Millennials rarely aspire to a job for life. They’re looking for meaning, along with personal and professional development. If you’re lacking in any of these areas the best talent will be out the door before you know it. The war for talent is fierce and if you want the best you must think beyond compensation and offer a chance to make a difference, and a safe environment that fosters personal and professional growth.
To me, as a recruiter, this makes perfect sense. It’s where I believe I can make a difference in the recruiting business. Of course, some recruiting firms already offer leadership and coaching service – and on the other hand coaching and leadership organisations have dipped their toes into recruitment – but as often is the case, these organisations rarely provide a holistic solution that intertwines talent acquisition, retention and development solutions. They tend to work in silos.
Organisations that are actively encouraging and rolling out career development and mentorship programs into daily recruitment practice will win. Mostly because they will start with the best possible pool of candidates.
Client Culture Change Story
This brings me back to one of my original clients that does put people first.
This client is 5 billion-dollar hardware retailer with an iconic brand that was known as the “nice” retailer. While being “nice” was certainly an admirable quality it wasn’t helping them to grow market share and often lead to assortment and pricing nightmares that would confuse consumers and ultimately create more internal “fire fighting”. This meant less time for strategy and development.
This client needed to take on transformative change, and once again, it started with people.
At this point the executive decided to put together a comprehensive plan that would allow them to transition form the “nice” retailer to a truly integrated national retailer with a performance culture. They wanted to do this while still maintaining the “nice neighbour feel”. Not an easy feet. But, if they found the right people, treated their current employees right, and supported the new and existing team members with training and mentorship opportunities, anything was possible.
I was fortunate to work with my client on finding the “right” people who would be a cultural fit. They wanted people who were smart, driven and ultimately cared about their neighbour! This is the exact message I brought into the market, supported by examples and a context for the transformation journey the organisation was on.
The response was terrific! This was because high quality candidates are looking for many of the same things. They want a chance to grow, develop and build something special. Not just professionally, but personally. And in the community too! In the end we secured a number of senior positions and began working on the next level of the change.
During this time of employee uncertainty, the client was transparent in its plan, offered support to existing employees and were more than generous with employees who choose not to participate in the journey. Importantly, no hard feelings were carried because employees clearly had a choice, and support was offered to everyone.
To finish off this story, the journey so far has been exciting and rewarding. However, it is far from complete. I’ll be meeting with this client to discuss implementing a mentorship and leadership training program to support the ongoing changes and develop the best possible people. This organisation truly gets it. They understands the value of their people and the benefits from investing in them from beginning to end. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them steadily take market share with double-digit growth as they have only just begun their journey.
As a recruitment professional, I believe adopting mentorship programs and committing to a coaching style of leadership is the future. Recruitment consultants will need to be aware of this and partner with client organisations to deliver it. Then shout it form the hill tops and watch the top talent flood your candidate pools.
By Paul Huffman
Talent Hunt Inc., under the leadership of Paul Huffman is redefining talent recruitment and retention in North America. Through innovative campaign strategies he is attracting best-fit talent, and by adding coaching, mentoring and other support services, he is also ensuring that top companies are ready for the expectations of top talent. The supportive structure for both candidate and company creates a real sense of partnership. Beyond work, Paul loves spending time with his family – except of course on Sunday afternoons when he is cheering for the Buffalo Bills as a proud member of the Bills Mafia!
