Hiring and Selection

Building a strong workforce can be a challenge. The following factors contribute towards
thatchallenge:

Top talent command premium:

Well, after weeks of hunting and rounds of interviews, you found the right guy. But his pay
expectations are way beyond your estimates. This is a typical scenario in many companies today.
Talented people don’tcome cheap. Mind you, talent comes at a price. Talented folks command
premium. If you are willing to pay more you get the right guy. Else, you lose him.

Wide Job opportunities

: Currently, the market place is marked by war for talent and talent-focused corporate would go to
any length to get the right guy. Theworld is not just flat but wide too! The marketplace is flooded
with new agecompanies (read IT & ITeS companies) ready to offer more not only in terms of
lucrative compensation but also challenging job profile, cross functional exposurelevels, onsite job
opportunities, higher responsibilities, plush work ambience andoverall corporate culture not to
speak of world-class brand image that would lend prestige to people who opt to work for them.

Employer Branding:

Corporate branding is a very important aspect for a job seeker to come onboard. Remember, today
we are in an employee-driven job market and assuch candidates have the luxury to choose whom to
work for. Because, the candidateis entrusting his career in your hands for the next, say few years or
so. Hence, it isunderstandable that he is choosy about his prospective employer.

Talent shortage:

Talent shortage is the familiar refrain for long and in the times tocome it is going to get acute than
ever before. While it is the general scenario prevalent across all industry sectors, this would be more
pronounced if you arelooking for folks in new technology platforms in the IT sector.

Ineffective HR sourcing:

If talent doesn’t come to you, you’ll have to go to it. Goneare the days when candidates used to
hang around for jobs. Today’s candidates are ina strong wicket to consciously choose their
employers and if you stay where you arerefusing to budge in your quest for talent, you will lose.
SMEs need to take a hardlook at their current HR sourcing strategies.

Talent Retention
•

Lack of a comprehensive orientation program or induction training

Lack of clear career path development for individual staff

Lack of communication of corporate goals/vision

Lack of job-rotation: often SMEs lose talents as they are not able to providenew learning
opportunities within the organization by redesigning jobs etc.

Minimum investment in training & development

Talent Management Issues:

SMEs face the same fundamental talent issues that large firms do. They need to attract,
select,motivate, deploy, develop and retain talent. However, SMEs face some particular
constraints;constraints that are more pronounced in case of small firms. These constraints are:

Lack of Specialized Expertise-

Large firms will have experts in specialized areas of talentmanagement. For example, they may have
experts in assessment methodologies, diversity or instructional design. Smaller firms may know that
sourcing is important, for example, but nothave much specialized expertise in the subject.

Fewer Economies of Scale-

Large firms can afford to invest in researching what psychometric tests are best or which talent-
management software is most reliable. Smaller firms often cannot afford to do the kind of in-depth
assessment of talent management toolsthey would like. This matters because not all tools are
appropriate and/or good for everycompany.

Criticality of Each Hire-

A firm with 1,000 call center reps will not be much affected by avery bad or very good hire. However,
if you only have five reps then each individual istouching 20 per cent of your customer base.

Criticality of Turnover-

The smaller the firm the more of a continuity problem it faces whenthere is turnover in key jobs. For
example, the loss of one marketing person may mean losingthe relationship with the ad agency, the
history of what worked, andthe location of therelevant files. Interestingly, the reverse problem can
also occur. Ann Bartelstein, who spentmany years in HR in SMEs, says lack of turnover can mean the
firm is stuck with the wrong people.
WHAT SHOULD SMEs DO?Outsource

Outsourcing non-core activities is increasingly becoming popular even for SMEs. Instead of incurring
huge fixed costs in manpower to manage recruitment / retention issues withsophisticated IT
software, SMEs can reap the following benefits by outsourcing suchfunctions to the experts in the
field

Cost savings

Focus on strategic functions

Access to world-class recruitment/retention strategies

Create employer branding

Quality of Hire

Employer Branding

Having mentioned outsourcing as one of the strategies in managing talents, the responsibilityon
employer branding still remains with the organization. Companies need to brandthemselves as
choiced employers just like how they brand their products and services. Thereare some distinct
advantages of being an SME which need to be communicated to job seekersand existing staff. Being
small can be an asset in many instances. Having a staff strength of less than 300 makes an
organization a lot more nimble, fast and flexible compared to larger MNCs which often wait for
global initiatives before implementing changes in their HR policies and practices.

The following are some tips for SMEs:Talent Attraction

focus on key strengths such as “innovative”, “fast-growing” “regionalexposure”

Provide flexible and innovative benefits/rewards that cater to individual needs

Measure the current hiring effectiveness – indices such as ‘cost per hire’,‘days to fill a job’,
‘effectiveness of hiring channels’, ‘candidate experience’ arecritical so that SMEs can track where
there are bottlenecks and where the hiring process can be improved.

•
Plan career path for individuals

More growth opportunities, regionalization – which is attractive to theyounger workforce

Talent Retention

Shift from being family-oriented to more performance-based

Communicating the corporate goals, vision, direction (for a more engagedworkforce)

HR can afford to give personalized attention to individual’s needs in terms of benefits, rewards,
career goals, training & development needs

Invest in meaningful training & development that leads to job expansion for staff. Once the SME has
established themselves as a choice employer with attractiveand innovative HR policies, retention
strategies and career advancementopportunities, it is only a matter of time that happy employees
spread the word. Thereis nothing more powerful for an organization than happy staffs who become
their ‘ambassadors’ wherever they go! This inevitably does wonders for enhancedemployer branding
and attracting better talents over the years.