Getting the best for the best: Recruiting top talent in the age of disruption

As any Recruitment Director can attest, overall lack of digital skills across Europe is a common theme. For instance, we know that whilst countries such as Norway (27%) and Spain (31%) show the greatest difficulties in acquiring new digital talent, but on average an incredible one-in-five of businesses still face this serious challenge.

The truth is that the most successful Recruiters work a bit differently. They align with Executives and understand business objectives, and where new talent needs to come from. Challenging as this may sound the process is a creative one, as it involves using both traditional and non-traditional resources and a network of established contacts to identify and attract talent. As such, the best Recruiters are often favoured among all other HR personnel and would consider their own jobs most fun of all.

Yet, the talent crunch is a serious one. As part of broader initiatives with the European Commission, IDC estimated an IT talent gap of over 500,000 employees across the continent. This has a major impact on business and will have significant implications for recruiting too. After all, the war on talent did not materialise overnight and its impact is being felt across countries and verticals.

This blog looks at the key DOs and DON’Ts that any recruitment professional should keep in mind going forward, based on the European wide results and the country specific insights we gleaned from this year's research.

Expand the recruitment sources to include specialised agencies, referrals and traineeships that can reach more candidates with the right skillset but likely with a different mindset that will bring new ideas which can prove crucial for the long-term success of the business. As an innovative recruitment professional, you can understand the value of University Trainees and social platforms as means of bringing top talent into the team that can be both a good fit but also disruptive and innovative.

Design a recruitment policy that carefully plans the transition and onboarding process after the hire. This is necessary, and it is your responsibility as well to make sure that your hard work in getting the right candidate into the organisation is not impeded by a poor on-boarding experience, which can affect the new recruit's engagement and employee experience. Nurture and build up a strong alignment with the Line of Business teams and the rest of HR department when discussing new hires and their entry into their respective teams.

Looking for successful candidates by concentrating on criteria that have worked effectively in the past is a safe way to recruit. Nevertheless, adjusting to the changes in the workforce and enlarging the recruitment net to capture more and different skills, can be a force multiplier for the business. As a recruiter, you must start seeking out skills like exponential thinking, problem solving, and focusing on diversity. Playing the safe game, when the war for talent is raging, can no longer be the go-to strategy for any recruitment professional.

Our research shows that "on-the-job" training is the preferred way to enrich an employee's skillset, but this can be too narrow a view, with so many new tools available today. You know better than anyone the new hires and the recruitment requests of your business.

As a recruitment professional, you need to start collaborating with the wider HR department and the line of business managers to come up with a comprehensive development plan for new hires, that will be diverse and varied in resources and modes.

As the Recruitment Director, your role should go far beyond setting job ads and conducting interviews with candidates. You hold a uniquely important role in designing your employer brand which can be a major attraction to top talent. Recruitment directors have an excellent view of the talent market, they understand the background and skillset of new colleagues and they know what characteristics the business is looking for in a candidate. You can be the driving force behind the employer brand your business is creating and that can happen only if you get more involved in the end-to-end employee experience of your organisation.

47.3% of recruiters flock to job platforms for fill open positions within their organisations. Although job platforms are important sources for new candidates, the best recruiters recognise that the 'best fit' for a new opening does not always have to be filled with external talent – much latent but qualified talent may exist within the organisation. In fact, IDC-Cornerstone OnDemand studies from 2017 and 2016 show that internal employee mobility heavily contributes to employee happiness. This is also why it isn't a surprise to find that companies who focus on ‘personal development’ and ‘company culture’ are also more likely to show higher performance in terms of revenue and profit.

We all know that the wave of digital transformation has been putting pressure on businesses right across Europe. But how much do we know about the actual level of impact and the overall reaction to this pressure? In a unique new study, IDC worked together with Cornerstone OnDemand to understand how this is impacting organisations and discovered a range of different strategies being implemented to deal with some of these internal pressures. Whether it’s the availability of talent or recruiting for the age of disruption there are many new challenges facing organisations today.

[check out the results from the study here]