Where the Sun doesn't shine
The art of recruitment, pt 8
What happens after the battle is done?
In my cursory research on Sun Tzu, I haven’t seen too much in the way of quotable content.
Sure he says to minimise destruction, consolidate gain, avoid prolonged conflict, and he also alludes to treating the losers well, preventing resentment.
But much of his content focuses on the before and during, not the after.
In the commonly accepted six stages of the employee lifecycle, recruitment typically takes up two stages, and much HR focuses on one stage, yet the bits in between are often neglected:
Attraction
Recruitment
Onboarding
Development
Retention
Separation
As recruiters, we talk at length about attraction and recruitment, the better of us about onboarding. Yet retention and separation are as much about the business as the others if indeed any of these are focused on at all.
If you consider that how you do anything is a sign of how you do everything, then the way in which a company recruits is a sign of what they are like as an employer.
What current staff think of the business (the smart candidate reverse references) indicates the truth of recruitment.
How a company exits its staff - well, I wouldn’t want to work for Facebook, X or any of those mass Zoom layoffers.
The after-the-fact of recruitment has a big influence on recruitment itself.
As I wrote to Kavi today, “Better retention makes recruitment easier because the qualities that retain, attract.”
You could highlight why your current employees want to work for you, and why they choose not to go elsewhere. You’ll likely attract more of the same.
Of course, you might not be able to highlight this, if you are a turnip of an employer. But it’s ready ammunition for attraction.
Effective onboarding and development helps higher performance, while the support that enables this has the byproduct of better retention.
So if you want high performers who do so specifically and organically, you give them the tools to succeed and this becomes an attraction point for other potential high performers.
Or you can ask for rockstars I suppose. Why would they want to rock your star?
What about the ‘losers’?
With automation, intention, and reciprocating their level of investment, we can treat unsuccessful candidates fairly and decently, without burdening ourselves with unproductive work.
Silver medallists might be viable gold medallists in future, or even now should things take a turn.
Applicants unsuccessful at CV stage, might be great employees at another time.
People who’ve been in your recruitment processes might talk positively about you. In a time when everyone is fixated on personal branding, the experiences others share of you are your actual brand.
And from a selfish point of view, if you treat people well, they’re more likely to treat you well, when you need it.
Future customers, future employers, someone who can lend a hand - who knows what opportunity lies in the losers, if you treat them right.
What might those same think of you, if you don’t?
We’re all so busy trying to win the war for talent, it’s easy to forget why are you doing so in the first place.
It’s not so much about filling seats, it’s about meeting long-term outcomes and creating a process that leads there - it’s about competitive advantage.
Thanks for reading.
Regards,
Greg
p.s. need any help with filling UK hires, improving how you recruit, or fractional management of your recruitment? Maybe we can talk.