As we Stand back to assess how the move from an Industrial to a Digital era is going, there appears to be one thing left behind from my 15 years of experience as a recruiter.
Looking at what we have created thus far in business and what we are trying to achieve as we progress, some things stand out to me;
The average lifespan of an organisation has gone from 61 years in 1958 to under 18 years in current times.*
The market map of organisation size where 99.9% of organisations are SMEs employing under 250 people, and 99.2% of organisations employ under 50 people.**
The fluidity of the employment market is now an acceptable feature, with the average job tenure being around 5 years.***
These patterns are all about people and their influence on the cost of Recruitment to an organisation.
Company lifespan represents a shift in focus on objectives from long to medium, even short-term, meaning hiring people as a KPI of growth has to occur more frequently.
To grow by headcount, given the size profile of organisations is shown to be a difficult and cost-intensive metric to surmount and maintain…
…especially with a transient workforce, which has the greatest impact on the larger organisations, although means more recruitment more often for all organisations.
Why is this becoming more of a focal point for organisations?
There are essential things that an organisation needs in order to exist, a product that solves a problem, awareness from the people whose problem is solved i.e. customers, and an ability to adapt to market forces, to name a few.
However, the one thing that is undisputedly the lifeblood of all organisations is people!
Be that one, a few, or many. Be that those fully involved or those on the periphery who support. Without these people, an organisation would not exist.
Heck! A wise man once told me that he asks his client organisations three opening questions to get them thinking…
What is the biggest investment your organisation makes?
What likely will take your organisation to the next level?
Given the almost always correct presumption that the answer to both questions is “people”, he then asks,
“How much time do you and your Board invest in the People Strategy?”
I love this series of questions!
Most people in business know these answers, however, find themselves trapped in an approach where they are battling and selling hard to gain the interest and support of those people needed to achieve the organisation’s objectives.
It would appear that a high percentage of the market try to achieve this by using a short-tail recruitment model (see features below), one that brings out a lot of behaviours and features that cause our organisations more pain than gain and often frustrates those we want to endear.
This model is more suited to an Industrial Era where the powerhouses of Industry were the factories among the local communities who often lived to support that organisation that in turn provided for them and their family.
Transportation was less available for the general population, going to other Towns and Cities would be a big occasion never mind a new Country or Continent.
There was little to no mass communication to “see beyond” your town, and understand how others lived their lives first-hand.
There certainly was no personal communication devices carried by the people in these factories to instantly communicate with each other and acquire information, Globally.
Although, now these things exist though it does not seem many organisations acknowledge this in their People Strategy or Recruitment Process.
People have been gaining experiences of other cultures, ways of life, and possibilities through their ability to travel.
People can witness how others live, gain insight, and reflect on their own lifestyles without even leaving their homes.
People can now learn and gain qualifications, converse with an industry peer, and observe an industry leader in action, all while on their couch for an evening!
How does this impact on organisations?
People are at the centre of what an organisation is, and the proposition that People now offer to an organisation has shifted.
The knowledge outside of an organisation in today’s market is growing exponentially. No longer does the knowledge inside an organisation always outweigh that which sits with a person who is external. Connectivity has enabled each and everyone of us to be as powerful as the factory in the Industrial Era.
So, how do organisations progress?
Long-tail Recruitment could be an option (see features below).
This is almost unrecognisable to Short-tail Recruitment. Yes, they both have recruitment in the title, and they both could well end up with a person being offered employment within an organisation.
An organisation can continue to evaluate growth with the same vigor although can start to dull down reactive, urgent type demands placed on both hiring managers and subsequently the people they are trying to attract.
Growth is simplified into identifying current business issues to be addressed. Recruitment subtly shifts from reacting to fill vacancies to proactively enabling hiring managers in situ. Recruitment becomes about growth through knowledge acquisition where the byproduct is hiring rather than the primary objective.
Organisations now have the instant reach of personal connectivity, meaning they can tap into the power and knowledge of the people they need right now.
Long-tail Recruitment is more human-centric, arguably easier to mobilise, with the ability to achieve outcomes of greater value sooner, with longevity baked in each new relationship.
Given the change in what people now represent for an organisation and how they view their lifestyles, it could be time for organisations to realign their view of what growth looks like and how this happens.
After all, at least if recruitment is based on real-life issues, it should be more engaging and rewarding for all parties. Now, where would they begin to realign, I wonder…
Below are some features associated with both types of recruitment.
Short-tail Recruitment
- People become commodities to trade
- Focus is on filling jobs
- Push factors influence candidates
- Salary key attraction tool
- More suited to an era of “slow” media
- Focused on a person or persons who is the one to be hired
- Time intensive
- Expensive and risky
- Reactive in a narrow field
- Often urgent in nature
Long-tail Recruitment
- People build value propositions
- Focus on growing an organisation
- Pull factors attract knowledge and expertise
- Opportunity for new strategies
- Benefits from the digital, connected era
- Could begin with a more suitable informant who is never fully hired
- Productive
- De-risking growth
- Opportunity for a holistic approach
- Proactive in nature
*McKinsey S&P500 2016
**gov.uk
***CapRelo
