Throughout history, economic hardships have created windows in which exceptional employees and leaders are widely available for a small window in time. During the late 1940s, many companies were struggling. At HP, business was slow and finances strained. But as legions of great engineers came out from of closing U.S. military labs, HP\u2019s legendary founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard figured out that they couldn\u2019t let such amazing talents pass them by. When asked how they could afford to keep taking on new people in those difficult years, their answer was simple: \u201cHow could we afford NOT<\/em> to!\u201d\u00a0 Years later, when asked about their unrivalled success they routinely said that their willingness to invest in talent no matter the external economic climate was quintessential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Harvard Business School\u2019s Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria, and Franz Wohlgezogen considered the benefits of this kind of long-term thinking in an analysis of 4,700 companies across the last three recessions. They discovered that 9% were able to come out in much better positions than they entered because of their \u201cprogressive\u201d focus. They did cut back, but were extremely selective about when and where they did so and, more importantly, they continued to make strategic investments. Rather than thinking you\u2019re either hiring or you\u2019re downsizing, they \u2018copied\u2019 the HP approach after the war, understanding they could do both things if they were smart about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, most organisations make the mistake of uniformly freezing hiring in downturns. During the 2008 global financial crisis, BCG and the European Association for People Management surveyed 3,400 executives, including 90 senior human resources leaders in more than 30 countries, to see how they were responding. The most frequent action was to scale back recruiting. At the same time, survey participants rated the selective hiring of high-performing employees from competitors as one of the three most effective responses to the crisis and the one with the best impact on employee commitment. This irrationality is widespread. Those who stay rational can exploit it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It may seem like an obvious point to begin with but building a talent pool now means that when you can hire again, and hopefully you will be soon, the talent will be ready and waiting for you. By putting in the hard work now, you\u2019ll have a group of engaged and talented candidates ready to contact as soon as roles become available. As they\u2019ve registered their contact details with you, you can be confident that they are interested in working for your business, which give you a head start once it\u2019s back to \u201cbusiness as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because you aren\u2019t rushing to fill urgent requirements, using this time to build a talent pool means that you have longer to collate and source the best talent, which is a luxury that is rarely available. With a wide range of individuals and skills to choose from in your talent pool, all of whom are ready to start working, you\u2019ll be able to compare expertise to find the best talent for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As there is less rush to fill key roles, it also means you won\u2019t miss out on talented candidates that may miss the deadline by a few days. Instead, you\u2019ll have collated them over the lockdown period, however long that may be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It should go without saying but having suitable talent at your disposal will make filling vacancies a much quicker and smoother process. When you\u2019re eventually ready to hire again, it will be beneficial if you can hire talented people quickly so that critical roles can be filled, and your business can return to normal! This will give you more time to focus on growing and rebuilding other aspects of your business, knowing that the recruitment side is very much under control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plus, with many people, unfortunately, being made redundant as a result of COVID-19, the sad truth is that the faster you can make a talented candidate an offer, the more likely they are to accept. In the aftermath of a pandemic, people will need employment and crave job security. As much as we hate to admit it, when it comes to the best talent, it may just be the early bird that gets the worm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The talent pool approach to recruitment is largely candidate-centric, giving candidates more control. It helps you to build long term relationships, giving the candidates a chance to learn more about your business and what you can offer them. They\u2019ll become familiar with your employer brand as they follow you on social media, receive your email updates and even research your business on their own. This makes it much more likely that a candidate will want to work for you, increasing the chances of your offer being accepted. Regular updates and content are essential to maintaining your talent pool; this provides more touchpoints to capture the attention of passive candidates and helps you to build relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Talent pools also encourage two-way communication; unlike standard recruitment practise where the employer holds all the cards, engaging with your talent pool creates opportunities for candidates to talk to you. This improves the candidate experience massively as the recruitment process feels much less lonely and more transparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To find out more about how you can build a ready-to-hire talent pool,\u00a0get in touch\u00a0with the team at Talent Works International. Our experts can help you to conduct talent attraction campaigns, manage candidate data and most importantly build up and maintain your talent pool ready for when this pandemic is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you are convinced that you have the opportunity to bring in someone you really want, arrange to have the person speak to senior leaders who can share their love and passion for your company and describe the value they hope to build with the new colleague. Pay can be important but research shows that what truly motivates knowledge workers is a high level of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. In these trying times, flexible work arrangements will no doubt continue to be key, as will the chance to keep on learning and growing while working to build something larger than ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given our current situation knowing that your colleagues or employees are best suited for this new scenario we find ourselves in. Finding the right talent, the best fit for the job and your organisation can be a very challenging task. It is now important to find out whether your managers or your team is well-equipped of working together from various locations. It requires deep knowledge of their personalities, strengths, weaknesses, interests, work style and other characteristics. Our echnology and solutions will do the work for you, helping you discover if your people are resilient during times of hardship, if they are autonomous, if they are team players, without actual human contact. Given that our platform is cloud-based, everyone can use it from home as well. Humanity finds itself at a crossroad for various reasons now, why not help people discover and develop themselves from the comfort of their own homes? <\/p>\n\n\n\nTalent At the ready<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Better quality in hiring<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Fast hirings<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Build rapport with the candidates\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
motivate your best candidates<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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