One of the weaknesses of leaders that I’ve witnessed is their resistance to engaging in proactive dialogue with talent in their industry.
Most decision makers are reactive when it comes to talent acquisition.
It’s for certain that an organization will experience turnover by way of resignation, retirement, parental leave, termination, or death. We know these things will happen as a normal course of doing business, yet we wait for the inevitable, and scramble to fill these gaps in our talent structure. These are generally not when the best decisions are made. Hires in these moments are normally made out of convenience to stop the bleeding.
The best time to take a loan is when you don’t need one. The same theory applies to hiring. The smartest time to be engaging in conversations with suitable people in your marketplace is when you don’t need to, or when your team is running at full capacity. Talent scouting should not take a break since you can’t control people and the decisions they make.
We’ve all had those untimely meetings with our best people on a Monday morning. They usually start with, “Good morning, Steve – I’d like to thank you for this amazing opportunity to work with you and my team at XYZ Company for the past 10 years. That being said, I’ve decided to take my talents to South Beach.”
The first reaction is usually how you can soften the impact of this person’s departure and prevent any disruption to the core activities of your business. Counteroffers seldom work, and the process of searching for a replacement is time consuming and taxing emotionally for all involved.
What I’m proposing is the initial investment of 1 conversation a week with someone in your industry. However this person comes to you, you should be receptive to these meetings / discussions as a way of evaluating your market, that person’s fit, and the likelihood of a hire now, or in the future.
This is proven, and guaranteed to solve a lot of your people problems.
The argument against this might be, “It’s a waste of time to engage in these discussions without an official hiring request.” Or, “this goes against company policy. All such conversations should be had with the appropriate HR or TA professional within our organization.”
Fair. Follow the appropriate policies and procedures. Don’t burn bridges.
I’m speaking to a minority of decision makers at the highest level who can afford to be having these conversations with key people in their industry, choosing not to handle such situations as they come. This is detrimental to talent building. By the way, these discussions should also be happening internally with members of your current team as a way of succession planning, and knowing what roles are appropriate to be evaluating externally.
You may need to push back on the conventional mindset, and that requires diplomacy and patience. What’s for certain is you’ll be ahead of your competitors, and your brand will reach those in your marketplace that wouldn’t have known about you otherwise.
Your organization will reap the benefits for years to come.
This is what good leadership looks like.