An article on Talent Acquisition delineating the aspects which we should get right resulting in making sourcing candidates a not so difficult exercise.

1. ACQUIRING TALENTS IS JUST A PIECE OF CAKE
Talent Acquisition, the well acquainted phrase and globally used across Industries clearly indicates the need of acquiring
talents for their manpower requirements. Recruitment is perceived as a herculean task by companies when the gap between
Production/Operations and HR is apparent, due to several reasons like lack of understanding of job specification, the
recruiter is short-skilled, zero brand value of the employer in the market, bad practices followed in-house spread to the
outside world and a non-conducive work ambience. All these would add on to the woes of a company’s hiring requirement.
Techniques like Psychometrics and its application, Competency based hiring practices in recruitment etc. could help filter out
candidates who would not be a potential resource. These mechanisms could never be perceived as a foolproof tool for the
intelligent lot who are good enough in getting past this hurdle. Hiring an enthusiast and a highly productive resource is what
all companies aim for, but seldom succeed in achieving this goal ending up being complacent with what is available around. If
this is what the Tier 1 companies face, I leave it your imagination to discern what the ‘not so known’ and new companies
would be facing. What the latter would finally get to assess for their manpower needs is a talent pool filtered out by the Tier
1, Tier 2/3 companies compromising on efficiency, integrity and even productivity. Recruiters need to spend quality time
researching on non-conventional sourcing modes to bypass competition at least to a certain extent which certainly would
yield good results.
I recollect a conversation with a Catholic Parish Priest in India who told me about a recruiter from a Tier 1 company who had
organized a recruitment campaign in the Church premises with his permission a few months back. The selection strategy
adopted by the recruiter got him more than what he was looking for. On one side, you will find the parishioners trusting the
recruiters campaign as its been approved by the Parish Priest and on the other side by sheer word of mouth, the message of
a potential vacancy gets spread amongst the community especially on a busy Sunday where people tend to share
pleasantries with one another soon after the Eucharistic celebration(aka mass). In this case, the primary skill that the
recruiter was looking at was good ‘English speaking resources”, for which he had to be around soon after the mass (Eucharist)
celebrated in English. I was overwhelmed by the Priest’s response when he told me that against 50 vacancies, the recruiter
ended up getting 73 potential resources. The recruiter in this scenario is left with a balance 23, which he could capitalize on
in the event of attrition. To my surprise, the recruiter in this context is a non-Christian who did his home work very well to
understand how things work on a Sunday at a local Parish thronged by parishioners on a Sunday before hitting bulls-eye.

2. Recruiters need to be good researchers as well than just being facilitators or merely being a sales person. A good researcher
is an enabler and would always keep refining his strategies looking at new ways to tap potential resources from the market. A
recruiter cum researcher has the potential advantage of staying in a highly competitive market where everyone is fishing for
the best tuna (talent) and from the same water where the results are more or less predictable. In adverse market conditions,
a recruiter following the conventional path would find the going getting tough every day. A recruiter cum researcher would
possess the qualities viz high levels of confidence, optimism, perseverance, multi-tasking, fire in the belly and a pragmatic
approach whilst assessing alternatives. He would by default have a contingency plan; ensuring business goes on as usual
providing the required manpower for the company on time. A wrong hire would end up taxing the company’s Income
Statement (Profit & Loss account). Hiring a good resource with a good attitude and possessing the right mindset not just to
excel but to go beyond and prove oneself as an outstanding resource is the “dream come true” of all recruiters. If this is not
what a recruiter is aiming for, the cost of attrition is an aspect which would always lie unattended and ends up in filling up a
pot with a hole at its bottom; you just keep filling it again and again without arresting the cause. Once the right candidate is
on-boarded, then comes the task of giving a proper orientation to the new hire, training the new hire for the job (not
applicable if it’s a tenured resource), setting Key Result Areas for the employee thereby aligning one’s tasks to the greater
objective/ organization’s goal, analyze performance, provide feedback periodically, plug gaps identified during assessment
and provide re-training/ training for skill up-gradation if required, reward good performance including a job promotion and
encourage employees to move up the career ladder and become the best ambassadors carrying the
values and owning up the company’s vision.
Let’s look at some of the sparsely discussed attributes which need to be kept in mind whilst hiring and nurturing manpower.
Simulation of a filial relationship works
Man is a social animal and what makes him different from the wilder beasts is his intelligence and civilized nature. A filial
relationship (parent-child) simulated at work but keep an employee highly motivated with a great feel of being taken care of,
understood and rewarded. In a family, the parent-child relationship works wonders if it goes the proper way resulting in
creating a wonderful personality. The basic framework of a family if simulated at work in an employer-employee relationship
would work wonders. A word of caution here would be to not trust your instincts as it might not yield the expected results if
diplomacy and bureaucracy supersedes merit, equal treatment and honesty. This might also find less applicability in the west
where relationships are built on social distances/ space maintained between people where mutual respect precedes any
other aspect.
Marriage of Talent Acquisition & Talent Management
Talent Acquisition should always function as a healthy conduit providing a steady flow of healthy resources to make the
system work well. The Talent Management team keeps interacting with employees on-boarded by the Talent Acquisition
(Hiring) team and helps the employee experience the “life cycle” at work engaging them at work, creating an ambience
where there is fun at work, look at ways of nurturing the innate potential of candidates (music, arts, sports etc.), conduct
appraisals on time, reward the best performers and encourage average performers to scale up and beat the best, bridge gaps
in communication, ensure that the employee is treated well from an organization’s standpoint, by his supervisor and also by
his peers. Well documented and properly communicated policies/ procedures would support this endeavor creating an
environment totally conducive for the employee. This could only be achieved by the Talent Acquisition Team working in
tandem with the Talent Management team.
Employer branding and Corporate ambassadors
An employee who is treated well by his employer would automatically become an ambassador as this is something which
should come from within and without persuasion. Knowing the companies CXO crowd, the revenue (if it’s a public company),
global footprints, awards won by the company, initiatives and employee friendly policies, commitment to the society,
employee headcount, headquarters and other important key facts would help the employee speak for his employer during a

3. confab which would spread goodwill about the company to the society one belongs to. A happy resource would always look
ways to know his company better. When many tongues speak the same language it results in creating another global brand
to be known as the “Best Employer”. The role played by the recruitment team members even before hiring (pre-hiring phase)
finds immense significance here. An enlightened recruiter would be able to position the brand he represents resulting in a
potential hire or getting a prospect through references. Either way, it works. A recruiter is the best face of any company and
its better if the face is put forth as real and without a mask.
Being empathetic at entrance and exit
All companies do focus their efforts in making the first day at work a delightful experience but there are very few
organizations concerned about making their exit/ separation a better experience than the first day. I’ve had employees
meeting up with me during exit interviews confiding that the last working day was the worst experience they’ve ever had and
would have a second thought joining the company sometime in future because of the bitter experience. This could also
spread around resulting in a prospective employee preferring another company to yours. I recollect a beautiful statement
made by a CEO of an MNC, a Global CEO from Harvard with whom I was associated with sometime back. He said, “When you
terminate an employee on disciplinary grounds or reject an employee during hiring, do so with compassion and an
empathetic gesture”. I have since then, followed it to this day which not only encourages an employee to come back again
for assessment but also leaves an indelible mark of magnanimity exhibited by the employer.
A legacy left behind
The greatest treasure an organization could boast about is directly proportional to the highly skilled, enthusiastic, loyal
workforce it has. This also stands applicable for those who’ve left the organization for various reasons but still cherish the
beautiful moments they’ve had with your company. The goodwill lingers and gets spread like wild fire leaving a wonderful
legacy behind. The role played by the recruitment team in hiring the best resource to an organization has a better outcome
than it is being reckoned to this day solely because the goodwill earned is unfathomable.
The aforementioned attributes if pondered well and stored in the recruiter’s grey cells would make Talent Acquisition/ Hiring
a pleasant experience for both the recruiter and the candidate. For the recruiter, it would soon become his piece of cake.
Copyright reserved by Dr. Anish Mathew John (AFJPJ5518E, Chembanal)
Dr. Anish Mathew John is a seasoned HR Professional with more than a decade’s industry experience and currently manages the
HR function for an IT/ITes company. He also practices Psychotherapy & Counseling in India, which he is passionate about.