The work of the human resources professional is changing rapidly. Once viewed as a transaction processor, today’s human resources management professional faces a myriad of new expectations one of which is hiring best talent. Those who know what and know how.
By Emmanuel Zvada
The major mistake that employers make is searching for candidates before they fully assess what they are looking for. They end up looking at a resume and thinking, “Wow, this person has so much experience and great technical skills”. What they fail to ask is whether the applicant has the right skills for the job, fits into the company culture and if they will add value to the current business objectives.
Finding exceptional employees is every recruiter’s dream. If you pick the right people, your company will be on the fast track to success contrary to that if you hire the wrong people, it can ruin productivity, destroy motivation, and damage the company’s reputation. Hiring the best people who know what and how needs to be every employer’s priority.
There is nothing more important to organisations than identifying employees who know-what and know-how and managing them properly to produce expected results. Having top quality talent in an organisation brings success to companies both monetary and non-monetary, especially if managed properly. Many people agree that qualifications matter, but a qualified person without the capacity to produce results is a cost and that is what employers are experiencing. They end up paying large sums of money to employees who do not produce results.
There is a big difference between the employees who know-what, know-how and know both. What many employers will be seeking for nowadays are employees with both attributes, but they are scarce. Such employees with both attributes go an extra mile in everything they do, which means they have that rare talent, apart from having experience and qualification.
The best performers can be as much as five times more productive than average workers, so knowing how to spot this talent can be a huge advantage. Identifying talent is not that easy, it is a task which should be done in organisations such that proper management of such employees will follow.
Employees with inimitable and scarce skills are the ones that many employers are looking for to make them exceptional among others in terms of innovation and creativity. To identify such employees we look at those who like to experiment either by coming up with new ideas or who are creative in organisations. There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. That’s why it is important to identify creative employees. The Organisation that hire top talent benefit more than those that hire average employees. The reason is that talented employees have more competencies and are more likely to be productive, compared to less talented employees.
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In order to “compete through people”, an organisation has to be able to do a good job of managing its human capital: the knowledge, skills, and capabilities that add value to the organisation. Another way of retaining those who know-what and know how in organisations is through developing such employees, encouraging them to generate new ideas and rewarding them properly for new ideas that benefit the company.
Nonetheless, companies can also convert average workers into top talent, although it’s not an easy job as uniqueness is found from within and sometimes God given. Employees want to feel that they are being treated as individuals, and not part of a “class”. They want to be seen for the unique talent they possess.
Managers who treat their employees well, but don’t acknowledge each individual may end up losing their best employees.
Talent simultaneously represents the single greatest potential asset that an organisation can acquire in its daily business.
The globalisation of business activities is increasing and to win the war for talent and maximise the return on investment, organisations must recruit and manage those who know–how (tacit hand on experience), who know-what (understanding of systems, procedures and rules of success) and even those who know why (the innovators).
If organisations pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind, it chances of success for that organisation will be very high.
I strongly believe that the real difference between success and failure in organisations can be very often traced to the question of how well the organisation recruits and manages those who know-what and know-how as well as measures to retain them when they are working in the company.
Emmanuel Zvada is a human capital consultant/international recruitment expert and author. He writes in his own capacity.
