systematicHR

A recent Tom Peters entry criticizes the characterization of the “war for talent” as a competitive endeavor as opposed to an internal problem.  He’s right, but this is nothing new.  The HR world including systematicHR has long been talking about the importance of the EVP or employer brand in attracting and retaining employees.  It’s true that for top experienced talent the environment probably matters more than compensation and that people will give up cash for what they consider to be good working conditions, cool work, and collaborative associates.  This also means that when seeking to recruit top talent, you must be able to put on display these very features of your organization.  Your organization is no longer just a job, but a place where top talent will execute their own form of artistry.

I contend that the bedrock of finding and keeping and co-creating with great folks is not about clever tools to induce prospective “thems” to “shop [live] with us,” but a 99% internal effort to create such an exciting, spirited, entrepreneurial, diverse, humane “professional home” that people will be lining up by the gazillions (physically or electronically) to try and get a chance to come and live in our house and become what they’d never imagined they could become!

I.e., it’s not an externally directed “war to snatch talent from the other guy” by “being more aggressive than the competition”—but an internally directed competition against ourselves (and our outrageously strong beliefs about people) in which we aim to create an unimaginably attractive workplace.   ((Peters, Tom, September 16, 2007.  “Competing To Achieve Excellence: You Are Your Only Competitor!”  Retrieved from http://www.tompeters.com on October 13, 2007.))

It’s probably a bit far reaching to say that a good brand will play that large a role in recruitment and have candidates lining up at your door.  Certainly if you are Google in the last couple of years or Microsoft in the past, this may have been possible.  However for the large majority of us, this is an unattainable dream.  The great brand probably can never replace a great sourcing effort, but the sourcing effort can be completely dismantled by the lack of a brand or by a negative one.

Tom’s argument however is a sound one.  When recruiting, you’re not competing against other organizations.  Instead, you have every tool you need to hire top talent if you focus on the brand.  Trying to compete only forces you to focus on the wrong things instead of presenting the best about yourself.