Strategies for growth: tackling the talent challenge

People are at the heart of every company. In today’s fast-moving, post-pandemic world, finding and retaining the right team is imperative for all growth-focused businesses.

Sam Pusey rounds up six talent tips, designed to support business leaders with their approach to recruitment and retention.

People focus on the recruitment piece, but it’s actually retention that needs the most effort and energy. Because, if you haven’t got all of your processes in place to retain people – engage them, inspire them, and develop them, then you’re going to be right back at the start again, in terms of having to re-recruit. This is both costly and time-consuming.

A massive trend we’ve seen over the last 18 months or so is a focus on companies building ‘employer brands’. When selling your services or product, you’ve probably got a great marketing team in place, that knows exactly who the customer is, why they might want to buy, and what their problems are. But you also need to think about your brand from a candidate's perspective. Why would somebody want to come and work for you over anybody else?

If you’ve exhausted personal networks and are going out into the cold market, you need to make sure your employer brand is both visible and attractive to talent.

The typical perception of HR is that it’s a ‘fluffy’ profession, or part of the business. But, your HR team are very important: they set the tone for both the recruitment and retention of your talent. Clearly, if you don’t have the talent you need to deliver to your customers, you don’t have a business or an engine for growth. Investing both time and resources into people-related activities is really important, and this needs to be championed from the very top of your business right the way down.

Flexibility can go a very, very long way these days, whether that is through flexible hours or hybrid working practices. Whilst some industries might find this a challenge, adopting as flexible an approach as possible could benefit the business when it comes to both attracting and retaining talent.

Since COVID, many employees have come to expect some flexibility in their working week, where possible. If you can make hybrid or remote working an option, whilst still servicing the needs of your customers, then you won’t be alienating any talent who might need or want remote or hybrid models and you’ll be able to retain other employees who might otherwise be tempted to leave for higher salaries.

Due to a tight talent market, there’s been a marked shift from hiring based on long, strict criteria which seriously limit your talent pool. Instead, businesses can benefit from hiring based on a combination of a candidate's attitude alongside a smaller list of the fundamental skills needed for the role. This really does widen your prospective talent pool significantly.

Attitude can often be more important than skills. You can teach skills, but of course, if hiring this way, businesses must be prepared to invest time in upskilling new starters. As soon as you can cater for candidates who don’t fit every single requirement, you are massively increasing your chances of hiring successfully.

There’s lots to think about in terms of skills for the future – particular hot skills at the moment are those linked to the sustainability agenda and AI. Focusing first and foremost on where the business is at the moment, so that you can then future-proof, is the best place to start. Companies should try and map their existing teams, and figure out what skills are strong within their workforces and where the gaps are. Next, build in mechanisms through which any skill gaps can be filled, such as recruiting new hires or developing training programmes.

Skills mapping and planning should be a collaborative process across the business, and will also need to be reviewed on an ongoing basis; things are changing very quickly.