RPO and Talent Management Blog by Ochre House | Ochre Talk

So here’s the thing; times are changing. Change is the new normal and whilst the bigger organisations can try to weather the storm through making workforce cuts, they don’t all make it. What then about the SME’s of the world?
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We’ve all seen it. When it comes to advising line managers on how to make the best hires, we can list off a whole ream of ‘best practice’ tips: be consistent, use competencies effectively, provide constructive feedback, be rigorous, use structured interviews…the list goes on. And yet, when it comes to making hires ourselves, into our own teams, we sometimes go back to what does not work: intuition and feeling.
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Einstein said ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’. This seems to ring true when we talk about the so called ‘war for talent’. This is an often quoted and misused expression describing the challenge for businesses to recruit, retain and develop the relevant talent to deliver sustainable growth.
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Planning, forecasting, workforce analysis, headcount prediction, manpower planning and plenty more. Even the plethora of expressions illustrates the uncertainty around whether people needs can be forecast and how accurate this can be – never mind whether that can be used to make recruitment more effective.
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The headlines are not easy to miss: “unemployment rate at 7.9%”, “2.494m people out of work”, “redundancies are up (32,000)”, “vacancies are down (22,000)”, therefore companies should be inundated with candidates looking for work. Yes…however, many organisations are finding it harder and harder to find the talent they need to grow their businesses in a time where there is increasing uncertainty about growth prospects in both the UK and global economies.
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We have all heard the saying before – you never get a second chance to make a first impression – but that saying couldn’t ring truer than when you are bringing a new employee onboard as part of your company.
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“He just felt right”… it’s the line any assessment professional dreads hearing from a line manager. The brutal truth is that almost everyone over-estimates their own ability to make good hires. As humans, we often have a habit of trusting intuition over reason, thinking that we’re the best judge of who will make a good hire for often emotive reasons.
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In the past two days we have seen the leaders of News International send a clear message to the business: There’s you and there’s us.
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Remember when you used to receive CVs with candidates listing 20 year’s service at one company?  When loyalty to an employer was a key measure of a candidate’s values?  On one occasion (many years ago) I remember receiving a CV from a candidate who had spent 20 years at ICL and in fact presented his CV on ICL headed paper!  The problem was that this was now the late 90s and it had since become the norm to spend 18 months to three years with an employer before looking for the next move. Certainly any more than five years with one employer looked lazy!
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Over the years, the use of a contingent workforce (contractors, consultants, freelancers, interims, temps etc) has grown. In just 20 years, the percentage of work allocated to contingent labour on average has grown from 6% in 1989 to more than 27% in 2009. Read full post