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This weekend I spent loads of time in my garden. About 4 hours on Saturday and about 3 on Sunday. It was time well spent.
I had a list of things I wanted to get done, the sun was shining, it was warm and dry, perfect weather for some hard work.
In the spring of 2010 we had six very large Ash trees felled in various parts of the grounds. Two of the trees were easily 30 meters tall and were felled inside the garden with no way to get them up the very high steep bank through the woods and out of the garden. I managed to get some of them cleared last year but had left the rest in piles to season where they fell. Time to move some more; cut, split and stack them in the stables, (we don’t have horses, it’s just a giant storage shed), ready for winter use.
I’d put this particular job off for most of the summer hoping for a long hot spell to really dry the wood out. That and the fact it was going to a long hard job and I didn’t really fancy it at all, but with cut and split logs costing in the region of £100 a tonne if purchased it made sense to use what was already ours. So to work.
With my in-ear headphones and the iPod on shuffle I just got on with it. A chainsaw and a bow saw on Saturday, an axe and hatchet on Sunday. I was having fun, all the time the number of tree trunks and branches from around the place were being reduced to the size we could use in the house. Whilst I was doing this I was thinking, amongst other things, about my next blog post. Each time I latched onto a theme I just couldn’t make it work.
Then on Sunday it occurred to me.
I just spent hours reducing trees to 20cm logs to burn in an open fire. Whilst it was most certainly hard work it had not been difficult at all, in fact it was easy. I was methodical. I paced myself. It occurred to me was that I was enjoying what I was doing, I had the enthusiasm and energy to get the job done and I had the correct tools for the job.
Of course my mind linked it instantly to Resourcing and how organisations big and small don’t generally give it the priority it needs, don’t have the appetite, energy or the right tools to do it right. To do anything right, there has to be an appetite, enthusiasm and energy to do it well and the right equipment to do it effectively and efficiently for the right results have to be available. I could have created the same amount of fire logs with a bow saw and a regular saw and just an axe but it would have taken me so much longer and with much more effort and lots of pain. This is a task I have done for year and love it! I know what I am doing and have the right approach, tools and technique. Yes anyone can do it but you have to know what you are doing. I’ve seen the damage done by poor attention to the detail and poor technique; it’s not pretty
When it comes to Resourcing the appetite comes from the leader of the organisation. Many executives say it is a priority but few give it anything other than lip service and it tends to get marginalised because outdated attitudes to sourcing and attraction are cemented firmly in days gone by, i.e. pick the phone up and call and agency or search firm. (A bit like using a rust old and blunt hand saw). This last sentence assumes it is recognised as an essential and specialist business function in the first place. I doubt very much that it is in the majority. There are many companies that are happy for the hiring managers to leverage personal networks, place job adverts and engage with agencies; and for many this works well. Whilst it doesn’t actually add any real value to the business it puts bums on seats. Sadly for the majority of hiring managers and HR practitioners that’s all it’s about.
Equipping a Resourcing function properly is key to its success and essential to it adding far more value to the business than most people think it can. It doesn’t start with simply giving someone the responsibility to recruit for your company. It starts with a commitment to do it properly and to recognise that it is something that you need to invest in to allow the proper policies and procedures to be put in place and then constantly refined, retuned and modified to keep pace with a constantly changing landscape.
It also takes time to get it right for your company. There is no overnight fix, but there can be a dramatic and identifiable improvement within a reasonably short space of time. I’m talking within the current accounting period.
The one big mistake that many hiring managers, HRDs, HR Managers and company executives make when it comes to Resourcing is thinking it is easy and that anyone can do it.
Last year I asked an audience made up of about 100 HR management types “How many of you have personally been responsible for Rescouring someone in the last year?”
All but a few put their hands up.
Then I asked them “How many of you did that without using agencies or search firms?” Only three hands stayed up.
I’m not sure what they thought they were doing but it wasn’t Resourcing, but it was easy. I told them that the only thing they had proven to me was that they knew how to use a phone. Only one or two of them had actually done the resourcing, all of the others had offloaded it to 3rd parties. Now this is not a fault at all but simply an indication of what many think Resourcing is all about.
Recruitment, Talent Acquisition, Resourcing, Staffing – call it what you will, is not a one dimensional function and it does not follow a simple linear process that has a clear beginning and an end. To be sure that your business doesn’t suffer because of the bad hires you have made or the bad impression you have made in the market it must be given specialist continued focus and attention. It is a front line customer and consumer facing function. Treating it as anything else could be neglecting your responsibilities.
Providing your company with the right tools means applying the right priority to the function, finding the right people, paying them what they are worth, the right training, giving them the appropriate budget to use the appropriate technologies and platforms and give them the corporate support to ensure they are not marginalised by HR, Sales, Marketing or any other function. Think about it! An effective Resourcing team might speak to more people every week, selling your company to a wider audience than any other department in your organisation. Do you really want them to be doing a bad job of it? You get the right people with the right attitude and attributes and give them respect they will both save you money and add to your company’s bottom line.
With the right tools for the job you get a job well done, you get added benefit in terms of corporate reputation, the delivery of the right skills at the right time for the business and is done efficiently. The best talent in the market will give you more respect and as such could well put you at the top of their list of places to work when they are ready. And as with anything done right you will get value for your money.
I am looking for work at the moment and know from first-hand experience how bad the Resourcing/Recruitment processes are in companies if left to the HRBPs, HRDs or generalists. It’s not the individuals’ fault all of the time; it’s probably the priority given to it. There is a simple answer – Hire me I’ll sort it out for you. I can be contacted here
Let me just add this; if it was easy to do, why do so many of you get it so wrong all of the time?
Music of the Day – In Loving Memory by Alter Bridge
Thanks for reading