Dec 14 2021 49 mins 1
Tom's Notes:
In this weeks episode, host Tom Hacquoil spoke with Adrian Thomas who has spent most of his career fighting to change the perception of TA being an entry-level position in organizations. On the contrary, he firmly believes that TA should have a strategic seat in “the room where it happens”—if not on the board, at least in close proximity.
When viewing talent acquisition as a strategic function, Adrian sees TA as an enabler of a business rather than a “mere” seat-filling function. He makes a strong case for the global head of TA joining the board, or at least keeping in close contact with them. “They [TA] can bring a real competitive edge by accessing labor market insight and best practices,” he told us.
In Adrian’s view, recruitment is the most important part of the employment lifecycle. One of his main sources of frustration is when businesses slap a new label on an old technique and call it “modern.” He believes putting a job advert on Indeed isn’t a modern technique at all—it’s simply the digital equivalent of putting a want ad in a print newspaper.
The true skill lies in developing a unique approach to every market and every role, because there’s no such thing as “one size fits all” in a global marketplace. Any decent recruiter knows they should work differently in the Philippines than in the UK, because people think and work differently based on their country and culture.
“If you’re not adapting your processes for the sophistication of the market, you’re not going to hire the best people,” Adrian said.
In other words, the fact that you excel at recruiting in one country doesn’t mean that success will extend everywhere. Great recruiters understand their markets, which is why Adrian’s advice to global organizations is to hire TA people who are experts in the regions you’re looking to hire.
But there’s more to it than global insight. Adrian heartily recommends proactively working to prevent staffing problems in the first place—looking at market perception and retention planning to ensure that your employees stay on and you hire less often.
We discussed that one common practice that could use some maturing is the use of lagging success metrics like time to hire and cost per hire. Adrian argues that the parameters around these metrics are so fluid, they don’t mean much.
And until now, organizations could get away with ignoring retention strategy. It was an employer’s market, and companies made the rules. Today, that old system has been flipped on its head. For the modern TA team, preventing recruitment is just as important as perfecting recruitment—if not more so.
