Values-based hiring is not for the feint-hearted or for those who don’t like to make waves. If today’s companies want to lower staff turnover, create a positive work-place and attract top talent then they can’t afford to ignore values-based hiring.
Standing around the BBQ one Saturday the authors of this article happened to meet for the first time and this was a true meeting of the minds. Even though a balmy Saturday afternoon, when we both found out what we do for a living we were off and running. As two passionate hiring professionals, one in-house talent acquisition professional and one seasoned recruitment agency professional, we had a robust discussion that led to this article and what we both believe will be a life-long professional and personal connection.
There are so many challenges to ensuring hiring the “right” talent for your company. But we’ve both seen it time and time again, over the countless years we’ve been involved in talent acquisition, organisations recruiting employees with the right skills but not the right values. How many times do organisations feel compelled to make this mistake knowing the consequences of taking such risks, for the sake of a quick resourcing fix?
Now we both admit that this isn’t always the case and we’ve often experienced the joy of working with a hiring manager who looks at the whole package and places just as much emphasis on getting the right values and the right skills, knowledge, experience and qualifications. However, this too often can be the exception not the norm and we’d like to start the discussion on how we can influence a tsunami of change as the benefits are so numerous.
The global war for talent is rife. Gone are the days where high–performing, innovative professionals will move merely for an increase in salary.
The value proposition has become more significant. Organisations must agree what they stand for. They must also encourage behaviours which actually demonstrate this proposition. If they do they will capture the hearts and minds of high calibre individuals, beyond a simple hike in pay cheque.
These days high performers want to know that the value proposition actually exists – as opposed to organisations merely purporting that it does via expensive campaigns and fancy adverts.
What opportunities for growth are there?
It’s not just the millennials who want more career progression and professional development (around 87% of them according to Forbes in 2017). According to a recent Linked In survey ‘Why & How People Change jobs…’ lack of opportunity is cited as the number 1 reason for people moving on. And actually it’s not just about progression and promotion anymore. Many simply want to know whether they will be given an opportunity to learn new skills, acquire knowledge, training and mentoring to be able to progress.
The growth mind-set is everything!
How appreciative and collaborative is the actual culture?
Work becomes a place in people’s lives – do they feel they belong? The most successful people tend to be passionate, motivated and innovative. More often than not they have developed their talents as a result of organisational cultures of appreciation and encouragement every step of the way. Even where their contributions may have initially been dismissed, communicating such messages in a respectful way is so important for employee motivation.
Leaders must therefore ensure that the right working environments exist to be able to support and cultivate talent development. A transformational as opposed to transactional leadership. Allowing for some mistakes within reason as part of the learning curve- fosters the best results. Leaders must act with humility and be seen to partner with employees to encourage collaboration and learning.
What is the organisation’s reputation?
Glassdoor reviews are there for a reason and high performers want to know before they click apply that they will be joining a diverse, inclusive, highly successful and innovative organisation with high levels of employee engagement.
What is the organisation’s vision for the future and how can future employees become a part of it?
Does the individual’s value system truly align to the core values of the organisation? High performers will probe evidence of such alignment at interview – organisations must be prepared to sell the proposition at interview, with hard facts to back their arguments up.
How flexible and diverse is the organisation?
Given the competition for talent, as well as a shortage of skills readily available on the market, organisations need to focus more than ever on alternative methods of resourcing to increase their chances of hiring top talent. And this is where a values-based approach comes in. Employers with workable flexible and agile working policies and a more diverse and inclusive approach to candidate attraction, tend to appeal more to the values-centric high-performer.
Embedded corporate social responsibility programs have also now become more popular and a key question of most millennials.
Reality…
The unfortunate reality of the situation is that many organisations merely pay lip service to the questions posed above and are too caught up in skills-based recruitment – and who can blame them? Hiring managers want people who can do the job now (often yesterday!) not in the future. More often than not hiring managers don’t have the time, resources and budget allocation to be recruiting for potential, even in the face of true value alignment.
Isn’t it time for more of an emphasis, or at least equal emphasis on, a values-based approach? After all, the quality of the people give an organisation its competitive advantage as opposed to its processes, technology and skills.