Building Your Talent Pool

"The best CEOs spend a third or more of their time on talent issues."

ghSmart survey

Accessing top talent is a key to success for any growth company. Yet finding the right people for the right roles is rarely easy and is especially difficult for senior level hires. Recruiting only when the need arises leads to more limited candidate pools and often hurried interviewing and decision-making. The recruitment process can be long: senior level hires can take three months or more, even with search firm assistance. Reducing the time to hire can save significant money in lost productivity and opportunity cost. A conscious and ongoing commitment to building your talent pool can provide you with more rapid access to higher quality talent so that when you are hiring, you have a real head start.

A few thoughts as you develop this important capability:

INVOLVE EVERYONE

Finding great people should not just be confined to the HR team. Building the talent pool should be a priority for everyone in an organization from the CEO down. The focus and intensity of the effort will vary by level and function, but the objective of finding great people should be shared by all. Make it a point of knowing the best talent and have a talent pool of potential candidates and referral sources available, so you can be nimble when opportunities and openings arise. As one CEO stated, "I charge everyone with keeping their eyes open for great talent."

KNOW THE MARKET

Keeping your finger on the pulse of your particular market, both your industry and the region in which you operate, is vital to quickly accessing the best talent. Knowing the best advisors for particular needs is also crucial as it avoids the time-consuming evaluation process when you want to seek external help. Make a point to know the experts: especially those who have functional or industry knowledge that can be most helpful to you. Outside experts can also provide benchmarks for best practices, information on other talent placements, and expertise that is most relevant as your organization scales. The time invested up front is well-worth it when you are looking to fill a key role.

EXPAND THE NETWORK

There are several sources for top talent that are often overlooked when positions open. Those who know you and your company the best can be both great potential candidates as well as excellent referral sources. These include people directly within your organization ("insiders"), those at the farther reaches of the organization, often at peripheral divisions or regions or on your board (the "inside-outsiders" 1), and then the many third-parties with whom you work such as customers, suppliers and other advisors (the "outside-insider" 2). Many firms maintain close, longterm relationships with colleges and universities both for current graduates as well as alumni. Finally, online resources such as Linked-In and the various Groups can be helpful in accessing talent. When building the talent pool, tap into all these sources and maintain them as part of your network of contacts. In key searches, it is useful to cast the net widely to get the best talent available. In a recent CFO search, for example, investment bankers provided several excellent suggestions for CFO candidates that led to a hire.

MAKE NETWORKING ONGOING AND CONSISTENT

Companies tend to start the networking and recruiting process only when present need dictates. As hiring has slowed or stopped in this economic downturn, this is an understandably easy mistake to make. As stated in the theme of a recent Pwc leadership forum, "Bad times don't last; good people do." Networking initiatives should be an ongoing and consistent process, even if your company does not have any positions open. Tap your resources regularly: whether in person, by phone or by email, you will want to keep the dialogue open so that you have the quickest possible access to the best candidates. For example, one executive schedules Friday morning breakfasts as his regular time to network and build his talent bench. It is also important to maintain a presence at job fairs or campus recruiting to stay in the flow and take names for future contact. Keeping in touch with key people helps keep you ‘top-of-mind' and also serves to generate new ideas and opportunities.

PLAN FOR THE FUTURE, NOT FOR THE "NOW"

As you build your talent pool, you should focus not only on the needs you have today, but more importantly what you will need tomorrow. By building a strong talent pool before a position opens up, you will likely raise your performance bar. Once you have a bench of A players available, you will be more willing to make an upgrade to your team. Great talent is hard to find and it often takes time to develop the right relationships.

The investment you make on an ongoing basis will produce great dividends over time. So whether you are currently hiring or are planning for expansion in the future, make sure you have the resource of a talent pool for fast and direct access to the brightest professionals who will help propel your company to its growth potential. For further discussion on building your talent pool or other human capital issues, please contact your GA team.

_________________________

1 Bower, Joseph. "Solve the Succession Crisis by Growing Inside-Outside Leaders," Harvard Business Review, November 2007.

2 Fernández-Aráoz, Claudio, Groysberg, Boris, and Nohria, Nitin. "The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad," Harvard Business Review, May 2009.