Lee Xieli
Editor
xielil@humanresourcesonline.net
It takes talent to secure good talent
Have you noticed that recent surveys by HR consulting firms and recruiters are reporting that talent retention and management will be the key challenges this year?
If you have been reading our online newsletters regularly, you will know the biggest concerns for the recovering economy are a lack of qualified talent, salary inflation and increased staff turnover.
Translation: If you are trying to secure high-calibre talent for your organisation's growth strategy, then it's bad news for you because employees and job seekers now have the upper hand in the stabilising job market.
Indeed, another common finding from these surveys tells us that quality candidates are willing to turn you down as soon as they see a better offer on the table. That's right. Show me the money is what most employees are saying.
Top talent has higher salary expectations and it's up to HR to balance that with business needs. While some employers are prepared to increase salaries by more than 10% to retain existing talent, others prefer to develop structured career management processes to keep employees motivated at work. Either way, be flexible or move fast if you want your chosen ones onboard.
But the good news is that with the new re-employment legislation effective from 2012, you can soon dip into the silver talent pool and complement your younger, tech-savvy population's joie de vivre with a wealth of experience.
Not surprisingly, some employers remain reluctant to hire older workers. But the fact is there are more pros than cons when investing resources in re-hiring mature-aged workers and HR practitioners can help companies take a step in the right direction. Our feature story, "Better with Age" (page 22), offers more insight on how you can utilise older employees with proper training. They can, after all, be a viable pipeline to fill your talent gaps.
And maybe our next story will help HR gain higher credibility among its peers, if it hasn't yet taken a seat at the boardroom table. Not so long ago, HR practitioners were known as personnel officers. But has the role of managing people truly moved from the administrative aspect to providing a greater strategic value?
The answer is simple according to marketing experts and a non-traditional HR professional in our cover story, "Behind the Mask" (page 14).
The best part is you don't even have to rebrand yourself as a talent practitioner to garner more credibility. It's about stepping up and understanding the demands of the company and showing a return on investment on any initiatives HR spends money on.
That's how you get CEOs to take you seriously.
