A common sight in organizations is the HR team continuously struggling to strike a balance between focusing on core business goals and fighting to fill vacant positions.
You might be tempted to think that HR functions have to live with this phenomenon. This obsession-filled fervor observed in few HR departments almost resembles a war zone where vacancy filling is the only thing in sight. Alarmingly, the other equally significant HR functions get pushed to the back burner.
Almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy, a vicious cycle quickly spins out of mortal control:
A critical employee quits – HR gets busy filling the vacancy – another employee faces HR issues – HR could not address on time – unhappy employee – employee quietly resigns – the alarms bells keep getting louder in the acquisition team.
The open positions never seem to fill up.
Perhaps this situation deserves some deeper introspection.
There is an inherent tendency amongst management to lean towards hiring the best (the right decision) and getting them on board full-time irrespective of roles (may not be the best decision!). Human resources, as a result, tends to focus 80% of their attention on a potential hire, rather than the employees who are already a part of the organization’s life-cycle and deserve their strategic consideration.
Hiring has become increasingly challenging and a long-drawn process. As employers continue to demand more talent, the gap between what is available on the labor market and what is sought by organizations has grown wider. This is due to the uncertainty of the global economic landscape and the progressive avenues of multiple and alternate career paths that workers have accessed over the past few years.
Now, where exactly does the ball get dropped?
A business that still does its recruitment internally, largely leaves its HR to:
– articulate what skill-set each job requires
– seek applicants from various channels
– sift through the plethora of applications
– hand-pick matched profiles
– filter for fitment and intention, before moving to the actual evaluation of candidature.
The buck doesn’t stop there and goes through the additional steps of character verification, assessments, salary negotiations, previous employment checks, pre-joining documentations, and the list just keeps getting longer!
In the current economic climate, HR professionals are looking to reduce their time and resources spent on administration and transactions, so that they can work on more strategic issues. Additionally, this saving of resources and time results in savings for the business.
Successful players are increasingly leaning towards the world of manpower agencies – The “rescue-chute”.
It is imperative to state upfront that outsourcing is not a panacea for employee recruitment. This is a shared responsibility where garbage-in will result in garbage-out. No magic will happen at the agency end without your involvement!
At an organizational level following points can be a game-changer when outsourcing manpower needs, be it at a pilot phase or full rollout :
– define a practical talent-sourcing strategy
– select a low-risk vertical to test recruitment outsourcing in the organization
– establish clear two-way expectations
– define metrics to measure success or failure
– select an experienced and reputed manpower partner
With the rush to get applicants to sign on the dotted line out of the way, HR can take the time to start it right for employees. It can invest in an effective onboarding process that focuses on mentoring and measuring its effectiveness.
The function can concentrate on developing its existing workforce, by training them for new skills. It will increase efficiencies on the shop floor and also build an employee’s repertoire of competencies.
Performance management and metrics to measure success and failure objectively require to be important areas of attention for HR. This needs time and benchmarking efforts to be effective and fair. This has a direct impact on the tangible results and operational expenses, as it is linked to compensation strategy.
The HR department can work on Employee engagement to curb job fatigue and explore avenues of internal transitions and cross-functional deployments. These initiatives bring about a negative attrition and retain critical skills within the business.
Succession planning is another area that usually gets pushed to the corner. Outsourcing partners can effectively fill and consult for creating a pipeline for key positions in the organizations, to ensure that there is no show-stopping attrition.
It is with this preparedness that HR can make a sea-change in taking an organization to its best capable productivity & profitability.
To be an effective business partner to you, HR needs the support of recruitment process outsourcing, where your organization gets the flexibility of hiring at a manageable variable expense and HR can focus on core functions that will ultimately help your business adapt to the fluctuating market demands and remain profitable.
