At our most recent series of Director Clubs, we teamed up with Grant Thornton to lead discussions on the current talent landscape. One of the areas we covered was using the four following steps to create an effective talent strategy and to address the current recruitment challenges faced by businesses.

1. Build

With organisations finding it harder to recruit people with the right skills, many are investing in learning and development to build their own talent pipeline from within. Investing in developing your own talent can also bring a wealth of other business benefits. It encourages employee creativity, helps to retain high-calibre employees and bolsters the organisation’s succession pipeline. Start by running a skills audit to understand what areas you need to build, both now and in the future. Training takes time, so if you identify an immediate need, buying or borrowing talent is likely to be the better solution.

2. Buy

When you need to buy in talent by recruiting externally, this is where our consultants can really support you in finding the very best people who will make a difference. We are also working with our clients to help them compete in the current candidate market, for example making sure their recruitment processes are as agile as possible to reduce the risk of an exceptional candidate accepting a competitor’s job in the meantime. We are also supporting clients to ensure they go to market with a strong employer brand and a competitive proposition. Both our Best Employers Eastern Region initiative and Compare My Salary tool have shown that salary is no longer the main deciding factor for candidates. Employers can also compete for talent through features which make a real difference to people’s every day working life such as benefits, flexible working, workplace environment and the organisation’s culture and values.

3. Borrow

In some cases, borrowing talent on a short-term basis can be the best solution, especially if the skills gap identified is only for a particular project or due to an employee on leave. Temporary employees provide an immediate injection of skills and experience without the commitment of buying in a full-time employee. With an increasing number of people choosing to work flexibly, there is a growing network of skilled employees who are available on a temporary basis. Temps and freelancers are likely to have worked across many different organisations, both in the same industry and outside of it. They can bring experience and knowledge of different systems and processes which could spark ideas you may not even have considered.

4. Bridge

In today’s fast-changing world, some roles may have evolved or even become redundant. Part of an effective talent strategy is monitoring for this and looking to ‘bridge’ employees into a new position by identifying transferable skills and training opportunities. If suitable positions are not available within the organisation, employers should still look to create a positive exit strategy in which the employee is supported to move on.

If you would like support in buying in new talent, finding the very best people and reviewing your recruitment processes and packages, contact us for a chat.