Does your recruitment strategy need ‘fixing’ as you try to realign your business to a new and challenging environment? Whilst governments struggle between lockdowns, restrictions and a re-opening commercial marketplace, how are companies meant to respond? Businesses need to hire now but in reality they are unclear how best to proceed.

Looking at the ‘old ways of working’, a recent report (Mind The Trust Gap, 2021, quoted by Executive Grapevine) indicates that 57% of recent hires (throughout the past 12 months) are not working well enough to be sustained. The reasons offered for this high failure rate are:

  1. Poor fit between the hired candidate and the role

  2. Poor fit between the hired candidates and the hiring organisation’s culture

The report also argues that the challenges presented by remote working were not as impactful as the above highlighted issues, which are in fact longstanding and highly significant. This poses the question, how can senior managers and recruitment partners do better?

Mastering the arts of virtual interviewing and online assessment are of significant value in the current climate. However, of themselves, they are not enough. The real SKILL is sifting through the often very large numbers of applicants and getting a viable population of ‘possible’ candidates. Then you must ask the RIGHT questions of these candidates to complete your shortlist. Easy, right? Not as easy as it sounds, when you consider time-consuming and expensive recruitment activities with a suggested failure rate of 57%…

Scientists like Professor Brian Cox take time to review and reevaluate their work in consideration of what has been learned subsequently. Following this example, has technology helped us to gain further insights which can improve selection processes? The answer is undoubtedly ‘yes’ but we still need to ensure that we ask the right questions and incorporate new and relevant information. Otherwise, we are simply applying old and unreliable solutions to new and emerging problems.

With over 30 years of working in executive assessment and recruitment across the planet, combined with our psychological knowledge and understanding, Thompson Dunn are here to be your trusted advisors in hiring the ‘right’ talent. We can help your business to review the successful aspects of your recruitment practises and learn how to address your changing hiring needs. Our goal is always to ensure that your hires will be successful in the longterm, with potential to add value and bench strength beyond the initial role for which they are hired. They MUST be able to meet both your current and longterm needs. What you need right now is not always what you will need from an initially successful candidate in the future. Succession planning and talent development MUST be part of your hiring process, even when you may think that all you need is a ‘quick fix’.

Contact us at info@thompsondunn.com or call our offices on +44 207 486 1199 to discover how we can help your business hire the best possible candidates. Your people are your business!

Pat Thompson

Thompson Dunn - Your Clear Way Forward