I was recently nearly knocked out of my seat during a discussion about Talent Management (as beautifully analogized to sports talent by Steve Boese, Tim Sackett, and Lance Haun). The panelists were talking about finding the best talent. They were illustrating that success is critical in finding the best talent, that is, the best talent for the team, not exactly the very best expert ever for a given position. I completely agree with this. It is critical to match talent to the team dynamics. Very few people work in a vacuum, thus their surrounding co-workers and the culture of the organization should be huge considerations when hiring or managing your succession planning. As I have mentioned in my blog before, Aquire even uses a 9-Box matrix to illustrate how applicants fit in a “skills compared to culture” axis.

So, why did I nearly choke on my Diet Coke®? This un-conference, open debate format allows for lots of audience participation at HREvolution. So when a recruiter in the audience piped up and said, “I don’t always hire the best position for the job. It just takes too long and can take too much effort,” she was welcomed to engage. I had my soda in one hand and my iPhone in the other, and I had to put them both down; especially when the next guy chimed in and said, “I work in retail. We have 20% turnover. I often need to just fill a position, not fight for the best person for the job.” My brain and heart were screaming, “Did you ever think the reason you have 20+% turnover is because you don’t take the time to find the best person for the job?!” Now I know why I have to check my receipt at some retail stores to make sure it was calculated right and things were marked correctly. There are likely retail people just hired to fill a slot, and not selected because they would be good for the position or the company.

This session was designed to engage people. However, I really had to work to keep my mouth shut. I didn’t want to derail the wonderful presentation taking the audience through good talent management practices just to challenge the thought processes of a few. The saddest thing…there were nods of recognition by several heads in the room. I did what I seldom do. I stayed quiet. But it has been bugging me for weeks. It reminds me of one of my grandma’s quotes (she collects quotes); “If you don’t have time to do something right the first time, what makes you think you will have time to clean up the mess you created?” I wish I knew the wise person who said that. This issue also reminds me of Bradford Smart’s philosophy in Topgrading and Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street (the shorter, easier to consume version of the philosophy), which defines an “A Player” as the most qualified person available that you can afford for a position. Now, that is beautifully pragmatic and at least a strong effort towards defining the reasonably best person for the job.

Lesson learned here: I will very carefully assess any future recruiters and managers on their perspective of finding the best talent for a position prior to hiring them. Many smart, engaging people I meet could never fit in the Aquire culture because our standards are set very high.

Be careful when you take a large gulp of soda and sit on the edge of your seat when it hits open mike time at an un-conference. Shocking things may be revealed.

Cheers,
Lois

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Posted in Talent Management
Tags: Talent Management