I've spoken at length in the past regarding the fact that we are living in a candidate-driven marketplace. There are more jobs available than there are qualified resources. This fact creates an enormous hiring gap for most companies. Creating a Talent Factory is not an easy task.
While this might be somewhat of a catch-22, one of the ways I'm able to recruit top talent to a client is to demonstrate the top talent that is already in-house and show the candidates the kind of people they will be working with. This is a strategy that continues to work well for companies like Microsoft and Google. Sure the benefits and perks are nothing to sneeze at, but the opportunity to work with the best and brightest in their field is a hard thing to turn down.
My most successful clients understand this and approach the hiring process as a corporate priority. There are a lot of companies that say they are focused on their employees, but their hiring practices would tell a different story. My most successful placements come from clients who respond quickly to candidates and do an effective job of selling their company.
Part of selling your company, as I mentioned above, is displaying the talent that the candidate will have the opportunity to work with. Get these people involved in the interview process and make them a critical factor in making the hiring decisions.
Sometimes blogs are a great way to put your best people on display and, while I have to say that I'm not being paid for this advertisement (nor are they a client of mine), MomentumSI is a consulting firm that does a good job of pushing their top talent to the market. People such as Todd Biske and Jason Henley produce blog material that puts them in a position to promote their firm and create an environment that others would want to be a part of. I also just recently read a great article on governance by Ed Vazquez that helped put some clear directives in place for my company and one of our governance offerings.
While they may or may not realize it on the surface, they are creating a thought culture for their firm that is invaluable for hiring new talent. This will certainly help them in the Talent War for acquiring more EA and SOA resources. But remember, this war is a two-way street in a candidate-driven market.......Call me guys ;-)
