Politicians often use “big words” in their speeches. Whenever a change in society requires a bit more efforts, they call it a battle, and in times of emergency, they are immediately at war with something or someone. Well, this very political rhetoric has moved into the business world, so we in HR ended up with the WAR FOR TALENTS!
Wars always have unforeseen consequences, however, this "war for talent" has given birth to a variety of management models and has given them fancy names such as corporate culture, employer branding, people analytics, candidate experience .... All with the aim to attract and retain the best talents.
One would say that the battles in this war happen between companies, either the big ones where "everyone wants to work", or the small and medium ones with fantastic ideas and products, which, with the help of the best talents, could make even a global breakthrough.
Still, I get the impression that the "war for talent" is going on between employers and candidates.
Here are a few thoughts on why I think so…
Corporate culture - corporate culture is something that should be consistent without compromise. Even in organizations that are known for “strong corporate culture”, they tend to compromise on corporate culture breaches by justifying it with sentences like "we know he's a jerk to people, but he's great for business."
Employer branding - An excellent concept that combines marketing, human resources, and internal communications. Despite the fantastic examples, most of these strategies are, in my opinion, inward-looking and companies talk exclusively about themselves, without linking the messages to the talents they desire. There are too many "stick and carrot" approaches, for my taste.
Candidates experience - with all the technology at hand, we still have an extremely high percentage of candidates who do not receive any feedback on the outcome of the recruitment process. This may seem like a detail, but it indicates a short-term approach to talent. Some profiles may not suit us this time, but we may need them in the future. It will be much harder to involve a candidate in the new selection process if you haven’t provided feedback to him/her earlier.