How Singaporean talent managers can boost their talent pool

Economists the world over cheered as the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment rate as at November 2013 is at 7% - its lowest in more than 3 years. Singapore’s own figures on GDP also look set to add on to the year end holiday cheer, with many analysts forecasting growth to be 3.8% for 2013, up from a previous forecast of 2.9%.

As economies improve, employment invariably is brought up as well, via the Multiplier effect as taught in Economics 101. As HR practitioners, our focus is usually on that one bellwether of economic health – that of employment figures – and what that portends for talent acquisition.

Singapore prides itself as dynamic business hub that welcomes talent from all corners of the world; as the global talent crunch looks set to exacerbate, Singapore will be a casualty in this war for talent if it does not rise above flawed mindsets that severely shrink the talent pool and hinder the hiring of the best people for the job.

Flawed Mindset 1: Not considering the “long term unemployed”

The Ministry of Manpower of Singapore defines the long term unemployed as those who “have been unemployed for 25 weeks or more”. Singaporean talent managers tend to look disdainfully at those in this category, preferring to label them as flawed due to their inability to secure a job within a reasonable timeframe.

It is unfortunate that the longer a person remains unemployed, the more this bias punishes the unemployed person. Academics Alan Budd, Paul Levine and Peter Smith illustrate this elegantly with the following analogy: at a florist, assuming that there is no price difference between batches of flowers, the newest, freshest flowers will be bought first, followed by those which fade less rapidly.

In this simple analogy, it is clear that the long term unemployed are hit with a double whammy; they are passed over in favour of those who are recently unemployed, and are passed over yet again in favour of those among them who might have certain more attractive attributes such as qualifications, age or even gender.

These may be poor reasons, but undeniably still practiced by many today. Such candidates may be discouraged, and spend lesser time job hunting, or even apply to jobs that they may be overqualified for, thus further exacerbating their situation.

Talent managers, as warned by Gretchen Gavett, associate editor at the Harvard Business Review, will “systematically overlook extremely talented and highly motivated workers” in this pool of candidates.

Identifying this bias helps talent managers see that it is the system that is flawed and not the candidates; to sift out the diamonds from the rough, talent managers are advised to look for past successes and achievements in the candidate’s career to date, and not how long she has been trawling job search sites.

Flawed mindset 2: an over emphasis on specialized education and exact experience

The competitive business landscape often demands that new employees are able to hit the ground running, with minimum down time; that is why conventional Singaporean hiring protocol often entails requiring the exact same qualifications and experience of the person who left, so that the new hire can do exactly what was done before; or to hire according to the function of the job, assured in the fact that the new hire’s training in university would be adequate for them to perform on effectively on the job.

Such policies, however well meaning, is ill suited for the new economy of today, and severely limits the talent pool an organization can hire from.

The case for liberal arts candidates

The business landscape is constantly evolving, and organizations no longer can tackle issues by boxing them into a category and subsequently lobbing them to the relevant function. Apple Inc. realized very early on, that producing a winning I.T. product is not just an I.T. issue; it is an Engineering issue, Design issue, Marketing issue and even an Ethics issue, as they have recently come to confront.

As such, to be ahead of the competition, organizations need talent who are not overly specialized and think of problems in silos, but talent who are multi-disciplinary and are thus able to consider problems and issues from different perspectives.

Progressive organisations, especially those in the West, are realizing that candidates with general education or liberal arts training embody the qualities of such talent. Especially in the U.S., candidates with general education and liberal arts degrees are prized for their ability to be multi-faceted, their rigorous analysis of problems, learning agility, and most of all, for their superior communication skills.

These qualities make them ideally suited for management and leadership positions, where they are able to critically identify and creatively solve problems, and most importantly communicate for collaboration or leadership. Academic research has shown that managerial performance of managers with liberal arts degrees consistently surpasses even those with a business undergraduate degree.

Different profiles as catalyst for change

While an employee from a different function or career experience may require some time and training in order to function in her new role effectively, many Singaporean hiring managers fail to realize that it is exactly this unfamiliarity to the job that provides that all important new perspective to doing things.

Looking at processes with “fresh eyes” often lay in the open outdated and possibly ineffective ways of doing things, thus offering an important opportunity for innovation and improvement.

“Business as usual employees” or employees with the exact profile of the one previous employee who left produces the usual results,  and may incur less costs in the short term, but often, having a candidate of a different profile may be the impetus for change, and often, improved unit or departmental performance in the long run.

The caveat is for talent managers to look for candidates with transferable skills and competencies which can be quickly adapted for their new role.

Flawed mindset 3: not thinking like a marketer

Hiring for talent in Singapore remains conventional; an ad is put up, a headhunter is engaged or an informal talent network involving alumni, clients, vendors or personal contacts is perused.

This is akin, in marketing speak, to displaying a new product on a shelf in a store, hiring an in-store sales person, or promoting the product to family and friends.

Such a strategy of marketing the product to consumers is grossly ineffective, especially in a typical market saturated with a myriad of competing products all jostling for the consumer’s attention. This is exactly what is happening in the market for talent – true talent are spoilt for choice, or may not be aware of the organization’s opportunities.

Marketers know that the mark of a good brand is one that draws consumers to its products, instead of competing with others to get the product to the consumer. It is thus imperative that Talent Managers think like a marketer; to endeavor to attract talent instead of hunting for them.

Differentiating your organisation

Organisations need to differentiate themselves against the universe of companies participating in the war for talent. This might mean communicating a unique culture, a strong belief or mission that resonates with talent, or any factor that allows talented individuals to attain self actualization or meaningfulness in their career.

Research has shown that such intrinsic factors drive talent acquisition, employee engagement and loyalty, and are definitely salient factors in successful employer differentiation and branding strategies.

Engagement and building relationships

Savvy organizations get people talking about them and to them; much like how constant conversation and interaction builds and strengthens interpersonal relationships. Engagement allows organizations to reach out and “advertise” to talent, to build what marketers call “top of mind awareness”; the organization comes to mind when such individuals are looking for their next career opportunity.

Organizations, and indeed, talent managers, who desire a ready pool of talent must be constantly engaging and building relationships with the wider public. One of the most effective ways of large-scale engagement is via social media.

According to Universum, an employer-branding consultancy, almost 30% of job seekers desire to know more about companies via social media. Not only are social media platforms cost effective, its pervasiveness ensures a wide reach.

It is however, imperative that engagement remains a two way street; it does not mean just posting periodic announcements or status updates. True, and effective, engagement entails responding to comments, asking for opinions and essentially maintaining a constant conversation.

The competition for talent will only get stronger, but all it takes is a paradigm shift for Singaporean talent managers to ensure that their talent pipeline is bursting, instead of trickling.