Written by the Hiring Made East Team


Leaders are well aware of the need for a pool of talented employees in their company, and they are all too familiar with the concept of highly skilled and experienced workers leaving either for more money, for a better position or for more meaning in their jobs. Employees at the top of their profession will naturally choose work environments that will encourage and nurture their skills, making it easy for them to flourish and succeed. 

Company Culture

For years management experts have been saying that the culture of a company will have a significant impact on employee morale, efficiency and output as well as how attractive it is as a workplace to potential employees.  It finally seems as though some companies are getting the message.

While the concept of workplace “culture” can mean different things to different people, everyone has a good understanding of what having to work in a “bad culture” might be, including a non-existent work/life balance, poor recognition of effort, bullying and bad management practices in general.     On the flip side, the companies that most talented workers aim for routinely end up those that treat their employees as human beings, with real emotions, personal requirements and goals and dreams.  This can be seen in Fortune 500’s Best Companies To Work For 2014 survey that found that the top 5 companies – including Google, SAS and The Boston Consulting Group – had found ways to tap into their employees’ needs.  The initiatives and management strategies they promote range from having on site health care facilities, job sharing, compressed or flexible work weeks and philanthropy and volunteer programs.[1]

A strong culture, one that the majority of potential job seekers would recognise and look forward to joining, will attract the right kind of employees with similar values, and work ethic.

Career Planning And Development

Another critical attribute of these companies in attracting top level talent is that they provide excellent career planning and development opportunities for their employees.  Having a clear career path with a company, with chances to acquire additional experience, knowledge and skills along the way, can help to increase employee retention rates and overall job satisfaction. 

No one likes uncertainty, and succession planning – transitioning out older workers and making way for younger generations – can help to create an environment where employees can see a real and interesting future ahead of them.   Providing on the job training and professional development opportunities that are tailored to the employee are also effective ways to demonstrate how the company values its staff.

Unlike Google, not every company can spend large amounts of money on extra curricular activities or employee programs.  However having perks such as an onsite canteen that provides free lunches or basketball courts will not necessary attract the type of talented worker leaders want or need.  They need to look instead at the type of culture they want to cultivate and promote this through recruitment and selection, ongoing career and succession planning and development opportunities.



[1] http://fortune.com/best-companies/google-1/

Written by the HME team.

These days it is tempting to delegate time-consuming tasks to other people, especially those as challenging as the recruitment and selection of new team members.  Especially in larger organisations, there are often entire HR divisions and groups of personnel managers who will help with the recruitment process, with the team leader only occasionally required to discuss requirements or to turn up for final interviews.  While potentially saving time and effort, leaving critical hiring decisions to people who will not ultimately be responsible for the employees can be a bad choice.

Ultimately, when hiring new employees it is the leader’s responsibility to closely manage tasks such as job descriptions, interviews and the final selection of candidates.  Taking the time to personally select new employees can have two major benefits:  firstly, it will give you control over the type of person you want in the organisation – only by personally interviewing candidates and reviewing their cv’s will you get a true understanding of their abilities and experience.  Secondly, putting aside a considerable amount of time to finding and interviewing new recruits demonstrates your interest in your employees, showing that you understand that people are your most important strategic asset.

Other reasons why leaders need to be personally involved in the selection and recruitment of employees include:

· Successful teams are generally made up of the right type of people – employees who work well together and are suited to their individual roles within a group. While internal HR managers (or head hunters) may focus on finding people who will fit into the general culture of the company, as a leader you should be looking for people who will add value to your team, both from a work perspective and personally.  Only you have the inside knowledge and experience to know if a potential candidate can do this.

· The consequences of hiring badly are very costly, time-consuming and can be terrible for overall team morale.  Unhappy employees can be disruptive and cause efficiency levels to fall throughout an entire group of workers, and it has been estimated that companies may have to spend up to 3 times the salary to replace an employee who has decided to leave or is fired.[1]  There are many reasons why some employees simply don’t work out – from personality issues, mismatched expectations or a misleading job description to poor team chemistry – but a thorough and well-planned selection process can help to iron out many of the potential problems before interviews even begin.   As long as a team leader is heavily involved during this initial phase critical factors such as the job description and role requirements will help to narrow down potential candidates.

Part of being a leader is taking responsibility for the people in your team and their performance.  Having a measure of control over the type of candidates your company hires is critical to ensuring that not only your team but also the whole organisation will be set up for future success.



[1] http://leadingwithtrust.com/2014/07/20/the-one-responsibility-a-leader-cant-delegate/