Hire the best possible and retain them in the long term: while it is true that remuneration is a big factor in hiring, it is not the only factor that attracts high fliers. If your company wants to remain at the apex of the industry, you need to secure the best possible people for your organisation: Draw in good people, recruit them, and retain them in the long run

Today's Manager, August-Sept, 2007 by Tan Chee Teik

AS BUSINESS becomes more competitive, companies realise that even with excellent products, you need people to research new products, make them, and sell them in large quantities. Senior people must be willing to spend time and money drawing in good people to the company.

There is the story about David Ogilvy sending Russian dolls to each of the heads of Ogilvy & Mather offices. They unscrewed the doll and found a smaller one inside, then a smaller one, then an even smaller one inside that. Finally, they found the message in the smallest doll: "If you always hire people who are smaller than you are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. If, on the other hand, you always hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become giants".

While it is true that remuneration is a big factor in hiring, it is not the only factor that attracts high fliers. Many look for job satisfaction and pride of place in the company. If your company is not among the Fortune 500, then recruiting the best-qualified people for the post may not be an easy task.

Let us look at the three steps in securing the best possible people for your organisation: Draw in good people, recruit, and retain them.

Employer Branding

If your company's products are famous all over the world then you should have little problem in attracting new talent in an increasingly competitive market. Some 25 years ago, many would sacrifice a lot to work for IBM or Big Blue. The staff who exchanged their business cards with others would immediately draw envious stares.

My friend who had just graduated from the University of Singapore then was fortunate enough to be hired by IBM Singapore. She complained that for three months she was given little responsibility. Big Blue was in no hurry to fit the staff to a particular job, they were cash-rich and additional head counts were not a problem. But my friend was young and impatient, she couldn't wait and before long, she resigned from the firm to join another company that paid less but provided her with greater challenges.

My classmate was more farsighted. When he was doing his chemistry degree at the local university, he vowed to work for Shell one day. Shell Petroleum was reputed to be one of the best companies to work for. His first job was with Shell and he stayed there until his retirement.

To recruit those people most likely to succeed in your employment environment, you need to define the unique aspects of your relationship with employees. By good management of the perceptions surrounding the employee relationship both inside and outside the company, it will influence your ability to hire the right people and retain those people who are the right fit for your company culture.

Branding

The employer branding must be seen in your recruitment advertising. When advertising for vacancies in the company, you are not only shouting out to potential candidates, you are also announcing to others that yours is a great company to work for when the opportunity comes. So ensure that the advertisements are large enough to attract attention, you can't get great people by advertising in the classifieds.

Here is an example of a recruitment advertisement from an energy multinational. Next to its logo are the words: "FMC Technologies: A world of energy solutions. Fortune America's most admired companies, 2006 industry champion, ranked No 1".

An international bank's advertisement reads: "Join the world's local team today. HSBC, your point of view valued here".

Other ways to reach out to potential candidates include university campus recruitment, employee referral programmes, direct marketing, public relations, and participation at job fairs.

Some companies hire consultants to conduct qualitative and quantitative research on how others perceive the company both at home and across international borders.

Recruitment

After the vacancy is made public, the human resource department is flooded with applications. If your employer branding has been done successfully, you should receive more than 300 relevant applications. The task is to sort out the jade from the boulders. The selection interview is not the best way to sieve the applicants.

HR should come up with innovative ways to shortlist candidates. One way is to invite them in batches to interact with each other to find out who are born leaders and who are loners. The programme could include having tea with the chief executive officer to see how they conduct themselves in a special setting. Such selection methods can be time-consuming and expensive but it is worth the while if you're selecting an employee for life.

Many companies do not realise that if candidates are not treated well during the selection process, they will have a bad impression of the company for life. So HR must be trained to reply to every application letter received even if the candidates are not called for interviews. Nowadays, with E-mail the cost of a polite reply is not exorbitant. Many companies don't have the courtesy to tell a candidate who was interviewed that he is unsuccessful; this may have negative impact on the firm's image.