Hello fellow TWITs, for my last article I want to take this opportunity to thank the team at ATC for allowing me the opportunity to impart some TA knowledge and develop my writing skills! Happy reading …. until next time…
An executive came up to me about 10 years ago and asked one question that has stuck with me: “what has your team achieved in the last month that has helped our business progress?”
I was like a deer in the headlights. I was stumbling, my head racing. Could I remember anything in that moment? – NO. Could I articulate what our strategy was? NO. I felt like a failure. I thought that, maybe, my days as a leader were over.
Lucky for me, this person loved our team, and he knew the hard work and long hours we put in to achieve the hiring outcomes he and the other executives needed for success. With a big smile, he looked at me and said from now on, have an answer to this question.
He said to be ready to promote your team and to talk about the challenges. Be aligned on what success looks like to them. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Often the metrics these stakeholders care about are time, cost, and quality of hire. You’re the expert for talent, not them!
From that day on, I have used metrics to build my promotion runsheet so when I get asked that big question, I have the top three things ready to go. This might be our strategy, new innovations, simplification, shout-outs, untapping new candidate markets, refreshed branding content, cost savings, or capability uplifting.
For those aspiring to better connect talent performance to business and workforce outcomes, here are my top 5 tips:
- Deep dive on company strategies, resourcing challenges, purpose, and market aspirations.
- From this, create a plan and put it on a page! Make it high level, with set deliverables, and strategy aligned.
- Get jiggy with the numbers! Create a costs table for job boards contracts, marketing, tech stacks, agencies etc. Are you getting ripped off, or do you have great commercial deals? Give love to your procurement team.
- Reimagine “visual leadership” in a world where teams can be 100% virtual or geographically apart. Optimise modes for team connections via MS Teams, Yammer, distribution groups, and fortnightly one-to-one meetings. If you have office days, free yourself from too many meetings so you can walk the floor, shout the coffee run, or go for a “brainstorming” walk with colleagues – these are cornerstones to leadership today.
- Personal safety, wellbeing, and engagement are three big topics that TA love being early adopters of. Any new campaigns to improve personal working rhythms, but could also be used to promote as employee benefits, are useful for TA to advocate across key stakeholders and candidate markets.
A lot of my time as a TA Leader is spent promoting my team’s positive achievements. I do this widely to P&C business partners, functional teams, and site operations. I constantly lean into showcasing the wins, collaborating widely and building personal brands.
Think about what you can do to showcase your individual and your team’s high performance and how it is truly moving your business forward!
Articles that have sparked my interest this week….
HR encouraged to ‘up its game’ to attract, retain talent
Employers providing holistic packages that heavily focus on wellbeing, balance, and respectful workplaces, beats “throwing money” at candidates.
3 Ways to Clearly Communicate Your Company’s Strategy
What we appear to continue to miss is the context setting. The “why” and how strategies link back to purpose. Sounds right… yet companies still get this part wrong!
Human Resources (HR) Insights: Latest Trends and Strategies
Trends, market insights, and research should underpin any plan on a page you are developing. This will be your guiding light to connect company vision to tactical deliverables on the ground.
Catch 22 means ‘pretty much no rental properties are affordable’ in Australia
Soaring cost of living patterns are scary. It is even scarier to think how the next generation will get into stable accommodation and be able to get up for work everyday and feel engaged. What employee benefits could (or should) be sharped around accommodation? Who out there is looking at this for their employees already?
Brisbane Recruitment Meet Up
A plug for our Brisbane meet-up! Our TA folk embrace connections, community, and industry learnings – go beyond your work family to develop your profession wholesomely across APAC meet-up groups. Just do it!
Unlock New Talent Pools with Inclusive Recruitment
**Sponsored**
Imagine a recruitment process so robust and inclusive that it welcomes talent from every walk of life. Prepare your workforce to dismantle barriers and to cultivate an inclusive workplace culture from the first interaction. Its a great reminder to us all to tap into the full spectrum of talent that is available.
