What if an Engineering firm treated recruitment like a pharma company or a tech company treats R&D?
Well, firstly, recruitment would become the most important department in the company (like R&D at Sony or Google is).
There would probably be lots of public statements by the CEO about how much money goes into the recruitment department each year - except that the more they invested, the more impressed the stock analysts would be!
The recruitment department would get frequent visits from the top execs just to see "how it's all going" and make sure all the recruiters are happy and productive.
The best recruiters in the country would flock to work for this company.
Before long - this company would be getting an unfair share of the available talent in the sector.
OK, now back to reality...why doesn't this happen?
Engineering and construction firms are a collection of skilled people applying their knowledge to solve client problems.
That's it.
The more skills that the firm can hire, and the greater numbers they can hire them in, the more capacity they have to solve client problems.
That means more work, and more revenue.
If a pharma/software/electronics company distinguishes itself through product innovation, then it makes sense to treat the R&D function as its most critical business function.
If an engineering/construction firm distinguishes itself through the number of skilled people that it can apply to a client project, then doesn't it make sense to treat recruitment as its most critical function?
This won't solve the skills crisis for the whole sector, but the first company to change their thinking and start acting this way will win. Because no-one is doing it yet.
Skills do not solve problems. Creativity is required first. The skills come later.
Posted by: Peter | January 21, 2011 at 11:12 PM
Yes Liam, this way is helpful to firms in all industries who want to distinguish themselves on the basis of skilled people. Hire the right person!!
This needs the whole hiring process to be changed. Make assessments an essential thing.
For assistance: www.hirelabs.com
Posted by: Jennifer | July 03, 2009 at 03:00 PM