Is your next hire right under your nose?

Are we missing talent that is right under our noses? During a recent meeting, one of the subjects under discussion was the problem of recruiting staff in a climate of a shallow talent pool and potential hires leaving the county.

The conversation moved onto Graduates; those youngsters who maybe left to study for their degrees but did not feel there was enough here to make them want to return; and those who complete their degrees but have to come home, what do they do next?

In recruitment, the “chicken and egg” scenario has always been, you need experience to secure a job; but if you cannot get a job, you cannot gain experience. It is very much a vicious circle.

So, let us put a stick in the spokes of this one and pause it and ask ourselves a couple of questions:

1. Should we not be home-growing our talent?

1. Should we not be looking at the invisible talent pool who will have a huge number of transferable skills, who are keen to develop a career and who want to stay in Cumbria?

Our Graduates, many of whom will have studied relatable degrees, will have worked during their studies, they often have:

• First class customer service skills from working in retail / hospitality (Stakeholder Management?)
• Will have planned their learning, managed huge amounts of data (Project Management?)
• Their degrees could be in subjects closely related to the local labour market
• They bring a vibrancy and a keenness that only someone at the start of their career has, together with a huge desire to learn and to progress

What’s not to love?

Home-growing talent takes investment, but in our experience, for the clients who have followed this path, it pays dividends; including:

1. Tailor made skill and culture fit
2. Increased employee engagement and morale, leading to improved retention
3. Cost effective talent acquisition
4. Improved succession planning

So, maybe the long term solution to our recruitment crisis is just about to Graduate.

If you would like to know more about how we made this work for our clients, I’d be happy to discuss how we helped them make it a reality.