I was going through an article recently which was related to Human Resources (HR) and Learning & Development (L&D). The article talked about whether recruiting, retention and development are responsibilities of HR department only or more related to the respective departments that need new people, have to develop them and look to retain the best employees. It is a big issue which has created dilemma among experts as people are a part of departments and they grow under the supervision of the respective department’s leadership.

HR expert Jeff Gothelf talks about the same issues in his article in building better career products and work culture. In the article, he discusses some concepts that could be important to think of for a better tomorrow in joining hands with HR and L&D teams to shape people to strengthen their career development.  

We help organization build better products, have talented executives and create work cultures. Doing so is important for building better products employees have a better career. We work with a lot of large organizations. Many of them are legacy institutions – think banks, insurance companies, hospitality institutions etc. While the process of digital transformation is difficult for these companies, they also struggle in attracting, hiring and retaining talents. This is particularly important as they seek to modernize their capabilities and ways of working. Competition is tough in this modern age and talents move around quickly in the corporate world with the use of technology. High-growth startups are likely to grab the talents leaving the traditional organizations with slim pickings. Despite the pandemic-driven remote work system has made talents globally available to every organization, a common refrain has emerged among business unit leaders which I typically support: “We can’t find good people. And if we do manage to find them, we can’t retain them.”

When asked to do something about it, many say that it is not their responsibility and point to HR departments. We keep hearing things like, “They don’t provide us with good candidates.” “We don’t have competitive incentives like other companies.” The managers who talk in this way need to introspect themselves. Failure in getting right employees isn’t HR’s fault. It is theirs. People come to work for and with you, not HR. It’s on you to build a team people want to join. It’s on you, as the team leader, to provide meaningful work and a psychologically safe environment where people can thrive. Passionate people want to work with teams and leaders who emtpowers them to do their best work, clears obstacles out of their way, incentivizes learning and celebrates collaboration.

The leaders who struggle to find good colleagues to hire will often use that as an excuse for suboptimal work. They’ll regularly resort to some variation of the phrase, “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had.” Honestly, can’t believe, quoting Donald Rumsfeld, but here we are. That may be true in the military but in the workplace, forgive me, it is bullshit. Unlike the army, people have a choice of workplaces. If you don’t have the right people applying to work with you or staying on your payroll, ask them why. Every rejected offer or exit interview is a learning opportunity. Ask, “What could we have done better to get you to join us?” “What would have made you decide to stay on staff?” Very quickly you’ll start to hear themes that reflect the changes your org needs to make to turn this around.

I have mentioned before that everything you do is a product or a service. It has “users.” In this case, the service you’re providing is a place to work and a team to work with. If people are rejecting this service, doing some discovery work helps uncover the root causes. And the best place to start is talking to those people. In fact, you could even set some Objectives and Key Results for your team culture efforts. That OKR is objectives Key results could look like this:

Objective: Create the most sought-after product development team in the company by the middle of the year.

Key Result: Less than 5% voluntary annual attrition rate,

Key Result: At least 5 CV’s each month specifically asking to work on your team,

Key Result: 50% of new hires are referred by current team members.

Sure, there are common culture in organizations globally. But in larger companies, there are micro-cultures as well. Look around the company for teams that work well together and retain their staff. Look for the teams where employees recommended their friends who then later joined that team. Muster up some humility and reach out to the managers of those teams to ask what they’re doing to make their folks successful and engaged. Ask the team members too. 

The talent market has gone global. You can literally hire anyone from anywhere today. This means that the diversity in your potential talent pool is bigger than it’s ever been before. Broaden your horizon and experiment with different sources of talent, geographies and backgrounds. Challenge yourself to build a better team and make the micro-adjustments that you can within your sphere of influence. Most of all, own this. HR has a responsibility to support you, it’s true, but it is your leadership which determines who joins you on your mission and who decides to leave. It’s up to you.

Source: Liberty of HR Thoughts