THE RIGHT PEOPLE

By Paul Bridle

 

We have talked about recruiting the right people for many years but not taking it seriously enough.  Now more than ever we need to get recruitment right and ensure we have the right people “on the bus” and in the right seats.

At the moment we are in a time where we have two distinctly different generations in the work place.  The Baby Boomer generation who are in their late forties and above and Generation X & Y who are in their 20’s and 30’s. 

The Baby Boomers are a product of the eighties when it was important to work hard.  Long hours were a sign of commitment and ‘change’ was seen as something that needed to be managed.  This generation have worked hard and feel they deserve recognition for long service.  They believe in structures and they seek to build them and climb them.

On the other hand, recent research shows that the average university graduate at the moment is likely to have at least 19 jobs in their career.  They are likely to change their career at least 3 times and have no desire to be a Manager!  They are ambitious and desire to be experts in what they do.  They are seeking to make work a part of their life style and they are big into networking both socially and in business.

Against this backdrop, businesses need to mange and lead both generations in a world, which is evolving so fast.  In fact, teamwork has changed and the future is about creating ‘teams-that-work’.  It is about putting together a team that will take a business from A to B and then a new team will be needed to take the business from B to C.  Leaders will be putting together teams and then planning to pull them apart and form the next team.

Leaders will need to carefully consider what they need from their teams and ensure that they put together the most competitive and smartest teams possible.  These teams will work together for a term and the skills and determination will drive the business forward.

The key will be to have the right people and to have them engaged and productive as fast as possible.  Selecting these people, engaging them and ensuring they can work together and compliment each other in a way that takes a business to a new level, is vital.  But it requires planning the recruitment and induction process and using the best tools available to ensure that the people are capable of making a ‘team-that-works’.

Tools like personality profiles help identify the characteristics of people but are only a starting point in recruitment.  Successful businesses are ones that make good use of profiles as well as involving their staff in interviews and measuring the ‘fit’ of the person to enhance the business values and culture.

It is time to stop paying ‘lip service’ to the importance of recruiting the right people and start doing it.  A good recruitment process is a vital part of creating a successful business.