Top Talent - How To Find And Recruit Them

This simple illustration reinforces that we must employ innovative and wide-ranging channels in order to access the top tiers of talent shown above. To do so you need first to understand what constitutes talent for your organisation, exactly what they are doing now, and for whom. You can then embark on a very targeted campaign to attract and secure the most appropriate level of individual for your organisation. The following steps will give you a roadmap to help achieve this objective.



How to Find and Recruit Top Talent:

1. Define exactly what level of talent you require. Before you even begin your search, you must specify the minimum competence and experience levels required for people whom your organisation would deem to be truly 'talented'. This should be a very precise exercise, describing in explicit detail exactly what this person's likely achievements are and with what types of companies. This preparation work lays a solid foundation for your recruitment activity as it leads to the industry and position that the ideal candidate will most likely be found in. It also dictates size of potential target audience.

2. Define the opportunity. Next you must clearly define the opportunity that exists within your organisation and, more specifically, define the opportunity that directly relates to the role. These findings will invariably combine to form the major reason why the right candidate accepts the role. There must therefore be a balance between the attractiveness of the opportunity and the quality of individual you are seeking - talented people are not attracted to limited opportunities, mediocre companies or jobs with low-appeal!

3. Partner with an agency that understands. A good recruitment specialist will understand what talent is and how to access the best candidates for you as opposed to the first or easiest to find. Don't settle for anything less. The prime motivator for your chosen recruitment partner must be to identify and secure 'the best'. Don't waste your time on a recruitment partner that doesn't understand how to help you identify and solve your key recruitment issues.

4. "Product Market" your role. Develop a Product Marketing approach to your recruitment efforts to ensure you reach the high quality 'passive' and 'locked-in' candidates depicted in the table above. You will know exactly where these people sit and what they are ideally doing now, because you have specified this in you initial job specification. What's more, your recruitment partner should know how to reach these people in the most effective way. You may have to use a mixture of print and online advertising and/or search activity to identify and draw out the best individuals, together with the power of the various networks that people involved in the assignment will have. Do not rely on one channel in isolation this will only give you access to one portion of the market and a limited pool of candidates.

5. Set timeframes. It is crucial to set a finite, pre-agreed timeframe in which to complete the recruitment assignment. Three to four weeks of dedicated recruitment activity should be adequate in most cases. Remember, the most talented people will not be available for long, and many will lose interest in the opportunity if the process becomes too long and drawn out. Setting a timeframe also focuses everyone involved in the process and generally significantly shortens time-to-hire.

6. Reduce Risk. You will have invested a lot of time and effort to make this process work and therefore you must use all means possible to reduce the risk of making the wrong hire. Consider using effective candidate screening tools, competency based interviewing techniques and test short-listed candidates to validate technical skills and competencies where appropriate. The most important step to validate all this information should be the final process of checking references in detail and verifying employment history.

By following the process described above, hiring managers can have a high degree of confidence that all new hires have been selected from a pool of the best possible candidates available - as opposed to the first or most easily available pool of candidates, where the chances of finding any talented people are slim at best.

• This article was licenced by Wallage Executive for the Wallage Executive client newsletter.


• Article written by Paul Quinn, Quinntessential.


• Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of Wallage Executive.

Your Subscription

Please feel free to forward this listing on to other people in your company or in the wider industry who you believe may benefit.

To join our newsletter mailing list, please click here.