Widen your net to find the right employees

Widen your net to find the right employees Widen your net to find the right employeesPosted October 13, 2011, by Josie Chun With Australia suffering from talent shortages in many industries and more competition for available qualified people, it is more important but more difficult than ever for employers to find the right talent to fill key positions. Employers will have to start thinking both broadly and specifically about just what qualities are essential in potential candidates because sometimes going for the most obvious criteria isnt necessarily the best way to find the right person for a particular role. According to Manpowers Teachable Fit A New Approach for Easing the Talent Mismatch, it may be time for a little lateral thinking. Its clearly time to make a change to employer strategies in order to cope with such long term shortages, says Lincoln Crawley, Managing Director of Manpower Australia and New Zealand. Finding the right employee fit involves differentiating betwee n essential qualities and skills, and those that can be learned by employees with the right attitude. A useful framework for mapping the capabilities needed for a given role against an individuals characteristics involves the following four criteria knowledge, skills, values/mindset and personality/intelligence. Assessing candidates based on these criteria can help recruiters determine the likelihood that they will be able to succeed in a particular role. Knowledge Formal or explicit knowledge comes through study and is validated by academic degrees and business certifications, while informal or tacit knowledge comes through experience and exposure to others with knowledge that can be passed on. Some formal knowledge is necessary for certain roles, but much tacit knowledge can be gained on the job and is not necessarily essential at the outset. Skills These include hard skills (such as technical or administrative skills) and soft skills (such as communication skills or strategic thi nking). Hard skills are evident with certification or apprenticeship, but soft skills are generally acquired through practice and grow with experience. While hard skills are easy to measure and recognise, soft skills are more intangible and easy to overlook or undervalue but their importance should not be underestimated, as they can make or break a persons success in a job. Values and mindset These represent what a person seeks in life and on the job, and are revealed through conversation and behaviour. They tend to be an entrenched part of a person and are difficult to shape or change, and they make a person more or less suited to a role. For example, sales jobs require people who have initiative and are good self-managers, while these traits might be less important for other sorts of jobs. The important thing for employers is to recognise what traits are most important for the position theyre trying to fill. Personality and intelligence These are basic innate characteristics. Peo ple who are naturally outgoing and empathetic are natural fits for customer service, while others rely on their analytical intelligence, creativity or emotional intelligence for other sorts of roles. Certain jobs require certain key personality traits so it is important to know what is essential, and what is less so. After looking at these four key areas, employers then need to ask themselves Is it important? Its easy to over-emphasise things like knowledge and hard skills, and under-emphasise soft skills and traits but this can be a trap for employers. Many hard skills can be learned on the job, while certain soft skills are crucial to excel in the workplace. According to research from talent and career management company Right Management, the key ingredients for success in a job are cultural fit and interpersonal savvy, rather than technical skills or