Align all forms of internal and external communication to your

Diversity & Inclusion Without an organisational goal to be an Employer of Choice, with delivery of recruitment being based upon reactive responses and cost savings systems, it is very unlikely that proactive, social equity initiatives such as diversity and inclusion can be achieved. Acknowledging that a true socio-economic recovery will not be possible without real diversity and inclusion.

Workforce Planning In today’s human resource community workforce planning generally refers to the data analysis of gender equity, education/qualifications and remuneration levels within an organisation. The lost art of workforce planning (linking the future recruitment and skill development needs of an organisation, relative to its strategies, plans and future aspirations) is a skill rarely found today. This in turn being the catalyst for the absence of proactive recruitment events in our local organisations.

Candidate Care Standards of Candidate Care are particularly poor in today’s employment market, with the over-whelming feedback suggesting that on-line job application portals feel like a brick wall built between recruitment teams and the hopeful job applicant.

As an insider I can report that the initial forms of web-based recruitment advertising and on-line application portals (circa 1995) were much more aspirational and candidate centric than today’s versions –the reason being that they evolved from concepts of Employer Branding and candidate care, with today’s unexceptional corporate recruitment systems sprouting from objectives to control candidate flow, ease of candidate rejection and reduced costs.

Evidence and feedback from job applicants also confirms that most talent acquisition teams display minimal empathy and mutual respect towards candidates: emphasised by the proliferation of un-returned phone calls and applicant enquires (which seemed to be the norm in our pre COVID-19 job market).

WHAT CAN BEST-PRACTICE RECRUITMENT LOOK LIKE DURING OUR CURRENT ECONOMIC RECOVERY?

Therefore, we recommend that local employers learn from our

history and as follows: seek to immediately elevate their recruitment aspirations

Within your organisation

1. Development and implementation of a Recruitment Strategy which has a strategic, holistic and integrated profile.

2. Establish ownership of Talent Acquisition at an executive level, with strategic planning input from marketing.

3. Align all forms of internal and external communication to your desired employer brand, people management aspirations, and desired community profile.

This approach will deliver: proactive approach to recruitment diversity, inclusion and social equity attraction of the best quality candidates at all levels effective candidate assessment quality standards of candidate care employer of choice profile employee engagement

Noting that all the above have a direct organisational link to

increased productivity and performance. Human Resource team:

Rediscover the lost art of Workforce Planning (and all its benefits).

Stop delegating Talent Acquisition to inexperienced staff, those with a transactional mindset, or people who do not engage in social equity or empathy.

External to your organisation

Only partner with values-based Recruitment Consultancies who will:

Enhance your recruitment brand. Reduce the related net recruitment costs. Elevate the expected quality standards, whilst delivering the desired outcomes. Already have an acute understanding contained within this paper of the principles, concepts

CONCLUSION

Very soon we will be speaking

less about Covid-19 and economic recession and more our socio-economic recovery and future prosperity. Therefore, it is timely to share my experiences from last period of recovery and growth (now nearly 30 years ago). our

The positive developments and advancement in recruitment practice which took place at the time were seen as both a bestpractice business strategy and a positive element in our socioeconomic recovery during the 1990s, and the risks of doing otherwise are as critical today as they were then.

And I hope that you share my view that economically, politically and socially the opportunity that we can embrace soon is not just to get our socio-economic health back, but to make it much better.