In October we were honoured to invite Ms Tanja Gerum, Global Expert, HR Solutions at TÜV Rheinland as our guest speaker on our latest Leaders Talk webinar, to share her experience of how to successfully attract and select best-fit talent for your organisation.
She shared the journey, intent and outcome of a unique leadership initiative that we developed in cooperation with TÜV Rheinland.
Leaders Talk is our new monthly Leadership webinar series where we invite thought leaders and business leaders as our contribution to knowledge and thought leadership, by discussing new technologies and ways of leading.
Who are TÜV Rheinland?
TÜV Rheinland is focused on safety and quality in virtually all areas of business and life. Founded almost 150 years ago, the company is one of the world’s leading testing service providers with more than 20,600 employees and annual revenues of around 2 billion euros.
With 20 years’ experience within HR and a psychology background, Tanja is well-placed to discuss the topic of attracting best-fit talent. Recruitment is an area of focus for Tanja at TÜV Rheinland as attracting the right talent has become a daily challenge.
View Tanya’s LinkedIn profile >
Recruitment Challenges
As a company they have recognised that managers should be taking an active role in attracting talent especially as candidates can be vocal on social platforms post-interview if they haven’t had a good recruitment experience. This can lead to a damaging perception of companies, something TÜV Rheinland has unfortunately experienced in the past, putting off other potential candidates.
Candidates have become a lot more tech savvy in the recruitment market, taking time to not just do background research on a company but actually researching potential new managers before they decide whether these managers are a good fit for them. Decisions can be made on the impression candidates have of them.
Tanja has also found that managers who are sharing vacancies on different networks, such as LinkedIn, with insightful comments about the organisation and the vacancy tend to have a greater uptake from candidates, leading to successful hiring decisions.
With so many aspects coming into play when it comes to the recruitment journey, Tanja and her team have realised they need to create awareness of these developments within the TÜV Rheinland management team to help drive talent acquisition.
TÜV Rheinland is a people centric business with large employee numbers, and it thrives when it has a pipeline of talent being attracted to the organisation.
Also, recently more of the recruitment responsibility has shifted to managers within the organisation after an internal HR reshuffle has meant that HR cannot be solely responsible for attracting talent. This has included a focus on creating a good candidate experience with better and more professional interview techniques.
Retention has been affected by making good connections with the team leader as they play a critical role in why a candidate joins the company.
So, what is their process?
To skill-up their leadership team they have created a process where managers have different tasks and responsibilities in the employment journey.
The process is called People LEAD and covers all key phases of operational people management from recruiting, to targeted development, to exit management.
It is embedded in their leadership journey and covers the operational aspect of people management along the entire employee lifecycle. It focuses on a combination of methods, delivered by professional trainers with eLearning programmes and guides.
The areas of focus include
Recruitment
- the importance of the role of the manager in talent acquisition
- a customised interview process
- being aware of unconscious bias that can influence decisions in a negative way
Onboarding
- focusing on the importance of onboarding through the different phases of pre-entry, the first week and the first three months
- integration of new hires within the existing teams
Performance and Reward
- setting and evaluating goals
- performance management
- reward and recognition in practical application
Development, Feedback and Succession
- facilitating individual development planning
- giving and receiving feedback
- discovering, promoting and retaining talent
Exit Management
- disciplinary actions management
- conducting exit interviews
- understanding labour laws
How to Approach, Select and Recruit Best-Fit Talent Programme
To support TÜV Rheinland in improving their recruiting methods and techniques for managers, CLP has created a 6-week hybrid learning programme covering how to approach, select and recruit best-fit talent.
Typically, 12 people are involved in each course as smaller groups tend to be more effective, but multiple courses can be run at one time.
Modules include:
- winning the war for talent
- creating a virtual brand for leaders
- overcoming biases
- competency based approach to interviews
- skill training and practice sessions
For those who are reluctant to eLearning, this programme is embedded in the integrated company training to encourage take-up. The success has been in how customised it has been made for the specific teams and the company.
If you are still finding attracting best-fit talent is a challenge, Tanja would advise any organisation to communicate the need for good recruitment processes from the leadership team rather than it just coming from the HR department. This will encourage greater adoption and inclusion in teams.
To learn more about CLP’s ready-made recruitment programme ‘Attract and Select Top Talent’ visit here.
Watch webinar recording
To see a full list of our upcoming Leaders Talk webinars and other Leadership and Change events, please visit our events page.