Relationships Take Time 4
(October 15, 2007) There's an
extraordinary amount of emphasis being placed on sourcing these days.
Internet search techniques, it is supposed, have created a new function
in our industry. This sort of confusion happens every time there is a
hiring peak. It might even be a good way to predict the end of a bubble.
Sourcing is a component of market
targeting.
The starting point for relationship
development is knowing why you want to have the relationship. For
organizations, this currently ill defined problem of articulating labor
supply requirements involves a hodgepodge of succession planning,
workforce planning and strategic planning. Increasingly (though not
often enough to be described as "usual"), the workforce/staffing
planning process is becoming tightly integrated with the strategic
planning process.
(A couple of side notes:
-
Eisenhower is reputed to have said something like "The plan is
everything, the plan is nothing." He was referring to the fact that
really good planning and logistics (of which personnel requirements
are a component) means preparing for a future that you know will
never arrive. He was foreshadowing the
scenario
planning techniques that should inform any manpower forecast
project.
- Some of the most interesting
innovations in workforce planning are happening in Southern Africa
at ground zero in the AIDS epidemic. In order to account for an
infection rate in the 45% range, global organizations (particularly
in the energy industries) build succession plans for truck drivers.
It turns out that you can live without a vice president but you may
not be able to live without a truck driver. Deep levels of succesion
planning, where each job is viewed from a strategic perspective, can
be the backbone of a meaningful labor requirements survey.)
With a thorough set of requirements in
hand, it's possible to really orchestrate the optimal set of "sourcing
criteria".
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