Don't Recruit talent .... Scout talent

Don’t Recruit Talent …… Scout Talent

Companies recruit talent. Essentially, they shop around for talent, attempting to get the best out of whatever is available. Business folks raise a requirement and notify HR about it. HR looks around, taps into various platforms, placement agents, old networks, poaches competitors and so on …. It works occasionally, but not all of the time.

Is this the best way to attract the smartest talent? 

STAR PERFORMERS ARE NOT RECRUITED, THEY ARE SCOUTED.

Let me ask you a few simple questions:

·      Was Neeraj Chopra recruited?

·      Was Lionel Messi recruited?

·      Was Cristiano Ronaldo recruited?

·      Was Saina Nehwal recruited?

·      Was PV Sindhu recruited?

·      Was Sachin Tendulkar recruited?

·      Was MS Dhoni recruited?

You must have gotten the gist of what I'm trying to say here by now.

The sports community has a well-oiled mechanism for SCOUTING talent. 

All the folks mentioned above were spotted at various locations, brought to the appropriate centres of excellence, and nurtured until they were ready to dazzle the world with their breathtaking excellence. 

They weren’t picked up on the basis of a single exceptional performance, the scout followed them for days, if not months before making them an offer. 

Compare this with the traditional recruiting methods, particularly at the entry level: 

An aptitude test, maybe a caselet to solve, possibly a group discussion followed by a 10 to 30-minute interview. How can talent be identified in such a short duration? 

Talent has to be spotted, scouted and nurtured. 

The counter-argument to this logic would be, “Oh! Sportspersons are scouted in small numbers. We have to recruit at scale.” 

The purpose of this short article is to find analogies from the scouting process in sports and pick the best practices from there and adopt them with the necessary tweaks and adjustments. 

I come from the Consulting and Teaching space and all of my work is related to:

1.              Helping organisations enhance their Innovation Quotient through training and Consulting on Organisational Practices and Design.Helping students imbibe the spirit of Design Thinking, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

2.              Instilling in students the spirit of Design Thinking, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. 

Here, I will discuss how businesses recruit talent from academic institutions. 

When I observe the recruitment process, I am always perplexed about its dependability. Is it difficult to spot talent at the end of the first year of a degree course, rather than waiting until the final year? With so much information about the student available on multiple platforms (academic or otherwise), it should not be tough. If talent is spotted in the first year, nurture that kid over the next few years (during her/his academic tenure) and prepare her/him for your organisation by the time she/he reaches the final year.

How can this be accomplished? It is not simple. Infosys attempted this years ago with its 'Campus Connect' initiative, but it fizzled out (for unknown reasons). 

Businesses that crack the code and implement the proper practices will......

Your suggestions are welcome.

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