Executive Hiring - The Agile Way

Most of the organization suffer from an uninspired workforce or high turnover & in todays Competitive business environment relatively all organizations are facing multiple challenges to develop an agile talent workforce.

Only the visionary leaders can help an organization and its employees to grow and flourish in the challenging environment & times hence the quality of your Organizations leadership and management team matters.

How can you attract magnetic leaders to your organization? Effective leadership hiring takes some effort, but the results can be the boost you need to take your organization to the next level.

Nearly 70% organization report using agile methodologies to manage recruiting projects as It makes sense to bring concrete, measurable improvements to the firm, companies are better able to manage changing priorities, for example, improved their delivery speed or time to recruit as per the market landscape.

For recruiting specifically, agile means a better way to prioritize hiring projects, improved visibility for both recruiters and hiring managers, and overall, a more efficient, iterative recruiting process. lets take a deep dive on the same.

Executive Hiring - Agile Model of creating a High performing Leadership Team

1) Evaluating the Current State of hiring process (Understanding the business Requirement basis functional expertise & culture fitment, Sourcing capabilities, evaluation/interview process & offer process) along with the structure of the organization lays an important step in setting up the Agile recruitment process. It may vary from company to company depending on the business vertical, size of the company, nature of business, recruitment and selection workflow .

2) Suggesting the required change post thorough evaluation of the current hiring state & incorporating the thought through agile hiring model steps are critical to the long term success of the entire TA function. An efficient recruitment process aims to find the right fit for the right job at the right time. It is a step-by-step approach to bringing in agile workforce which can help the company grow.

The first step is to identify how to structure your work around short cycles, or sprints. The goal of the sprint is not necessarily to fill the role in one go. Rather, it’s to make sure that if you’re not sourcing the right people, the hiring manager has an opportunity to fine-tune the job requirements earlier in the process.

Agile recruiting implementation doesn’t need to be too complicated at the start. You can experiment with a single team, or a couple of hard-to-fill roles at first. This will let you easily figure out what flavor of agile works best for you.

Once that is done, you can move on to changing the way your whole organization works. You can shift to a purely agile way of working, to some blend of multiple methodologies, or you might find that agile doesn’t really suit the type of hiring you do. The important part is to make sure you’re always on the lookout for the best way to hire well with sustainable speed, time & cost.

3) Attracting & engaging Top Talent - Effective leadership hiring takes some effort, but the results can be the boost you need to take your business to the next level & to get started, we need to break it up in process which should include new improved & innovative employer branding at various social media platforms (going more virtual in covid times) ,competitive compensation & benefit, leadership training and focused agile recruiting strategies.

a) Employer Branding (Image is important) - Visionary leaders whose leadership styles draws people in and inspires them to do their best work are in high demand. This means they can be fairly selective when deciding where to work. So, when looking to attract and hire those inspiring leaders (or any talent for that matter) it will be a hard time attracting great leaders to your organization if they have no idea who you are. You need a strong employer brand or presence that will pull those leaders towards you. Here are four ways to bolster your employer brand, quickly increase your company’s visibility and improve your leadership hiring.

1. Refresh your company website/LinkedIn pages and various social media platforms with the recent updates . The first thing candidates do these days is check out a company’s website/LinkedIn updates and you’ll have an extremely difficult time pulling in a great leader if your site appears old and outdated. Leaders will quickly move on to other sites if it appears that your business isn’t investing in itself.

2. Create a blog on organization LinkedIn page that paints a picture of what it’s like to work for your organization. Highlight some of the interesting projects your organization is working on and include photos of the team in action. Get your CEO on camera and post videos of them speaking from the heart.

3. Share your company’s viewpoint. This included association meetings, conferences and various clubs & communities. Giving back to the society initiative and how does company stand with the integral values. What initiatives an organization has taken during the tough times (like covid times) for its employees showcases how deep rooted organizational values are towards their employees.

4. Publicize the news - Send out press releases(internal & external) whenever impressive leaders join your organization. This will send a signal to others that your organization is moving into a new league.

b) Leadership training - It’s no secret that great people want to work with other great people. If you want to improve your leadership hiring and raise the bar of your current group of leaders, you’ll need to assess your current team. Identify areas where further development may increase your leadership capabilities. You can then choose from an array of employee development options such as onsite training, online courses and executive coaching. Leadership training can also help individual leaders develop their own personal leadership style that their team members will best respond to.

It also may be time to clear the deck. Remove or improve leaders who simply occupy space. , look to curate a team of “A players.” Once you’ve been able to recruit one or two highly regarded leaders, others will follow, its all about creating ecosystem.

c) Compensation and benefits package - Money matters. Inspiring leaders are considered top talent, and if you want top talent, then you need to be prepared to pay for it. A competitive benefits package will be necessary. One way to determine the going rate is by conducting salary surveys to always remain on top of your game. Continuously keep a track of market mapping of C&B (what applicants are currently asking for) vis-à-vis with what your organization is offering, Be vigilant.

A team of irresistible leaders will attract a higher quality workforce, more customers and more profits. And who doesn’t want that?

d) Effective Agile recruitment strategies - Summing up all the above mentioned actions need to be well supported by the effective recruitment strategies (Short term & long term).To make it effective the organization need to develop it through 8 pointers

1. Gather your team - Having the right colleagues to work alongside you is essential.
2. Set SMART goals for the team
3. Break down projects into smaller tasks.
4. Start with the end in mind & Visualize your progress.
5. Hold regular standups with the clear agenda & with focus towards what went well and what could have been better.
6. Communicate well and offer praise in public. A motivated team can do wonders for the organization.
7. Be remote-ready - During the Covid we all have witnessed how important it is to create the capabilities of working remotely and be available during the difficult times.
8. Assess your metrics regularly - Time to hire, Source mix, Cost per hire, Candidate experience, quality of hire are the key components to do a health check for your recruitment strategy.

4) Continuous Monitoring of your results helps you understand which recruitment strategy work best for your organization and which don’t. You can also use the data to track where candidates drop out and at what stage in the recruitment funnel. This allows you to adjust your process on the go.

Recruiting and retaining great leaders can work wonders for your Organization. But it’s an ongoing endeavor that requires regular attention, focus and an effort.

Hiring is more an Art than a science, so enjoy the journey & be creative & passionate to hire right talent for your organization.

Godspeed !!