February 2014 Newsletter 

In this edition:

Welcome

Recruitment for small to medium business owners by Malcolm Waldock, Director TalentID Leaders

Investment thoughts for 2014

Division 293 Tax Notices issuing soon

Early on in my management career I was lucky enough to be mentored by an amazing entrepreneur / CEO. I observed closely as he turned a very meagre investment into a $10 million plus payday inside 4 years. Of all the lessons he taught me over those years, one was so powerful that it has had a lifelong impact. He convinced me that my success as a manager or a business owner was 90% reliant on mastering one specific skill – recruitment!

"There is nothing more important to your business success than hiring the best talent. Nothing. Get good at it. Now! If you only perfect one skill as a manger or business owner, make sure it's the one where you surround yourself with top talent because one exceptional hire is worth ten mediocre hires. Leverage starts with hiring great people."

He then asked me to undertake a little audit so I could determine my Hiring Batting Average (HBA). Of the last ten hires I had made I was asked to rank them on a simple scale. You could arrive at your own HBA by considering everyone you have hired in the last 12 months. It's important to be honest as we have a tendency to try and justify some of our bad decisions:

5 – This hire is making a significant contribution to our business and I would clone them in a heartbeat

2 – This hire is meeting expectations and paying their way but isn't going to transform our business performance

1 – This hire was a mistake. They have cost us money. How could it have gone so wrong? Hiring Error!

Add up your total score and divide by the number of hires.

If you aren't averaging well ABOVE 3 then there is scope for improvement. Either you haven't prioritized recruitment as an important weapon in your management armoury or you don't have the skills to pull it off. If you are averaging close to 5 then congratulations. Your potential return on equity is unlimited.

As recruitment professional I see Hiring Managers and Business Owners alike repeat a series of very consistent mistakes. Remember you are trying to hire top talent as opposed to filling a vacant role so the following mistakes are worth avoiding.

Mistakes worth avoiding

• Trying to hire a clone of your own self. We all have a tendency to hire people in our own image but wouldn't it make more sense to deliberately seek out a candidate with a complementary skillset rather than an identical skillset. Understand what you really need before going to market. 
• Making very simplistic assessment decisions. First impressions and a good interviewing style have little correlation to actual high performance in the workplace. Consistently hiring top talent requires a combination of benchmarking, subjective art and objective science. Take the time to develop an assessment system that searches for evidence and utilizes the holy trinity of hiring tools – Simulations, Skills Testing & Profiling and Behavioural Based Interviewing.
• Spending too little time on the overall recruitment process. When pushed most business owners and managers agree that recruitment represents at least 70 to 80 per cent of their success. Yet most would spend less than 10% of their time involved in recruitment related activity.

The recruitment trade-off
Recruitment is always a trade-off between Time, Cost and Quality. The use of recruitment agencies should have a positive impact on all three. TalentID Leaders is a boutique recruitment and assessment organisation that specialises in solving talent problems. We shrink your Time to Fill, reduce your Cost per Hire and increase your Quality of Hire. We have worked with Goodwin Chivas for the last 18 months to assist them in making improvements to their recruitment process and in attracting, sourcing and hiring top talent.

If you think there is a problem with your current recruitment process or approach we may be able to help. We help businesses grow by helping them identify, attract and hire top talent.

Special Offer for GCC clients
As a special offer to GCC clients, TalentID Leaders is offering a free assessment package for your next hire. We will psychometric profile or skills test a shortlist of three candidates and introduce you to our tried and tested assessment and selection scorecard - all part of increasing your HBA. To redeem this offer call Malcolm Waldock on 02 9476 0032. For more information about TalentID Leaders, visit the TalentID Leaders website.