How to attract top talent

Successful businesses generally have the ability to snap up top talent under the noses of their competitors and then keep them. It doesn’t help attracting young talent but then not meeting the expectations you’ve created in them. That’s why employers must constantly adapt and build their brands, thereby ensuring they retain that talent.

New research by the CRF Institute SA, which conducts research on South Africa’s employee brands, shows 95% of the companies included in its 2011/2012 survey on best employers indicated the management of talent as their most important strategic priority.

Viv Gordon, founder and director of the Cape Town-based personnel recruitment company Viv Gordon Placements, says many companies unfortunately fail the test of retaining staff. “Large companies in particular are able to devote a lot of money to research on what new talent want,” says Gordon. “They’re also constantly becoming smarter about the best places to promote their brands: they use their websites, social media and other channels – such as career promotion tours – and they succeed in saying the right things.”

Though promises such as a balance between work and personal life and flexibility being part of the package are handed out freely, Gordon says they’re often just smokescreens hiding the true nature of the company. A major factor hampering the successful retention of talent is the serious absence of providing proper training and guidance and a lack of mentorship. “Meanwhile, employees point to those as essential in their choice of an employer and whether they’ll remain there.”

Gordon says most newcomers are thrown in at the deep end and then left to fend for themselves. “Some survive, others don’t.” In fact, employer brands boomerang if that’s mere lip service and they can forget about honing talented workers into essential assets for the company.

Samantha Crous, GM of the CRF Institute, says 90% of the main companies in its survey make use of general training, as well as industry-related and even individual training, to develop talent. More than 75% ensure the development of leadership, training, mentorship and development programmes. “Our research shows these companies spend more than the industry average to develop talent – on average around R28 000 per employee. In addition, more than 80% have flexible working hours and more than 50% support part-time work, work from home and time management programmes.”