Building Alliances:

So, of late I’ve found the majority of my conversations have revolved around the subject of finding, recruiting and retaining creative talent in a new business landscape.

The last five years have expanded the meaning of the word ‘global’ when it comes to the options available to you and your career; the old saying about the only limitations being the ones you place on yourself becomes truer by the day.

Compound this with the slow (but steady) shift in mindset about the worth of theoretical university education vs. actual life experience (work and travel now being seen by many as a wiser time/money investment) and we have a huge culture shift for the first time in over half a century, that has created an incredibly complex problem for employers…

The rub:

Old mindsets expect new hires to invest in the company for life (just like they did), only that’s not how the world works anymore. Today, every manager gives the ‘we’re a family’ speech when you get hired, which is almost immediately followed by the standard HR conversation that dismantles that very notion. It boils down to their definition of ‘family’ being that you can be utilised for any purpose deemed necessary, fired for any reason at any time, and zero-hour contracts. This makes trust difficult.

So, how to go about solving the problem in a world where global visibility means global opportunity, global accountability, and global awareness of what it means to work for your brand. What would your employees say about working for you?

One answer could be in leveraging your past stars… just because someone no longer works for you doesn’t mean their feedback isn’t still valuable, that their ideas can’t create a solution for you, or that their rehiring is out of the question. Your network (both brand and personal) should extend beyond the walls of your company.

Build a network of anyone and everyone who has worked with and for you in the past (unless their departure was less than amicable obviously), and think of it as contributing to your industry in a way that brings value to everyone involved.

Your payback comes in the form of greater brand reputation (internally and externally), a greater pool of talent to choose from when seeking creatives (A players tend to know other A players), a network you can reach out to for solutions, and best of all everyone being connected gives you an immense amount of knowledge to assist you in making the perfect hire in the future.

One obvious bonus. When you invest in your employees they will invest in you; because of that, come the day they leave they will ensure their position is filled with someone who will perform at the highest level.

To go deeper on the subject, ‘The Alliance’ by Reid Hoffman is an excellent resource when setting up an ‘alumni’ network.