Video: 10 Questions with WilsonHCG's Craig Sweeney video - Part 2

[TITLE CARD] 10 Questions with WilsonHCG's Craig Sweeney - Part 2

 

I think one of the things that the current situation has driven is almost kind of a thought within the business that the entire talent world was flipped, and that it's much easier now to get skilled talent that was really difficult at the start of the year, and certainly has become increasingly difficult over the last few years. I think there is a thought that because we've seen unemployment rising that that's going to make it easier to get that skilled talent into their organization. It isn't. Because actually, what many organizations have done is they've retained their very highly skilled individuals because they're the roles they've kind of had to keep to support their business ongoing, that they weren't able to take out their business. So the demand for lots of those skilled roles has remained, and actually in certain pockets is increasing. So I think educating the business that things have not just gotten easy overnight is probably one of the key things that I would suggest leaders do right now.

 

I think it's very, very difficult to pivot an employment brand because an employment brand is who you are and what you are, it's a very authentic thing. Something that's rolled out first internally but then externally to the external market about who you are as an organization. But that authenticity is really, really pivotal and central to that employment brand. I think lots of organizations can't just recreate an employment brand on the back of the fact that we've been through the COVID situation, and what will come from from here in. I think they're actually going to be shaped by what they've done during the COVID situation, so their employment brand will be a reflection of how they've worked with their organization and their people and their business, and that may have negative connotations, it may have positive connotations depending on how they've managed that. And even those organizations that have had to reduce their workforce, many of them in such a spectacularly good way, that they've actually been able to improve their employment brand during a really difficult time for their business.

 

I've currently put a hold on my reading schedule to try and attempt to learn to play the guitar. So for now my pasttime and my kind of downtime and to to turn my head into a different space when it's not working, that's my go-to.

 

I think the number one thing is really taking an independent and kind of objective assessment of what you have today and how that's being used, because I think for many organizations, the technology they have is often seen as the problem when it's often how that's being implemented, how it's being designed or shaped, and hasn't kept pace with how their business has changed. So it might not necessarily be a need to replace or remove technology, it might just be adjusting and reshaping what you have in place already. And I think the second point to that is adding new technology is not always the answer to get a fix. I think most TA leaders, most HR leaders, what they're trying to get from technology or certainly one of the central reasons for having great systems in place is to drive great data. And to drive great data I think you've just got to have consistency, having a central system of record, it's being able to pull data from various different channels that you might be utilizing, and put that into one readable, viewable, shareable dashboard that actually means something outside of just the numbers and can tell the story about where your organization is, where it's heading, and the impact that some of the things you're trying to do in terms of strategies are having.

 

It would be tea.