A Message to Emerging (Start Up) Companies
The Effect of Strategic Talent Search on Selecting Your Target Audience:
Value can be defined as a unique vision which breathes life into a company's existence. In the human world, people can be defined as inherent beings of creation. Translate this definition into the corporate world: we can describe employees as inherent beings of creating value in businesses. Value is an important key to success.
Yet, would you agree that a significant number of companies are focused on making money first, rather than creating value; and thereby, are unable to select the appropriate target audience for their businesses? If this approach is re-defined to a focus on creating value first, it becomes apparent that companies are able to target the right audiences by strategically selecting individuals who are passionate about the company’s' vision and are adept at bringing the vision to life. These employees are equally capable of creating high quality and resonant products/+ services successfully aimed at targeting the right audience.
If you are interested in reading further, let's tie all of this into a seamless operation.
Step 1: Define your vision
Assess your vision and mission statements. Use this opportunity to dig in and discover the unique characteristic(s) that define your company's value proposition. Case Example: Interior Design/Architectural Firm. As simple as it sounds, its a diverse industry specializing in the areas of residential, commercial, luxury, contemporary, modern, cultural, structural (et al) design. For this particular firm, by narrowing down it's vision to it's areas of expertise, it is able to select the areas of specialization that correspond with it's vision, and thereby, design a system that translates this vision into products that create value.
Step 2: Define your talent
This step defines all the jobs vital to translating the company's vision into products. Jobs in a workplace can be divided into the following sections: core, operational, fixed and contingent jobs. Employees, the people essential to performing these jobs, can also grouped into the 4 areas- core, operational, fixed and continent employees. Your core employees provide the required skills to perform jobs essential to translating your vision into a product. Your operational employees ensure their jobs sustain the continuance and growth of your company. Some employees might be required to work on permanent jobs, while others are needed on a flexible/per project basis- fixed and flexible employees respectively. You might need all four types of these employees/jobs to create value in your company, or you might need just one. The important thing is to ensure you consider all the jobs in the design system of translating your vision into products, and account for the corresponding type(s) of employees to perform each job.
Step 3: Define your target audience
Following the example in step 1 for the Interior Design/Architectural firm: in this step, the company has selected it's areas of expertise and is now able to choose its audience to allow it provide high quality and resonant work that is tailored to it's customers' preferences.
If the Interior Design/Architecture firm chooses to focus on modern and structural interior design, it's customers will appreciate work like this:
SOURCE: Studio PMK + Designers
If the Interior Design/Architecture firm chooses to focus on modern and structural workplace design, it's customers will appreciate work like these:
SOURCE: West Elm Corporate Headquarters
Step 4: Recruit your employees:
Once you have successfully divided your jobs into either core, operational, fixed or flexible employees, you are able to search in the various talent pools for qualified employees to perform each job.
I personally believe a visual approach is highly effective at recruiting core employees in the Interior Design/Architecture firm as human beings have a deeper and resonant connection to visuals- as the saying goes: "pictures speak louder than words". Notwithstanding, the firm's recruitment strategy will look like this:
1. Employees:
Core Employees: Interior Designers, Architects and Visualization Technicians etc.
Operational Employees: Project Managers, Marketing Coordinators and Human Resources Professionals etc.
2. Type of Work:
Fixed Jobs: Hourly/Salaried employees, Managers, Executives etc.
Contingent Jobs: Consultants, Auditors, Contractors etc.
3. Hiring Techniques:
Visual Approach: this includes, Portfolios, Websites and Case Study Tests to assess patterns, colours, lighting choices etc.
Structured Interview Approach: Interview questions targeted at guaging candidates' interest in the value proposition & design approach. In the case of operational employees for example, the company's interview questions can focus on the company's collaborative culture, the theme and structure of it's workplace design and the candidates' ability to significantly impact and assist its core jobs and employees to yield value to its target audience etc.
As always, build an employee experience design that mirrors your business requirements and mirrors the expectations of your employees to ensure a high retention rate and continuous production of high quality work.
Strategic talent search creates an excellent opportunity for a company to define all the jobs required to translate it's vision into a product, thereby creating value. It creates an opportunity for it's employees to organically connect with the company's vision, communicate the company's value proposition to it's customers, while maintaining healthy relationships with them. This dynamic combination inevitabily generates money for the company!