Winning the War on Talent for the

Winning the War on Talent For the Human Resources Executive (HRE), one of the greatest challenges is creating a culture within their companies that actively supports recruitment and retention of the best possible employees by infusing a sense of pride in accomplishment, achievement and attainment in the company.

HREs cannot do this on their own however; they must have the support of their CEOs and other senior executives to continually evolve an organizational culture and make it agile enough to stay in step with what high performers are looking for (Chambers, Foulon, Handfield-Jones, Hankin, Michaels, 1998). Unlike other tactical HR functions, recruitment and retention of high performing employees must so well integrated into the strategic plan that all activities are synchronized around building a unique value proposition (UVP) to attract and keep talented workers (Lewis, Romanaggi, Chapple, 2010).

Recommendations for how companies can recruit and retain their best employees are provided in this analysis. Overcoming resistance to change is a major part of changing any corporate culture, and this also discussed from the HREs' perspective as well. Recommendations for Increasing Recruiting and Retention Effectiveness The most critical of all recommendations for creating a company culture that strengthen recruitment and retention is to have an organizational structure flexible enough to provide growth for high performers (Welbourne, 2010).

The small teams approach in high technology companies is related to this concept, as in smaller teams, expertise and leadership is more effective, trust is created faster, and often innovation occurs much more frequently than if a more formalized, highly hierarchal organization structure was in place (Somaya, Williamson, 2008). Too often senior executives miss the point that their organizational structures dictate to a very great extent the level of performance their employees will deliver, and how their employees perceive the company's ability to complete in the market as well.

This first recommendation is one so systemic to an organization, that it must be included as part of the strategic plan. This first priority also sets the foundation for subsequent recommendations as well. Once the structural aspects of the company are defined to ensure enough autonomy and freedom for employees to do their jobs and still have the support systems in place, the focus needs to shift to mastery and purpose of the roles themselves.

Autonomy, mastery and purpose are the three critical building blocks that ever job must have for an employee to find meaning within their work and be willing to make a long-term learning effort to excel at it (Ramsey, 2010). Senior executive teams who design their organizational structures to support autonomy, mastery and purpose have the potential of generating higher-than-average levels of motivation and also greater retention of high performance employees (Ramsey, 2010).

Organizational structures need to be agile enough in design to allow for this aspect of job design and development, yet stable enough to define process workflows that can scale was the business expands or contracts. A third recommendation is the creation of a winning brand of the company as an employer as well. Branding of the company as an exciting, interesting place to work, and also one that carries prestige for its thought leadership and expertise in core markets is a major factor in recruitment and retention (Lewis, Romanaggi, Chapple, 2010).

This is often considered the marketing of the company to potential high performance prospects, and includes the aspects of any strong communications strategy, including the UVP and core set of differentiators relative to other employers in their field (Chambers, Foulon, Handfield-Jones, Hankin, Michaels, 1998). Too often companies neglect this type of marketing of themselves as potential employers because they are uncomfortable with it or just don't see the need at all.

Yet consider the war for talent in 2011, specifically for software engineers in the Silicon Valley where billboards now announce open positions and hiring bonuses available. This recommendation also needs to include evidence of the company backing up its claims that it invests in employees with educational programs as well (Chambers, Foulon, Handfield-Jones, Hankin, Michaels, 1998). Creating credibility through these activities does much to further the unique culture of the company and also differentiate it from other competing companies in the same industry.

Overcoming Resistance to Change of New Programs for Recruitment By far the greatest inhibitor and cause of failure for new HR program is fear of and resistance to change (Lewis, Romanaggi, Chapple, 2010). For the HRE, the ability to persuade senior management to create an effective organizational structure that.