HR Tactical Hustle: If You Can’t Find the Right Talent, Do This

What do you do if you have a critical position to fill, but just can’t find the right person for the job? Here’s a lateral thought that can actually break the impasse.

Breaking down a role into its constituent parts could allow HR to re-align and reconfigure roles itself when they run into a stonewall with hiring

The war for the best talent in the market is already underway with HR of different businesses vying for the best people. Often it comes down to the same things, especially when the brands are equally matched: money & perks.

This is because one operates on the assumption that the job to be performed, or the role is fixed and inflexible, and it is the person who is to be hired that would change.

Ravin Jesuthasan and John W. Boudreau, however, argue differently and posit a radical approach. They suggest that “Breaking roles down into tasks reframes the talent problem from one of supply to one of demand.”

It could either be a strategic approach, which is performed as a policy by HR or a tactical HR hustle: to deconstruct the job and constantly redesign the components, sometimes spawning multiple jobs out of one.

This they argue, makes the role itself of greater value to the potential employee, besides increasing its importance and impact for the business.

HUMAN FACTOR POINT OF VIEW
While hustle may be a great stopgap, it may be best to work out long-term strategic measures by the organisation, which include creating and maintaining a skill-set database mapped to functions, and a robust system supported hiring module. A powerful alumni portal, which also connects or keeps connected the brand with people who have left the organisation but can recommend good talent, is another long-term strategic solution.

Read more about this on MITSLOAN Management review in the article “Can’t Fill Jobs? Deconstruct Them”