Product category:
Recruitment and Career Development
News Release from: Listgrove | Subject: Positive executive resourcing
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 19 July 2006
Listgrove urges positive executive
resourcing
A shortage of exceptional business leaders is challenging many UK manufacturing companies to enlarge their HR and recruiting competences to recruit the right kinds of executives for their businesses
A shortage of exceptional business leaders is challenging many UK manufacturing companies to enlarge their HR and recruiting competences in finding and recruiting the right kinds of executives for their businesses 'The situation is a demanding one - but with plenty of opportunity,' says Conrad Taylor, Business Director, Executive Services at Listgrove
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 21 May 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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For over thirty years Listgrove has specialised in executive resourcing for the plastics, chemicals, packaging and associated sectors and the company sees many creative opportunities for recruiters.
'The current business climate is asking for both more creativity and also more method and science in finding the right individuals for the right firms,' says Taylor.
'The fact is that all businesses are as different as people are from each other - and all have different needs accordingly'.
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The most important things for employers, according to Taylor, are to 'stay positive; stay focussed on the specific profile and needs of your organisation - and also make use of best practice in the recruiting and interviewing resources now available'.
Taylor notes that most manufacturing organisations are now so slimmed down that even more pressure and expectation is heaped upon making successful executive appointments.
'The idea of a honeymoon or bedding down period has largely disappeared.
Rightly or wrongly, executives are expected to deliver from the outset,' he says.
'And unless the new recruits are established to be in tune with the values and style of their new company, problems will arise'.
In these pressured conditions, poaching from the competition is a tactic that often appears to promise much but Taylor cautions against relying on it.
'Technical expertise, qualifications and sectoral experience are simply not enough.
Companies must also ensure that there is the right cultural and organisational fit between the new manager and the organisation'.
In similar fashion, the habit of outgoing or retiring management appointing the succession management in its own image can also leave a legacy of problems.
'Both these tactics can work - and all recruitment is about individuals and personalities,' says Taylor, 'but it is a wiser practice to support all of these activities and decisions with an objective and rational recruitment framework'.
What increasingly works, according to Listgrove, is a competency based framework that anticipates and measures how people will actually perform in the executive role.
'Prior to interview and prior also to any candidate shortlist,' says Taylor, 'the company culture and qualities should first be defined and the company leadership needs should then be defined - based upon actual circumstance and need'.
An ensuing Competency Based Interview (CBI) notes Taylor, 'will then help both candidates and companies prevent errors and ensure the best possible interview outcomes.
It can sound like a demanding process,' says Taylor, 'but the truth is that competency based techniques allow the candidates considerable room to set their agenda and to talk in detail about their strengths; to talk also about the challenges they have met and the obstacles that they have overcome - in order that the right person can be matched to the right company'.
The use of these tools and structures can also help detach companies from the habit of thinking only within their niche sector.
'Packaging businesses should be able to securely recruit from automotive, services or any other sectors - confident that the same people principles will apply - and that what is being sought - over and above the requisite technical ability - is a character that will be suited to the defined needs of the organisation.
Listgrove also advises companies to look within their own ranks and to invest in benchmarking and developing their own people to the required standards of executive excellence.
'We encourage our clients to look within as well as without,' says Taylor, 'and to consider the options of investing in their management skills'.
Management retention, training, and personal development are all as critical to the overall company health and strategy as finding business leaders from outside.
In general, notes Taylor, 'successful recruiting companies take time to reflect and measure their options, resources and tools - as well as to map out the people needs and strategy of their own organisation.
The new Human Resources (HR) world will demand a mixture of creative and objective responses.
Companies equipped with both will have a bright future ahead'.
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