Delight Your CFO and Flip Your Asia Recruitment Strategy for High Volume Roles
When you need to recruit high numbers of people in relatively homogenous roles in Asia, it can be a real challenge. Flip your model for success!
Honestly Evaluate Your Existing Strategy
- What am I currently spending? Direct and indirect?
- Can I project my headcount in a predictable fashion looking at attrition and sales volume over the last 3-4 years?
- Have I analyzed my cost per headcount to recruit using my current method?
- Is the price at which I am able to obtain talent sustainable at the bottom line?
- Is the process I am using adequate for what I need? Are your business leaders happy with the number, quality and cost of the heads?
- Are you expecting peaks and troughs of hiring or is it relatively constant and predictable?
- Are you able to match your hiring capacity and capability to your training capacity and capability?
When I was Head of HR in Asia for a large contract research organization, we were literally hiring thousands of people per year when I included attrition and new hire requirements. Prior to my arrival, the hiring model had predominantly been one of buying talent through recruitment firms. The challenge with that was that the salaries of experienced candidates had accelerated and the quality of those looking out was declining. I decided to set about a new strategy where we decided to up-end the existing model and began building our own talent. I was fortunate in that I also owned all of our technical training team as well. I could change the model.
Tips for a Successful Outcome
- If you want management to support a change in your fundamental recruitment model, you have to make a strong financial business case. This is imperative because inevitably a new model will result in a difference in cash flow for the business. If you have done your homework and the business case is there, it will just require some “positive reinforcement” from the senior business leader when local management and/or finance pushes back.
- Make sure you have done your homework. Look back at previous hiring patterns, current attrition (and seasonality of attrition) and sales projections. It is difficult to argue with a strong case based on history. Model the numbers. Also use ample case studies of times where customer requirements have dropped due to inadequate staffing.
- Don’t just look at the hiring process. You need to look at recruitment, hiring, onboarding, training and mentoring and come prepared to show how you can decrease the costs of hiring, reduce headcount costs and improve quality with the new approach.
- Assess whether you can do all and/or some of the parts of this new process or if you need to find partners. In my industry, there were companies out there that you can partner with to take you quickly from where you are to where you need to be. You have to crunch the numbers and see if it makes sense based on your volume and the type of training needed. (Please see my previous article in Chief Learning Officer Magazine, To Outsource or Not to Outsource.)
- Enlist the help of your senior most business leaders and most importantly your CFO. If you decide to partner, charges will be coming in differently than in the past. It will be a chnage from traditional cash flow. You can reap savings, but they need to know what to expect.
- Be familiar with the cultural and geographic needs of Asia. In Japan there is a demographic issue with hiring in that there just are not enough people to go around. You have to recruit a full year before university graduation and then you have to keep those candidates warm that whole year so they stay with you. In China, you have to be prepared to offer things like a management trainee program as table stakes to attract good talent.
These are just a few of the things I learned in having done this in Asia and also in doing it for the entire globe when it came to a new training model.