The paradigm shift from recruitment to talent acquisition

The recruitment professionals do not fully realise or accept the fact that the recruitment scenario in Bangladesh is rapidly changing. Skills that were enough just five years back to fill up vacant positions and meet your recruitment KPIs (key performance indicators), are no longer the only skills that will help you to achieve sourcing target. The overall paradigm shift from 'Recruitment' to 'Talent Acquisition' is playing an important role, but the real reasons need to be discussed from a geocentric perspective. Growing demand but shortage of talents in a country like Bangladesh is leaving employers with no option but to be more demanding and raising expectation from their HR function.
GROWING TREND TO WORK FOR LOCAL CORPORATE HOUSES: The MNCs (multinational corporations) and the foreign companies no longer enjoy monopoly in attracting candidates. There is now an increased level of acceptability among prospective candidates to work for growing local companies as well. This trend is contributing significantly in filling up employment opportunities across all levels of local companies (many of which are now also operating in international market) but making the task of HR (human resources) in MNCs (and other established brands) an increasingly difficult job. The phenomenon is not only true for banking, pharmaceutical, and RMG (readymade garment) sector but also for heavy industry (such as steel making and ship building companies) and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods). Many local companies are becoming increasingly preferred destination for many first generation MNC employees, thus transferring expertise and experience to local corporate houses.
Bangladesh is not any longer an employer-led market. Nowadays companies are increasingly looking for people to expand their business and to meet the growing demand of the business. M. Zulfiquar Hussain, CEO and Lead Consultant of Grow n Excel (one of the leading HR & Management consultancy firms in Bangladesh), points out that there is an increasing demand of skilled employees in the market, but recruiters often do not find right candidates with the required set of skills. All attention today is focused on a small number of talents who are readily available in the market. This makes the job of recruiters difficult. The prospective employees nowadays have more opportunities and options to choose from.
THE RISE OF ENTREPRENEURIAL DNA: A growing number of skilled employees are starting their own companies and/or consultancy firms leaving behind the choice to continue job. They are looking for 'life' from a job, not only career.
The meaning or the purpose of having a job is transformational along with the skill set, which rises steadily. Therefore, the very approach that used to work for attracting a certain level of talented candidates is not good enough in today's context. As a recruiter you cannot rely on compensation package or the brand of your organisation anymore. Rather candidates judge your employment offer by the level of authority and empowerment you are offering with your job. Even if they join considering the fact that many would not have the investment or knowhow to start a business straightaway, they would eventually end up pursuing their goal by turning themselves into future employers, or joining another company for greater learning opportunities.
POACHING: Companies nowadays rely on targeting and approaching talents from competitors and offer employment in 'desired' roles. In Bangladesh this phenomenon is often observed in emerging sectors such as software, healthcare, IT and telecom industry. Market dynamism in these sectors forces recruitment managers to actively pursue and take on board the candidates that employers anticipate. Use of third-party HR consultancy firms and recruitment agencies is becoming a regular practice to score such employees. The dark side of poaching is that you might end up losing your employees who were not active job seekers but ended up deciding to pursue their future career goals elsewhere. The best part is that you might end up scoring a better candidate (if you have played it smart) in the same way from your competitor by targeting their passive ones. Is it ethical or unethical? It is not at least illegal.
ABSENCE OF TRUE TALENT MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES: The war for talent in Bangladesh is like one in any other growing economy. Relying on traditional employer-branding activities will not give you the strategic edge that you require specially in this digital era. Candidates have easy access to opinions and they can come in touch of existing employees using social and professional networking sites. Candidates can also meet existing employees through professional bodies or societies since many are becoming members of such official forums. Traditional employer-branding activity is merely the scratch on the surface, which only contributes in sourcing new employees - but not retaining the existing ones. It is the existing employees themselves who will have to speak and promote your employability to prospective candidates. Are they ready and willing to do that? What is the status of your Employee Value proposition (EVP)? Does your talent management process help to create stickiness so that employees do not become disengaged?
At the end of the day if HR people fail to attract and take on board the right talent for a business, employers will eventually opt for hiring foreign talents to address the skill gap. In fact, this has already become a matter of concern, which many HR professionals somehow failed to realise. The role of HR is not only to act as the service department but also to add value by being the strategic business partner. They need to address these issues collectively (and with the necessary level of maturity), which their Western counterparts have done many years ago.

The writer is the Head-Talent Acquisition of Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. and founder member and treasurer of HR Forum.
 hrforumctg@gmail.com