Good corporate culture essential for attracting, retaining staff - Fayaz Saleem

Fayaz Saleem

"Loyalty in business is difficult to build. And long-term loyalty is almost unheard of today. Loyalty can only be created if a company is willing to share its wealth creation with its people."

A generation ago, professionals rarely changed jobs and it was no surprise that many worked in just one organisation throughout their careers. But this is now no longer true.

The modern professional moves constantly within his industry, repatriates or starts up on his own, and companies wither, start up, expand. So corporates need to stay competitive if they are to attract and retain the best in people talent.

A good corporate culture that empowers its people, encourages information flow, facilitates the cross-pollination of ideas, is the key to people success.

Although the common perception is that remuneration is the main incentive for professionals to move around, facts disprove this.

Salary occupies about the fourth place on the list of requirements that a prospective candidate seeks in a company he would consider joining. Corporate culture heads the list.

Try as he might, the mature and experienced headhunter may fail to convince a prospective candidate to pursue a lucrative job opportunity, if the culture of the prospective employer does not meet with the candidate's expectations.

Corporate culture can be defined as being the way in which a company conducts its business, its ethics, professionalism, and management of staff.

Sri Lanka today boasts of about 100 well reputed companies, but not many can lay claim to a good corporate culture. Sadly, several companies have a turnover running into billions of rupees but still use archaic management practices, with rigid discipline, little or no room for individuality and personal development, and no tolerance of failure.

So what is the barometer to assess whether or not a company has got what it takes to recruit the cream of talent?

It is now established that a company with a strong corporate culture is one that rewards people on performance, adds value with constant training, empowers its people and encourages co-operation.

It is one geared to respond quickly and effectively to change, and achieves better results. It has two- way channels of communication and employees share values and ideals. Strong corporate cultures also focus on opportunities not problems, celebrate diversity; tolerate failure, and encourage people to have fun at work, thereby giving people confidence in the management and the system.

Leadership skills also play a vital role. Managers lead and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in employees instead of just micromanaging.

High bureaucracy is another corporate trait that has a debilitating effect on employees. Organisational structures with too many layers, slow decision making, too close monitoring of processes and subordinates, with too many tools and documents, discourage creative thinking and stifle initiative.

"People need, to feel that their contribution makes a difference. Poor vertical communication, where people at the lower rungs have no idea of the big picture, nor about what senior management is thinking and planning, has a debilitating effect on its people, and encourages them to pursue job opportunities elsewhere".

Headhunting involves a confidential and careful process of focused networking and constant interaction with corporates and individuals.

Like most professions, it takes years to build to a level at which the headhunter has the right candidate for the job virtually at his fingertips, or at least knows where to look when faced with the challenge of recruiting a high calibre professional in an industry with few prospective candidates.

The profession is, today, proven to be the most effective method of recruitment to key positions the world over, especially in situations where only a small reservoir of talent is available to draw from, and newspaper advertising is not practiced due to the supposed lack of confidentiality it sometimes entails.

Placing the right person in the most suitable job slot is a two-way process, whereby the headhunter markets his client, namely the corporate in search of the right person for the job available, to his candidates, the job seeker or professional who is being head hunted.

Each stage of the process requires skill and maturity in handling, which can only be achieved with experience.

Once the headhunter and his client are convinced that the candidate is the right person for the job, the onus is on the headhunter to excite, interest and 'lure' him/ her into accepting the position on offer.

Here again the skill of the headhunter comes to the fore, for the candidate must now be jolted out of his comfort zone and incentivised to the point of being willing to surrender the comfort zone of his present job and familiar environment, and face the challenges of a new job in an unfamiliar, still to be accustomed to, environment. But the headhunter will fail in his mission of recruitment, or if successful, the corporate may be unable to retain the employee, if its corporate culture is rigid and dictatorial.

The people profession requires continuous re-invention - of jobs, profiles and requirements.

The tools of the trade include a continuously updated database of candidate profiles, the skill of scanning innumerable sources of information for data on prospective candidates, keeping abreast of new qualifications and job requirements, changes in job profiles and new positions within industries, and the ability to search and research new and elusive candidates.