As
the war for talent rumbles on, particularly in IT, a new breed of recruitment
experts has emerged to fight for the best staff. By Nic Paton
"Talent
managers" have cut recruitment costs in many US businesses by as much as
30 per cent, according to Ted Moriarty, chief talent officer at San
Francisco-based e-recruitment firm Recruitsoft.
The
development of talent managers – whose role it is to ensure that the very best
people are employed by their organisation – was led by technology firms in
Silicon Valley, where IT skills became highly sought after. Â
Recruitment
innovation
"The
shortages caused HR professionals to become more innovative in how they
attracted talent to their organisation," Moriarty says.
A
Fortune 500 company with 90,000 staff that wanted to hire 13,000 employees a
year could, by developing an effective e-recruitment-led talent management
function, cut an average of 15 days off its time-to-hire ratio, Recruitsoft
estimates. This could result in savings of around $52m (£36.5m) a year.
On
top of this, even a mere 1 per cent reduction in staff turnover could save as
much as $43.6m (£30.6m), while 30 per cent direct cost-per-hire savings could
save a further $12m (£8.4m).
Role
shift
Now,
though, with the downturn biting for many firms, the emphasis for talent
managers has shifted to how best to redeploy internal talent, how to re-use and
develop internal skills and how best to serve partners, Moriarty argues.
"The
trend that we are seeing is the aligning or co-relating of talent management
practice to the business bottom-line," he says.
HR
contribution
Managing
talent, whether or not a company has a function devoted to it, has become a key
issue for US businesses, he adds.
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"It
has become almost mandatory for HR professionals to think this way. When I talk
to CFOs, they say HR people have got to make a contribution to this discussion.
The talent process of an organisation has become increasingly valuable.
"It
is about not allowing your best assets to walk out of the door," he adds.
