Article by Alejandra Mancilla, Managing Partner at North Hunters
Most of our clients ask us how do we attract Top Talent. That is not an easy question as it depends not only on the candidate experience, skills and recruiting strategies we use but also on the values and characteristics we consider are important during the search and candidate evaluation process.
Recently North Hunters’ consultants have done research of our current projects with the objective to find the ¨Formula¨ that finds distinguishing characteristics to determine the ideal candidate. In addition to that, one of the conclusions was to ensure not only the quality of our services to our clients but also by exceeding their expectations.
How to distinguish talent from a candidate that fits the job?
Through the specific requirements? Competencies? Academic background? Experience? The answer to all of these aspects is yes. However, there is another ¨basic toolkit¨ to consider as the main differentiator. Here at North Hunters, we identify a good candidate that fits the position requirements bearing in mind the competencies, background, experience etc. And we consider talent as a person that exceeds expectations. That is easy to say but requires a hard effort to find.
What is that ¨Basic toolkit¨?
Most of the times that is the key to fulfill the job description requirements. The¨basic toolkit¨ will be a must for almost every position and virtually for every company. It includes competencies such as flexibility, resilience, persuasion, innovation, accountability and quality oriented skills.
We have identified 85% of our candidates had these competencies in their set of skills (in addition to the required ones in their position). Therefore we always highlight these competencies when doing the search. No matter which position you do or level you are at, these characteristics improve the performance on any occasion to achieve better results and increase the competitiveness of a company.
If the company wants to be competitive, it should focus not only on its products and services but also become a talent-focused organization that will be driving business excellence.
