Cultural diversity as potential for development

As our business rests upon people, all those who work in consulting within HR industry can testify that the service of candidate recruitment and selection was rarely a completed and clearly defined service, and today this "rarely" means usually never, or, at best, hardly ever. The service is more and more personalized and implies an adequate response to the increasingly specific needs of clients. When it comes to the same position in a competitive business, profiling an ideal candidate implies so fine requirements that the recruitment process for any position needs to be viewed as a project in itself. Very often, the part of the "mandatory" a candidate must fulfill differs from company to company for the same position; in the "preferable," specifics in requirements are even more emphasized, and when the profile of the appropriate candidate is considered, each position becomes unique. "One size fits all" is a phrase that has undergone numerous transformations since its inception and today has gone to as far as the other extreme that works by the "one size fits one" principle.

The reasons for uniqueness of the need can be mostly found in the implications the modern world and the time in which we live entail, i.e. in the fact that the world is more and more connected and multicultural, that businesses have become more complex, that speed has become a requirement in every industry, that new technologies are constantly emerging, that new business models are sought and introduced in which differentiation and innovation are the basic business values ​. As a result, the needs of employers are increasingly becoming the needs for new and/or specific skill sets that do not necessarily have to be complementary, and the talent race becomes a top league market game in which, like in any sport, the best team wins. With all this and as if this is not enough, companies do not give up what they cannot give up - employers do not give up fitting into the culture and will actually give up a top performer if he poses a threat to the structure and team. It has never been an easy task for leaders, and today it seems more difficult than ever, so it is really time to ask ourselves who motivates the managers. 😊

The request for recruitment and selection can be summarized as a request for:

• New and/or specific skill sets;
• The best professionals to attract and retain;
• Adequate company fits;
• Advantage of soft over technical, hard skills.

According to the results of Manpower's research ("Talent Shortage - Closing the Skills Gap: What Workers Want", 2020), the lack of talent has almost doubled in the last decade. 54% of companies with businesses in 36 of the 44 countries confirmed this deficiency, noting that it is becoming harder and harder to attract the staff they need. As skills needs and position demands change faster than ever, the need for a “skills revolution” continues to be a challenge of the times we live in.

Our market responds with the same reply - this legality is not one those standing for our prediction for the future - we see in some industries and in some positions that our market is candidate-oriented and that their negotiating position is much stronger than in just a few years earlier. Even then, companies had their challenges, the problems were the lack of (sufficient number) people with certain qualifications, but now the problem is, above all, of a different nature and basically comes down to how to attract and retain talent in the market. In order to come to this consideration at all, employers need to know what employees want.

And employees want many things, being like consumers in that part of emphasizing personalization today, and anyone who wants to learn about their employees can learn a lot by learning from people as consumers! According to the above global research of Manpower ("Talent Shortage - Closing the Skills Gap: What Workers Want", 2020), by Maslow's pyramid, employees have their own hierarchy of needs in modern business and actually want:

• Adequate compensation for their work with additional benefits being valued in the same way as earnings

Earnings are a job motivator, but flexibility and independence in work, training budgets, personalized compensation and benefit systems are equally important.

• Personalization

Employees want work tasks that are challenging, that test their potentials and that demand the best from them, employees want insight into their strengths and potentials in order to adequately manage their careers.

• Education, experience and exposure

Employees want a diverse and stimulating job that allows them to gain new knowledge and experience, as well as to constantly develop.

• Flexibility and choice serving their own wellbeing

Employees prefer a balance between work and private life and a choice of where, how and when to work.

• Sense of purpose in work

Employees want to work in jobs and in companies that have a good reputation, a good product, which allow them to make an impact and which they will be proud of.

As Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats breakfast strategy”; even today the demand for culture in line with the results of Manpower’s research is a demand for a “people-centric” work environment. It is necessary to create an environment in which employees feel valued, in which they have a qualitative purpose, company solutions should serve employees, not products, the products themselves should serve end users. Today, the paradigm shift seems to be a measure of success in a competitive market.

HR service professionalization is consequently becoming an imperative for everyone - some have always seen a key value in it, others have recognized the necessity and need for professionalization in order to adequately adapt. And challenges are no longer just challenges of business, industry, profitability, etc., new challenges penetrate to the core of every company, and are a challenge of people. The quality of a company has always been conditioned by the quality of the people working in it, but today this is not "just" a matter of quality, but directly of survival. In order to exist and survive at all, companies will have to work more and more on "employer branding", harmonization with market trends and finally the preferences and demands of the employees themselves.

In that sense, companies are increasingly turning to external partners, and as it stands, will turn even more in the future – ad as an ad is no longer a means of getting the necessary staff, and since today the candidate more and more chooses as much as the employer, the more humane our job is. This is the essence of what motivates us the most in our business, as what is a benefit for companies, is also a benefit for people, and as we in HR like to point out: “A good hire is expensive, a bad one is even more expensive”, so our future in that sense is secure.