Article: Amazon's strategies to deal with talent dilemmas and challenges

Talent Acquisition

Amazon's strategies to deal with talent dilemmas and challenges

Raj Raghavan, Country HR Leader, Amazon India on how can organizations deal with the talent dilemmas and challenges and what talent strategies they can adopt for 2016
Amazon's strategies to deal with talent dilemmas and challenges
 

Forward-thinking companies are creating mentorship through co-leadership and accommodating different communication and learning styles

 

As we consider the year that lies ahead, talent will continue to occupy the overall business agenda, not just of the HR leader. This will include components of talent acquisition, engagement, retention, growth and diversity. There are several sub-sets of these talent challenges but the following are most important to consider:

Influence of mobile and social

Social media is impacting employer brands like never before. As we become more mobile, and recruiting practices become more global as well as more digital, HR leaders are working to ensure their marketing strategies and social media practices are keeping pace. To enable this, they need awareness around what factors are strengthening or weakening the brand. This is important as majority of job seekers (in particular younger candidates) are likely to research the company (using sites like Glassdoor, company reviews and social media postings) before accepting a job offer, or even engaging in a recruitment process. So how do HR leaders address these areas? It’s a complex challenge and requires a high level of skill to be successful, as CHROs need to create buy-in across the entire organization. The factors that need to be considered are:

  • The ability to connect and amplify both the company’s message and employer brand across multiple social media by making content available, relevant and engaging.
     
  • Making it easier for candidates to browse and apply online, especially via mobile devices.

Back to basics – Developing an engaged workforce? 

Today we have a unique workforce where 3 generations are working together but there are myths around this. However, the reality is that despite the fact that these generations have been brought up learning very different methods to produce results (long hours to prove work ethic vs. a more ‘results-only’ work environment), employees across all generations have similar expectations at work – a sense of achievement, pride in work, fair treatment relating to compensation, benefits, job security and increasingly work/life balance.

Strategies that some forward-thinking companies are adopting include Creating mentorship through co-leadership, by pairing a millennial with a senior executive which enables the younger colleague to feel empowered and valued and having the opportunity to learn from their mentor; and for the senior executive to learn how to communicate with the company’s younger customer base; Offering flexible working options, where companies can increase remote working/telecommuting and flexible work hours; and accommodating different communication and learning styles - for the younger employees who have grown up with digital technology and social media & for those who prefer presentations and face-to-face meetings.

Predicting outcomes through HR Analytics

As HR analytics becomes more sophisticated, HR Leaders have more opportunity to provide insights and make recommendations based on facts, rather than gut feel or unsupported opinion, than ever before. The prospect of CHROs being able to provide data-rich, deep insights about a company’s workforce is a powerful and attractive one. For most companies, the ‘holy grail’ remains predictive HR analytics – where HR is able to reliably identify groups of employees who are more at risk for leaving; or more robust, scientific methods of accurately pinpointing employees and managers who are likely to excel in certain areas and under certain conditions. Thanks to rapid advancements in HR Information Systems, HR data is more accessible and more easily manipulated than ever.

In summary, most or all of these points above are on top of HR Leaders’ list because of the rapid change that technology is driving on a global scale. 

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Topics: Talent Acquisition, #TalentAgenda2016

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