CEO MONTHLY / ISSUE 7 2023 17 Mar22259 Retaining talent through cultural alignment The pandemic has significantly shifted people’s mindsets when it comes to their careers and career direction. For example, the trend of “quiet quitting” is one of many that was born from the pandemic, where employees lack enthusiasm about their career and mentally step back. This is often a direct result of no longer feeling passionate about their role or feeling their personal and company values do not align. As post pandemic behaviors embed, it is important to look again at what we do and why when it comes to recruiting and retaining those who will help our businesses to thrive and grow. Selecting the right candidate for a specific role holds immense significance, but success goes beyond recruitment. It encompasses retaining the right person for the job, someone who wants to remain, progress, and thrive in that role. So much so, it is no longer considered plausible for organizations to meet talent pools through traditional hiring methods, and it is more urgent than ever to rethink outdated assumptions around qualifications and focus on transferable skills and experience. While there is no universal remedy to building great teams, focusing efforts towards modernizing interview processes, accentuating the significance of cultural and values alignment, fostering a diverse workforce, and incorporating technology can all support the journey of matching great employees with great employers. Creating and fostering a diverse workplace Building diverse teams is integral to growth and success and, personally, I enjoy working in teams where I can learn and grow by having a variety of people and thoughts surrounding me. At Taulia one of our core values is Diversity Is How We Grow. This puts diversity right at the heart of how we are working and, while we don’t always get it right, we are focused on building teams that are empathetic, energetic and positively challenging. All with the aim of collaboration driving better outcomes for everyone involved. Diversity of gender, sex, race, age, disability, religion, thought, education and experience brings breadth of perspective and input to every team and the challenges they come together to tackle. Ultimately to ensure that we can build these teams, it is crucial to engage with a wide range of potential candidates before making hiring decisions. Widening the talent pool is an opportunity for us as a business and one our HR team is focused on to impact our success in this area. Incorporating technology into the mix Some might argue that in order to embrace a modern world, we must embrace modern technology. Technology can harness exceptionally good results when used appropriately. In the case of hiring, it can help eradicate any discrimination or unconscious bias in the early stages of the application process. It also has a fantastic ability to match skills with appropriate companies and in many cases can help write job descriptions that attract a broad range of applicants. However, we cannot exploit technology beyond our human means. As human beings we are immensely empathetic and have an innate sense of emotion, which technology does not, at least yet. So I believe we can’t replace the “human” in Human Resources and should only use technology as an enhancing asset in the hiring process, not as a replacement. Building personal connections throughout the recruitment process helps us as employees to really learn who candidates are, as well as helping them to get a good sense of who they could be working alongside everyday. This interpersonal contact helps us to really explain our culture and values and assess how candidates respond to those elements of our business and where there is or isn’t alignment. Our values as a cultural litmus test At Taulia we hold on tightly to our mission and values. They guide our decision making and help us to keep our business, as well as the motivation and energy of our people directed at our North Star. Having this clear sense of why we come together and how (guided by our values) enables us to clearly articulate this to potential candidates. This resonates beyond just Taulia’s walls, with two thirds (66%) of C-suite and board members saying that a distinctive culture is more important to performance than the organization’s strategy or operating model. I am really proud to hear from current employees at Taulia that our values were part of what attracted them to talk to us in the first place. If our values align with candidates before they are even through the door then we are a step closer to cultural alignment before things have even begun. The road ahead If there is one thing that the pandemic taught us, it is that flexibility is crucial. Hiring strategies must therefore reflect this and evolve to meet our new ways of working. Prioritizing cultural fit, aligning passions, embracing diversity, and adopting inclusive hiring practices are essential steps toward building successful teams. While technology and AI have their place in streamlining the process, they should complement, not replace, human interaction. By nurturing a workplace where values and passions align we can cultivate an environment that attracts the right talent, harnesses innovation, and drives future growth. May23624
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