Nick Frank, Managing partner at Si2 Partners, looks at the trials and tribulations of sourcing the talent to drive your field service organisation forward and asks why are we not doing this better?

Delivering on business objectives demands that we really understand and acquire those capabilities that help us differentiate from competition. Indeed, the same is true for us as professionals as we look for own next steps in our career. Yet matching needs with people is still recognised as one of the biggest challenges for employers and employees alike.

The reality is that for business in general and in the area of service business specifically, finding people who can deliver (experience, knowledge, qualifications & competencies), are highly motivated (right career move, location, salary, benefits & company) and fit (industry, company values, team they will be working with) is a major management headache. The impact of getting this process wrong can be a costly, time consuming, an emotionally draining exercise and frankly devastating on objectives.

Why is it like this?

Successful companies ideally manage their talent acquisition through a balance of succession planning, external hiring, or interim positions. This journey is complex and fraught with organisational, political and external challenges to deliver a robust and effective talent management framework. In this age when data, analytics and connectivity technologies threaten to disrupt many industries, the pressure to introduce new capabilities has never been stronger. Increasingly, service leaders are frustrated that to find talent whether it’d be sourced internally or externally is taking too long and with minimal choice.

Interestingly though, if you have ever tried to search for service people using these types of recruitment tools you will discover that it is very difficult to pinpoint the type of positions and qualifications you require to fill your vacancies.

One of the main stumbling blocks is that service is such a wide generic term that it identifies 1000’s of unsuitable candidates.

Using company job titles seems a good idea, but often although these might make sense to people within the business, they bear little relevance to the outside world. The result is that recruiters are forced to search for candidates with vague, irrelevant job titles which are difficult to match on the main social media platforms available today.

Alternative approaches such as on-line job boards have other challenges. Frequently job descriptions are not clear and easily understood. Recruiters do not know which talent match the ‘Service’ brief and are often overwhelmed with the volume of response, because many candidates apply based on their belief they work in the ‘Service’ industry, yet often are completely unsuitable for the job.

In summary, companies often end up waiting up from 9- 12 months to successfully fill Service Leadership positions!

What can we do about it?

With above in mind, it is possible to reduce the time it takes to hire good service people by more than 50%, through following three very simple rules:

1.Job descriptions:

Organisations are good at producing job descriptions that suit their internal HR processes, but these are often not easy to translate into the terminology used in the wider world. Don’t fall into this trap! Make sure the job description you develop meets both the internal company needs and for the recruiter is geared to the language of social networks.

2.Work with people who know Service:

Working with professionals who deeply understand your business environment and needs, will be far more effective in terms of time and quality.

3.Be involved:

Make sure that you are fully aware of the type of people being searched, so that you can ensure it is focused on the right experiences. Close teamwork between client and recruiter has been shown to significantly reduce the time it takes to identify great candidates.

By following these three simple guidelines, you will not only find people faster, you will find better qualified talent that will enrich your organisation as well as significantly reducing your recruitment costs. They also can be applied to those professionals looking to develop their career paths.

These guidelines have been developed over many years participating in the hiring process of service professionals across many parts of the world.

Whilst conceptually, fairly straightforward, they are not so easy to follow and execute. With technical and service business talent at a premium and the adoption of on-line search through social networks is transforming the recruitment process.

Good definition thorough understanding the service “space” and feedback throughout the recruitment process have become critical to successfully finding the nuggets of gold in the ocean of working humanity.

For more information on recruiting Great Service People, contact Dag Gronevik, Richard Cowley or Nick Frank on how to ‘Build your Service Capability’ at info@si2partners.com or call +44 208 144 6452.

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