Strategic Assesments (2)
Master Sun: “Therefore measure in terms of five things, use these assessments to make comparisons, and thus find out what the conditions are. The five things are the way, the weather, the terrain, the leadership, and discipline.”
Du Mu: “These are to be assessed at headquarters - first assess yourself and your opponent in terms of these five things, deciding who is superior. Then you can determine who is likely to prevail. Having determined this, only then should you mobilize your forces.”
Adaptation: Nakedly honest appraisal of the internal and external conditions that currently prevail is the foundation of the assessments made by skillful Talent Strategists. The dimensions to be taken into account include the culture of the organization (the way) and the corporate cultures of ones competitors for talent.
The climate of the employment marketplace is another important consideration. Campaigns launched during a labor shortage will be very different from those initiated during a period of widespread dislocation and turmoil when candidates are easy to attract.
These weather conditions may vary from one department to another and vary from one division to another. They may also vary geographically. They may also vary by level of position within any given discipline.
The terrain can be understood as the relative market position of the organization and its competitors for people. It is imperative to study and comprehend this before launching a campaign if you want the outcome to be successful.
Assessing leadership involves divining the qualities of those whose needs are to be met through the recruiting program and the qualities of those who will oppose the achievement of these goals. This means knowing the attributes of your hiring managers and contrasting these against the attributes of hiring managers that compete for human resources in other organizations.Discipline can be understood through a thorough review of Policy, Procedure, Systems, Practices and Programs throughout ones own hiring organization and in the environments of ones opponents.
Application: Subject your organization and those of your opponents to rigorous assessment that includes measurement and metrics. Apply these measurements and metrics to:
- Corporate Culture
- Market Conditions (demographics and psychographics)
- Market Position (relative strengths & weaknesses of your employment brand)
- The Leadership, and
- Discipline
It is only by facing the conditions, as they actually are that a light will dawn by which the way forward can be discerned. It is only on the basis of objective and impartial analysis that you can construct a strategy that will result in achieving your goals.
Face the brutal facts and begin with a scrupulous analysis of your own culture and the cultures that you compete against. Research the demographics of the markets that you operate in. Contrast your organization with others through salary surveys.
Pay careful attention to any discernable trends that may appear through exit interviews. Are people leaving due to internal culture wars? Are people leaving because an upstart competitor causing disaffection in your ranks has offered them greater remuneration for the same work?
See whether or not it is possible to overcome your opponents by looking sincerely into the questions of comparative strengths and weaknesses. If the culture you are working in is corrupt how can you expect to build a viable employment brand based on values?
If you are required to hire more engineers in Tulsa, Oklahoma than are currently available in the entire Southwest Region of the United States and are not authorized to relocate candidates due to budget constraints, how can you expect to be successful?
If your brand is weak and your competitor’s is strong, your plan will need to include offsets for your shortcomings. If your brand is strong and your competitor’s is weak, your tactics will surely be different than they would be if your brand were equal in strength to the competitor’s brand. Use focus groups, surveys and Internet market research techniques to assess this.
If your leadership is concerned only about profit and neglects the welfare of employees how can you hope to achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the war for talent?
If adherence to employment policy and procedure is optional for executives while managers are punished for non-compliance, how can you expect discipline to prevail in an employment campaign?
Talent Warriors take all of these things into consideration when forming their strategic assessments. You first look broadly, like a general surveying a potential battleground. Afterwards, you focus your attention on detailed assessments through measurement within the five categories to determine your relative position.
Benchmark your hiring organization against competitors for best practices using the five strategic assessments. Employing this method enables Talent Warriors to know the outcomes of their engagements and campaigns in advance.
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 8:14 am and is filed under The Art of War for Talent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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