Companies need a balance of home-grown talent and fresh blood bought in from outside. But either way, are they clear about what they’re looking for? “It’s vital that companies consider what they think talent is and what is needed,” says Victoria Winkler, adviser to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

According to Russell Hobby, associate director of the UK office of the management consultancy, Hay Group, companies should first look at where the success of the organisation is decided – it could lie with customer services, for example – and understand what drives outstanding performance in those jobs. “Assumptions made about a particular role are often wrong,” he says. US Navy admirals, he reports, when asked what made good captains, cited courage and conviction, yet a survey revealed attention to detail and a concern for crew were most vital.

In-house talent. At Amey plc, a consultancy that works with the highway, railway and property sectors, a Talent Tracker programme helps develop internal talent. “We’re increasing our internal promotions,” says Scott Hobbs, Amey’s head of talent. “We have more than 100 sites in the UK so our talent can be hidden. We have to spot it but also have to help people help themselves.” The programme’s self-nomination system, he says, has revealed people who had previously been overlooked. “These people are then taken through an assessment centre where we see what their strengths are and what they could develop, and then we help them with that. We do internal managerial training, send some managers on university courses, and give people experience, such as managing one or two people to begin with.”

External recruitment is expensive and Amey wants to increase retention, says Hobbs. “We want people to feel that they can develop here and we need visible internal opportunities. In the scheme’s first year, we saved about £840,000 on search agent fees, because of greater retention rates. People are now more aware of what we’re looking for. We’re also using our Talent Tracker values in recruiting externally.”

Hobby confirms that evaluating the potential of existing staff is a good policy. “You have data on the people you already have. There’s always more risk with new recruits.” Psychometric testing is useful for measuring employee performance. “A 360 assessment, which gathers feedback from an array of people, from bosses to colleagues, is a good way of getting comprehensive data on how people are performing, too,” adds Hobby. Some companies have panels of representatives from across the organisation. However it is arranged, combining forces helps to increase the quality of judgment about promotion as neither human resources (HR) teams or line managers have the whole picture themselves, asserts Hobby. “HR people have a perspective of the organisation and systems for measuring people. Line managers have the daily experience of how people perform.

“Web-based technology is very useful for capturing data or doing 360 assessments on people in-house and particularly in large organisations,” says Hobby. “Instead of measuring your top 200 managers, you can spot talent in wider groups and at an earlier stage. It’s more cost effective and less time consuming than interview and paper-based feedback systems.”

Fresh blood. However attractive internal promotion may be, external recruitment remains a key component in boosting talent. Many organisations rely on graduates to satisfy immediate and long-term needs. “It’s a very competitive market for new trainees and we recruit several years ahead,” says Chris Parsons, graduate recruitment partner of Herbert Smith, the London-based international law firm that has more than 1,100 fee-earners worldwide.

Parsons, and other large firms, targets students at universities around the country. “We do events, such as workshops, that tell students about us and about life as a lawyer,” he says. Holiday internships provide a taste of the legal life, too. “We have about 140 students with us here for two weeks over the summer holidays.”

Candidates are assessed on academic results and performance in case-study exercises designed to reveal their analytical ability. Recently, the firm introduced 10 scholarships in schools – half public, half independent. “We find students who are considering studying law and may work for us in the future,” says Parsons.

Retail giants such as Tesco also recruit vigorously at careers fairs. “We have about 12,000 university graduates on our UK staff,” says Lorna Bryson, Tesco’s head of resourcing, retail and distribution in the UK. “We also have people doing A-levels with us, working part-time or full-time.”

External recruitment, however, is a more uncertain affair than internal promotion and experts advise that companies should refine their selection process. “The interview process can be problematic,” comments Hobby. “Big factors in success, such as working habits and character, are harder to assess than academic qualifications. Only about one third of interviews are successful in identifying excellence.”

The typical interview process is often collusive, he says, with interviewers asking questions that suggest the answers they want. Free-flowing narratives are more revealing, Hobby insists. “Instead of asking someone if they’re a team player, ask them for examples of successes in their work. If they make no reference to others, that can be telling.”

Sharpening interviewing processes is part of honing the whole recruitment exercise, says the CIPD’s Winkler. “Assessment centres now often help by putting candidates through live exercises. But while some candidates shine in processes like these, others don’t. You need balanced recruitment methods and they should reflect the ethos of the organisation.”

Herbert Smith

WHEN Abhinav Sarana, 23, (pictured), was a student at the National Law University of Jodhpur in India he had little intention of applying for a job abroad. “I thought I would work in India. There are more opportunities there now,” he says. But then London-based international law firm Herbert Smith came calling, as part of graduate recruitment partner Chris Parsons’ twice-yearly itinerary that takes in the law schools in Calcutta, Jodhpur, Hyderabad and Bangalore, plus universities in Sydney and Melbourne.

After an interview with Parsons, Sarana was offered a two-year contract as a trainee solicitor and joined in August 2007. “There are a lot of opportunities: all kinds of training seminars, the people are supportive and there’s a huge pool of knowledge. I’m learning a lot.” He hopes that in time India will relax its restrictions on foreign law firms operating in the country. “If it does and if Herbert Smith opens an office in India, I’d like to stay with them and work there.”

Tesco

MANY companies are now looking abroad for skilled staff. In the past two years, Tesco has recruited 20 Chinese postgraduate students in the UK. After six weeks working in one of China’s 49 Tesco stores, they undertake further training in the UK to learn the retail business, says Lorna Bryson, Tesco’s UK head of resourcing, retail and distribution. Following that, they will be posted to a Tesco store in China. “This scheme has really started to take shape,” she says.

Recently, adds Bryson, Tesco has started recruiting MBA graduates in India who undertake development programmes there before being relocated to one of the company’s global businesses.

Closer to home, as well as retaining older workers – there’s an 82-year-old cashier in Scotland – and allowing flexible hours, university students returning home for holidays can ask to be transferred to their local store. “They mightn’t be able to work as many hours as they do in their usual store but we have a high success rate of slotting them in – 97% last Christmas,” says Bryson.

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