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ATTRACTING RELEVANT TALENT INTO AN ORGANISATION

By Kholwaphi Mdziniso | 2018-11-13

Organisations have needs just like the people that join those organisations.

organisations need to attract people who are able and willing to do the work required to achieve the company’s objectives.

On the other hand people work for organisations with the objective of applying their skills and to get financial gain.

Both the hiring organisations and individuals look for a best fit. The person looks for an organisation that holds values they ascribe to and the organisations look for employees that will fit in with their culture.

The recruiting process

When recruiting employees organisations have to always look for a job fit kind of employee.

A job-fit is a term used to describe how well the abilities and motives of an individual fit the job demands and reward offered by the organisation.

When people enter organisations or jobs, they bring their expectations about what they will receive in response. The set of expectations is called the psychological contract.

Individuals may not even be fully conscious of the contract. Usually it is implicit and unwritten.

People will feel satisfied as long as the contract is fulfilled but if it is not, they are likely to feel tension and behave in ways that either even up the contract or change it.

The Exchange Process and the psychological

contract

When joining an organisation, individuals contribute things such as: skills, effort, time, loyalty and commitment to the organisation.

In return the organisation offers pay, benefits, security and opportunities to satisfy such motives as the need for achievement, power, status and affiliation.

Both the individual and the organisation will feel satisfied if they perceive the psychological contract as fair.

If not, either party can initiate a change. For instance people can withhold effort or quit if they do not get an expected return such as a pay rise.

On the other hand, the organisation can require employees to exert more effort to learn a new skill.

The psychological contract is dynamic because the expectations and contributions of both the individual and the organisation change over time.

An awareness of psychological contracts can remind leaders and managers of the reciprocal relationship between individuals and organisations and the need to keep those contracts fair, equitable and up to date.

One of a leader’s/manager’s key challenges is to help make the best possible fit between individuals and the job.

To meet this challenge, leaders must understand the employees’ abilities as they pertain to their daily job tasks.

People’s performance depends on their abilities and motives. Ability is about the ‘can do’ and motives are about the ‘will do’.

Both are important for performance, and leaders need to know the difference. Some people are able to perform specific tasks but are unwilling to do so, others compensate for their lack of ability by being motivated to learn and work hard.

Abilityand aptitude

A best fit will need both the ability and aptitude to perform. Ability is the capacity to perform physical and intellectual tasks.

Aptitude is the capacity to learn ability. People differ both in their abilities and aptitudes. For tasks that require natural talent, most of us do not have the aptitude to match people for such.

One can only say, leaders should know what abilities are required to perform various jobs and should try to match the job or appointment with the people who have appropriate abilities.

Physical ability can be distinguished from intellectual ability. Physical ability includes such factors as strength, agility, coordination, stamina, and quickness.

Intellectual ability is the capability to learn, reason, and apply knowledge to new situations. Intelligence is sometimes thought to be a single factor but it has been stated in research that there are multiple intelligences such as musical, logical-mathematical etc.

It is essential that leaders understand the difference between ability and aptitude.

People who lack either the ability or aptitude to perform a job will likely fail and feel dissatisfied.

Those who have the aptitude but not the ability to perform a certain job can learn to do so.

Too much ability, however, can also be a problem. Those who are qualified for certain jobs can become bored and unmotivated so the key is to find the best person – job fit possible.

Managing the person-job fit involves more than simply matching a person abilities and motives with the job requirement and rewards.

How an individual performs is also impacted by variables such as perception, learning, attitudes and personality which that is a topic for another day.

Productivity is the heartbeat of institutions, and matching the needs of employees to that of an organisation help optimise productivity without increasing costs to the company. Finding a person job fit also helps an organisation attract and keep talent that may be critical for organisational growth especially for technical skills.

The other benefit of a person job fit is that, both parties, the organisation and the employee get mutual satisfaction from the relationship because each party’s needs ‘are met.

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