It’s not that any country, industry or business is doing such a great job of recruiting top talent (except for our customers *smile*) but it seems Canadian businesses are really struggling. From the Ottawa Business Journal I recently read an article stating that only 25% of Canadian firms have a strong recruitment program.

The article was based on a recent survey completed by Bedford Consulting Group. Here are some of the additional findings:

70% of top executives and human resource leaders surveyed in a report by Bedford Consulting Group said they are experiencing a shortage of talent, while 54 per cent said it is affecting their companies’ financial success.

Canadian companies are ill-equipped to attract and retain top talent, with only 24 per cent of respondents saying they had some kind of program to round up the best applicants, despite 85 per cent reporting that it was important for their business.

95 per cent of those polled said having an inspiring recruitment proposition is now vital in securing the best talent, but only 40 per cent of companies said they had such a proposition.

These are pretty harsh numbers. My take is that many companies are unsure of what to do and to a degree, are overwhelmed by the options. They hear about “social media recruiting”, social networks, etc. and they recognize that the world is passing them by, but they’re not sure how to catch up and how all of these things are relevant to HR. And another huge challenge for Human Resources is focusing on the transition from being about “process management” to “sales and marketing”. The fact is that HR is about sales and marketing; it’s about building relationships and understanding how to continuously communicate & interact with prospective candidates. It’s about putting your best foot forward and getting people excited about working for you.

HR will always have a “process management” component to it, but everyone gets that. We know that works. The companies that will succeed in hiring the best people will go way beyond that basic understanding of Human Resources and turn HR into an employment branding, sales, marketing and PR machine.