Last week, our own Daniel Fuller spoke with Aszure Gray from ML Talent Strategies and Wes Winham from Woven Teams about the current climate for small and mid-sized companies in regards to talent acquisition.
Today we want to focus on the interview with expert Aszure Gray, the Vice President of Business Development and Client Success at ML Talent Strategies. She has spent her fifteen-year career cultivating and developing business leaders from some of Indiana’s top companies. ML Talent Strategies serves small and mid-sized companies to create and implement a talent strategy to attract, develop, and retain talent. They believe this talent strategy is key alongside a company’s business and financial plan in order to achieve goals.
When asked about the current climate of talent acquisition, Aszure mentioned seeing a lot of companies hiring and looking for talent. They have made successfully made the transition of working remotely and are now deeply considering how this impacts the hiring process. Understanding how to reach further geographically (and hire remotely) has led companies to be opened to a broader talent pool when searching for the right fit for their organization.
One of the negatives Aszure mentioned about hiring during this time is the risk of talent not feeling comfortable in their organizations due to their companies changing policies or poor handling of both COVID-19 as well as the political unrest that is currently occurring. This might look like talent hunkering down – until the dust settles – and then leaving when the right moment arrives or the right offer comes to them.
The overall situation has left business owners overwhelmed. Leaders and managers – as well as their teams – have been stretched thin, with some organizations lacking the internal infrastructure through their HR departments to handle the increased challenges. This has also led to incurring more costs for the business owners trying to navigate their teams while working remotely – a lot of “firefighting” to find talent and fill open positions within their company.
How can companies handle finding and cultivating talent during this time? Aszure suggests companies include a talent plan in their strategy. Take the opportunity to reevaluate your plan for both acquiring and developing talent within your organization. Reviewing this portion of your company’s strategy can benefit both your teams and your organization’s bottom line.
FullStack has had the honor to partner with Aszure and ML Talent Strategies, and we highly recommend their work in developing a robust talent strategy and empowering companies to implement it. To hear more insights from Aszure about talent strategy, watch the full interview here.