… will win over the best employees. When exchanging information with business partners, I notice time and again that talent management still plays a subordinate role in strategic corporate management in many companies.

The competition for specialists and managers is already noticeable today. And it will continue to intensify. If companies want to attract and retain the best employees, they will have to focus more on talent management in the future.

Today I would like to touch on three important points in executive recruitment that I discuss time and again with clients:

1. Business strategy and needs analysis as a starting point:

Does your business strategy harmonize with your personnel planning strategy? A fundamental question that is often not answered with a clear yes. Talent management must be closely interlinked with the business strategy and take its various scenarios into account.

Before job advertisements, competence profiles or budget frameworks are defined, the future need for talent must be defined very precisely. This means that companies must keep their personnel planning models up to date.

2. Active recruiting instead of passive executive recruitment:

Time pressure or a lack of applicants can make it difficult for companies to recruit strategically. Why actually? It is well known that the US labor market is currently changing from a supply to a demand market. But with many decision makers I observe that the necessary consequences of this paradigm shift are only hesitantly derived.

My experience is that successful recruitment today is above all a question of active recruitment strategies. Active sourcing is part of a well-functioning Talent Relationship Management and ensures a continuous influx into the candidate pool. An essential element is the transparent, ongoing dialogue with promising candidates. This relationship maintenance does not necessarily have to be the responsibility of the personnel department. A smart approach are employee recommendations, which a company like Google relies on when recruiting personnel.

3. E-recruiting is a useful instrument – but not a remedy:

No question, digital measures for strategic executive recruitment have long been established. But your own career websites, job advertisements in job exchanges, digital employer branding or activities in social networks are hardly effective in isolation. Ultimately, it depends on a balanced mix of online and offline activities.

For what use are the advantages of social media in terms of screening, speed or inter-nationality if the most suitable applicants do not have a Facebook, Xing or LinkedIn account or rarely use one? Some companies also underestimate the costs for design, IT, search engine optimization or additional personnel.

The functionality must also be right. I would like to ask those responsible whether they have already filled out the application form on their online platform. This regularly results in an aha experience when I report on the reactions of promising candidates to the process, which often lasts several hours. Compared to an online application platform, it’s easier for us executive consultants because in an intensive interview we get to know the applicants as they really are. After more than 15 years of experience in HR, I am also convinced that no digital tool can replace a personal handshake. Or what do you think?