The labour shortage has revved up the recruitment engine in many companies. But are new hires always the right strategic choice?

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Many companies are very busy and are currently recruiting on a massive scale. Employment is at an all-time high, many people are changing jobs - so there is fierce competition for the best.

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However, in the midst of the recruitment race, it is important to remember that recruitment must also be linked to long-term strategy.

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As a company, you must therefore ask yourself whether the new employees can also help to redeem the company's strategy in the long term - and not just close a gap here and now.

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Here, as a company, you can easily focus all your attention on the new employees. What can they do here and now? But it can also be wise to turn your gaze inwards and ask:

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Are we really unlocking the potential of the people we already have to help take the strategy to scale? And how exactly do you assess that? One approach might be to look at employees in terms of four archetypes:

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1. The runaway: the person who is not particularly happy with his job or the workplace itself - and who is quick to move on if something else comes along.
2. The security junkie: the person who is in the job because it's easy to figure out and has no ambition to move.
3. The unpredictable: the person who is tired of their job but close to the workplace - and therefore often hard to count on.
4. The passionate: the person who loves both his job and his workplace - and therefore will go through fire and water.

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The division above is both artificial and simplistic, but may nevertheless give food for thought.

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Not everyone can be a passionate employee, but if you have a lot of employees in groups 1-3, for example, there is a significant risk that the company's development will stall. Either because a lot of effort is put into onboarding new employees who quickly disappear - or because those who stay have no ambition on behalf of the company.

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At the same time, new employees who are retained risk becoming part of an unambitious culture and therefore unable to contribute to innovation and development - even though they may have the potential to do so.

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Involve employees

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Quick-fixes do not exist. But one way to link strategy, goals, people and recruitment is to involve employees in developing the company's strategic direction - as much as possible.

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Engaged employees always take more responsibility, are more committed and more innovative - because work becomes more meaningful. At the same time, even the best managers have to admit that they are rarely sharper than all their employees - put together. In this way, involvement also makes the strategy itself better.

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In fact, it could be argued that part of the solution to the recruitment challenge lies in the way the company develops and works with its strategy.

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This column was published on Jyllands-Posten Finance and in Jyllands-Posten, Erhverv on 29 August 2022.

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