Hire for Capability, Train for Talent

A lot of companies mistake the ability to do one thing well with the ability to be a great employee or all-around rock star team member. But the fact of the matter is that usually, before getting to your company and learning your style, approach, and the inner workings of your company, most people won’t know that much about how to be really amazing inside your work culture. Work to identify people who have some excellent core competencies, but who are superior at learning and growing with your team. You’ll get stronger talent than you expected, and often from unexpected places. That’s why Kazi relies on our unique expectations scan, which can help identify these kinds of skills in a latent phase

Remember that Recruitment is just another numbers game

At the end of the day, all the techniques in the world won’t change the fact that hiring is, really, a numbers game. And in order to meet the right people, you will sometimes have to go through a lot of other people to get there. What’s important about this is to make sure you approach it with the right attitude, and not to get discouraged, distracted or dispirited.

Even companies like Google or Apple still have to look through dozens of candidates for any one post to find the right person. Also important is to make sure you define your objectives well enough that you can recognize the right candidate when he or she comes across your desk, even amid all the hundreds of other applicants.

Don’t be afraid to offer high compensation

Rockstar employees know their worth. They’ve often come from lots of other high-powered jobs, and know what the market offers. If you’re going to commit yourself to hiring the best talent, be prepared to shell out for it. This is a combination of setting high benchmarks on your job listings to attract the right people in the first place, and also being willing to contend with people who are often very good negotiators.

But remember, sometimes what’s most interesting or valuable to a particular candidate won’t just be more money, but could be more flexibility, or some other perks. Understanding their personality is key.

Remember your internal talent pool

The most reliable pool of talent you have is the one that already works for your company!. When you’re small, it can sometimes seem like you want to grow the company with outside people, to increase your headcount if your workload is increasing. But your existing team already knows each other and works together. You’ve already gone through talent and personality assessments with them – maybe with the Kazi questionnaire – and they have experience with your culture, your work, your clients! That’s a lot of stuff that you will have to get other employees up to speed on. Sometimes, of course, it’s not possible, especially if you need a special skill set, but it’s usually worth looking into promoting from within! Save time, save money, keep the team together.

Understand the deliverables for the position really well

Good talent knows the right questions to ask in a job interview. In fact, for the top candidates, it’s as much them interviewing you as you interviewing them. You’ll need to have really sharp answers to questions about the expectations, deliverables, and work products expected to come out of the position you’re talking about. How much work? How quickly? Delivered how? When you’re starting a small company, and working with a startup mindset, it can be common to just think about “winging it” a lot. And maybe that works, or was necessary, when it was only two or three of you. But you’re hiring with the big boys now, and you need to understand and communicate your job expectations properly if you want to compete.

Staying on top in the War for Talent is a complex and ongoing process. And at Kazi, we know you can’t manage it alone. That’s why we are here to help you navigate this quickly-changing Human Resources environment. If you have an existing HR challenge, or just want to hear about how Kazi can improve your hiring and retention processes, drop us a line today, and we’ll be happy to talk about it with you!

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The Netflix generation

Just in case you didn’t know: At Kazi, we developed what we call the  “Expectations scan.” This is a kind of twofold questionnaire, with which, companies and talent can make their needs and expectations clear. Our algorithm identifies those two.

Why is this important? “The majority of the audience that is looking for a job today is part of what might be called the ‘Netflix generation’ “, Nikolaas tells Magali De Reu. “They’re not just looking for a salary and that’s it. And that’s not just me saying it. Gartner research has shown that people expect more from their employers these days.”

“Putting employees first shouldn’t be just a PR move.”

Nikolaas correctly points out the issue of “personalization” is currently applied predominantly to customers. Data, data and more data. But what if we applied that same philosophy to employees? “The Netflix Generation wants to be served by their employers,” he says. “That runs from recruitment through to retention. It is more than just a nice PR-talk to boost your employer branding. “

Looking beyond the CEO: Can the workplace offer solace?

The idea that led to the creation of Kazi clearly began with Nikolaas’ own frustrations with the education system. “I really felt like I was banging my head against the wall with no result”, he admits. “I’ve always been an ADHD student – I was not like the other students. Yet I just had to participate in the system like everyone else. No one ever asked me “What do you like? What makes you happy? Once I was on the job market I’ve consistently been incredibly miscast. Was it  my fault – did I not understand what was expected of me? Or were employers not communicating correctly? I don’t know the right answer; I don’t want to point fingers. “

“Learning on the job at the workplace helps make a job understandable and tangible quickly”

Although today Kazi focuses more on reconciling different expectations in the labor market as we find it, each of us at Kazi believes that a drastic change will need to take place in the education system in the longer term. “I am a big believer in workplace learning”, Nikolaas adds. “Today you learn at your school desk, and then you join the labor force with your degree. In the future, with even some movement I see today, companies will become learning places. Employers are going to start giving more education workshops. For example, employers and talent are already growing closer together at an early stage. By adopting this model, the work is made tangible more quickly. “

In the interview, Nikolaas uses an example of someone studying to be a pastry chef. “What would be the best way to keep this student stimulated during training?”, he reflects. “Well, if the student is a talker who loves variation, he is probably going to respond best to a small, artisanal-style bakery where he’ll have a lot of contact with customers. But maybe if he’s quieter, and cares about accuracy and process, he’d be better working in an industrial bakery. This way, students can immediately get in touch with their job. You know, make their education a lot more interesting and enjoyable. “

“Swahili is the only language in the world in which ‘Job’ and ‘Mission’ are the same word, which they call ‘Kazi’ ”

At Kazi we all hope that this word, ‘Kazi’ will become the term that educators and the labor market uses worldwide. In the Swahili language, “Kazi” means both ‘job’ and ‘mission’, That makes it the only language in which those two concepts are joined. I hope that soon, this will be the norm everywhere, that is my Kazi! “

Make it fun, make it tangible

Although Kazi relies on technology to spread these ideas to the public, Nikolaas does not believe that technological innovation will be the cure for everything. “We are all afraid that our jobs will be swept away and that technology will replace us,” he says. “But technology can’t get far just by itself. It’s a team player; it needs to work with people. That’s why I believe that we should blind ourselves to learning as many soft skills as possible, to make sure we remain relevant. It’s important to foster an attitude of continuous learning. “

But how can we set about creating such an atmosphere that encourages this continuous learning? “You’ve got to make it fun, and make it tangible”, he responds. “As I’ve said before, work must be made as concrete and tangible as possible in education. Then it will be fun. “

Nikolaas proudly states that he’s still learning every day as an entrepreneur. And that keeps him sharp. “I know where I want to go,” he says firmly. “Kazi has to connect talent, HR and education back to each other; this was not the case when I was coming up, and I felt the effects of it. And even though I obviously don’t want to fail, if I do, I look to see how I can learn and grow from it. This is how I can build a successful company with my whole team!”

Want to know more? Watch the video (Dutch) below!

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