The workforce holy trinity
I have built many high performing teams over my career and supported many of our Sparrowly Group clients in their workforce planning, recruitment and training so that they can use the advisory work that we undertake for them and take it forward. Doing this is core to our value of legacy - that is, leaving our people in a better place than we found them with the tools to carry on without us.
Whenever I have hired for my team or for a client, there are two key things I look for before technical skills - aptitude and attitude. Skills are important of course, but are often what recruiters or hiring managers look for first which is a complete misstep and often leads to retention issues.
Why?
Aptitude and attitude determine a candidate’s ability to learn, adapt, and thrive in a role, whereas skills can be taught.
Building a high performing, culturally connected and happy workforce is an art. It’s about understanding clearly what your workforce needs are now and into the future, and working hand in hand with your strategic planning and fine tuning as part of your annual business and operational planning cycle. It should look to the needs of the business to sustain its strategic goals and map against these. Specifically it should look to the technical and soft skills required.
Workforce planning should always be person agnostic. Retrofitting a role for a person creates a domino of disaster for the person involved, their colleagues and the business at large.
Hiring with diversity in mind is important, but it should never come at the expense of finding the right person for the role. True diversity is about bringing together a mix of skills, perspectives, and experiences that strengthen a team, not just meeting a quota. I’ve seen situations where well-qualified candidates of all backgrounds have been overlooked because of rigid targets, and that’s a missed opportunity for everyone. Instead of focusing on numbers, businesses should focus on building genuinely inclusive workplaces where the best people, regardless of background, can thrive.
Training should sit as the hammock under the business strategy and workforce planning. Without a clear training plan co-designed with your team and looking across technical and soft skills, the business risk is bigger than people alone.
I am often asked about my career to date, the roles I have had and what led me to where I am today. It has simply been about my attitude and aptitude. I have plenty of skills, but skills should always be built upon. And if I waited for a recruiter or a hiring manager to ‘see me’ I’d still be sitting in the box that they wanted to put me in. So, I follow my passion and my curiosity for learning and making an impact and I hire for Sparrowly Group and our clients the same way.
Working with our clients in designing their workforce planning includes needs doesn’t stop at the plan. It should include talent identification and training. Workforce planning and finding the right people are crucial for helping you achieve your best outcomes. Because at the end of the day, work should be fulfilling, teams should be empowered and businesses should be set up for long-term success. That’s when everyone wins.
