Just like other verticals of a business, talent acquisition also needs to be backed by strong strategies, not to mention that retaining it plays as important a role as hiring
Hiring ahead of time helps add value to organisations as it brings scale, depth and power that raises the average bar of the organisation, said Abhishek Gupta, Group CFO, OYO, on Friday.
While speaking as part of a panel discussion on building a crisis-resistant workforce at BW CFO World's Finance Leadership & Strategy Summit 2023, Gupta recalled how hiring ahead of time was the risk they took, despite the fact they could not afford it. However, he described it as their biggest and most successful bet.
"These people come in and create so much value that the organisation becomes worthy of their own capabilities. They bring that scale, depth, and power that raises the average bar of the organisation," Gupta explained.
Hiring a talented and skilful workforce has always been a challenging task for organisations across the globe. After the advent of the pandemic, there was a sudden surge in demand for the right talent. "Pandemic has taught us how to unlearn fast. The whole demand of talent has grown manifold," said Arnab Roy, CFO, Greater India Zone, Schneider Electric India.
With changing times, acquiring the right talent for a company has become one of the most important aspects of achieving the organisation's long-term vision.
Roy added, "Today, when we evaluate our ambitious growth plan, the biggest concern that comes up is, 'Do we have the right people at the right job?' Can we skill up our people at the right pace?"
Businesses were evolving even before the advent of the pandemic, and however, it catalysed the process and made brands catch up with the trend seven to ten years earlier. With the dynamic business environment, the role of a CFO has become more volatile than ever.
"It becomes important for the CFO to look at the skill sets of his or her team and figure out what I need to do to reskill my team to meet the organisational requirements," said S. Venkat, Founder, Practus Advisors.
As more and more millennials join the global workforce, businesses must focus on adopting technology to retain the new generation of employees.
Elaborating on the same, Rohan Pagey, Head of India Enterprise Business at Slack, said, "As the new generation becomes part of your organisation, you will need to adopt the technology; otherwise, you are going to struggle in terms of the retention aspect of it."
Acquiring the right talent is a tremendous issue in effectively implementing reskilling. More awareness is needed throughout the ecosystem on how to map individuals to their proper jobs, identify disrupted roles and provide them with the right culture and support to thrive along with the company.