Two News Directors chasing the same Producer/MMJ recruit. Funny, not funny. Talent acquisition and recruiting hasn't changed much in 25 years. Lot's of activity, little progress. Some things to think about ...

Be honest, do you have a retention problem? Do you have a leaky tub? The bigger the leak, the more it takes to refill it. Couple weeks ago a perspective anchor candidate asked me about a station and a ND. My answer "they hire 5 new people for every 7 they lose, they've got a leaky tub".

After 30 years of managerial experience, I can point to poor leadership as the cause of a leaky tub and high attrition. For my GM/VP friends, I recently offered 5 areas to focus on in the article "Leadership and The Great Resignation" you can find at: https://lnkd.in/gPKzK68Y

Address the leadership issues first and then start digging into the other issue, resignation as a result of archaic contracting and compensation policies.

Clearly talent are signed to contracts and are obligated to fulfill those terms but contracts have become a 'crutch' for management to retain talent longer. Here is a HUGE takeaway for leaders when it comes to using contracts as a retention tool:

If you are asking talent to sign longer term contracts, 3-5 years for example, and offering only 2% merit increases annually, that's not an offer, that's a future managerial nightmare in the making. We need to rethink contracting to be more fluid and address market conditions, especially when inflation is 8% in a VERY tight labor market.

Finally, the methodology and tools used in talent acquisition in Broadcast Media need to change to embrace technology, social networks, and get beyond relationship by looking at value chains.

To get off of the hamster wheel, we should stop:

Spending hours on YouTube watching reels hoping to connect directly with the talent only to find out they are unavailable. Same applies to LinkedIn, Indeed, and your company's 3rd party applicant tracking system (Workday, ICIMS, etc).

Wait on your 'go to' agents to find the right talent and then start that really fun negotiation process. Agent networks are fluid but struggle to be in 'real time'. An agent must first contract the talent before the talent can contract with you. Use your agent network but don't rely exclusively on it.

Hiring high priced consultants and end up negotiating with agents, recruiters, etc. This creates expensive time and financial redundancies in the marketplace, the opposite of an efficient value chain.

Finally, there is no perfect ecosystem in the marketplace today but there are a number of new players thinking about the problems through a different lens. In the end, the key to getting off the hiring hamster wheel will be:

1. A focus on retention through improved leadership skills at first and second level management.

2. Embracing change through uses of technology and social networks in recruiting.

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