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Recruiting Management And Key Stakeholders

Steak Holder

Who are stakeholders? And what is this stake they are holding? This one of the words we learn in grade school English as a homonym (or homophone) which is, as our dictionaries define it, “one of a group of words pronounced in the same way but differing in meaning or spelling or both.” This one also happens to be a word in which the same spelling can have multiple meanings, making it also a homograph. While it is tempting to take this idea further just for the silliness of it all, there will not be any more discussion of any other homophonic homographs. Ironically, it has been observed that the spoken word “steak” causes a pavlovian response in English-speaking non-vegetarians by making their mouth water until someone realizes, “Oh, the other kind of stake.” The two definitions of this spelling are very close in their meaning and one was probably derived from the other. A stake may be a wager in a game or challenge and in business, it can be a vested interest in the game of commerce, politics, or society. There has also been a humorous double meaning used around the company coffee pot or in meetings: “If you ignore the stakes [steaks] you can be skewered and roasted.”

Taking the value of stakes to a more serious level and discussing the relevance to business and more specifically human resources open a snake pit of intertwined and sometimes conflicting interests. Generally speaking, all companies have stakeholders who expect results or rewards as a result of their interaction with the company. They are stakeholders because they will be impacted or have an impact on the actions of the company. They may be internal or external, individual or groups, and political or economic in their nature. For any internal organizational unit, the company’s core stakeholders are always of some concern, but special attention is given to those which have particular interests in the unit’s mission and activities. For example, the Recruiting Department may not have direct involvement with many of the company’s stakeholders but must be sensitive to their needs as good corporate citizens. The company brand and the product brand image to customers are affected by the recruitment brand and vice versa. The candidate experience falls into this realm because those seeking employment are usually also consumers. A negative product image can impact on the desire of people to work for the company. Likewise, a bad candidate experience can multiply itself into a tarnished interest in company products.

Internal stakeholders are those who have power or influence over the actions of the department or have an interest in the department’s activities. External stakeholders are those who are influential because their satisfaction is key to the success of a project or activity. Brainstorming a shortlist of those who may be influential or interested can produce an exhaustive number of people or other groups falling into these two categories, but a detailed analysis of each is necessary to plan activities for satisfying their needs. Just as any project will have limited financial and people resources available for completion, there will also be a need to allocate efforts for the best interaction with key stakeholders.

The analysis begins with a detailed look at each stakeholder by determining those with a positive or negative impact, identifying the stake they hold in the project, then assigning a rating for importance and influence. Any number of models will work, but simplicity is important. While the yardstick that measures relative importance and influence is assigned rather than measured, it should give a clear picture of just how much effort is necessary to manage them. It is just as important to recognize that while it is not a scientific measure it is not arbitrary.

Consider a simple example of analysis for a project to improve the candidate experience:

This analysis gives us the ability to determine the type of attention and amount of detail to provide to these stakeholders. Again there are a number of textbook ways to complete the analysis, but most are some form of Mendelow’s Matrix which gives the simplest form of instruction to project managers.

From the matrix, stakeholders with relatively low influence and relatively low interest require the least effort and should be monitored to ensure no unexpected changes in expectations or impact occur. At the other end of the matrix, those with the greatest power to influence and the highest interest in outcome should be actively influenced to manage a successful outcome. From the example shown for the improvement of candidate experience, the assigned values of (3,2 ) for the marketing group shows that they need to be kept informed of the progress of the project and engaged in two-way communication. For candidates, the (5,3) value falls into the category which must be closely managed for success.

In the example, many of the primary and secondary stakeholders for a project of this type are omitted for simplicity, but the same analytical process can be used as others are considered. An interesting aspect of this methodology is that it can be used in reverse when you are the stakeholder evaluating your impact and influence over a project owned by someone else. Rational thought processes and mutual understanding of the interrelationships of complex projects gives a better outcome for mutual benefit.

2 thoughts on “Recruiting Management And Key Stakeholders”

  1. Hey random online blogger person, be my valentine? Just joking, but you’ve got a great writing style. If you weren’t a figment of my imagination, I’d write you poems and such.

  2. Pingback: The Candidate Experience – Part 3: Transition to Employee » Make HR Happen

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