A piece which compares recruitment with making marmalade – surely not?  Well, today was marmalade making day and you know me, I don’t do one thing at a time.  Once I’d squeezed the juice from 2 kgs. of Seville oranges and a couple of Amalfi lemons, it was time to scoop out the pith and pips, before shredding the fragrant peel.  All three tasks weren’t particularly onerous, just time-consuming and that’s when I began thinking about the challenges of resourcing.  To be honest, they’re never far from my thoughts.

The house was filled with a fragrant, citrus aroma as the vibrant amber liquid bubbled away.  The lockdown jars had been liberated from the garage and waited patiently on the side, excited to be back in use.  My marmalade-making began at an early age, under the watchful eye of my Grandad.  We made chutneys and jams with fruit we’d foraged from countryside hedgerows, although I don’t recall any recipes.  Almost instinctively Grandad knew what would work.  I’m not nearly so intuitive about preserves – I’m so much better with cakes.  And Grandad encouraged that, too.  My baking talents have developed over time.

I spend a lot of time thinking about resourcing and recruitment as you know.  Sometimes that’s from an organisation’s point of view and other times I’m banging the drum on behalf of job seekers or candidates, even students.  When you enjoy bringing great people and fabulous opportunities together as much as I do, then you’ll recognise that good ideas or fresh approaches surface at the strangest times.  Even when you’re relaxing, pottering in the garden or in my world today, making marmalade.

So, what are the similarities between attracting people to join your business and making marmalade?  What have these two processes got in common?  This weekend it was the lack of preserving sugar at the supermarket.  I’d found a fabulous new recipe online and the oranges were urging me to get on with their transformation, but I’d only secured three quarters of the sugar I’d need.  This is what got me thinking about supply and demand in recruitment.  No matter how slick our recruitment processes have become and how far assessments have evolved, when talented people are in short supply there’s no way forward.  Recruitment gets stuck.

This afternoon I’m making marmalade in January to coincide with the short season for these bitter oranges from Seville (the lemons were a bonus), and I’m suggesting that recruitment should begin with the available talent pool.  How often have we started our searches with unrealistic expectations?  How often do our ideal rockstars bear little resemblance to the market (my seasonality) and affordability?

I didn’t have all the sugar I needed, so I tracked down a different recipe.  Market forces prevailed.  So, why do so many organisations and business leaders begin recruitment with unrealistic expectations?  Surely, we’d be better understanding our potential market and scaling back our grand ideas?  Sometimes the search for the golden ticket becomes all encompassing.  It’s no longer about getting work done, but a preoccupation with all the things getting in the way of recruitment.  Almost without thinking, we begin to focus on the stuff we can’t fix (salaries, qualifications), rather than what we can.  Perhaps we need to encourage our managers to have more confidence in their leadership talents and their strengths in developing a great team?

Sourcing quality seasonal ingredients and ideal recipes got me thinking about resourcing your businesses with remarkable people who share your organisational values.  That often means people who have the right attitude and are keen to learn new skills, or hone existing ones.  But this all begins way before recruitment.  Design organisations which people want to join, create jobs which inspire them to flourish and be open-minded about who’ll succeed.  Then favour a selection process which brings out the best in your candidates and gives you the confidence they’ll flourish.

If you’d like to chat about resourcing or recruitment … or even, making marmalade or baking, I’d love to hear from you.  Let’s talk.