Urgent Action Needed to Attract Talent in a Rapidly Changing World

In today's fast-paced business landscape, the urgency to attract talent has never been greater, warns Raffaele Jacovelli of HighTech Partners. He emphasizes that traditional hiring processes are becoming obsolete, as delayed budget cycles can significantly hinder a company’s ability to meet operational goals and drive revenue growth. Mr. Jacovelli joins Hunt Scanlon Media to discuss how organizations must adopt a more dynamic approach to talent acquisition.

October 23, 2024 – Often the process of getting the right people employed into the right jobs at the right time to achieve operational objectives has lagged behind because the yearly budget process gets finalized too late. Today the pace of change in business, throughout the business year, has accelerated to such a speed that this approach severely affects the top line revenue growth, according a report from HighTech PartnersRaffaele Jacovelli. “Furthermore at the start of a business year this problem becomes a critical point of failure,” he says. “New services and solutions to grow top line revenues demand new & different skills compared to the existing employees. The planned and budgeted revenues are put at risk due to a time lag in new people being hired.”

Hightech Partners believes that a new and more dynamic approach is needed to take account of planning cycles, speed to market and having the right people in place, at the right time.

First line and mid-level managers face unprecedented pressures in running their operations. “The last several years severe economic trading conditions have seen the numbers of managers reduced and yet the workload – to keep business on target – has increased,” Mr. Jacovelli said. “Hiring new people at any time of the year is a time consuming activity. Pressure of immediate work means that time spent on longer range planning is inevitably reduced. In fact when under such pressure of short-term deadlines any kind of creative thinking is a far more difficult skill to practice.”

What this means in regard to hiring new people is waiting until definite roles are agreed in every detail, according to Mr. Jacovelli. “When the added stress of closing business at the end of the financial year is considered, we can see the old approach of waiting until end of the fiscal to start even thinking about the search for new talent is almost inevitable. The consequences for business of this late start are very serious and not immediately obvious.”

In addition, for those companies closing the financial year at the same time of the calendar, a mid-December start of a search faces the holiday break as the first challenge, and then year start activities occupy the first two to three weeks of January, Mr. Jacovelli explains. He says that this means it is effectively mid of Q1 before meaningful discussions can start with candidates and more time is needed for the interview / selection process – often now involving more people and approvals –and finally the candidate’s notice periods further delays the start date.


Raffaele Jacovelli is managing director at digital-focused executive search firm Hightech Partners. The firm leverages forward-looking methods such as big data analysis and artificial intelligence into the executive search process to help companies embrace new ways of working. Hightech Partners has offices in Brussels and Geneva, Switzerland with local partners across the major regions of Europe. The firm also founded ITP Worldwide, an alliance of specialized search and consulting firms in the technology industry in the U.S. and Asia. Since joining Hightech Partners in 2006, Mr. Jacovelli has facilitated hundreds of top-level international recruitments. His areas of expertise include software, hardware, and services, ranging from artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to real-time and high-performance computing to cybersecurity, IoT, mobile, cloud, Saas, and PaaS.


“On this basis it can easily be well into the second quarter, before the people needed are in place and well into quarter three before they start making a productive contribution to revenue generation,” Mr. Jacovelli said. “We can see on this basis why so many businesses face an uphill struggle to achieve first quarter results. It will come as no surprise that the second quarter is also often disappointing in terms of order intake.”

Stress and Pressure in Q3 and Q4

Business plans are “back-end” phased in an effort to achieve the expected growth but this places undue stress and pressure in the second half of the year.

Mr. Jacovelli  notes that the consequences are two-fold:

  • Margin erosion as excessive discounts are given to try and keep the plan on track.
  • Under-performance as orders slip into the next year.

A more dynamic response to this situation is required, with a “long range” approach to hiring. Hightech Partners considers this in two distinct phases:

Phase 1: Identification of the Needs

  1. Elicit through a proven methodology  the ideal personal profiles (track record, skills and knowledge) for new job roles in support of new products, solutions, services and markets.
  2. Optimize/benchmark existing employees to map into the new business plan requirements. A high level view can then be followed by a more detailed assessment if required.
  3. Gap analysis to identify the profiles not matched by the existing resources and define the consequent recruiting priorities.
  4. Construction of employer a value proposition and labor-go-to-market model designed to attract the top performers and most qualified executives.

Related: Using Your Candidate Experience to Attract Senior-Level Talent

  1. Business analysis of key competitors’ capabilities and organization delivers a go-to-market benchmark.

“A key element of such a methodology is a workshop involving line and HR managers that efficiently addresses the above items,” Mr. Jacovelli said.

Phase 2: Effective Hiring Process

  1. Search, interview and short list candidates more rapidly and with detailed insight knowing where to find the right people and making a compelling first approach.
  2. Fast start – support the on boarding process with first 90 days plans to reduce the time taken to a net return from the newly hired people.
  3. Coach and train –the leadership team and key contributors with the skills required to deliver the new business plan objectives.

Returning to the opening observations about the time pressure on the reduced numbers of first and mid-level managers, Mr. Jacovelli explains. “More help in the hiring process needs to be given to the managers to streamline the old manual steps. Searching and finding the right potential candidates needs to become a more dynamic and online process.”

Mr. Jacovelli also notes that managers today are more likely to have a few moments between meetings, possibly at an airport, to use their mobile device to keep updated. “New cloud-based systems can accomplish this requirement of managers for a fast online update,” he says. “Precise tracking and status of candidates can be done in seconds and where needed CV / resumes can be viewed for comments and feedback.”

Using such an approach raises the probability of business plans being achieved and reduces the pressure on the second half results, according to Mr. Jacovelli. “In today’s fast moving trading environment those businesses that act quickly to get the right talent on board at the right time will have a clear advantage over those that wait until every aspect of planning is completed – by then it is already too late,” he said.

Hightech Partners specializes in digital transformation. The firm leverages forward-looking methods such as big data analysis and artificial intelligence into the executive search process to help companies embrace new ways of working. HTP has offices in Brussels and Geneva, Switzerland with local partners across the major regions of Europe. The firm also founded ITP Worldwide, an alliance of specialized search and consulting firms in the technology industry in the U.S. and Asia.

Related: The Role of Values-Based Hiring in Talent Attraction and Retention

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor  – Hunt Scanlon Media

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