Research for the Real World: Looking for Talent in All the Right (New) Places

“As pay goes up, so too do demands on compensation practitioners,” writes Linda Barrington, executive director of the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell University's ILR School. “Tighter labor markets inflate compensation costs, strain salary increase budgets and extend time-to-hire. Organizations continue seeking the best talent at the lowest cost, but those costs keep increasing.” One solution: Innovating recruitment practices to expand the talent pool. But what evidence is there that such innovation is feasible?

In September’s issue of workspan magazine, Barrington reviews research by economist Conrad Miller that offers empirical hope for sustainably innovating recruiting practices to tap new talent sources. Miller’s study reveals that individual businesses reap diverse-hiring benefits years after regulatory compliance has ended, presumably by developing “screening capital” through improved practices for screening potential employees. (“The Persistent Effect of Temporary Affirmative Action,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2017, 9(3): 152–190 https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20160121).

Another example Barrington points to of bettering new hire screening is select tech-intensive companies who are innovating search and hire practices to recruit talent on the autism spectrum. Tight labor markets, by making skilled talent even more difficult to find, she concludes, increases the payoff of innovative “screening capital” investments to find the talent otherwise missed.

To read the full article, click here: RFTRW_SEPT2018