Talent Teams, it’s time to get to know your C-Suite

Who are your customers? Do you know? And if you do, how are you thinking deliberately about influence?

Data on customer demographics have long been utilised to design and sell product and to turn a passive market into active consumers.

While it may not be something you consider on a day-to-day basis, your experience of working in Talent Acquisition is directly impacted by how much the C-suite understand and value what you deliver.

It’s the C-suite who determine where the investments go each year and which areas of the business should be highly funded. Many Talent Leaders believe that so long as they are talking to the Chief People Officer (CPO) then their interests are being well represented. But the CPO is only one member of the Leadership Team.

If your TA department is not getting invested in, it’s time to start talking directly to the people who determine where funds go. But to get their attention and buy-in, you’ll need to know how to talk their language and understand what they actually CARE about.

Meet the C-Suite

Here’s an example of a traditional C-suite (yours may be different) and what their typical key focus areas are.

It’s important that you understand what the key accountabilities of each member so you can tailor your conversation with each member of the C-Suite accordingly.

Take the CFO for example. Their role in the business is to take ownership of the bottom line, ensure resources are being used effectively and efficiently, and ensuring that potential business risks are easily identified and mitigated. This means that before you make any pitch for your Talent Strategy, you should be able to clearly speak to all of the concerns that the CFO might want to address, including:

• Understanding how much it costs to run TA
• Understanding the costs of TA if it were outsourced or decentralized
• The demonstrable contribution that TA makes to revenue contribution for the business
• The business risks that TA mitigates, and the organisational value derived from TA being able to address those risks
• The overall ROI of TA

But this is not where the conversation stops. Knowing this information is your ticket to play. It’s time TA starts thinking like an influencer and talks about the things the customer (in this case, the CFO) actually wants to know about. Its time we took a leaf out of product marketing and helped the C-Suite better understand the WHY we exist and WHY what we do not only matters to them, but is critical to success.

Want to hear more? Join us at ATC2023 at Luna Park Sydney on 22nd & 23rd November to hear Nicola’s full presentation Gaining C-Suite Buy-in for Talent Advisory.