Managing Talent: Can Yahoo Still Attract Tech Workers?

Availability of qualified personnel effects both labor supply and demand. The greater the demand coupled with greater shortage of qualified applicants, the higher/more competitive the salaries for those positions. The economy and demand for products and/or services effects both labor supply and demand. Our economy is very slow resulting in less demand for products or services. The slow economy is the main reason for so many layoffs. A strong economy and high demand for products/services creates jobs. In every business that deals with a collection of employees, labor supply and demand must be a major consideration by management or ownership. No business can reach their potential without their employees; striking a balance between the labor available and the labor needed is always a concern that relates to productivity and to profits.

Understanding labor supply and demand and how it affects your business is the best way to operate a successful business. Recruiting is a big part of keeping a company running and it requires a lot of planning. The three steps that must be taken before a company can begin recruiting people are: forecasting, goal setting and strategic planning, and program implementation and evaluation. Forecasting is when the company determines the supply of and demand for various types of human resources. This helps the company to predict which areas of the company will have labor shortages or surpluses. Goal setting and strategic planning helps to focus attention on the problem and can provide the basic necessities needed to address the labor shortages and surpluses.

This stage is to get the company to select a strategy to handle the labor shortages and surpluses. Program implementation and evaluation are the final stage and tie the planning and recruiting to a companies’ strategy and efforts to develop employees. Evaluation helps to measure what parts of the planning were a success or failure (Gerhart, Hollenbeck, Noe, & Wright, 2014). Yahoo is severely understaffed due to losing employees to other companies. Filling these high tech positions will be hard for them considering they have a lower employee rating than other companies resulting in potential employees not giving Yahoo a second look.

Yahoo has a high demand for information technicians, while there is a short supply for workers with this degree or experience. The company seems to be losing their employees to more exciting new companies because Yahoo is staying a part of the older internet industry. I believe that Susan Burnett’s program, called Leading Yahoos, would be beneficial when recruiting. This program teaches leadership, goal setting, and measurement of results. By helping these new leaders align their work with the company’s overall strategy, it supports Yahoo’s effort to make goals more visible to employees at all levels (Gerhart, Hollenbeck, Noe, & Wright, 2014). Employees would also believe they have opportunities to advance themselves.

If I was responsible for college recruiting at yahoo I would recruit from colleges that offer software engineering. I would say I am recruiting highly skilled software experts to hire for yahoo. Yahoo is seeking pathways for growth. I would explain Susan Burnett’s program, Leading Yahoos, to the recruit’s just to make them aware of what Yahoo had to offer and that they do have advancement opportunities within the company.

Reference
Noe, R., Hollenbeck, J., Gerhart, B. & Wright, P. (2011). Fundamentals of human resource management (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.