Let's assume for a moment that profitable growth in your business will be aided by attracting (and keeping for a while) the best talent in your industry and that HR may be able to help. It would be difficult to imagine a business strategy that said: "We are going for 20-per-cent growth this year, and we are going to do it with the most mediocre people we can find."

With the words Human Resources in their title it also seems reasonable to expect that HR know at least something about attracting two-legged talent that might assist.

But how do we attract these talented beings? What is it that they are looking for at a time when we know that they are now prepared more than ever to choose and re-choose employers as the "average employers in a lifetime" figure continues to rise. They want a lot, but from a long list I would prioritise:

lCash. Cold hard cash related to business and individual performance (and I mean related directly, none of this discretionary nonsense) with substantial differentiation between the top, middle and lower performers.

lClarity of performance expectations (to exceed).

lOpportunity to develop and progress on merit, where age, length of service, grey hair and being someone's brother-in-law are irrelevant.

But what happened to the perceived wisdom of needing good working conditions and personal relationships - the nice stuff? Not too sure about this, but I would guess that the perceived wisdom was a rumour spread by the mediocre.

In accepting that, even to an insensitive farang, the cold hard cash message is, well, pretty ugly, I would still emphasise that growth is more likely driven by employers seen and chosen for implementing cash, performance, development and progress criteria than ever before. Implementing - not talking about it and form filling.

So, how do you rate as an employer that attracts the best?

lHow much of total staff costs does your company spend on fixed rewards (salary and benefits) and how much on variable rewards (bonus)? Another way of asking this question is: how much do you pay people to turn up (fixed) and how much to drive business growth (variable)?

lIn any recent period, how many vacancies were filled by external hires (to bring fresh talent and ideas to the business) and how many were filled internally (giving opportunities for growth of your best talent)?

lOn your last employee survey, how were clarity-of-performance targets rated and how many were rated as actually measurable rather than just generic intentions?

The point of all this is that any HR team worth its tom yam knows the answer to these questions and is proactively working with business leaders to improve their company's attractiveness and potential growth. Building this sort of internal expertise may provide more long-term, bottom-line-impacting services than thought possible. Perhaps more of us should try it!

Joel Farnworth is managing partner of Kasemsri, Farnworth & Associates. He can be contacted via e-mail at jmvfarnworth@yahoo.com.

Joel Farnworth

The Nation