Attracting and Retaining Talent

Mark Sasson is managing partner at Pinpoint Search Group, a cybersecurity recruitment firm. He gave advice to attendees on attracting and retaining talent.

“Talent isn’t hard to find,” he said. “It’s hard to attract. You can apply process to talent acquisition. You can improve outcomes and repeatability. Process plus professionalism equals success.”

When attracting talent, it’s important to establish a mindset and culture, Sasson said. It’s important to create messaging that projects positive and professional.

“We want to create and map out a comprehensive interview process, a cohesive process,” he said. “You need an informed conversation about what the opportunity is, why it’s being brought up and how it impacts the company.”

Also, all interviewers should be aligned and a liaison is needed to communicate with both the interviewers and the candidates, Sasson said.

The liaison’s sole role is to enhance communications, he said. After an interview, the liaison debriefs the candidate and the company. That’s to ensure people are interpreting what happened correctly and are not left guessing to ensure that “it doesn’t end up breaking up a potentially great relationship.

In terms of retention, one of the main things leading employees to leave their jobs is lack of visibility, Gibson said. In this industry, where a lot of M&A is taking place, leadership might be changing and changes are happening, “if people aren’t told hey, you’re safe, and they don’t know that … it’s highly likely they’re going to leave.”