I often find people introducing themselves as ‘Talent’ Management firms. ‘Talent’ Acquisition companies. ‘Talent’ Mining groups. ‘Talent’ seems to be the word du jour! And yet, what do they mean by ‘Talent’? What is ‘Talent’ to them… and how do these companies plan to help me acquire ‘Talent’?

Before I go on, let’s first ensure we understand the word ‘Talent’ correctly. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Talent as a special (often athletic, creative, or artistic) aptitude; general intelligence or mental power; the natural endowments of a person. Similarly, the Oxford Dictionary defines Talent as a natural aptitude or skill, or as people possessing natural aptitude or skill.

I think we can fairly assume, therefore, that in context of recruitment, ‘Talent’ is an innate quality to be able to execute or perform a task with professional flair and dexterity. ‘Talent’ can also mean that someone has an aptitude, a knack, an ability, a special capacity to do something better than others or simply do it differently, or maybe really well.

Talent is something we all possess, in various forms, in different fields, and in unique ways. But is ‘talent’ all that companies really need? Perhaps not.

Let me explain. Consider a company in the IT industry with over 1,000 employees. The employees would include teams of Java developers, UI/UX designers, Testers and PHP coders, for example. Each of these employees possesses talent – which is obvious, given that they were recruited in the first place!

So what is it that really sets them apart? Is there anything that sets them apart? That’s quite difficult to ascertain – HR needs to create a capability matrix study or do a skill gap analysis, in order to define the employee’s talent level and skill set. However, this naturally has to be done after the employee has been hired.

At CloudNow Technologies, we look at this from quite a different perspective. ‘Talent’ is not our top most priority when we recruit… it’s just a starting point.

We assume that any candidate who has been shortlisted by our team and is facing us in the interview has already completed many rounds of evaluation and assessments. That means that the candidate must, certainly, be possessing the talent required for the job.

At CloudNow Technologies what we really look for as a unique differentiator when we’re looking at recruitment is candidates who are willing to go that extra mile for the company.

When you combine talent for the job with an individual who is hard-working, not because he/she has been asked to work hard, but because they want to, it makes for something truly special. We look for candidates who love what they do. Someone who isn’t here just to make money but in order to make a difference to their own existence and to the company they work for. Someone who is a team player all the way. Someone who yearns to excel in whatever they do. Someone who likes to do the best possible, and even better.

We look for great individuals. We look for conscientious and responsible candidates. We hire people who are well-groomed, well-rounded and definitely well-grounded. All on top of their bedrock of talent.

If you feel you could be a good fit for this definition of an ideal team member at CloudNow, do get in touch with us via our Careers page.