Mandy Johnson - Winning The War for Talent: How to Attract and Keep the People to Make the Biggest Difference to Your Bottom Line

Praise for Mandy Johnson and
Winning the War for Talent

Mandy's Winning The War for Talent' seminar that she ran for us at Bond University Executive Education was the highest-rated program of the year. Mandy's content and workshop process were world-class.

James Carlopio, Former Director,
Bond University Centre for Executive Education

Mandy combines proven business experience with inspiring people skills. Her ideas and practices bring about real change and have invigorated our people and processes I think Winning the War for Talent will be a brilliant book to help with effective recruiting It's practical, scientific and has lots of templates for immediate application. I would like to think it can be Flight Centre's recruitment training bible in the future.

Graham Skroo' Turner, Managing Director,
The Flight Centre Travel Group

Mandy's book, Family Village Tribe , is the best set text I have ever used in our MBA strategy course. This is an instructive and totally engaging book about the reality of evolving strategy and the creation of one of Australia's best b usinesses.

John Steen, Associate Professor,
University of Queensland Business School

It's something I think lots of people who own a business should read.

Peter Switzer, Founder of Switzer Financial Services
(in reference to Family Village Tribe )

First published in 2014 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd
42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064

Office also in Melbourne

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Mandy Johnson

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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.

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Disclaimer

The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.

All examples used throughout this book are based on real events. I have, however, changed the names of the people involved to protect both the innocent and the guilty.

About the author

Mandy Johnson is a best-selling author, the former UK Director and Australian Head of Human Resources at Flight Centre Limited (the 15 000 employee global travel retailer) and an active speaker and adviser to both public and private organisations. This book evolved from her Winning the War for Talent' seminar, which was Bond University's highest-rated executive education program of its year. The seminar's innovative ideas have featured in interviews in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) and Mandy has also spoken on radio including ABC's Mornings with Jon Faine and The Conversation Hour . She has presented business seminars in Australasia, the UK, Europe, South Africa, USA and China, and her first book Family Village Tribe is now studied in many MBA courses around Australia.

Mandy began her work-life as a tour leader, roving the world for three years after completing a journalism degree. On her return to Australia she joined Flight Centre where she managed several stores, started up the company's first recruitment and training centre and co-founded its UK operation, becoming the organisation's youngest ever director at the age of 28. On her return to Australia she became HR Leader and it was here, while researching a best-practice people management system, that she became an active campaigner for innovations in this field.

Dubbed an author HR professionals should take notice of' by HR Magazine , Mandy has tested her practical strategies in a diverse range of organisations, including a stint undercover in a yachting company which became an AFR news story. She began writing business books to share her knowledge beyond the confines of expensive seminars and consultancies and to demonstrate that great people-management is the heart, soul and balance sheet of every company. Mandy now lives in Queensland with her husband and two children and challenges conventional HR thinking at every opportunity.

Acknowledgements

This book wasn't a solo effort so I'd like to thank the following people who helped make it a reality: Bond University's Centre for Executive Education head, James Carlopio, who first suggested to me that my seminar Winning the War for Talent' was really a book in the making; Flight Centre Managing Director Graham Skroo' Turner and Michael Hill International CEO Mike Parsell whose encouraging comments after reading the draft manuscript kept me plugging away at it; Kristen Hammond, senior commissioning editor at Wiley, who understood the point of the book straight away and helped me make it even better; Elizabeth Whiley, Wiley's Professional Development editor, who worked so hard to create an outstanding final product; Chloe Peel for her social marketing skills and Maree Peel as catalyst for the publishing contract; and the hundreds of business people I talked to whose stories of awesome, interesting and absurd people practices in their organisations kept fanning the flame of my fervour.

I'd also like to thank my family and friends for their continued support; Nancy Ahern, who didn't get to read this book but would have treasured it; and of course my husband, John Ahern, who should really get joint author status on this book for the hundreds of hours he put into reading and editing drafts and for always offering outstanding advice.

INTRODUCTION

Why change?

If I were running a company today I would have one priority above all others; to acquire as many of the best people in the world.

Jim Collins, business researcher and best-selling
author of Good To Great and Built To Last

According to the results of a CEO Institute survey, the number-one issue keeping chief executives awake at night is sourcing and retaining skilled staff'. Yet when PricewaterhouseCoopers asked 1300 global CEOs about their operational priorities, talent strategies didn't make the top five. So while CEOs may claim to be suffering from insomnia, it seems they're doing very little to alleviate the problem.