Companies need to take a rigorous and progressive approach to the hiring process by determining what it is they're really looking for and how to assess it. Who are the "right" people to hire? Members of successful teams differ in complementary ways. If you've ever worked for someone who only hires people like themselves, you know why this is true. Diversity needs to be a part of an office's unique environment. Differing perspectives will keep your company from seeming similar, regardless of the client or the services you deliver. It also helps you round out your team. A team made up of just quarterbacks would not be very successful.
A progressive approach to successful hiring is needed to achieve diversity and success. Do you have a human resource management system securely in place? Have you looked to an outside specialist who can assist your human resources team by using an applicant management & tracking software to help you build a model for successful job fit? The time to invesigate an applicant tracking software systesm is now when you have the time. When the markekt recovers and we return to "green flag racing" we will all be to busy.
Before interviewing, you researched the company, donned your best clothes and practical shoes the day of the appointment, planned your route to be early, tucked your updated resume in your portfolio and left for your interview with Human Resources.
In the next hour, you do everything in your power to acquaint them with your skills, explain why you fit the job and why they should hire YOU!
But then, the regret letter arrives saying although they were impressed with your credentials, they have decided to go with another candidate.
You think, what could have I done better in the interview and why wasn't I hired?!!
Well if the company did its job right, it used applicant tracking software system to better refine candidiates and subjected you to taking some employee assessments so they knew more about you before the interview. So if they didn't pick you, maybe they did you a favor? If there was no job fit, how long would you have lasted. Companies need to spend more time focusing on talent acquisition.
On your next job interview if a company using applicant management and pre-employment testing make sure you ask them how they define job fit. It will give you better insight into whether this is a good decision for both of you.
I met with some Lean consultants this morning over coffee and eggs. I opened my half of the conversation with the thought that, if a Lean initiative fails, the blame generally falls on the Human Resources. They both blinked, thought, and agreed. Conversely, HR can make a significant contribution to lean success. Lean works if the people are aligned with the processes.
So, which HR practices are helpers of lean success?
First is how performance is calculated, communicated and tied to incentives. Too often, staff go home not knowing (or caring) whether or not they accomplished their goals.
Next is team development. An organization that is based on individual performance will struggle to get the team behaviors needed for lean success.
Then, clarify roles and responsibilities. The job description for a supervisor are different than those of an engineer.
Then, communicate. A lean communication plan must go beyond posters and newsletters into walking the talk and reminding everyone of their success. When you feel you are over communicating, you have it about right.
Finally, celebrate success. A lot of repetitive hard work follows. Before enlightenment, there is chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, there is still chopping wood and carrying water. It's an old saying, but it applies.
Over communicate, celebrate, and clarify roles. Get Human Resources on board, using assessment tools, good HR Management, Human Resources software and a focus on job fit.
Then, and only then, will your Lean initiative survive over time.
I was reading a resume for a client last week, and hit a phrase I had not seen before - "top to top selling". Since I work in sales, I "got it", but others might not. I realize that there have been several new words cropping up that were not there before...
Joining the Twitterverse
A "torch and pitchfork" group
Nanoblogging
WILB - Workforce Internet Leisure Blogging
...and so on.
Those of us that need to keep up (and we all do...) need a simple resource to look these words up. That way, our performance management systems and Applicant Tracking Software can be capturing meaningful words, and we can guide better talent management decisions. If we keep up with the words that are used, we can keep up with the people.
Here is a secret weapon -
WordSpy.com. I love it - you can quickly find out what it REALLY means. The last one I came across on a tech resume was Ubicomp. Huh?
I looked it up. It is short for ubiquitous computing. And, now I'm current. Word.
Picking the right people is never easy. You would think that years of experience would bring you closer to a hiring expert but it does not.
Your candidates can present an eye appealing resume, have great presence and charm, or communicate like a scholar but that doesn't mean they are right for the job or your company's culture! Remember, if they look too good to be true, than they probably are.
Don't flip the coin in hiring. Don't rush headlong to fill an open position. Pedigree can be less important than experience, entrepreneurial nerve and commitment.
Build a hiring science to your company through the use of hiring assessments and applicant tracking software. Help your company be successful by developing a culture that attracts high performers and allows for employee engagement.
Read The WelchWay related article
here.
There seems to be a lot of fear in the workplace lately. From the adult perspective, we know that crises happen, markets go up and down, people get laid off. But that used to happen to someone else, not us. That is no longer the case.
What do we do? Paul H. Sutherland of Zenvesting teaches: establish a habit of doing more than you're paid for. Do everything you can to keep your employer profitable.
Help keep your employer's core values in the vision. Don't let panic overtake reasonability. Keep connection to ethics, virtue and common sense.
As an employer, when hiring new employees what steps are you taking when hiring new employees to find the people who embody your culture through pre-employment testing & assessments? Do you assess what you need for job performance, think lean HR, or make use of applicant tracking and use human resource management systems available on the market to access for job fit? These steps will help set your employees up for success, not failure. After all, it is all about the people.
What are you doing as an employer or employee to insure your success?
We occupy space, or used to, in a building that we own. Last week, we found ourselves with the realization that to provide exceptional customer service to our building tenant, we have three days to move our operations so they could take over the floor of the building we occupy!! No easy task!
Thoughts run rampant in our minds: moving phones, furniture, artwork, paperwork, file contents and where do we find a mover on such short notice. Where do we locate space to store our "stuff", where do we move our staff??
Now, talk about personnel management, job performance, HR management and Human Resource Planning!! This was the maximum test of our patience, resourcefulness and skills. Definitely a team effort in every sense of the word. And this team reached the finish line with flying colors!
When you are building a team; before you hire, consider the use of Career Personality Tests or other Employee Assessments so that you know the candidate has Job Fit. It will be worth all the time and energy. We do and it continues to pay dividends.
There he was. A nicely dressed man in a necktie on the main corner in town. I couldn't tell the color of his suit because he was wearing a sandwich board that was almost as tall as he was, saying "Hire ME!" He had his profession and his phone number on the sign, and he was waving at me with a hopeful sign as I drove by.
Wow. I realized that these are strange times. Even stranger, less than a day later, I got a call from a local journalist, doing a story about hiring in general, and about the guy in the sandwich board in particular. "Had I seen him? " Yes. "What did I think?" Hmm.
I said that I had two opinions. First, he would probably be successful for a variety of reasons - that nobody else was doing it so he would stand out, that he was showing determination and a willingness to try new ideas, even if the concept of holding a sign in public is certainly 100 years older than the Internet.
Then, I said he was a shining example of how flawed and overloaded the current job search process is. Organizations are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of applicants, and job seekers are willing to do WHATEVER it takes to get past the screening and get a job. Any job. He was certainly giving up on the Internet.
Savvy organizations are using this time to redo their core processes, putting in assessments and applicant tracking, using human resources software and talent management concepts to predict good job fit.
If not, when the economy turns (and it will) the organizations that did not focus on job fit will have their high performers leave and their mediocre people stay. What you want is to have the high performers stay. That requires good talent management.
I hope your filters and systems are in place, and that you will be rewarded by a sustainable culture of high performance. And, if the guy in the sandwich board is reading this, call me. I would be happy to help with your search.
Stop making problems biggger than they have to be. As we work our way out of this economic wiredness, we are watching the complexity of the economy and organizations play out. Who knew it was all connected? Yikes.
Keep it simple as we fix it. As I work with applicant tracking and assessments, I find that the processes that fail are the ones that are too complex and/or don't have a dose of common sense. It is human nature to try to fix a problem by making lots of little changes and building in checks and balances that get very complex over time. As the layers pile up, there is a tendency for the system to fail in new and more clever ways. I am reminded of this by NASA. It is very difficult to get a rocket into space, and the simpler ones have a better history than the fancy, gizmo-laden space shuttle.
Here is proof...
www.youtube.com/watch
True story - when NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface.
The Russians used a pencil. The human resources software that I install is often not as complex (or costly) as the huge enterprise sytems that are out there. But, as we know, simple is good...
Okay, bear with me as this story takes some imagination and introspection.
Over the course of the last days watching the snow come down, working from my home office because it was too difficult to drive to the office, I was struck with the thought of how satisfied one can be when their job fits what is important to them.
What really is job fit? Some of us are fortunate enough to have experienced it. Some say it is when your job truly aligns with your core values. While that is true it may be hard for us to grasp that concept. More specifically I think it is when the requirements of the job and the core values of the company align with your skills and values. This seems to make sense and most of us agree with this statement.
However, during the interviewing and hiring process it seems to be that neither the company or the candidate spend enough energy on making sure it is there. For the most part companies get very tied up in skills and work experience and than wonder why the employee fails. At the same time the candidate is trying to land the job and does not do their homework either.
When job fit exists, employers end up with engaged employees who are loyal, like what they do and enjoy their chosen occupation; it not just a job. Everyone can tell the difference especially the customers.
In my next blog I will discuss how this can be accomplished by using applicant tracking software and employee assessments to gain more knowledge much sooner in the process.
I knew she was going to make the top 5. I just knew it. The selection of a Hoosier as Miss America came a surprise to many, but I was an early predictor. With all of the work I do in assessments and applicant tracking, I have a more than passing acquaintance with how to pick a winner.
The importance is gaining family bragging rights. I have a daughter and sister-in-law that are big into watching the pageants and guessing the outcomes, and I have gained quite a bit of street credibility in the family by doing very well at their game. The rules are simple - at the start of the telecast, all contestants make a brief statement and wave. At the end of this, each family member text messages the others their top choices, and these are compared to the top 5 and, of course, the winner. No formal scoring is done, but bragging rights are big around here.
So I take this seriously, and use my Human Resources and Selection skills for an important purpose. Since I can't use recruiting software and get each applicant to fill out assessments, I work with what I have. I pay attention to the last few winners, and project from that what the "job fit" issues are. What is important? Athleticism? Volunteerism? Diversity? I listen to the interviews and promotions leading up to the event, and try to figure out the "job fit" model that the judges will be working toward.
The big clue was a news story on how the contestants were a more toned and athletic group than previous years. I saw this as a message that the swimsuit portion of the contest would have more importance than the evening gown or the talent portions. I then noted in a press release that the winner of the preliminary swimsuit competition, announced a week early, was Miss Indiana. Hmmm.
So we popped a bowl of popcorn, and I entered my choices early - Indiana, Hawaii and Tennessee. While I was lukewarm about her chances after the evening gown moment (Looked like a tablecloth to me) and the talent portion (OK but classical music is often lost on younger judges) I was proud of the selection. Happy that Indiana finally got out of the "never won" column, and even happier that my ability to predict job fit has a payoff in bragging rights within my family.
The pageant has updated the selection process to include 10 choices from viewers, with an on line survey. I propose that next year they have all contestants fill out a thorough application form using applicant tracking software, and have the results on-line for all to see. Then I can really make some predictions based on solid data. In HR, that's what we need these days...
The distractions of the stock market are keeping the headlines off of the real news - the unemployment rates. As the ranks of job seekers swell, the arms race of polishing resumes and practicing interview questions is on. Think you have a good screening method? think you can compare resumes and get an "apples to apples" comparison? Think you have "radar" that is good at picking up false answers? Think again.
There are some great resources on the applicant's side. On-line research about your industry in general and you, the employer, in specific. Software to craft a very impressive resume. Videos and podcasts to guide the "soft skills" part of the interview. All of this produces a predictable result - erratic job fit and poor job performance.
Want to see what the applicants are using? Try
this link for some interview advice. Try
this link to review a blog that is intended to help applicants get by your pre-employment testing. Or even read
this website that is intended to help applicants fool drug testing.
My point is simple. As the employment pressure climbs, raise your standards and get pre-employment assessments into the mix. As applicants are preparing their answers, you should be preparing your questions...and building them into your talent management system.
Culture is more than the behavior of the
individual. It depends on the interaction of people - in pairs, small groups and
through the entire organization.
Talent management is a two-way street. A savvy organization wants to identify and keep
the people who will be high performers and make a difference.
High performing employees work for the
challenge, the personal development, and the “stretch assignment”.
Both parties can win at this game...
...or lose. What would it be like if employees told the truth? Click here for a very cynical (if funny) scene from Office Space.
Employees who are more engaged are less likely to leave when
things get tough. Their persistence translates into positive effects on the
bottom line. Today’s workforce, particularly high performers, want their work
to resonate with their core self, their reason for being. Imagine the increased contribution from
a passionate staff whose roles are aligned to their core interests and
capabilities, engaged to contribute their full measure. It forms the infrastructure of the
organization’s culture. Its strength is the organization’s strength.
This - the impact of passionate people doing good work - is the reason I'm so passionate about increasing the standards in hiring, in using applicant tracking and assessment software, and in implementing good talent management tactics. Care to join?
Every now and then, it's fun to look at a policy that really "puts it out there." This one amuses me...
Click here for a video from the Harvard Business re: paying people to leave.
My only issue - why not have Zappos raise their hiring standards and spend the money on assessments or applicant tracking software that includes screening questions aimed at job fit, instead of this policy?
Have you ever seen a room of high quality, desperate people, all trying to fool applicant tracking systems and pre employment assessment? I did - I was recently asked to present to a local job search group, so I was the expert from HR.
It is always interesting to get a view from the other side of the desk...especially if you interview applicants in these modern times. I was impressed with how much they knew of two things - the power of the internet to find out A LOT about the organizations that they were interviewing with, and that current trends in interviewing questions were favoring a lot of behavioral questions. Therefore, they were well-rehearsed in their answers to any interview questions that began with "Give me an example of a time when..."
They are using new tools to outflank you - try this link -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqI0mAp2AY
Straightforward advice, right? Generic, right?
Well, they have done specific training videos for most positions. Here is one for pharmaceutical sales representative -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR-IhZJOq3U
When I say that the "arms race" is on for the upper hand in hiring, these are the tools that I see applicants using. Savvy organizations are moving to screening methods that are not as easily fooled - Applicant tracking software aimed at producing job fit, employee assessments used as a part of hiring, and good human capital management policies are the best weapons...
A thought for our election...
My remarks a week or so ago about the election just being a hiring process with some strange public interviews proved to be true. In the last few days, both national and local candidates were using the same logic - "Hire me, and I'll work for you..."
I have lived in other countries and cultures, and find that our electoral process, while somewhat flawed and quirky, works better than most of the other models out there. Of couse, I would add some good applicant management software and some assessments, but the basics appear to be sound. No matter your thoughts on the outcome, we should all applaud that the system works.
I was feeling very patriotic as I walked to the polls, and was pleased to take this photo of a flag hung near the Noblesville courthouse: Enjoy.
Any port in a storm. This economy is a "perfect storm" that will drive the
future of hiring, and I'm focused on finding the best tools, from pre
employment testing to EEO Reporting. The arms race is back on, and
we'll be reporting from the battleground for you.
The economy is affecting hiring in surprising ways. At a time where the volume of hiring is slowing, each hire becomes more crucial. Before the downturn, there was a problem with people not telling the truth in the hiring process. Now, it gets worse.
As unemployment numbers start heading up, the pressure on screening and hiring systems increases. Advanced applicant tracking and assessment tools that apply "LEAN HR" are part of the modern Human Resources software suite. These tools are the first line of defense for an organization trying to maintain their "employer of choice" status. Good human resource planning requires good support tools.
Admit it - the arms race of the hiring process had kind of slowed down. Now, the race is speeding up again because of the combined forces of a slowing economy pushing unemployment up and organizations properly focused on building a high performing work force.
Organizations must use proper talent aquisition to produce job fit, employee engagement, and great job performance. At the same time, they must use whatever advanced tools they can find to keep applicants out of the process that are not sharing their true values and attitudes, and are simply trying to get inside an organization - any organization - and are willing to say whatever it takes to get there.
So, the arms race is on. Let's keep a step ahead....I'm looking for links to good blogs and sites that might help - share them if you have them!
On the theme of strange times, continued from the last post...
Then, there are the people you already have...
You may have noticed some disquieting trends in your organization at the end of summer of 2008 – absentee numbers that are higher that you prefer, low productivity numbers, the occasional loss of key employees, and the difficulty of hiring good people. They are all connected – and most businesses are feeling the same pinch.
Don’t get caught in the trap of focusing just on hiring new employees and bailing out the leaking ship. You have probably noticed that your top performers – the 16% that are stars – produce 80% of the bottom line results. The remaining 20% of good results come from the 68% of employees that are average performers.
Do the math – that’s 100%. Let’s also agree that about 16% of employees hide under rocks, hoping that you won’t notice that they haven’t produced anything useful, ever. Continue to ignore them for a moment - today, we’re talking about the high performers.
My point is simple - retaining all employees at any cost should no longer be your goal. Focus your retention effort on those few people that are producing 80% of your results. Do whatever you can do to keep your best on board. I am not recommending that you ignore the rest – just focus your efforts in the short term on a very important part of your staff.
I'll wager that if you were to shadow a manager for a day, most of their time would be spent on the lower performing people, leaving the high performers to self-manage. Not a good strategy...the high performers feel under-loved and will, over time, either become average performers or, worse yet, leave.
Even if you have a good human resource management system, practice good lean hr, and read all of the talent management books you can find, you will still be at risk for the departure of your high performers.
Action point - sit down with your supervisors and make the above point with them...and get them to spend more of their time with the ones they want to keep.
Powered by Compendium