KeenHire Blog by Margaret Graziano

Employer of Choice. Train Your Managers To Retain The Best Employees

The Premise

With a rocky economy, emerging industries on the rise, four generations in the workforce, Sr. level leaders on the verge of retirement or redeployment and a sea of talent management issues knocking at your door, it is time to start thinking about how our company will maximize it’s return on your people investments.

 

The Society of Human Resource Management reports that 6 of the top 10 Workplace Trends are directly related to talent acquisition, selection & retention.

 

The number 1 trend to most likely have a major impact on the workplace is workforce retention, and the most critical HR function effecting business strategy is Staffing/Employment and Recruiting.  Companies who know that people are their competitive advantage are focusing on achieving organizational effectiveness, implementing stronger hiring processes, improving employee engagement, impacting workforce retention and elevating the performance of their people.

 

The KeenHire™ Talent Strategy 3.0 program empowers employers to take a new look at their human resource processes and their approach to Talent Management, Recruitment, Performance Management, Employee Engagement and Key Contributor Employee Retention.

 

Join us for this provocative, insightful and fun program that delves into the corporate strategic talent management and workforce performance issues and highlights innovative and practical solutions to solve them.  Click Here NOW to register.

 

The Program

We delve into your company's employment recruitment and retention issues, dispel the myths and uncover critical issues that affect your company’s ability to attract and keep the right people in your key contributor and next level leadership roles.

-Employee Retention-Understand the difference between Talent Equity and Tenure Equity. Review the generational parameters and influencers effecting employee engagement & retention. Delve into practical retention strategies and how to implement them into your day to day business.

-Workforce Assessment-Learn the organizational development approach to uncovering your company's people challenges.  Work with Benchmarking and Top Grading and learn how it can help you help your company maximize it's returns on it's people investments and mitigate hiring, engagement & retention mistakes.

-The Talent Mindset-Understand how a change in mindset is imperative to your company's ability to attract and retain the right people in the right roles. Strategize on astute methods, keen processes and provocative employee programs that forward your company to be an Employer of Choice.

-The Real Cost of Employee Turnover-Work through a hands on deep digging exercise and uncover the painful impact of hiring the wrong person or keeping the wrong person in a key role.

Take Aways

1. You gain hands on experience in uncovering the Real Cost of Employee Turnover and the impact that it has on your ability to achieve your corporate strategic objectives.

 

2. You learn the organizational development methodology for assessing your company’s real human capital needs.

 

3. You gain competence and capability to improve your company's ability to attract, select, engage, manage and retain your mission critical, key contributor and next level leadership talent.

 

4. You walk away with power and prowess as well as hundreds of practical employee retention strategies and employee engagement initiatives that forward your company's ability to incorporate the Talent Mindset into your everyday management and people practices.

  

The Expert

Margo coaches business leaders on building strategic minded stakeholder centric organizations. Her expertise in Strategic planning and Organizational effectiveness position her in a senior level Executive advisory role. She has developed proprietary work flow process, training and tools that enable her customers to implement Conscious-hiring protocols, High performing Recruitment initiatives, Employee Retention and Leadership development.

 

Want to Bring a KeenHire Consultant In-house? Call Today! 1-888-533-6447

 

 

Registration

 

Virtual Courses consist of 8 weekly 2 hour sessions and begin on June 18, August 9, September 17 and costs $599.00 per person. Save 30% overall when you register 3 or more participants.

 

KeenHire Management Recruitment Consulting And More

KeenHire™ Talent Management partners with top executives, international business leaders and strategic HR management of customer facing enterprises committed to making their mark socially, environmentally & fiscally.

Our expert Human Resources Management consulting specialists develop the foundation for organizationally effective, stakeholder aligned, high performance operations. Once the systemic work is done we create Recruitment and Employee Retention programs that leverage your company’s ability to compete for Mission Critical, `Go To`, Key Contributors and next level Leadership resources.  

We provide strategic minded Organizational Development, Workforce Planning & Design, Talent Acquisition, Employee Retention and Human Resource Management consulting professionals to companies committed to building with the best.

We train Leading Practices in O.D., Strategic HR Management Consulting, Workforce Planning, Recruitment, Hiring, On-Boarding, Performance Management, Employee Retention and Employee Development. We maximize your organizational effectiveness.

We save you money and time by implementing world-class consulting in HR Management, Recruitment, Employee Retention and Talent Management process technology & systems within your organizations.

We support your Recruitment, Human Resources Management and Employee Retention efforts while you grow with our RPI, TMPI and A la Carte service offerings.    

KeenHire™ Talent Management

We deliver world-class HR management consulting, Technical Recruitment solutions, Employee Retention strategies and highly skilled people for Start Up, Socially Responsible and High growth companies where the vitality and success of the company depends on the people inside.   Our ideal customers are in need of strategies for implementing best practices in Engineering Recruitment, Technical Recruiting, Management Recruitment Consulting, Corporate Recruitment in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C.

Employee Retention Links To Stock Price And Corporate Profitabiltiy

Staying Power

The keys to maximizing the value of your company are the people inside. 

The Problem

One of the sole competitive advantages your business has is the people you hire to carry out your mission. Running a company effectively now and in the future is directly related to your ability to choose the right people for the right roles and retain them for the right period of time. Your ability to stay in the marketplace and stay on top hinges on how well you maximize the returns on your people investments, leverage the strengths of your mission-critical players, key contributors and next-level leaders, and have them stay actively engaged and effective.

 

Media from the Wall Street Journal to CNN, and several hundred CEOs with whom I’ve spoken, agree that one of the top strategic initiatives of many companies is hiring not only new talent, but also the right talent. It is forecast that by 2012, we will be fully engaged in a shortage of high-level leadership talent.

 

 The impetus for this talent “shortage” is that there will be fewer knowledge workers available and interested in full-time gigs. It is a simple supply-and-demand problem, but the global marketplace, a weak and corrupt education system, and technology make the problem worse for the small to midsized companies competing for the best talent.

Given the shifting demographics facing us, companies committed to winning the war for talent not only have to create an environment that fosters growth, development and challenge, but also need to implement systems and operating practices that maximize their ability to attract and retain the best. This behavioral and corporate transformation is referred to as adopting a talent mindset.

This shift in mindset empowers business leaders of progressive organizations to maximize the talent of their people. When they leverage their people’s strengths and fully engage their work-teams, they capitalize on the brainpower of their workforce while innovating faster, competing harder and achieving their corporate objectives sooner.

Recent Survey Indicates HUGE Amount of Disengaged Employees

Santa Monica, Calif., April 29, 2010 – Escalating demands of the American workplace – from staff cuts and tighter budgets to increasingly difficult workloads – have created an environment where employees don’t feel they are valued appropriately by executives and superiors.  However, a new survey of 584 working Americans conducted by Kelton Research and sponsored by learning and talent management solutions provider Cornerstone On Demand reveals that employers are overlooking simple solutions to improve employee morale and loyalty – and reduce the risk of losing employees as the economy improves.
 
Nearly three in five (56 percent) employed Americans say that aside from compensation and benefits, being appreciated would motivate them to stay in their current position – even more so than an opportunity to advance their career (46 percent).
 
Additionally, more working women than men (62 percent vs. 50 percent) feel that, aside from money and benefits, being appreciated would make them stay put.  Yet, 54 percent of working Americans say that their colleagues appreciate them more than their supervisors or company executives.

While the economy may have made it difficult for employers to reward their workers with raises and additional benefits, they need to embrace other ways of showing appreciation. Employers also need to take note that while they are in survival mode their employees are looking out the window at what is next for them.

  “American workers simply want to be empowered to do a good job and be recognized for their contributions,” said Adam Miller, president and CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand.  “If companies don’t clearly communicate how employees can contribute to organizational goals and provide adequate training and performance feedback, they risk losing their best people as the economy improves.  This kind of turnover is costly and can dull a company’s competitive edge.”

 
Eye on the Future
Companies seeking to avoid excessive turnover as the economy recovers need to close the communication gap and empower employees to perform well in their roles.  The survey found that in the last six months:
 
    •    Over two in three (68 percent) employed Americans gripe they haven’t received useful feedback from their supervisors
    •     Over four in five (82 percent) employed Americans have not established their career goals with their superiors 

    •    More than half (53 percent) of working Americans haven’t felt they have a clear understanding of how their role contributes to company objectives 

    •    One in four (25 percent) Americans with jobs have been given new duties or responsibilities at work that are outside of their skill set
 
In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.
 
To view the complete results of the survey, please visit: http://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/employee-satisfaction-survey-valuation-loyalty-appreciation-and-communication-stats
 

About KeenHire Talent Management. KeenHire TM offers a HCRI certified training program (16 credit hours) on developing a Talent Strategy. The Course is about being an Employer of Choice. For more information about this course Download EmployerofChoice-TS3.0

To register click here KeenHire Talent Management is a reseller for Cornerstone on Demand.

About Cornerstone OnDemand
. Cornerstone OnDemand empowers people around the world with on-demand, integrated learning and talent management software and services for connecting, developing and performing in the workplace. 

Recruitment Process In Sourcing versus Outsourcing – What is the difference?

The focus of this article is about Recruitment Process Outsourcing versus Recruitment Process In Sourcing.

Many companies are looking for alternative solutions to getting work done for less money.  When I first read the book the World is Flat, I was freaked out to say the least. If Thomas Friedman is accurate, I thought, the business that provided me a healthy income for almost 23 years would soon become a thing of the past.   I needed to shift my focus and I needed to do it before the change was upon me.  Since 2005, when my book group of recruiters and technology professionals gathered to discuss the potentials impacts that the world being flat on the recruiting and staffing industry much has changed.  Between Off Shoring, Outsourcing and Technology companies have plenty of options and resources to increase their output while being much more operationally efficient and profitable.

As far as Outsourcing, Hundreds of name brand corporations that I know of have set up offices off shore in Costa Rica, Thailand, India and the Philippines.  Other companies are taking advantage of outsourcing and utilizing lower cost resource centers in the U.S. such as El Paso and Detroit; as well as several cities in Utah, Iowa and Nebraska.  Progressive and responsive companies are outsourcing everything from general accounting functions, interpreting & analyzing reports, data management, routine call center & data processing operations, architectural design, elements of software support and development as well as elements of the recruitment process.  Furthermore, there are entire businesses (BPO) set up to completely outsource non core business functions such as recruiting, data processing, software development, network administration and accounting. The theory is, when a company capitalizes on their core functions and stays focused on delivering excellence in their area of specialty they dominate the competition. 

In the recruitment industry one of the big industry game changers is RPO, Recruitment Process Outsourcing.  This type business process outsourcing completely removes the recruitment function from the corporation and gives 100% of the accountability to an outside resource. Companies are offered better, faster and less expensive recruiting on a mass scale.  While old school staffers say this is not working, the black box report on RPO informs us that 90% of all companies using the services of an RPO are very happy to extremely happy.  The deal with RPO is for it to be cost effective and efficient there needs to be a certain amount of openings and the company must be committed to outsourcing and to let the RPO lead the way in best practices.

Technology progress has brought many savings that we experience daily to state organizations, banking, the entertainment industry, and in my world recruitment. It started with ATMs, Tollbooths and Movie theaters and then before I knew what was happening there the progress was in my front yard, impacting my industry and my business. Some people complain about technology stealing jobs and replacing humans, as a business owner, and a 25-year veteran in the recruitment industry I say hurrah!  If technology can replace menial tasks, can make our teams more productive and aid us to deliver service better, faster and cheaper then bring it on.

In my business, my team used to scour the internet looking for resumes, hour upon hours of time, high value time, searching for qualified resumes; now I can chose to utilize a technology or off shore resource to accomplish this and when I am working with the right recruitment professional, they relish in the opportunity to spend their time on higher level impact recruitment functions.

So what about In Sourcing?

Many companies have established recruitment as a strategic function and a core component of their business strategy. They have fundamentally linked the quality and effectiveness of their talent pool to their ability to progress faster than the competition and deliver a higher level of service to their valuable customer base.  In these cases these companies do not believe that outsourcing such a crucial function is a sensible way to achieve their goals.  They prefer to bring best practices and leading experts in the recruitment and talent management field into their company on an as needed basis. They utilize these experts to train, coach and direct their internal human capital efforts when they need and how they need it.  In my experience companies that have hired KeenHire Talent Management as their (RPI) Recruitment Process In Sourcing and Talent Management In Sourcing (TMPI) provider choose us because we bring the expertise in the areas recruitment technology and assessment selection, candidate sourcing and recruitment functions as well as programming and resources for employee retention and next level & emerging leader development.

The type of companies most likely to utilize recruitment in sourcing are companies that are on their way up; they could be in an emerging market, a start up or a company whose corporate headquarters are located in another country.  One thing these companies have in common is they have specific growth plans and are committed to building their organization with the best talent they can secure.

 

Let’s face it whether you are a commercial staffing or recruitment firm, a single recruitment provider or a recruitment department it makes sense to outsource, off shore or bring systems and technology to specific aspects of your recruitment process as anything you can do to maximize your efficiency and profitability is a mandatory business requirement. Similarly a business leader of a company on your way up, the right answer for you might be to bring the best possible resources inside on an as needed basis and only pay for what you need, when you need it.

 

 

 

 

 

Employment Retention begins with Effective Recruitment & Selection

It however does not end there.

 

When I started the KeenHire recruitment process in sourcing adventure it was my mission to transform the Recruiting and Staffing industry, to raise our industry's level of influence, contribution and effectiveness. I was quite surprised by the high volume of recruiters, mostly 3^rd party and contract, that met KeenHire’s mission with a strong resistance and in some cases an outright defiance. 

With hindsight being 2020, I understand the concern that Recruitment professionals would have for being held accountable for the employee retention of people as they have no power or control once the offer is accepted.  Furthermore, I get the frustration one feels when the recruitment function has no influence over new hire on boarding and 1^st year performance management.

Innovative companies are aware and awake to the fact that employee retention certainly begins with appropriate recruitment and new hire selection, what’s new is that they are integrating specific retention based talent management functions with the recruitment process and impacting the whole talent life cycle.  Progressive talent mindset companies are implementing customized on boarding programs, tailored employee development models, succession planning and laser focused performance management systems into the picture. The best companies educate and train their recruiters, including the 3^rd party and contract recruitment resources to work inside their long-term talent strategy.  In these leading companies, the Recruitment and Employee selection process is built and managed with the end in mind.

At KeenHire we experience just as many customers that hire us to implement employee retention strategies as for recruitment process in sourcing. The most common call to action we receive is everyone comes to us to impact their ability to attract and select the right people for their organization.  

What most emerging and start up companies are surprised by is that selecting the right hires is only the beginning. When a company works hard to get the right people on the bus they must understand that great people expect to work for great organizations and great managers.  If you hire an A player and surround them with C and D employment and talent management practices you are asking for unwanted turn over. 

When your management team does not posses effective employee engagement knowledge and does not fundamentally understand how to get the best out of people and leverage their strengths, you experience unwanted turnover. When your management team believes that their employees need to focus on their current role and not where they can go in the future, the employees, specifically the high performers, slowly loose their passion and engagement in the role and the firm, and hence the result is unwanted turnover.

When a company wants to impact their ability to hire the best people, they must also consider the needed improvements they need to make on their management team, in specific functions and processes within the talent management life cycle.

As the employment marketplace heats up, particularly for high impact knowledge workers such as Sales and Engineers, companies choosing to compete through

the quality of their workforce must learn to dance with and appeal to their employees’ motivations from day one.  Leading companies competing for mission critical, key contributor and next level leadership talent need to get in the hearts and heads of their people, understand what make them tick, match them with the right manager, create a vision of the future from day one, have systems and structures in place to cause on going engagement and build effective, customized performance management and employee development programs that maximize their people’s strengths. 

Yes, this is a tall order, which is why companies like KeenHire Talent Management exist. We help our customers maximize their return on their people investments by installing customized world-class hiring and employment selection processes and by implementing leading talent management systems, processes and people. 

 

 

 

 

What Really Grinds My Gears? Recruitment Versus Selection

 

Composed by: Stephanie Marberry, PhD 

You know what really grinds my gears?…Lindsay Lohan….just kidding!The focus of this discussion is on the difference in the distinction between recruitment and selection. Some of you may say there is no difference, some of you may say that they are completely different processes, and the rest of you may say who the heck cares!

 

The truth is that some terminology resonates better with business professionals than others. Certain words, like recruiter, carry a particular stigma because there is a certain perception that the recruitment industry does not add value. In my world this is not always the case, some of my best clients are recruiters and my partner for the past 2.5 years owned her own staffing firm and was a recruiter! Where the distinction exists is when recruiters incorporate selection into the hiring process. However, I have witnessed that no one really understands what the term selection means and why it is different from the recruiting process.

There is a distinct difference between the way companies define recruitment. What I have heard from senior executives, and hiring managers is that recruitment by a 3rd party is a process where people or resumes are thrown at them without any regard to quality or fit. This is not always the case but somehow this is the perception that exists. I have even heard the term head hunters, which creates even more of a negative connotation implying that anyone is fair game!!!! When we talk about 3^rd party recruiters I do think one bad apple has spoiled the bunch. The 3^rd party recruiters that I have been working with are actively looking to incorporate selection into their process in order to become a true partner with their clients.

So what’s the real difference between recruitment and selection besides the fact that one word carries bad rap? When I teach on the topic of Industrial-Organizational Psychology there is not much emphasis placed on the science or strategy behind recruitment. In fact there are only a few pages dedicated to a discussion on recruitment in most textbooks. Recruitment is defined as a process to increase the pool of job applicants that meet the organization’s legal and social obligations thereby also increasing the success rate of the selection process. In the classroom I discuss various ways to source candidates and the effect that specific messages or people might have on the candidate’s first impression of the company. So the strategy surrounds different ways to find and attract the most candidates for the job and company.

What is emphasized in the world of Industrial Psychology is the idea of personnel or human resource selection. Human Resource selection involves a scientific process that begins with the development of a selection program which includes a full job analysis where the tasks, resources, work environment, and performance measures that characterize the job are defined.  The creation of a selection program also involves the identification of worker characteristics required (i.e., knowledge, skills, and abilities), the development of various assessment devices (e.g., tests, interviews, personality and behavioral measures), and the validation of these devices (e.g., does the measure predict performance on the job). In the end the selection process should allow a company to systematically collect and combine information from valid selection instruments to make hiring decisions that result in top performers to drive the company’s efficiency and effectiveness. Companies can even take this one step further by evaluating and monitoring their selection process through a utility analysis or with other ROI forms of measurement (i.e., turnover, profitability, satisfaction, engagement).

As a consultant for KeenHire I find myself involved in both recruitment and selection and I see that they are highly inter-related (you can’t have one without the other!). So why does this gap have to exist where recruitment is offered separately from selection? These are distinct terms but they should not be offered independently. Further, selection is the necessary piece in making the right hire and if is not conducted appropriately it can lead to negative outcomes. Both corporations and recruiters who are not incorporating a selection system into their hiring process need to look at what it is costing them. For corporations it might be wasted time, money and resources hiring and developing an employee who is not the right fit and does not make any impact on the job. For recruiters it might be lost business due to less expensive alternatives that deliver the same results because they do not offer anything different than the competition.

So is it truly a lack of awareness about the distinction between recruitment and selection or is there some other reason why selection is under-utilized? I am still struggling to find the appropriate answer to this question but in any event, it grinds my gears!!!

7 Tips to Avoiding Legal Pitfalls In Hiring

by Diana Maier

You’re a hiring manager or a third-party search firm and pride yourself on being ethical and certainly on following the law. But what about the more subtle ways you may be engaging in, or forced to respond to, discriminatory hiring practices? It’s more common than you imagine.

In the last year, how many times has someone handed you a directive that identifies a group of ideal candidates based in part on age, sex, race, or national origin? How many times has your client responded to a candidate’s interview with comments on these categories? Before you answer none, think about all the guises in which discrimination can appear.

If you’re a third-party search firm, has your hiring manager ever told you that the candidate is “too set in his ways,” “too senior for the position,” or some other comment which invariably relates to age? If you are the hiring manager, how many times has someone in the company told you that her ideal candidate is male, female, young, white, or minority? Even things that might seem like positive discrimination generally are illegal. Condoning such practices means you are violating employment and civil rights laws as well as doing your client a disservice. 

 

How to Deal With Discrimination in Hiring

Telling your client or supervisor that she is using discriminatory hiring criteria is clearly not going to improve the relationship. Or is it? That all depends on how you phrase it. Consider the following seven steps to avoid legal pitfalls:

1. 
   
2. Tell your client to be as specific as possible. Finesse a response to these kinds of comments in terms your client can understand and appreciate. For example, conducting too broad a search wastes your client’s time and/or money. When you receive a comment about wanting candidates based on an innate characteristic, tell your client that, actually, screening clients based on gender or age is not an efficient way to search. What you would like to know instead are the nuances of who makes an ideal fit for an open position. You might even point out that trying to identify ideal candidates based on inherent characteristics is not a reliable indicator of performance. Remember that in order to offer something that your firm or client can’t get on its own, you must be an expert in human capital. This requires you to know the more subtle indicators of performance like background, experience, and disposition.

21st Century Hiring Effectiveness. Times Are Changing. Are You?

90 Minute Webinar Offered By KeenHire Talent Management

This 3 part, 90 minute webinar will cover what you need to know about hiring to avoid legal pitfalls and maximize your return on your people investment.  We have brought together a diverse panel of subject matter experts to discuss one of the hottest topics in the workplace today.

 

Join Diana Maier, Lawyer, Workplace Investigator and Employment Counsel, Dr. Stephanie Marberry, Selection Consultant and Margaret Graziano, a 25 year veteran in Recruitment and Staffing. 

 

 

When: April 20th 1:30pm-3:00pm CST

Cost: $35 per person

To Register: Click Here

 

 

Segment 1: Contractor vs. employees: What you need to know about the legal issues behind having a direct hire vs contingent workforce

 

Diana Maier, Workplace Investigator and Employment Counsel, will cover the legalities of working with a direct hire vs. contingent workforce.  Specifically, Diana will address when/how to classify someone who provides services as an employee or a contractor.  Not knowing the difference between contracting with an independent contractor or worker and hiring an employee is increasingly risky. The government assumes that virtually all workers are employees, and imposes stiff penalties or stop work orders on employers who cannot justify paying someone for services without providing benefits, paying unemployment taxes, and incurring a range of other expenses.  Yet, there are enormous benefits to using contractors instead of employees.

This portion of the seminar will teach you how to use independent contractors or part-time employees while minimizing legal exposure. 

The Presentation

• Learn how and why California agencies are cracking down on individuals and small businesses
• Assess your vulnerability to the rash of wage and hour lawsuits for seemingly innocent small jobs and your exposure to civil and criminal penalties
• Understand the differences between employees and independent contractors, risks & benefits and strategies for using both, and how to justify often subjective distinctions between the two
• Determine your risk of being audited by state agencies enforcing worker-related laws
• Explore actual cases and real-life scenarios of attendees-submit your questions! 

 

Segment 2: Conscious Hiring: The 7 steps to implement a hiring process

 

Margaret Graziano, a 25 year veteran in Recruitment and Staffing, will discuss the importance of maximizing the return on your people investment. One of the only competitive advantages your company has is the how your mission critical, key contributor and next level leaders solve business issues, carry out the company mission, run the operation and interact with your customers.  What companies all too often painfully uncover is that the right systems housing the wrong people always fail and that wrong systems housing the right people often fail.

A holistic conscious-hiring empowers you hire right the first time, every time.

The Presentation

• Learn how to avoid common interviewing traps & mitigate hiring risk
• A process for conscious hiring
• Hire right the first time and increase your people ROI

The Takeaways

• Insight into the value setting up an internal hiring process—and how to do it.
• Specific holistic hiring techniques that save your company thousands
• Learn the power of the 3-pronged selection approach
• A step-by-step process for Choosing Your Talent Wisely
• Role Analysis, why it matters  

 

Segment 3: Choose your Assessments Wisely: The dos and don’ts in utilizing assessments in the hiring process.

 

Did you know that there are some assessments that you cannot legally use to select a new employee? With hundreds of assessments in the marketplace how will you know if you are using a quality tool?

 

Dr. Stephanie Marberry, Selection Consultant with KeenHire, discusses some of the important features to look for when evaluating what assessment to add in your hiring process. Growth oriented companies are demanding more of their workforce, and are unwavering in their expectations to attract and hire 'difference makers.' In today’s competitive talent market, with candidates demanding top salaries, companies have the right to know what they are getting, and have the right to expect a return on investment with each hire.

 

Whether you are looking at utilizing assessments in your placement process, looking to re-sell assessments or you just want to keep abreast of the on-going developments surrounding our industry – it is paramount that you attend this session!

 

The presentation

• Learn the types of Assessments on the market today
• Understand Validation and what it means
• Be Aware of the 4/5th rule and how it applies.

 

The takeaways

• An in-depth easy to follow introduction into the complex world of personality
• A look into the BIG 10, BIG 5 personality index measurements
• An overview of different Assessment and their features
• A realistic view of what it will take to implement assessments in your company

 

What's The Impact of Unwanted Turn Over?

Well, well, well that is a deep subject. 

When I first realized that unwanted turn over was a breaking point for my staffing business it was 1995. Growing up in the staffing and recruitment business and continually hearing my peers complain, "This is just what you get when you're in this difficult, stressful business, constant turnover is the name of the game." 

While I grappled with the thought of how could an industry that is supposed to cure the staffing and retention problem have such a crippling track record of their own, I defended my situation with the best and the worst of them.

I actually believed this limiting paradigm until I met and witnessed some fabulous leaders and mentors in and outside of the staffing industry. 

Certain CEO's and Business leaders had top performers work with them, not in an equity position and not earning humongous commissions for five, ten or more years.  Who would have thought that my strong need to succeed, my tenacity and my competitive nature that had me take on mastering the fundamentals of Talent Management would lead to an entire expansion of my career and a whole new service offering for KeenHire Talent Management.

If unwanted turnover, the limited supply of peak performers, mitigating the risk of a mishire or managing an unproductive or disengaged workforce has ever kept you up at night; you will want to read on.  Your interest in learning the reasons why turnover happens as well as your ability to put systems into place that reduce these issues could be the most important facet of your Talent Strategy.

It is important to know, in 2007 & 2008, before the dip in the economy, unwanted turnover cost US companies over 3 trillion dollars. This number is astronomical and is a major cause of companies not feeling they are getting their return on their hiring investment.  Besides the raw cost of unwanted turnover, there are other hidden costs, like: loss of Stakeholder & Shareholder value, loss of customers and relationships, loss of Intellectual property, lowered employee morale and mistrust in the organization's leaders. 

I could keep going, however I think you are starting to get the picture.

Turnover is caused by several reasons, I will highlight the top 11 for you now.

1. Employee lacks passion for the company's mission, vision and purpose

2. Employee is not challenged in the position

3. Employee feels unwanted, under valued and replaceable

4. Employee feels no sense of security

5. Company hired the right resume but the wrong person for the wrong job

6. Employee took the job for the wrong reasons (i.e. it's a paycheck)

7. Employee feels there is no place to go

8. Company treats people like cogs in a wheel

9. Employee does not feel a sense of belonging

10. Employer is under-whelmed by the employees’ performance

11. Circumstances change, role changes and employee cannot adapt

 

If you want to impact retention, first know who you are. What is your Employee Value Proposition?

Why would someone, someone with great talent, great ability and a great track record choose to work for your company? Why would they choose to stay? Why will they ignore a headhunters attempt to woo them away when the deal sounds amazingly stimulating?

Second, know what the role requires. Define who the person in the role needs to be, do and produce on a daily, monthly and quarterly basis. In other words, know what the intended outcomes are and what great performance looks like. Know how that great performance is achieved and the basics for how the right person will achieve excellence in the role. Winners want to know in advance how to win the games they play. And for winners, work is another game to play and win. 

Third, train your front line people managers to treat people as people. Train them to get into their employees heads and hearts, to find out what makes them tick and what gets them going. Teach them to exploit their employees’ strengths and acknowledge their employees unique contributions to the team and the company.

Forth, talk to leadership. Ensure that the company’s top leaders are aware and awake to what is going on in the trenches. Blanchard's book Raving Fans does a fabulous job of creating awareness amongst business leaders. Employee engagement and empowerment begins with leadership awareness and continues through a deep commitment to team contribution in the accomplishing the mission. 

The bottom line is if you want to impact unwanted turnover and mitigate the risk of great people leaving, you'll want to be conscious in the development and deployment of your Talent Management business processes. Create a hiring and selection processes that brings forth the right people, for the right roles, for the right reasons. Implement an early engagement program (on-boarding) that solidifies the sale.

And lastly, employ retention strategies that honor the company mission and vision while creating alignment and demonstrate an on-going commitment to employee fulfillment. 

Nothing mentioned in this article takes an extreme capital investment, what it takes is a commitment to adopt a Talent Mindset and a commitment to make your people your competitive advantage. In all actuality not following these guidelines and not making the most of your people is a much larger risk and a much greater cost.

Some Great Books on the Subject

The War for Talent, Ed Michaels

The Impending Crisis, Hermann, Goya

The Truth About Managing People, Stephen Robbins

Top Grading, Bradford Smart