KeenHire Blog by Margaret Graziano

Establishing Performance Criteria For Your Talent Acquisition Department

Wow! As the market begins to rebound I am amazed at all the nation wide openings for internal Human Resources roles. Most of these roles no longer carry the Human Resources title; the most popular title I noted I see is Talent Acquisition Director.

What amazes and concerns me is, in none of these job advertisements for Talent Acquisition Director; absolutely none of them have the key performance indicators and specific measureable intended outcomes clearly delineated in the ad.  In the cases where there is no Human Resources leadership in place I understand a lack of clarity in role expectations, however in hundreds of cases the companies doing the hiring have well established HR executives and HR leaders and still no clear expectations listed. 

If companies really want to impact their ability to hire and retain ‘A’ players they must clearly outline the specific measurable results for those expected to deliver.  ‘A’ players want to win and area attracted to challenges.

Any company taking the initiative to hire a Talent Acquisition professional for the purpose of owning the recruitment role and impacting their ability to build and grow  their talent pool must also understand that you get what you expect. If you are not clear on what you expect you can not expect people to deliver just because they hold the title and have a resume that says they know how to recruit. 

A solid Talent Acquisition Director has typically spent their career working in organizations that paid for performance, rewarded proactive behavior and expected innovation and creativity on a daily basis. 

 I am going to give an example of some key performance indicators a well-crafted Talent Acquisition Director Role might include. While these are only an example I think you will get the concept of clearly articulating role expectations.

 Time to Fill – Talent Acquisition Director is expected to build and maintain a pipeline of at least 25 qualified potential software engineer candidates at all times therefore impacting their ability to fill open positions within 20 business days.

Quality of Hires - It is expected that 85% of all Talent Acquisition Director’s new hires are achieving intended outcomes at their 90 day, 6 month and 12 month performance review.

Employment Brand Management – Talent Acquisition Director is continually delivering a high quality recruitment and engagement experience for candidates involved in our companies hiring process resulting in increased high quality applicant referrals and high marks on new hire surveys. 

Customer Service – Hiring Mangers are delighted with the level of service and attention their recruitment needs and business unit receives from the Talent Acquisition Director.

They key to building a strategic HR department is to be the change you want to see.  If you want the Talent Acquisition Director role to deliver and truly impact your businesses ability to grow and compete then you need to consciously hire the right person. In order to hire the right person for the Talent Acquisition Director you must be specific about what you expect the role to produce. You must be clear about what you expect the role to deliver and what excellent performance looks like. 

Once you are specific about what you expect it will be that much easier to identify the person who has the competencies and ability to achieve those results. At KeenHire our proprietary conscious hiring process begins with creating the KPIs for each role and is completed by clearly detailing the behaviors, competencies, values, motivators and emotional intelligence it takes on a daily basis to perform effectively in the role.

Keys Points for Hiring Strategic Minded Talent Acquisition Professionals

Today I researched how many national job openings there are posted for strategic minded HR leaders, HR Business Partners, Talent Management and Talent Acquisition professionals. I was flabbergasted at the amount of companies choosing to take their recruiting and talent management to the next level. Amongst all the noise in the HR space, business leaders are listening and realizing that their organization is only as good as the people inside it. 

For certain, the word is out that companies who need to compete for business and market share also need to have an HR professional on the inside who thinks strategically and can fully execute an innovate, effective and efficient talent strategy.  Companies today are requiring their internal Talent Acquisition Director create and implement key recruitment strategies and execute a highly effective employee selection and corporate hiring process. They are expecting the same person to be a maven at sourcing candidates, initiating and continually improving new hire on boarding for employees of all levels as well as understand and influence key workforce planning strategies. 

Beyond the skills of sourcing talent, hiring only the best and brightest talent, coaching and mentoring Management in adopting a Talent Mindset these same highly skilled and greatly in demand HR professionals are also expected to process day to day HR paperwork.

Is it me, or is something off? Who is writing these job descriptions? Are these companies interviewing HR professionals, Talent Acquisition leaders and VPs of HR or grabbing generic job descriptions off of Monster.com?  In 25 years of Recruiting and working hand in hand with several hundred HR business leaders I have yet to see one human who can do it all, flawlessly. In companies where there is one key player holding down the HR fort, there is almost always a large budget for HR Consultants, Executive Search, Contract Recruitment and temporary HR support.

If the HR business parter is strong at sales oriented functions like recruiting, stimulating employee engagement programs, HR Management consulting and employee retention; they typically are weak at the HR Administration side of the house and vice versa. If they are not 'weak' they almost always complain that spending their time on these type of functions interferes in their ability to play to their strengths. What amazes me is that this day in age business leaders are still missing some basic instincts about human beings and what makes them tick on the job.

Would an astute VP of Sales hammer on his number one sales producer for not being on time with her sales reports? (okay maybe that's a bad example) Still, I think you get the point.

Proactive candidate Sourcing (not through the job boards), Interruption style Recruiting, Engaging, Persuading, Consulting, Business Thinking, creating HR Strategy, developing programming are all functions that require dynamic communications, creativity, risk taking and dominance to some degree. Filing HR paperwork, checking references, filling out forms, maintaining files, reporting, benefits administration and documentation are functions that require conscientiousness and attention to detail. Rarely is all of this found in the same person. Your high Dominant and Influencer person will almost always struggle with the highly methodical, routine work. They will do it last, at times forget about it then rush to get it done and if not supported, they might make costly mistakes.

There are two sides to HR - One being the Creative, Strategic and Solutions side and Two being the compliance, process and systematic side.

If you are lucky enough to find someone who excels at both, wonderful. However, if you are like 90% of the HR and Business leaders you will need to hire two types of people.  One could refer to it as hiring both the yin and the yang types of people. If you simply can not afford that, you might need to resort to hiring an average producing hybrid type person. If that is not the answer either, then you might want to consider outsourcing the high level strategic aspects of the role to an HR Consultant or outsourcing the administrativia to a company like TriNet, Algentis or Administaff. 

The whole point is HR is a critical function in every company that depends on the right people executing their business strategy. When hiring Key Contributors for Critical HR functions it's important to have realistic expectations and articulate specific measurable results for the role, it's very challenging to do that when the role is all over the board. It is important to note  that Industrial psychologists when studying peak performers report that most highly effective employees are focusing on 3 maybe 4 key result areas at once and they also report that most employee's productivity breaks down when they are spread too thin and their skill set is continually diverted in multiple disciplines.

I am ecstatic to see the HR Job market heating up and even more excited to see that companies are finally taking steps and actions that honor the statement "people are our greatest asset!"

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!!!

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

 

How Can You Improve Performance Metrics and Employee Productivity?

A study of the Corporate Executive Board found that since the recession began, managers have become less effective at defining employees roles and accountability. Before the recession, only 60% of employees said their managers did an okay job of effectively communicating expectations, since the recession that number has dropped to 45%, which considering is quite low.  Before, Front Line and HR Managers told employees how they fit in to the overall strategy and market share objectives, now they tell employees to get to work and be grateful they have a job.  Ouch…….that is pretty short sighted thinking.

The highly interesting part of this is that when employees understand how what they do fits into the overall strategy of the business and the achievement of their corporate objectives productivity can increase by 10% at a minimum. Ten percent of ten employees equates to an additional headcount.

When I lead my Maximize Your People ROI workshop and keynotes I speak a great deal about Jim Collins’ call to action, “Put the right people on the Bus”.  Five years ago I learned two provocative processes for assessing, evaluating & validating job specifications, at Keen we call these Benchmarking and Role Analysis.  Both of these tie Organizational Development and Recruitment processes together and drastically improve hiring metrics and recruiting success rates.

If you want to attract more of the best, you first have to truly understand why some of your employees are high performers. Is it coincidence, dumb luck or a lot of hard work when a key manager assembles a team of high performers?  Or is it a calculated and well-executed strategy?

Experts say that building a high performance work-group does not happen by anything other than a well defined, executed recruitment plan and selection hiring process. High performing teams are not created by accident.  There is always a plan of attack that attracts people with solid competencies, required behaviors, complimentary traits, and shared values.  Companies like HP create programs for this by assessing their top performers and understanding what drives their performance; aspects like competencies, motivators, behaviors, values, work style, and emotional intelligence.  They then build a hiring model that vets candidates with similar winning formulas.

This is what KeenHire refers to as benchmarking.  The Keen team has assessed over 1000 high performers conducted over 200 corporate benchmarks since our launch.  In one company alone, we saved the employer over $1,000,000.00 in poor hiring costs  Download Keenhireclarknatcasestudy because they stopped hiring people who they thought would fit and they started hiring people they knew would fit.  This new age Talent Management stuff really works!

Conducting a Role Analysis on positions that you are filling whether through an internal promotion or a new hire impacts not only your ability to put the right person on the bus, it effects your companies ability to improve workforce production and engagement. When your employees know that you chose them because they had the natural ability to do the job in a way that amplifies the companies mission and vision and they know what is expected as well as how these accomplishments impact the big picture; they are awake and aware to exactly what you are counting on them to achieve on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis they are much more likely to achieve it. 

The Bottom Line is if you want a more productive, engaged workforce hire the right people for jobs they are well equipped to do, make sure they know what you expect from them and then encourage them to use their natural talents and abilities to get the job done.

If you have professional HR Management, Contract Recruitment staff or In Sourced Recruitment consultants on your team make sure they are trained in these critical hiring selection programs and strategies; if you do not and you need to go outside to Recruiting services require these service providers to offer solutions that enable you to hit your hiring and retention metrics.