KeenHire Blog by Margaret Graziano

Stop Jamming A Square Peg Into A Round Hole

As a manager, have you ever had the experience of trying to ‘make’ an employee change, forcing an outcome from an employee to improve their performance or even worse; have you ever attempted to have them work differently by encouraging them to alter their natural work style, values, behaviors, beliefs and personality so they would perform better in their role, or for the betterment of the company?  

As leaders of people, we often have to deal with ourselves to overcome the syndrome of

“I can fix and change people".  As a peak performer in recruitment, for years I found myself placing the best and hiring the rest. As a small business owner, I was hiring 'C' candidates, because they were more affordable and selling myself on the myth that they would be better if someone just helped them and then I expended enormous amounts of my personal effort trying to overcome their ineffectiveness.  My shortsightedness had me saving money on the front end and spending 3 times the savings on the back end. Until I went  through a basic training from Vistage (formerly known as TEC),   I was not present to the profit erosion that these non strategic hiring practices were causing.

Once having my eyes opened, I embarked on a hiring process development journey. I was committed to fixing my problem and I took courses on organizational assessment, behavioral interviewing, top grading, organizational development, personal transformation and executive coaching.  Over the course of a decade I invested $100,000 in mastering 'putting the right people on the bus'.  After much resistance and many breakthroughs, I finally learned the lesson handed down to me from my first mentor.  "People are whole and complete and have everything they need to be successful, as long as you put the right people in the right role." It is your job to Choose Wisely"

There have been many books, articles, lectures and even case studies written on this subject. Companies like General Electric, PepsiCo, Spielberg Productions, DreamWorks, Google, Microsoft, The Limited and more have all publicly stated that a KEY factor to their enormous success was the people they chose to employ in key contributor, mission critical and leadership roles.

The new game in the business of Recruitment Process In-Sourcing

Creating An Internal Hiring Process And Maximize Hiring ROI

WHAT IS AN INTERNAL HIRING PROCESS AND HOW DO WE CREATE ONE?

If you hire someone you don’t really know, for a position you have not thoroughly defined, chances are that neither the person nor the position will deliver. Hiring the right people requires implementation of a comprehensive internal hiring process that selects the best and eliminates the rest. And it all starts with benchmarking. Whether you are benchmarking the role, the top performers in that role, or key traits of the best performers in the company as a whole, the first step is creating the model of what right looks like. Companies that take the time to do so fully understand not only who they need, but also why they need them. These are the companies that excel in the employee-selection process and the capacity to build a “dream team.” 

WHAT RIGHT LOOKS LIKE

Before you evaluate your immediate needs, evaluate the company and team. This is called the Internal Human Capital Inventory and Assessment, and it
involves:

1. Evaluating your core culture:

• Acknowledge and prorate your core values.
• Assess the character quotient of your company.
• Identify the non-negotiable character traits or core values for your company.

2. Evaluating your current team:

• Identify your key players and what innate abilities and traits make them
successful.
• Identify what’s working on the team and what isn’t.
• Identify what elements are missing on the team that would make a positive difference.

3. Implementing a system for evaluating and selecting new hires and internal
promotions:

• Establish and cross-train to hiring protocol. 
• Create companywide candidate-screening ground rules.
• Create a Comprehensive Position Requirement (CPR) for every role.
• Validate, select and utilize the right assessment tools. 
• Create behavioral-based interview models for each role in the company.  
• Establish a decision-making matrix. 

SPECIFIC HOLISTIC HIRING TECHNIQUES THAT SAVE MONEY

With a treetop look at your company and a foundation in place to grow
from, it’s time to look at each role on a tree-trunk level. Focus on the needs of
the business and how each role is attached to the key performance indicators of the company as a whole. When you are clear on the performance objectives for each role in the company and how those affect the big picture of service, sales, retention and profitability, it is much easier to determine who the best person is for each role. Here are some specific holistic hiring techniques:

1. Hire right the first time:

• Thoroughly define each role in your company.
• Define specific success outcomes that are expected in the role.
• Isolate the CAN DO (Intellectual Quotient). 
• Isolate the WILL DO (Emotional Quotient).
• Isolate the FIT IN (Character Quotient). 

2. Follow the hiring protocol:

• Train each hiring manager on the CPR for his/her positions.
• Conduct a preplanned behavioral-based telephone screening.
• Employ a cursory pre-interview assessment.
• Formulate a position-specific interviewing guide for managers to follow.
• Make hiring decisions according to the predetermined hiring matrix.

3. Set up an effective ramp-up process that validates your hiring choice out of
the gate:

• Socialization – on-boarding.
• Manager – new employee meeting.
• Game Plan – expectations, communication, work style.

With established hiring procedures adhered to consistently, your company will
jump over and past dangerous hiring traps, turn the tables on the mishaps of
poor hiring, and reap the benefits that come with having the right people in
the right roles.

The True Value Of Talent Management

“Everything, then, must be assessed in money; for this enables men always to exchange their services, and so makes society possible.” – Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Even though Aristotle made this point over 2000 years ago, it couldn’t ring more true today. Almost everything involved in transactions today are based on a price and assessed in money.

What about Talent Management?

Beyond salary and sales, there are many important aspects of talent management that are often not tied to the bottom line. Yet, “dollarizing” the value of talent management initiatives is vital to bottom-line analysis. Whether you are placing a value or cost on your current status, or calculating the ROI of your next talent management strategy, metrics that assess the monetary value will help you see the true effect on the bottom-line.  

Bottom Line Statistics

Knowing the bottom line results of talent challenges will help you implement strategies with a proven ROI that you can see on your balance sheet. Find out how much you already know by asking yourself questions like:

    * What is disengagement costing the bottom line?

    * What was the ROI on your last training? What can be expected of future training?

    * How are your team-building initiatives impacting your bottom line?

    * What was the cost of your last bad hire?

    * What is your overall turnover percentage? How is it related to tenure?

In a study on over three million employees, Gallup found that over 70% of Americans who go to work are not engaged. This means businesses may be operating at significantly less than full capacity, a loss that could cost millions a year.

    * What is employee disengagement costing your company?
                     Several thousands, millions, more?

    * How can you calculate this cost?

    * How does it compare to the investment of a proactive approach to increasing engagement?

With tightening budgets and a focus on cost-saving strategies, businesses worldwide are making drastic labor cuts. But is that always the right move? A recent study analyzed the savings resulting from changes in general and administrative functions and found that 75% of the savings came from strategies focused on restructuring and redesigning, while only 25% was from reducing.

    * Would you, too, save three times as much on your bottom line by investing in your       
        people and processes?

    * Is the slash and burn approach actually costing you more?

    * What would the ROI be if you restructured and redesigned your workforce?

As business associates who want to make a difference in the bottom line, we might find advice in Aristotle’s quote by remembering to assess, in money, the value of talent management initiatives so we know its true worth.

How else can we place fair value on the investment in people?

After all, they are a company’s biggest asset.  Aren't they?

Originally published by Target Training International

Working Smarter In the Second Quarter

April 15th is coming.  We all know the day.  For far too many Americans, April 15th is a stressful time where the reality of figuring out our taxes runs into our desire to procrastinate.  But April 15th is the beginning of the quarter.  If you're going to drive revenue this year to your business, you have to be hitting on full cylinders right now.  Work performed in the next sixty to ninety days will determine what you can accomplish in the 3rd quarter, and if you're aren't prepared the holidays will sneak up on you before you can make a significant impact on your earnings this year.

So it's time to make a plan.  What are you going to do right now, right this very instant, to make a difference in the 2nd quarter.  It's important to chart out long-term goals, but those are so easily set aside to accomplish in the future. If you don't give yourself something solid and concrete to do today, you have a exceedingly small chance of achieving your long-term plans. 

Get started now.  What one thing can you do today, to make your staffing firm better?

Recruiter Training Seminar Schedule For 2008

If you're looking for top-notch recruiter training, be sure to check out the Keen Hire Seminar Schedule for 2008. 

This Friday, 2/15, we're covering benchmarking, a must have both for corporate hiring managers and recruiters attempting to sell multinational corporations.

Some things you'll learn:

• Master CPR (Comprehensive Position Requirements)
• Improve your HBA (Hiring Batting Average)
• Increase your CRR (Client Retention Rates)
• Quickly Grasp the art of ABC (Attracting Better Candidates)

You can become a certified DiSC specialist on February 28-29th.

March 3 and 4th, we offer a selling bootcamp.  Or learn how to choose personality assessments on March 11-12th.

If there is a recession coming, the time to differentiate yourself is now. For more information, keep an eye out for KeenHire.com.

Hiring Power Groups Instead Of Power People

As managers, we often have to deal with ourselves to overcome the Superman syndrome of “I can accomplish anything.” After years of management training, organizational development programs, personal development courses and executive coaching, I have been successful in exploring the possibility of allowing people to play to their strengths, hiring in a way that fosters that plan of action and managing individuals’ performance through establishing objectives that not only benefit the organization, but also bring out the best in the individual as well.

This theory I am speaking of is called “Playing to Strengths.” There have been many books, articles, lectures and case studies written on this subject. The new game in the business of HR and talent management goes beyond the norm. Everyone is buzzing about the need to find “those” critical key players in a talent-deprived climate. Frankly, there is much more corporate time, effort and money spent on being on the hunt for the“virtually impossible”to find – the top 1% – than on much more impactful and strategic initiatives. In my opinion, if more companies focused their efforts on establishing organizational development initiatives, like building and developing “high performance teams,” the entire scope and theme of employee development and retention would shift.

Rather than focusing efforts on the “key man hunt,” companies could focus being on the team hunt for a well-rounded group of people who collaboratively bring something much bigger and more impactful to the business.

Time: Use it Wisely

One of the most critical Success Principles is using your time wisely.  While squandered money can sometimes be replaced, wasted time is gone forever.

The pace at which the world is moving seems to be increasing exponentially:  we now have the tools to monitor a universe of information continuously – companies buying and selling; changes of ownership; economic ups and downs; the war on terrorism; the war for talent; the war on drugs; natural disasters; racial tension; campus massacres, and at home my kids growing by inches every time I turn around – things are different and downtime is diminishing. 

So, how do you muster enough power to accomplish everything you need to get done in a frenetic world where information overload is the norm, and stay committed to being the best you can be at work and home?

My personal breakthrough in time management has to do with gaining mastery on three levels: leveraging my power, choosing my opportunities wisely, and becoming a power user in Outlook. Each level took me time to grasp, master, and implement.  The breakthrough into power, freedom, and peace of mind I experienced came from a course I attended years ago when I was a Landmark Seminar Leader called Mission Control.  That course certainly had an impact on me; it showed me that I was spending a considerable amount of time doing things that either did not “light me up,” that I was not particularly adept at, or that were simply distractions on the path to achieving my goals.

That course made me realize that there were a many things I needed to delegate, outsource, or simply stop doing.  Over time I built a business in which anything that I was not any good at, did not have value to me personally, or did not bring forth new opportunities for Alliance, was delegated.

Employee Development Power Versus Force

As a manager, have you ever had the experience of trying to ‘make’ an employee change, forcing an outcome from an employee to improve their performance or, even worse, have you ever attempted to have them work differently by encouraging them to alter their natural work style, so they would perform better in their role, or for the betterment of the company?

As Managers, we often have to deal with ourselves to overcome the Superman syndrome of “I can accomplish anything.”  After years of management training, organizational development programs, personal development courses, and executive coaching, I have been successful in exploring the possibility of allowing people to play to their strengths, hiring in a way that fosters that plan of action, and managing individuals’ performance through establishing objectives that not only benefit the organization, but that bring out the best in the individual as well. 

This theory is called ‘Playing to Strengths.’ There have been many books, articles, lectures and even case studies written on this subject. One excellent book on the subject is, Go Put Your Strengths to Work, by Marcus Buckingham.  The new game in the business of HR and talent management goes beyond the norm. Everyone is buzzing about the need to find ‘those’ critical key players in a talent-deprived climate and, frankly, there is much more corporate time, effort and money spent on being on the hunt for the ‘virtually impossible’ to find the top 10%, than on much more impactful and strategic initiatives.

If more companies focused their efforts on establishing organizational development initiatives, like building and developing ‘high performance teams,’ the entire scope and theme of employee development and retention would shift.

 

Rather than focusing efforts on the ‘'key man hunt,” companies could focus being on the TEAM HUNT for a well rounded group of people who collaboratively bring something much bigger and more impactful to the business. Let me explain a bit further.