KeenHire Blog by Margaret Graziano

The Retention Issue: How To Assess Candidates, Perfect Selection and Retain Top Talent

According To Noah Webster, retention is the act or power of keeping or retaining, but Corporately, retention is the power to keep employees actively engaged and committed to being an integral part of the organization. So what is retention like in this day in age? Are employers on the same page as their employees when it comes to effective performance and talent management?

According to the SHRM Workplace Forecast of 2011, our workplace trends are directly related to talent acquisition, selection & retention. All of these being consecutive to one another and going hand in hand with creating a successful business.

A recent survey on employee performance and retention conducted by Express Employment Professionals, one of the nation's largest privately held staffing companies, found that employers are more disconnected than ever from their workforce. Express' survey revealed that 77 percent of leaders say retention was not a problem or only a slight problem in 2011, while 91 percent of employees said they are willing to switch jobs. These extreme figures should be waking up the employers of our nation, and creating a call to action that something’s not right.

With Employee turn over in the US at 16.4 percent what is there to do? How do you shift your talent management, selection and retention in a way that that increases your profit, your employee satisfaction and turnover?

First of all strong leadership is imperative right now in order to enhance your management operating style, implementing accountability systems, while building and developing high-performance teams.

Talent acquisition can only be beat one way: putting the right people in the right roles. How do we do that? By perfecting selection. Selection can be managed with internally, with a 3^rd party recruiter or using both. Whichever your company decides to go with you must ensure that their skills, personality, and values align with the job and the company. Developing Interview strategies that include pre-established critical screening questions, an in-depth career history review and custom built behavioral interview models prevent the unhealthy corporate impact as well as the high cost of a mis-hire.

Over all the corporate response must be to link employee performance and its impact on the organization’s business goals. Doing this will keep employees goals align with the company’s, creating increasing accomplishment and happier on track employees.

So try something different, create a new hiring process, change the way you interview and beef up your leadership training and finally retain the talent you need. 

To learn more about retention, talent management and see how to create a conscious hiring process, visit us at keenhire.com. We equip companies with systems, processes and people to hire & retain with clarity and insight.

By: Emily Eastman

Taking Your Top Talent Straight To The Top!

The economy has shifted; the world is changing- we all are trying to do more in less time and with less money. Less than 15% said they were “extremely” satisfied. Meanwhile, employers believe that 30% of their workers are “extremely” satisfied.

As we climb out of this recession we are entering into a brand new place, The Talent Market Place. Companies can hire top talent labor cheaper than ever before.  Competitors in your marketplace are popping up all over the globe.  What happens when your competition offers your customers a better solution for less money? 

We all must maximize our effectiveness while minimizing our costs. Going forward one of the ONLY competitive advantages a company will have is the people working in their organizations. The U.S. talent market is shrinking while the global talent pool is expanding.  In the next 4-6 years, companies will face the most challenging and tumultuous times in building and retaining their workforce.

Your company has choice in recruitment solutions.  You can build your own, In-source it, outsource it, or wing it. Be Smart, take your top talent to the top by benchmark your key contributor talent, clarify the DNA of winner in your company and then use that DNA to validate new hires.

Once you have evaluated your current workforce: what is working, what is not, what needs to change; you must then hold managers accountable to make that happen, and it will. If you keep this in line you will only have bring in skilled recruiting talent, when you need them.

Choose KeenHire for your next recruitment needs! Within an organization, making certain each role is producing at or above expectations can be extremely time consuming and frustrating, especially for new managers. We have developed a systematic process for putting the right people in the right jobs and therefore improving overall performance and reducing management inefficiencies.

It takes personal accountability, leadership, organization, an ability to motivate and influence and of course a discipline to hire the right people for the right roles. Our proven performance management training and coaching sets your managers and your company up to win.

 

By:Emily Eastman

 

Cutting Edge Talent Analyst Position Now Open! San Jose

You are a full life cycle recruiter who loves what you do! You experience yourself as a person who operates with a high level of integrity, and you want to work in an environment that rewards your high quality standards and precise candidate recommendations. You are an analytical and service-minded professional with a solid and stable work history, 5 years of expertise in recruiting, and 3 years of selection-based hiring and recruitment process efficiency. You have well defined organizational and planning skills and a strong desire to make a difference for people in their careers, lives, and workplaces. 

As a KeenHire Talent Analyst you are a key staff person responsible for quality assurance and for delivering in Top Grading and Recruitment initiatives on time and within budget. 

You pride yourself on your solution-oriented behavior; your critical thinking skills and your excellent follow up and follow through as well as your highly effective talent evaluation and matching skills. You enjoy a highly productive, fast paced work environment where you have to juggle multiple priorities daily to meet your customer and candidates’ needs. You thrive in a role where you are the ultimate quality assurance person responsible for making an organizational impact, achieving quality standards and strengthening customer relationships. 

We are KeenHire Talent Management; we provide the next generation of recruitment and retention solutions to growing organizations where hiring the RIGHT mission critical, key contributor and leadership talent for the right roles is imperative to their success. We are growing and need the right person to work as an integral part of our team and act as a key contributor in this very important Recruitment, Project Management and QA role.

The ideal opportunity for you is one that you are challenged at every day, where you get to continually learn new concepts, skills and processes and one that allows you to work with a team of committed individuals who are out to make a difference and shift what is possible in the workplace.

You enjoy working in an upbeat, inspiring office with a committed team. You are excited about the monthly opportunity to travel and grow your career. The ideal role for you for you allows you to play to your strengths, be a ‘go to’ team member add value and make a difference for your customers and peers. 

Job Requirements 

• 5+ years full cycle recruiting
• 3 yrs selection-based hiring and recruitment process efficiency 
• Excellent phone voice
• Persuasive communicator
• highly attuned analytical skills
• MS Office

Get excited about a career with KeenHire! Click HERE to apply now!

Market Manager -Chicago

Market Manager

You enjoy selling and business development, creating strategic solutions that meet your customers’ needs as well as becoming an integral part of your customers strategic advisory counsel.  An ideal opportunity for you is one that affords you an opportunity to sell a unique service offering, provides residual income, a sales process that knocks out the competition and gives you the freedom to uncap your income.

You are looking for a high impact business-to-business sales and market manager role. You are inspired about selling customer centric, high value, customizable HR and Talent Management solutions. You pride yourself on your ability to establish and build long-term business relationships, open up new accounts, cross sell multiple service lines and continually grow your customer base. You are looking for the right company to join forces with, one that rewards your tenacity and drive and that affords you the opportunity for growth, development, advancement and a potential equity stake. 

Choosing To Win During A War For Talent

By: John Kurzatkowski.

I currently work with Margaret at KeenHire as a Sr. Recruitment Consultant, and wanted to share with you a bit more about how to win in the midst of a war for talent. 

As the business-news media competes for our attention by flashing information on the impending talent shortage, some of us listen with a keen ear while others turn to more urgent, pressing issues. After 22+ years in the human resources business, I don’t need the media to tell me there is going to be a problem; I already feel it in my bones, similar to how my grandfather used to know it was going to rain by his knees aching. When your business is the business of finding talent you are the first to feel ANY inkling of change in the marketplace. Although I may feel like I run a best-in-class business, and I may have evidence that I know how to skin the cat better than the competitor, KeenHire is all the more faced with the challenge of locating new talent for myself and my clients in a diminishing talent pool marketplace. 

Lets Talk Retention

According to Noah Webster, "Retention is the act or power of keeping or retaining. Corporately, retention is the power to keep employees actively engaged and committed to being an integral part of the organization."

Webster separates employee retention from standard retention. However, I have read about, seen and experienced a direct correlation of employee retention with stock price and EBITA. When a company does a great job of hiring the right people and then they do a great job of retaining them, they maximize their ability to secure and retain market-share. The businesses that have cracked the code on recruitment and talent management hold on to customers longer, are in a position to proactively solve their customers’ problems, and have the ability to be on the leading edge in offering new and innovative solutions to their customers because of a steady stream of new knowledge and solid relationships. The correlation between employee retention and profitability makes perfect sense.

Impacting your company’s ability to retain your key contributors, mission-critical players and next-level leaders begins with you understanding where people are at from a  of view.

It is important to note that today’s workplace psychological state is at an all-time low—peopleare too discouraged to go the extra mile; they are waiting for the other shoe to drop. The workforce of 2010 is mistrustful and skeptical. The top issues affecting workplace psychology and employee engagement are “warm chair attrition,” when the body shows up but the mind and heart have been left at home, and “corporate cocooning,” when the mature, highly experienced worker is hoarding information, afraid to share with or train others for fear of being replaced. Yet another is young working parents choosing their families first. Many in this group opt for working at home or only going to the office part-time. A great many people in this demographic are looking for “life/work navigation,” as they have seen firsthand how putting the job first and family second is crippling, un-fulfilling and littered with false rewards. One thing for sure is that in most situations and for most of your workforce: Corporate Loyalty Is Dead.

Competitive, astute employees are adopting a free-agent mentality and building their own relationships outside the company with vendors, customers and ex-employees so they are always ahead of the networking curve. Additionally these mission critical players, key contributors, and highly sought after next-level leaders are constantly improving their skill set so when the ax falls, they have opportunities lined up and waiting.

Recently HR Executive magazine conducted an engagement survey with hundreds of high-performing high potentials from all over the nation, and what they published was somewhat surprising, to say the least. Their study reported that 45% of all internal “candidates” within anorganization’s promotion pipeline are currently looking to leave the organization.

In another survey, conducted by Harris Poll and CareerBuilder, the results were just as compelling:

• 41% of employees are not satisfied with their jobs
• 46% say their workload has increased
• 33% feel they’re at a dead end at their current job
• 78% believe they are coping with “burnout”
• 56% are not glad they chose to work for their current employer
• 63% believe their top management does not display integrity and morality.

Any company that values the power of their human capital, believes that their people are their competitive advantage, is aware of the cost of replacing a great employee, and does not have a progressive talent strategy in place should be nervous. If you are not, take a look at this chart. It makes a great visual. Think about if your company lost their best salesperson to the competition. These days even your ironclad non-compete would most likely only slow them down. They might not call on your customers, but they can take their brain and everything they learned while in your operation and use it against you.

The problem is a big one and a strategic, systemic one at that. Not having enough knowledge-workers leads to longer development times, lower sales coming into the organization, fragmented customer service, a reduction in innovation and, eventually, lost customers. Hiring the wrong people because you are in a “rush” leads to more unwanted turnover, and that turnover comes at a high cost. Not knowing what makes your people tick leads to an incubation of the “free agent mentality.” The bottom line: the demographic and psycho-graphic challenges facing our companies cannot be avoided or ignored. Furthermore, the cost of doing nothing far outweighs the cost of being proactive and creating high-impact solutions that affect your bottom-line profitability and stakeholder equity.

Your company must decide if people are your competitive advantage, and if they are, you must strategically cause a corporate transformation, adopt a talent mindset and lead the way. Once you adopt and engage the rest of the leadership and management team in the talent mindset,you need to develop a people, or better said, talent strategy that lives and breathes throughout the organization.

Applying the Win/Win principle to the “War” for Talent

As the business-news media competes for our attention by flashing information on the impending talent shortage, some of us listen with a keen ear while others turn to more urgent, pressing issues. After 22+ years in the human resources business, I don’t need the media to tell me there is going to be a problem; I already feel it in my bones, similar to how my grandfather used to know it was going to rain by his knees aching. When your business is the business of finding talent you are the first to feel ANY inkling of change in the marketplace. Although I may feel like I run a best-in-class business, and I may have evidence that I know how to skin the cat better than the competitor, KeenHire is all the more faced with the challenge of locating new talent for myself and my clients in a diminishing talent pool marketplace.

The looming & ‘impending’ talent shortage seems to be creeping up right from under us. KeenHire has more specified search requests than we have had in 5 years. As companies proactively deal with succession planning and building bench strength, we are seeing salaries going up, qualifications becoming more stringent, and expected outcomes for the candidates showing up as more measurable as well as difference making. All this with less people to chose from makes for a very competitive market place for employers and candidates alike.

So how does a company who has ambitious goals compete for talent in the midst of a WAR for it?

You could outsource. You could offshore. You could take on employing the at-home passive work force, like Jet Blue and Southwest. You could take on hiring the flexible work force, students, retirees and parents. You could home grow your talent, become a farm club of sorts, which many of my clients are doing very successfully. You could pay large retainers and then wait while the search firm does the searching. You could develop your company as an employer of choice where 'win/win' is the norm; where people feel they are not just serving your corporation's needs, but their needs are getting fulfilled as well.

Shifting The Context For Employee Performance Reviews

You walk into the manager’s office and close the door. It has been nearly a year since you last sat in this room. Today is your yearly performance review, but as you both shuffle papers, you haven’t a clue what is going to be discussed.

You’ve done great work, but does your manager know that? When’s the last time the two of you discussed your objectives, or you received any kind of feedback? Every day you work hard, but what’s it all amounting to?

If this scene is familiar, or if your organization also struggles with performance management, you’re certainly not alone. It’s a common problem for companies, especially during performance reviews. At KeenHire, we traced performance management issues to a few deficiencies, specifically a lack of performance indicators, misplaced priorities and improper managerial training.

Optimize Performance Indicators

Without clear, established performance indicators, it’s difficult for both managers and employees themselves to measure success. Many times, a manager will establish performance metrics, but won’t develop a way to effectively measure and track those indicators.

Along those lines, if metrics are not tied to a company’s objectives or if the position lacks a well-defined purpose, it’s hard to measure an employee’s long-term success or improve corporate performance.

Improve Performance Management – Make It Priority No. 1

If a company doesn’t consistently dedicate time and resources to performance management, it won’t develop a culture of ongoing growth, especially if performance reviews are conducted on just a yearly basis.

Without feedback from managers, employees can’t improve performance, learn and grow. Also, without regular interaction, the employee-manager relationship suffers, which directly impacts the effectiveness of performance reviews. If managers don’t understand the day-to-day activities of their employees, how can they accurately evaluate corporate performance?

Performance Management 101

If managers are not trained in how to provide effective, meaningful feedback, no matter how accurate a position’s performance metrics or how regular evaluations are, a performance review is still destined to fail.

Especially if managers don’t like to give criticism, reviews can become overly lenient, biased and ultimately ineffective, which makes performance improvement difficult.

The KeenHire Solution

At KeenHire, we believe to optimize performance management systems you need a strong, well-designed hiring process. Without a good hiring practice, companies fail the first test of performance management – matching the right people to their ideal position.

However, “most companies have problems with performance management because they either have not identified clear metrics for effective performance on the job, or do not measure those metrics objectively or haven’t tied them to development and rewards,” says Stephanie Marberry, PhD; Organizational Development consultant and Keenview product manager at KeenHire.

That’s why we developed the KeenHire 5 Pillar Conscious Hiring and Selection process. With it, we help your organization build a solid foundation and improve performance management.

• Organizational Workforce Planning
• Key Contributor Benchmarking and Role Analysis
• Candidate Sourcing
• Selection
• On-boarding

We’ll help you every step of the way, from thoroughly defining a position’s unique purpose to outlining its performance management metrics and long-term objectives. During performance reviews, you’ll have all the resources necessary to measure the position’s success and accurately evaluate the employee.

If you’re looking to learn from the finest recruiters and Organizational Effectiveness consultants, join us at our certification program KeenHire Talent Management’s Talent Strategy 3.0. You’ll learn to:

• Build and develop your people strategy
• Create an employee brand proposition
• Search for and select the perfect candidate
• Improve your on-boarding, training, and optimize performance management and employee development programs

After becoming certified, you can use your knowledge to improve corporate performance management systems across your organization and develop and retain your employees.

To learn more about Talent Strategy 3.0 and other seminars, head to our KeenHire seminars page. To see how a KeenHire consultant can improve performance management systems at your company, contact us today.

After becoming certified, you can use your knowledge to improve performance management systems across your organization and develop and retain your employees.

To learn more about Download EmployerofChoice-TS3.0 and other seminars, head to our KeenHire seminars page. To see how a KeenHire consultant can help improve your company’s performance management systems, contact us today. 888-533-6447

Recruiting As A Career

You are considering employment in one of the fastest growing industries in business today. The Recruitment and HR Consulting industry is challenging and rewarding and solves real business issues such as workforce scalability, organizational effectiveness, operational efficiency, corporate profitability and market expansion. 

You are considering employment in an extremely competitive industry, one where only the strong, ethical and top tier Recruitment and HR consultants thrive.

Successful consultants have a driving force of internal motivation.  They come in early and stay late.  The first five years in the Recruitment and HR consulting industry requires intense learning. Effective HR and Recruitment consultants bring mastery in learning, focus and intensity.  Focus and intensity is determining what actions you need to take and what there is to do and then actively doing it.  Winning HR and Recruitment consultants produce the results they promise in the time frame they promise. 

Most importantly, triumphant HR and Recruitment consultants have a strong sense of urgency and serve customers in the time frame allotted.  Robust Recruitment and HR consultants have an innate ability to read people, to listen intently and facilitate a quality match between the right candidate, the right role and the right company.

Exceptional recruitment and HR consultants are known as honest, forthright business people who have a strong code of ethics. Self-assured Recruitment and HR consultants realize that mistakes happen and they learn the lesson the 1^st time, fail forward and quickly turn the problem into a solution.

Every successful expert in any field from professional athlete and musician to computer inventor and sales person invests a minimum of 10,000 hours perfecting their area of discipline and recruiting is no different. A flourishing Recruitment and HR consultant is constantly evaluating their performance, they celebrate and diagnose their success and autopsy their failures as well as use their lessons learned as grist for the mill. Any recruitment consultant that is effective, successful and fulfilled after their two first years in the business typically chooses Recruitment and HR Consulting as their life’s work.

Welcome you to the best industry on the planet!  Expect to make an impact every day. Expect to earn a salary commensurate with the results you produce. Expect to change lives, businesses and expect to be thoroughly engaged and fulfilled every day!

 

Margaret Graziano

Founder, KeenHire Talent Management

KeenHire Recruiter Certification Training - November 11, 2010

Performance Based Hiring Model Certification Training Agenda 11.11.10-11.13.10

THURSDAY AFTERNOON – Margaret Graziano

1:00-1:40         Montage, KeenHire Story, Charter  

1:40-2:10         Business Case

2:10-3:15         KeenHire Business Model Presentation

3:15-4:30         Conscious Hiring Presentation

4:30-5:00         Download 26step Conscious Hiring Process

5:00-6:00         Keen Case Studies (Duncan, Discovery, Clark, Les Mills)

6:00                  Social

7:00                  Dinner – Thea, San Jose  

FRIDAY MORNING – Margaret Graziano

8:00-9:30          Benchmarking/Role Analysis Overview

9:45-10:45        KPI Role Play

10:45-11:15      Task Analysis

11:15-11:45      Cluster Tasks

11:45-12:30      Selection Criteria (working lunch)

FRIDAY AFTERNOON -  Dr. Stephanie Marberry

1:00-2:15         Assessments & Behavioral Interviews - Why are they keys to hiring success?

2:30-4:00         Assessment Presentation

4:00-6:00         Introduction to Behavioral Interviewing Presentation and Software

6:00                  Social

7:00                  Dinner – Maggianos, San Jose  

SATURDAY MORNING – Dr. Stephanie Marberry

8:00-9:30         Behavioral Movies

9:30-10:00       Matrix Ranking

10:00-10:30     Pick Questions & Overview of Keentip and scoring (recruiter)

10:30-11:00     Mock Interview Role Play I

11:00-11:30     Mock Interview Role Play II

11:30-12:00     Rapid Recall

MANUALS & RESOURCE MATERIAL

• 26 Step Process
• Behavioral Interview

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS

• 26 step overview (in manual)
• Sample Assessments (KeenClues, TriMetrix, Achiever)
• Behavioral Scan
• Training documents for sending and pulling assessments