Workforce Insights

Hiring Manager Training & Coaching

Jack Welch speaks, writes and leads from the philosophy that companies need to hire people that can clearly execute on their vision or they simply won’t get where they trying to go.

Hiring Managers Aren’t Trained to Hire Right, Yet They’re Held Accountable for Results

Just like any other business skill or core competency, the ability to effectively identify and select the right candidate and to develop them into a true difference maker is learned over time. Your vice presidents, directors, and managers run your business every day. Much more infrequently, they have to make a hiring decision. It’s therefore quite natural that most hiring authorities simply haven’t had the practice needed to excel at targeted selection. So what happens? Gut decisions are made. It’s like buying a car for the paint job, the slick tires and the curb appeal, without a clear understanding of what’s truly under the hood. Then you go to work with your new hire and realize that his personality and talent for communication just can’t make up for his inability to be effective on the job.

KeenHire Helps You Change That

Employee Development

Employee development and training means we invests in our people and help you to do the same.

We provide a systematic and integrated approach to employee development and training, delivered though 1-1 coaching, in-person seminars, or convenient teleconferences. By making career and personal development relevant, timely and social, we help you redefine your approach to employee development and help you to identify your emerging leaders.

Executive Assessment

As a leading decision maker at your company, it’s almost certain that you need to be sure your executive staff is corporately aligned and motivated for success. Because this type of psychometric data is almost never laid out in front of you, we’re here to show you that it can be. Take this sample executive assessment and a member of our team will guide you through how it works in solidifying and scaling your leadership team for the future.

 

Talent Strategy or Competition? How to make all your people feel like they’ve been promoted

I recently read an article for employees about how to position themselves for a promotion.  In a corporate culture where the path to the goods is getting on top, getting that promotion is the key to nirvana.  The next step up the corporate ladder means more money, more respect, more job satisfaction, and perhaps a sense of job security, if anyone has that these days!  What if all those things could occur for everyone who works for your business? 

You can reference the entire article here.  For our purposes, I’ll give you the tip for getting that promotion, followed by deeper look at how you can optimize your employee engagement strategy.

1.  Know your job.  The advice for promotion seekers is to do a good job with the one they have.  This is easy to do if the job is a good fit.  Your job as a manager is to hire right in the first place.  Keenhire’s Conscious Hiring process ensures precious time and resources are not used placing a square peg in a round hole.
2. Volunteer.  People who want to be made use of make themselves useful.  Your job is to have a great talent strategy so that the gifts and talents in your talent pool are contributing.  This is how everybody wins!  You get the best results, and your people get to do what they’re good at. 
3. Create your own position.  When people are stepping into a need, new job descriptions get created.  Your job is to develop your people so they can step into the new opportunities that your company’s growth will provide.  A comprehensive employee development strategy is a must.
4. Let your boss know.  Your job is not to wait for an employee to tell you they are interested in contributing.  Make sure your employees know that you know who they are, and are paying attention.  This is a key component to employee engagement, which I discussed in last week’s blog. 
5. Get more education.  Your job is to add value to your workplace by providing ongoing training and development within your organization that helps people do what they do even better.
6. Don’t create drama.  It is difficult for your employees to create drama if you have crafted your company culture to reflect the ideals that everyone wants to participate in.  Company culture starts from the top down, and congruence throughout the organization will make drama a waste of time for all concerned.  Keenhire’s organizational assessment tools will help you understand what’s going on at every level of your organization.
7. Network.  The promotion seeker networks.  The productive organization encourages collaboration.  Cooperation rather than competition is something that you can create, if you’ve hired right, provided a dynamic, creative, high performance company culture, and set up an ongoing employee development strategy. 

Today’s economic climate requires that people at every level of your business are engaged and happy.  A promotion is a great thing, and you can ensure that everyone who works for you is happy without one.  To make sure you're creating the company culture you want, talk to a Keenhire consultant today at 888-533-6447.

 

Written by Elizabeth Danu

 

Creating A Multi-Generational Workforce That Thrives!

Age discrimination claims have hit record levels in the United States! According to msnnbc.com the figures have risen from 16,000 in 2006 to 23,000 in 2010. That staggering number has skyrocketed, one due to unemployment and two due to the generational gap in the work force today. Those 55 and over are unemployed for an average length of 52.4 weeks. The average is just 37.4 weeks for younger workers, according to AARP employment data. The harsh reality is their age is part of the reason

“There is no question that age bias is rampant throughout American society and in the workplace in particular,” said Howard Eglit, a professor of law at Chicago-Kent College of Law who focuses on law and aging.

The HR profession has identified the number 2 trend most likely to have a major strategic impact on the workplace as large numbers of baby boomers leaving the workplace around the same time.

There are different values that come with having a muti-generational workforce. Each generation brings valued qualities and their own shortcomings.

Lets meet the generations!

World War II: 1925-1945

Values Qualities:

Stable, detail-oriented, thorough, hard-working.

Liabilities:

Don’t like change, reluctant to buck system, uncomfortable with conflict

Messages that motivate:

“We respect your experience and wisdom.”

“Your perseverance is valued and will be rewarded.”

 

Baby Boomers: 1946- 1964

Valued Qualities: Service-oriented, driven, willing to go the extra mile, good at relationship-building, want to please, good team players

Liabilities: Not naturally budget minded, uncomfortable with conflict, reluctant to go against peers, overly sensitive to feedback, self-centered

Messages that motivate:

“You’re important to our success.”

“Your contribution is unique and important.”

 

Generation X: Latter 1960’s to early ‘80s

Valued Qualities: Adaptability, techno-Literacy, independence, not intimidated by authority, creativity

Liabilities: Impatient, poor people skills, inexperienced, cynical

Messages that motivate:

“It’s OK, do it your way.”

“We’ve got the newest hardware and software.”

Millennial: Late 1980’s to the 2000’s

Valued Qualities: Tech-Savvy, collective action (Team), heroic spirit, tenacity, multi-tasking

Liabilities: Need for supervision & structure, inexperienced, very short attention span, lack of patience for menial tasks

Messages that motivate:

“You’ll be working with bright, creative people.”

“You and your co-workers can help turn this company around.”

With the largest gap being WWII generation to the Millennial it can be difficult to create a workplace that sufficiently equips everyone. The WWII’s attitude about the Millennials could be, “Those young kids really know their technology stuff, but I sure wish they could concentrate better.” But if you turned the table the view could be, “Old fogies who should retire and leave the work to us!”

No matter how the cards are drawn, unemployment rates cannot be denied, BUT that doesn’t mean the weeding out is going to last. The rate of unemployment went from a high of 9.8 in 2010 down to 9.0 here in 2011.

Multi-generational workforces can work. Yes, we need to be developing management and using our youth to create new leadership development, but who is going to do the teaching? We all can learn different things from each other.  It is also important to remember outliers. People sometimes cross the borders and fit into different categories based on how they were raised, their personality or their work culture. No matter who the person, or their age they will fit into one category and optimize the workforce!

The key to having generational retention is to create an environment that constructively produces relationships with support and the ability to grow.

 

By: Emily Eastman

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

Workforce Strategy 3.0 - Position Your Company As a Leading Place To Work

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 your company will maximize it’s return on your people investments.

KeenHire’s Workforce Strategy 3.0 Webinar 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.

Sign Up FREE

September 6, 2011

10:30-12:00 PST

Click HERE to Register

The number 1 trend that has a major impact on the workplace is workforce optimization, specifically is key contributor recruitment, utilization, succession planning and retention. 

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

  Walk Away With…

1. 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. Knowledge about the organizational development methodology for assessing your company’s real human capital needs.

3. The 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. Power to develop a winning employer value proposition with several practical employee retention strategies and employee engagement initiatives.

5. The ability to forward your company’s revenue by incorporating the Talent Mindset into your everyday management and people practices. 

The Expert

Margaret Graziano is a torchbearer in the Staffing and Recruitment industry. Her visionary ability, astute knowledge of full life cycle Talent Management and her tenure in the field, positions her far ahead of the Human Capital innovation curve. In the early 2000's Graziano shifted her mindset from recruiter working to make a placements to consultant committed to building extraordinary workforces. She added a talent management division to her staffing operation, adopted a world-class Conscious Hiring and placement process and significantly invested in her own personal and professional development. She utilizes her certifications in Organizational Development, Behavioral Interviewing, Psychometric Assessment usage, Role Analysis and Employee Retention to create curriculum and programs that elevate KeenHire's customers' ability to hire and retain the right people.

The Society of Human Resource Management reports that 6 of the top 10 Workplace Trends are directly related to talent acquisition, selection & retention, don’t be a part of that number.

Sign up now!

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

Does your Organization Work to Keep Its Top Performers?

Think about it: Your company's only truly sustainable competitive advantage, which cannot be copied by competitors, is your corporate culture and the strength of your leadership. Does your company reward innovation, reinforce positive results and cultivate relationships with its top performers? Or do you find yourselves consistently losing top talent?

If so, ask yourself another question: How actively does your organization identify, invest in and motivate leaders? If you ignore this important component of talent development, top performers might leave because of lack of opportunity, and your organization will never achieve its true potential.

5 Steps to Building Trust Between Team Members

Talk of trust-building and teamwork in the office may sound a bit touchy-feely to some. These terms connote awkward exercises and ridiculous activities right out of a Dilbert cartoon. Instead, let's think about trust in a professional sense.

Professional trust is not about catching a teammate as he falls back or boosting a colleague at a rope-climbing contest. Professional trust is about sending the message to your team members that you believe in their competence, honesty, and good intentions.  It's about competence, communication, and commitment. How can you encourage professional trust among your teammates?

Confident Employees are Successful Employees

Why worry about your employees' confidence? Because employees who are confident in themselves and in their abilities are successful employees, and successful employees make a successful company.

If you haven't thought about your employees' confidence before, consider this:

Confident employees want to come to work, they are less likely to quit, and they project a positive image of your company in the wider community. The more confidence an individual possesses, the more efficient and productive they are in meeting their goals. Confidence builds commitment and creates trust among colleagues. A confident work force uses initiative and makes decisions that support organizational goals. Extra benefits—such as an aligned, focused and supportive corporate culture as well as a better and stronger workforce morale—are icing on the cake.