I always wonder how I get on some mailing lists and how random e-mails come floating through my in-box. Today I received one from a graphic design company (my daughter's friend works there so I'll assume that's the connection) and I started perusing their website. And came across a little gem of an idea...probably not an original gem but it crystallized something to me. I'll paraphrase it...
There's lots of great (insert whatever product you offer here) businesses out there. Businesses that all claim to offer a great product, wonderful customer service and great value. But at the end of the day, what most people REALLY want is to do business with people they like.
The team we have here at Advisa is outstanding and I think we are genuinely likeable people. Part of that is our own hiring practices to ensure that our applicant assessments and hiring and selection process are spot on in finding people who align with our organizational culture. Part of is that we understand the importance of motivation and work hard to ensure that all employees are engaged employees...and thus, happy employees.
Mostly...
we're just really nice people and I believe we project that when working with our clients at all times creating a comfortable and open environment with a genuine interest in doing what's best for them.
Plus we're really good at all that other stuff, too!
Blogging does not come naturally to me, mainly because I lack the creative gene to come up with some fabulous idea of what to write about. I’m a pretty good writer so once I have the germ of an idea, I’m good to go. But coming up with that idea in the first place can be fairly difficult and painful for me.
In other words, I am very true to my PI® profile. I’m a worker bee…put my head down, focus on the details, go step by step to handle what’s directly in front of me, and ensure that everything I do is done perfectly. And I’m very content to do all that in the background as I have no need to be in the spotlight. What I don’t do well is think “big” or creatively nor do I have a need for everyone to read my blog and ooh and aah about it. Hence, my difficulty with writing a blog – and it causes me pain to even try as it is so far outside my comfort zone. And I'm not unique in that respect of feeling pain when I feel "forced" to find the motivation to do something that doesn't jibe with who I am naturally.
The importance of motivation cannot be overlooked because when employees are expected to perform outside their comfort zone, that motivation can fly out the window. Maybe someone can perform briefly “in the moment” but when the expectation is more long-term, and motivation is gone, the results can be disastrous.
Disastrous as in disgruntled employees, employees who leave (after you’ve spent a fair bit of time and money training them), lack of employee productivity, and employees who are not energized and engaged by their work. As someone who supervises employees, you need to ensure that your organizational alignment is correct because, simply put...
There's a place for everyone and everyone in their place.
Need help with YOUR place setting?
I'm a sports freak...I love every sport and I'm an excellent, knowledgeable spectator. Football, basketball, tennis, baseball (well, just the playoffs because the regular season is simply too long at 162 games) - the list goes on and on. The only sport I actually play is tennis and I can tend to be just a tad too competitive on the court but I love being out there. Plain and simple, I like winning but more than that, I hate losing.
My job at Advisa is a Hiring Partner. I'm here to assist clients in hiring selection, utilizing applicant screening, the PI® behavioral assessment tool and best hiring practices to help them fill positions. These could be any positions, such as a Synergy Group Leader position in China or a Network Engineer in Dayton.
I take great pride in filling any position, but especially the "needle in the haystack" ones where our clients have come to us because of our expertise and ability. I'm always aiming for a 1.000 batting average and when I'm not able to find the perfect candidate and my average slips a little, as occasionally happens, it bothers me...a lot.
Nobody throws a touchdown pass or hits a home run or serves an ace every single time but that doesn't mean they're not trying to. And it's the same with not only me but the entire Advisa Hiring staff as all of us are committed to providing you with the highest, most professional assistance with employee recruiting...every time out.
I was recently on a flight where I read an airline magazine article about the millennial generation, i.e. the generation of employees who were born roughly between 1980 and 2000 and are now entering the workplace...YOUR workplace...and how will you mentor and manage this group?
This is a generation raised in a very child-centered environment as well as one in which they were very often participating in structured, group activities. They are very used to juggling multiple activities - school, teams, community service (volunteering and wanting to "to-good" is a hallmark of this generation) and multi-tasking with the latest, greatest technology. Who among us Baby Boomers hasn't wondered about the millennials ability to study, watch TV, listen to their iPods, with their computer on so they can also IM and update Facebook...all at the same time? So this generation comes with unique management challenges should YOU have to be the one to mentor them.
These are brand new people in the workforce and you are likely the first manager they are experiencing. The importance of motivation for this group cannot be overlooked. You can have a PI® profile that lets you know what motivates a particular individual but the sociological forces that have gone into that individual's upbringing will also come into play and will affect employee development programs as you mentor and manage them to become productive, effective employees.
This is a group that generally:
- likes structure and wants feedback
- likes working on teams and in group environments
- wants to feel they are contributing, i.e. "doing good", immediately
- wants to be heard and listened to
- feeds off encouragement
- wants to keep moving, experiencing the next best thing
- wants a work-life balance
- can multi-task
- is well connected across multiple lines
And those multiple lines can include job career boards, where they aren't afraid to explore new opportunities if their needs are being met in the job you hired them for...and want them to stay in!
Need more assistance in how to mentor and manage this unique group, who will be the next leaders in your company? Contact
us!
In the interest of full disclosure, the first thing I have to let you all know is that I am a Duke University alum. Which isn't such an easy thing to be here in Indianapolis given the local sentiment about Butler University...and while the NCAA championship game was over a month ago, we Duke alums are still pretty happy about it, unlike the Butler alums (and there are lots and lots of them crawling all over this town). And I would have been very happy had Butler won and I was kind of rooting for them but, frankly, alma mater trumps adopted home town team every time. And I was pretty happy to put this picture (straight from the Lucas Oil Stadium board outside the stadium after the game) up on facebook:
At the end of the game, Coach K called for a pretty risky move: have his 7'1" center
deliberately miss a free throw, thinking that the pressure of gathering the rebound and frantically collecting the team to set up for a last second (literally) shot was a better bet than making the free throw and allowing Butler to set up for the last shot. As we (or most of us sports nuts) know, Coach K's risk worked. But I was at the game, sitting in the middle of the Duke section, and I can tell you there were a lot of hearts in throats wondering if that was the right call.
Risk assessment...I think Coach K really has that down pat based on his years of experience, his knowledge of the immediate situation and his
willingness to make a decision. This wasn't his most talented team but he is a great leader who understands the importance of motivation and how to make the tough decisions that need to be made in an organization. Strategic planning can be long term and it's execution can be short-term, with less than 10 seconds left on the clock. Either way, strategic planning methods need leaders who can assess the risk and make the decisions that guide a team towards winning...or towards losing. Do the risks align with organizational goals? Are they worth taking? Are your employees (or team members) engaged and on board with the risks? Have you made the right personnel selection to have the right team on the floor that can implement your strategies?
But most importantly...which side do you want YOUR team to be on?
I'm pretty sure it's on the winning side...and we can help you get there whether by recruiting the right team members in the first place or helping you develop the team members you inherited from the previous coach.
I recently returned from a vacation in Europe...several days after my original return date, due to the Iceland volcano eruption. Let me tell you - it was a mess over there...all due to this:
We were "stuck" in Paris and, while that seems like a high-class problem, it's very frustrating when all you want to do is leave. Even Paris doesn't improve employee morale when escape is your desired destination. We spent a lot of time trying every which way to get out of the city but trains were full and rental cars all rented. We also spent a lot of time watching and reading the news to see when planes might actually fly again. It was while reading the New York Times that I read a quote in an article about how embarassing the airspace ban was for the European Union because of a lack of political leadership in immediately addressing the situation (unlike the technicians who reacted quickly):
"
Technicians are fine, but on big issues you need leaders to make ultimate decisions, and that's where we're [the European Union] always a a bit short, a bit late."
The quote spoke PI® to me as it talked about specialists (technicians) and how they are confident in their ability to step up in their area of expertise but we also need generalists (leaders) who are willing to make organizational decisions. And when we have leaders who are charged with strategy and planning but fail to do so (perhaps because they are specialists sitting in a generalist's chair), then the organization fails its' employees and customers. Not a good thing for work satisfaction or engaged employees.
It doesn't matter whether you're dealing with an international aviation crisis or human resources issue, either way your organizational planning should direct that you need both the people who "do the job" as well as the decision makers to see the big picture and decide what needs to be done - confidently and (sometimes) quickly. And each one of those needs to be sitting in the right chair - because sitting in the wrong chair can even lead to grounded planes...
You would think that in today's economy that it's an employers market, i.e. employee recruiting would yield tons of applicants and it would be a piece of cake to find the right person. Alas...it is not always so. Sometimes, it feels like this:
In the present economy, employers who are hiring don't have the luxury of hiring multiple people to fill lots of positions. Hiring is more "spotlighted" where employers are looking for that one person who brings a multitude of abilities and skills that can fill many shoes. So the desired skill set can be much more complicated and, thus, more difficult to find and not quite as obvious as...
but more like this...
We can help you with your applicant screening and hiring and selection process to ensure that your recruiting strategy is on target to find your personal "needle"!
Is this your recruiting plan nowadays? Post an on-line ad, cast a big net out and see what you snag?
Or is this more your style? Narrow the parameters so much that your overlooking some other good "catches" right next to you?
In these tough hiring times, employers need to be even more savvy about their recruiting strategy but sometimes it's tough to find just the right "cocktail" which produces the perfect candidate! With so many applicants for every position, companies are in the driver's seat and can feel like they can cast a very wide net to include lots and lots of potential candidates. But the net can be too wide...and then you're left having to sift through a mountain of information - and that's not a good use of your resources.
On the flip side, you can have too small a net...again thinking that with such a big candidate pool, you can afford to be extra choosy. But if you narrow the candidate pool too much, you may be overlooking someone who could be the perfect fit with the right supervision to create a motivated and engaged employee.
Personality assessments like the PI survey® can certainly help you identify the right fit candidate for a company's unique culture.But just as important as the individual pieces of information that are accumulated during the hiring and selection process is the ongoing dialogue between client and hiring partners that ensures that we work together to keep tweaking that process...know that we're listening!
Let's start a dialogue and get talking about your candidate assessment strategy!
I recently assisted one of our consultants at a strategic planning session with one of our clients. My role in these sessions is very limited as I'm there solely to input information as it is generated by all the participants. But it gives me an opportunity to see first hand the dynamics and benefits of creating a strategic plan.
One of the recurring issues brought up time and time again was the quality of some of the staff and the difficulty in hiring talented people who will not only produce results but will also stay on board. Unfortunately, my role in these sessions is NOT to jump up and down, wave my hands wildly in the air and let them know that I have a great solution - Advisa Hiring! But it's what I desperately wanted to do.
Our RPO hiring solution is tailor made for companies like this - too small to devote a full-time employee dedicated to handling all the pieces of a full-bore job search but too large to have key executives wasting valuable time reading stacks of resumes. In the hands of trained professionals, applicant screening is effecient, effective and productive in both the short and long term.
The other piece that sitting in on the session provides is a unique opportunity to get the inside view of the culture, strategy and direction of clients. This information is invaluable when our job is to find the round peg candidate for the round peg position.
Smart hiring practices with the "right fit" candidates are a key piece in the overall strategy and direction a confident organization will be taking, both in the present and the future.
So this is my first post...and I'm going to write about a comment that a candidate said to me during a phone screen interview this morning. At the end of an hour-long interview she commented that I had given her more information than any other interview she had had. In the beginning she thought this was the least interesting job opportunity she had but by the end of our phone interview, she was ecstatic about this opportunity - because of what I was able to tell her about the job and the company. She said she never felt like she was being interrogated or threatened and that I had created such a comfortable environment (even on the phone) that she was able to provide more honest answers than she had in any other interview. And in return, I learned enough about her to know whether she was a good candidate...or not.
This is a testament to the faith that our clients have in us as Hiring Partners to represent them in the very best light...to know companies and positions inside and out...and to present them as an ideal place to work because I truly believe that all of them are exactly that!
Recruiting employees is tough...personnel selection is a job at which we excel because we CARE to know our clients and our recruiting plan is customized to their needs.
I love representing my clients and singing their praises - and my ability to present my clients in such a favorable light only helps with employer branding. It's an immeasurable commodity and something I take great pride in.
I loved getting the compliment...and I think my client would have loved it, too!
Powered by Compendium Blogware