Hire someone who wants your job

It’s a straightforward process that a Manager goes through with a recruiter when there’s a need to recruit someone into his or her team. A job is opened and a brief to source the best candidate based on agreed parameters is provided to the recruiter.

If the recruitment is managed by an in-house function, there’s hopefully a nice warm pool of candidates who are aware of the company and are positively predisposed for working for it (employer branding and EVP in action) from which to start conversations. If a recruitment firm manages it externally, they may engage in a raft of activities including searching their own database, headhunting, profile sourcing and approaching, seeking recommendations or advertising.

However the outcome of the process will largely depend upon the Manager’s ability to objectively review candidates and their emotional maturity to exclude subjective motives and reasoning in their decision-making and review process.

Take for example the Manager who has recently been promoted internally and is recruiting externally for the role they previously held. If they’re honest with themselves, they’ll know their limitations, capability gaps, areas for improvement and development. They may choose to recruit based on a tightly defined set of criteria to compliment these gaps – makes sense at a superficial level, but is it the right way to proceed?

If, on the other hand, they are confident in their ability to succeed in their newly appointed position and have the larger strategic view in sight, they may recruit based on broader, more holistic criteria to ensure the very best candidate is selected for the role.

In a situation where the new Manager is uncertain of their abilities (or has been promoted when they weren’t ready), they run the risk of excluding a strong candidate based on their subjective views and irrational fear. Could the candidate who brings in-depth category knowledge, technical expertise, broad business experience and passion to the role ultimately succeed in or want their job? Probably. Should the Manager explore the possibilities with the candidate? Definitely.

In a market where good people are genuinely hard to find, Managers should strive to be as open as possible and suspend any subjective and emotional barriers from the process. Is it really the end of the world if the new hire is ambitious and might one day want their job? Not really. It’s how they are managed that will make all the difference to both the Manager’s and team’s success. And it may also make succession planning a little easier!

My top 5 career lessons

There’s something about a new year that can lead you to reflect on the past, what you’ve achieved and how you got there. I recently spent some time looking back on the people, places, situations and positions I’ve held that have influenced my thinking and beliefs, those who have provided inspiration and the career lessons I’ve learned.

Belief

As a child I remember my parents telling me I could achieve whatever I wanted. My grandmother would say it’s ‘better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all’. This thought has remained with me throughout my career from my first job as a copywriter and managing the criticism of my writing, through to working in Singapore, being promoted into executive positions and bearing the responsibility of brands and the people that work to deliver them. If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?

Visualise

I’ve lost count of the number of times I climbed a particular Silky Oak tree at a quiet beach on the south coast of NSW. Here I’d sit and dream of traveling the world, the job I’d love the most, where I’d live and what friends and relationships I’d have. I use the power of visualisation most days, from helping navigate complex working challenges to managing stakeholders in order to secure the optimum outcome. Being able to see the end while flexing along the way and dealing with ambiguity helps to focus on what matters most.

Knowledge is good

Whether you’re a subject matter expert or a generalist in your career, education, learning and keeping up to date with trends in your industry gives you currency. A Director of a company I worked for, and with whom I worked very closely, would spend the first 45 minutes of his day reading the daily newspapers and industry rags, talking to staff and updating himself on the latest developments in his industry before getting stuck into his workday. With today’s proliferation of information sources, there’s little reason not to keep abreast of what’s happening in your ‘career world’.

Learn from your pets

My beloved Burmese cat had a very unique voice. He was loyal, there when I needed him, contributed positively in my daily life (sometimes over-engaging during winter when he felt it appropriate to sleep under the doona), but was just as happy to spend time on his own. However when something was ‘up’, I would know because of his voice’s unique tone, all the while keeping his dignity and poise, likeability and ongoing contribution to my family unit. The insight here is in business, there are ‘ways and ways’ of going about making a point and being heard without affecting your ongoing personal brand.

Enjoy what you do

How you define the success of your career is generally only limited by your attitude. Whether you’re waiting on tables, piloting an A380 or running a billion dollar business, when you enjoy what you do, it shows. Positivity, enthusiasm, optimism, engagement and professionalism are overtly infectious. We’ve all been situations where a brand promise is disconnected from the service experience. Without oversimplifying things, the ‘right’ attitude goes a long way to helping you achieve personal and professional goals.

Happy New Year!

10 steps to avoiding corporate mediocrity

One of my favourite blog posts is by Richard Sauerman, titled ‘The Recipe for Corporate Mediocrity’ (http://blog.firebrandtalent.com/2012/06/the-recipe-for-corporate-mediocrity/). It details a scenario involving 5 monkeys in a cage as they each climb a staircase to attain a shiny yellow banana hanging from the roof by a piece of string. Through the ongoing negative reinforcement of positive behaviours amongst existing and new monkeys to the group, they eventually turn on each other because ‘that’s the way it’s always been done around here’.

I’m sure many of you can relate to the scenario. Perhaps you work somewhere where this is the norm, or you’ve seen glimpses of it. Hopefully you’re in an organization where you and your team’s efforts to climb the ladder are supported and encouraged. Most recently I discussed this experiment with a new-ish team who are part of an organization undergoing significant amounts of change within a culture that, for many reasons, can appear to be rooted in a (albeit changing) cycle of blocking/rejecting a different lens through which to view the business. Why? Because ‘that’s the way it’s always been done around here’.

So imagine you’re a new employee with this organisation. Unlike the monkeys, you’re not so much sprayed with ice cold water, but rather become immersed in an environment and culture where challenging the establishment, the way things are done and how business is viewed can often have unconventional ramifications. Your ability, vision, ideas, enthusiasm, determination, standards and professionalism is your currency and must be protected if you are to succeed. But how do you keep yourself safe from falling foul to the other monkeys in the cage as you try to reach that elusive yellow banana dangling from the ceiling? Here’s my top 10 for keeping the integrity with which you started.

1. Never lose sight of the big picture
2. Keep the end goal in sight
3. Remind yourself why you were employed in the first place
4. Compromise, but only if you truly believe it’s the right solution
5. Don’t accept mediocrity
6. With difficult colleagues, address their behaviour, not them personally
7. Take the time to normalize your situation – speak to others in business and share your experiences
8. Find a way to measure the small wins – you will feel better knowing things are moving ahead
9. Retain your status as ‘Switzerland’ – be the person people feel they can talk to confidentially
10. Constantly reevaluate your situation and retain your integrity, good humour and sense of self

Organisational change and the importance of your employer brand

Market pressures, increasing regulation, decreasing revenues, reputational erosion and other internal and external forces often stimulate the requirement for organisational change. In response, organisations may embark on structural, strategic or operational changes to move them to a higher plane in their development.

With the most rigorous strategy in place, driven by a fully engaged executive team, the road from A to B for organisations undergoing change is most often challenging. It can be more difficult if the people piece and connection with the EVP and employer brand is either overlooked or not given the priority and visibility it requires to support change success.

The broad definition of change management is around an approach to shifting/transitioning individuals, teams and organisations from a current state to a desired future state. It is an organisational process aimed at helping change stakeholders to accept and embrace changes in their business environment. You’ll notice the huge people-piece here, be it around individuals, teams or entire organizations.

In a recent staff guide for a leading Australian University, one of the goals of change management is stated as ‘the alignment of people and culture with strategic shifts in the organisation, to overcome resistance to change in order to increase engagement and the achievement of the organisation’s goal for effective transformation.’ Corporate Leadership Council research indicates that 60% -70% of significant and complex change management programs experience issues with inertia and stop as they fail to produce the planned outcome. This is generally because of poor project planning and change management.

From my own professional experience, organisations face varying levels of resistance to change. Staff dislike the unknown and what it may mean for them personally. Many think things are just right the way they are and see no need for changing at all.

Generally, executive management is supported with the tools to help manage processes and resources more efficiently. But change requires much more than because in reality, you are managing people with anxiety about change, confusion over what it means to them and the fear of uncertainty. On the flip side, you are sometimes managing their excitement and willingness to be involved. For example, appropriately managing the emotions of staff whose roles may be under review due to organisational change is difficult for most managers. But successfully managing the change process and giving voice and support to the emotions staff may feel during any transition is fundamental to the program’s success.

Whether your organisation has a strong, well-managed EVP and employer brand or not, people are inherently cynical about change. However in times of stress, organisational upheaval and change, the absence of a platform on which to build messaging from the most senior level, internal communications and the ‘what’s in it for me in the changed organisation’, makes engaging staff more challenging, particularly if the culture already requires work or has been neglected over time.

There may be conflicting goals within the organisation, for example, increasing resources to accomplish goals yet cutting costs to retain revenue. Hiring consultants to deliver key projects aligned to the change strategy whilst other roles are reviewed and rationalised. In the absence of a robust EVP and employer brand and channels through which to effectively communicate, staff will talk, worry, make things up, build negativity, create factions; they may even take action. There needs to be a voice of reason, explanation, understanding and context-building. Best practice indicates this is most effective when coming from the CEO or MD of the organisation.

In well-established organisations with deep community connections and long-serving staff, change often goes against the values held dear by them. The change may challenge how they believe things should be done. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard people say ‘well that’s just how we do things around here’. Therefore the natural defence for people threatened with potential loss is resistance, disengagement or both.

Unless otherwise managed and given the opportunity for discussion and understanding, the reasons people resist or disengage are personal and completely valid. They might include perceived loss of working conditions, money, pride, security, satisfaction, responsibility, authority or status. They may feel a lack of respect, have received personal criticism or not been able to provide any input. Or it could be just bad timing personally.

Having worked with or consulted to many organisations that have either entered into or been through significant change, the people/culture alignment with strategy and outcome has always been the number one priority. Yet some organisations are unable to work this crucial success driver into the change program, or cannot dedicate the required resource to manage the potential fall-out, or in the most extreme cases, the culture piece is not even on the table at the C level.

If people are an organisation’s greatest asset, then business genuinely needs to support them through periods of change. Every organisation has a sense of its EVP buried somewhere in its DNA, some tendril that connects its people to the people brand. If it’s there and unmanaged, don’t wait for a change program to be underway and feel the inertia get the better of the program. Engage at the highest level of business from the outset. Ask the difficult questions. Make the hard decisions. Harness what’s there and put some rigour around it. When people feel anxious, they need something to hold onto. And business leaders have a responsibility to ensure their people have something meaningful to hold onto in times of change.

Someone very wise once said to me ‘Marketing, HR and Strategy folk can develop the fanciest programs for change. But if the CEO and MD don’t, or won’t, get it and there’s disconnection between them and the front line staff, there’s not much point and you’re likely to fail.’

Employee onboarding; the key to success?

According to Wikipedia, Onboarding refers to “the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors to become effective organizational members and insiders”. I’m sure most of you would agree with this definition, yet there’s myriad ways an organization goes about onboarding new staff members. Often times it’s thorough; other times it’s disorganized, piece-meal, sporadic and ill conceived.

If the overall objective is to ensure that the process leads to positive outcomes for new employees such as higher job satisfaction, better job performance, greater organisational commitment, reduction in stress and intention to quit, you would expect after going through a recruitment process that most organisations would place onboarding at the top of their list, right?

Day one in a new job is tough and can go many ways. There’s the ‘induction’, if a staff member is fortunate enough to receive one, which may include:

• Terms and conditions of employment;
• General welfare;
• Workplace health and safety;
• Introduction to the job.

However what defines new employee success, both immediate, short and long term, rests in the onboarding which, in an ideal world, might loosely include some of the following:

• Agenda for employee to meet team, key partners, and peers;
• One on one time with direct Manager to ensure expectations are set;
• Structured information – what information SPECIFIC to the employee’s role will they need to be able to function with minimal stress;
• Assumed knowledge decipher – don’t assume the new employee knows where to find or how to generate reports, how to complete standard functions, etc;
• Designated peer mentor;
• Feedback mechanisms – daily, weekly, first month, three months, etc.

I’ve heard many stories, good and bad, around employee induction and onboarding. One that stands out for me was an employee who relocated internationally into an organisation undergoing significant amounts of change. Not only was there a new structure that existing staff were coming to terms with, there were redundancies still underway, so the ‘culture’ was very self-protective and highly unionised.

The new employee literally hit the ground running. Their first week was filled with meetings with peers, stakeholders and managers and it quickly became apparent that there was an enormous amount of assumed knowledge and requirement to be fully-functioning very quickly if they were to succeed.

Overlaying this was the complexity of several whole of company projects, into which the new employee was drafted due to their specialist experience. With a large team to manage, the employee struggled to connect with their own team whilst managing a raft of business-as-usual priorities along with new strategic initiatives that supported the changing structure and business strategy. Each time the employee thought they had reached a better level of understanding of the role in context of the business, a meeting with a different stakeholder group demonstrated their knowledge was less than expected and consequently, stress levels increased to the point at the end of week one they were questioning their acceptance of the role.

The following weeks rolled out similarly, but with small wins along the way, with work being recognised at the group level, an evolving understanding and appreciation of their peers, the environment and the complexities in which they were all operating and the promise of increased resource on the way. As the employee went to great lengths to challenge how they were being onboarded, asking for more information and context, seeking out other employees who could assist them, whilst working long hours to ensure the day to day functions of their role were managed to the best of their ability, the levels of stress slowly began to decline, positive feelings returned and both satisfaction and commitment increased.

Now in this example, I know the employee personally and can say the only reason she stayed and made it to the end of her first 6 weeks was that she was curious, had high levels of energy and engagement, was tenacious and adaptable, could deal with ambiguity and was driven to do a great job and succeed.

It was certainly an unnecessarily unpleasant start for someone who had just travelled to the other side of the world with her family to take on a new role. The uncertainty, stress and ‘grey’ around her first 6 weeks could have been managed in a more highly organised, structured, supportive and information-rich way to mitigate the loss the company nearly suffered. Imagine the cost involved in having to re-recruit this executive into the business. The disruption to the team. The risk that the existing program of works would stall and have a direct negative impact on the company’s revenue.

I can’t stress enough the importance of a thorough induction and onboarding for new employees, whether they are an administrator or the CEO. Finding the right person and recruiting them into your company isn’t easy. Don’t waste the opportunity to give them the very best chance to succeed because that’s where the greatest alignment between employee and employer lies.

Why have an EVP and how to go about it

In an increasingly competitive talent market place, the benefits are of a well managed EVP are receiving more air time and focus at the highest level within organisation. Well-known benefits include, in no particular order:

1. Attracting (and retaining) more of the right kind of people to your organisation
2. Giving you a point of difference in challenging markets and in sourcing hard to fill roles
3. Increase/re-build trust in existing staff – engagement
4. Being part of a strong ‘people’ brand
5. Reduce the premium associated with new hires

Having been through the process of EVP development with many companies across categories from mining to hospitality through to FMCG, I’ve also been exposed to various approaches of doing so; some of which use benchmark data (like the Corporate Leadership Council), some of which are more proprietary approaches. Ultimately the end result is generally similar – it’s just the road traveled to get there that differs.

I’d like to share a framework I enjoyed taking clients through, particularly as it was straightforward to understand and linked to tangible outcomes, like increases to the company’s bottom line. But let’s start with the definition of EVP. My favourite was developed by the CLC:

Makes sense right? What do I get if I work for you over what I’ll get if I work for your competitor? What’s in it for me? But as an organisation, steps need to taken to develop a sustainable EVP that attracts, rewards and retains the right kind of people to your business.

In 2011, Towers Watson said that while all organisations have an informal EVP, only one-third globally have formalised their EVP. Opportunity? You bet. Why? Because employees want to see the whole picture your company has to offer across purpose and values, reward, recognition and opportunity and importantly, the work they do, the people the work with and the environment in which they do so.

But if Towers Watson are saying there’s an opportunity to formalise an EVP, what benefits might you expect from doing so? From my experience the main driver is around aligning the EVP to the brand so that employees ultimately start adopting behaviours that deliver on a company’s promise, for example a hospitality organisation’s brand promise may be around ‘delivering exceptional customer experiences’.

Linking the EVP with the CVP (consumer value proposition) can be very powerful as you’re working on the reputation of your brand from both the inside and the outside simultaneously. Not only will a formalised EVP potentially lead to a more unified employee experience, the alignment of the internal and external experience can have positive impacts right down to the bottom line.

There are many approaches to developing your EVP and then aligning with your CVP, for example:

PLAN
BUILD
IMPLEMENT
IMPROVE

or

ASSESS
STRATEGISE
IMPLEMENT
MEASURE

What is common to both is the subsets of work required at each level of the process. These may include:

It’s not always an easy path to travel and requires sponsorship from the very top of an organisation, but the rewards can be significant. How your company may approach it may vary from the example above. But with HR having a greater ‘seat at the table’, the agenda is slowly changing and the importance of EVP is becoming more recognised as a business imperative.

The ‘wildcard’ candidate

It’s a story I’ve heard many times from friends, colleagues and during the course of business. A candidate is sure they have the skills and experience to apply for and succeed in a particular role, yet the recruiter deselects them and they don’t even make it to interview stage (see my blog post on whether recruitment is a process of selection or de-selection). I’ve heard many reasons why, including ridiculously tight client briefs that mean the client will ONLY see candidates that have performed exactly the same role before, but in another organisation. Or perhaps the candidate’s experience is broad and the recruiter struggles to see the value they could deliver to their client – they’re unable to discover and interpret, as opposed to ticking the boxes. I’ve even heard of cases where a candidate had amazing knowledge and skills in an industry, but lacked specific category experience, precluding him from interview. But every now and then something magical happens that restored my faith…I’ll bet you know of someone or a story like this.

A candidate applies for a role as per the above scenario. They’re confident of having more than enough experience to competently deliver in the role. In a stroke of (what shouldn’t be looked at as) luck, the recruiter views their application and CV. On the surface, they think the candidate can do the job, but they’ll be an outside chance or a ‘wildcard’ candidate. As is often the case, there are other candidates who’ve done the exact same role before, only within another organisation. Taking the high ground and not simply discounting them as they’re unable to tick all the boxes, they call the candidate to discuss their application.

Within three minutes, the recruiter gets a sense that this candidate has a lot to offer. They’ve taken the time to develop trust with their client and are relied upon to offer up the very ‘best’ candidate…not just the one that ticks all the boxes (rare, right?). This level of trust gives the recruiter confidence in taking the time to dig deep with the candidate to understand not only their experience, but their motivations and how they’ll ‘fit’ with the organisation. On being referred to as an outside chance or ‘wildcard’, the candidate knows that if she can just get in front of the recruiter and the client in person, she’ll move from being the ‘wildcard’ to the preferred candidate. So she works hard to ensure she is invited in for a face to face meeting.

A good rapport is developed and the recruiter, now with the benefit of eyeballing the candidate, is able to fully interrogate the gaps that make the candidate the ‘wildcard’. Throughout the process, the candidate demonstrates her innovation, creativity and the value she can bring to the role.

Next stop…meeting the client. At this stage, the recruiter is comfortable that the candidate has now moved to the top of the list as the preferred candidate. In the mix remain two others. One is a safe pair of hands, having done the same role but elsewhere, the other with similar experience to the preferred candidate but with less years and not as broad background. Client, candidate and recruiter are all very pleased with the outcome of the meeting and after some psychometric testing and another interview/presentation, the candidate is offered and accepts the role. Job well done by all parties.

So why does this story resonate with me and why might it interest you? I think it comes down to a few things:

1. The recruiter really took the time to get to know the candidate, what their motivations were, how their experience could add value to the client’s business;
2. The candidate concentrated on sharing her experience, motivations and fit for the role, giving the recruiter the confidence to put her forward to the client. In front of the client, her experience and abilities were well regarded, valued and received;
3. The client trusted the recruiter. Whilst they clearly had a tight brief which initially pushed the candidate to  ’wildcard’ status in the eyes of the recruiter, they listed to and took the recruiter’s advice.

I’ve got to admit that this story goes some way to improving my (sometimes less-than-complimentary) view of recruiters. This recruiter was clearly a standout individual with an ability to connect with the candidate, assess their abilities and articulate the value their innovation, creativity and experience would bring to the client’s business. In the end, the ‘wildcard’ out-shined the safe pair of hands and the candidate with less years. But the outcome could have been VERY different had the recruitment assignment been in the hands of a less lateral-thinking recruiter. Snaps to them!