Posts Tagged ‘A-level talent’

Fit Happens

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

Marie was hired into a customer service role for a large international distributor. Her responsibility, in addition to doing the daily service tasks, was to provide “consistently exceptional service.” Based on her robust resume of previous work experience, the company expected great results. Marie failed.

Marie consistently lost her temper with customers who did not know how to order, had questions or required a second explanation of a product solution. She did not accommodate any changes to how she provided service – no personal touch – all customers were dealt with in the same efficient, but impersonal, manner. As Marie openly said, “I don’t really like people – but I’ll deal with them to get the job done.” Quite a first impression for a customer.

Marie may have been a great person (I’m sure her parents love her), but she is a misfit for this role; the role needed certain consistent behaviors that were not part of her core abilities. Fit didn’t happen.

Time after time I see organizations relying on candidates’ past skills or experience as the exclusive method for hiring. And though there may be mandatory role skill requirements, it is critical to also assess a candidate’s “fit” for the role – what the talents, strengths and passions are to be successful in the role.

Regardless of what our parents may have told us, we are not great at everything. But we are great at some things. When we discover these personal areas of greatness, we then can assess our world – what roles need what we do best – and can find our fit. Fit happens.

I find there are two primary problems in recruiting today’s A-level talent:
1. The organization does not clearly define the core abilities needed to be successful in the role,
2. Job seekers do not know themselves well enough to know their unique talents, strengths and passions.

Hiring managers must better define the required attributes in each role, and state them in their sourcing process. They must also require job seekers to spend time discovering and articulating their unique abilities. Only then can the two sides meet in the middle for a meaningful process committed to finding the right person for the right job. Then, fit happens.

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Three Things M&M’s Tell You About Hiring Great People

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

Yum, M&M’s – those delicious little candy with a mix of colors on the outside and great filling on the inside. Who would have thought that an M&M would have so much to tell us about hiring and performance?

Today’s workplace in an intellectual or service workplace – much of manufacturing has moved offshore. Most employees are now face-to-face with customers, not hiding behind machines or out of view. This changes everything about performance as employees must now be good at what they do and interested in doing it (because if not, customers know it). Today, talents and passions impact performance – and these are resident in our employees “filling” – in their minds and in their hearts – not in their “candy coating.”

Think about M&M’s as you start your hiring and job interviewing process:
1. Hire for filling – hire for a candidate’s unique abilities. Since we are all unique, there is no way to judge the caliber of the talents, strengths and passions by reviewing the exterior candy coating. Be clear about the talents, strengths and passions that drive success in the role, and hire those. Get past the candy coating and hire what really matters – filling.

2. Appreciate the candy coating – the candidate’s ethnicity, age, gender, religion, etc. are all the added value that accompanies the right “filling.” Hiring older employees may bring stability and greater loyalty; hiring younger employees may bring greater technology and energy. And the right combination of talents and passions for a particular role could be resident in either.

3. Mix them up for the greatest impact –blending the right thinking (filling), with a diverse combination (candy coating) creates a workforce that emulates the true consumer population, encourages greater idea and opportunity thinking (because of diverse backgrounds) and helps the workforce learn to appreciate differences.

M&Ms remind us that in today’s thinking workplace, “filling” matters most. It is in how employees think and respond that inspires customer loyalty and adds value for the organization. Not only does this approach eliminate any bias against protected classes, it offers organizations the best workforce in today’s diverse economy.

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Make All Your Employees Talent Scouts

Sunday, July 17th, 2011

Today’s intellectual (thinking) workplace has redefined what we need from our employees. Employees no longer complete rote tasks; today’s service workplace now requires employees to think their way through constantly changing customer situations to provide responses that are customized and personalized. This means today’s employees must think in particular ways to be consistently effective, to inspire customer loyalty, and to drive profitability.

An organization’s most significant asset is the intellectual capital of their employees – how they think, invent, create and respond. Therefore, every organization needs employees who are the right fit for the job – employees who have the right talents, skills and experience – they connect to customers and drive results. This makes the sourcing and selection process both more critical and more difficult.

No longer will most any employee be able to do any job. Fit matters. And to find employees who fit the role, the organization now needs a greater list of candidates to select from – to ensure the attributes needed to drive performance exist within the candidate. This focus on fit now requires a fuller pipeline of viable candidates. And one of the greatest ways to fill the talent pipeline is to use your workforce’s connections and sourcing ability.

Consider the following ways to use your workforce to identify, find and recruit A-level (the right fit) employees:

1. Clearly identify the talent profile of for each role (this should identify the talents, skills and experience needed to be effective in the role). Share this information with all employees. Now employees know the attributes needed to be effective in each role.

2. Have all employees take a talent assessment, to be better aware of their natural abilities (talents and strengths) and to become familiar with the nomenclature of talents. Having a common language of talents allows the organization to better define, discuss and understand what attributes are key for each role, and what attributes must be sourced.

3. Provide talent scout business cards to all employees; these cards have the employees’ name and “Talent Scout” as their role. Coach employees to give cards to those people they see in their normal day who exhibit the talents and attitudes needed in company roles. Invite these people to find out more about the company. This starts to fill the talent pipeline so that when openings do happen, the organization has already started to source good fit candidates.

4. Have employees talk about open company roles to their (social and professional) networks.

No longer can management be solely responsible for sourcing all talent. Employees see and talk to (talented) people all day. They are connected to personal and professional networks. Be sure they know what attributes encourage great “fit” in each role and send them out to the world to scout for (the right) talent.

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