From Ad Hoc to Strategic Talent Management

This article suggests the biggest mistake companies make in HR Management is ignoring Talent Management, caused by a limited awareness and understanding, high growth priorities in their business, and lack of experience.

It is better to begin and build over time, an integrated approach to Talent Management that will include; measurements, career mapping, training, and mentoring. Six tools or program elements are described to help you move from an ad hoc to a strategic approach to Talent Management.

"There’s a problem that small-to-midsized but fast-growing private companies often don’t see coming until the damage is done. Namely – they don’t recognize until it’s too late just how much value is being lost owing to immature talent development, retention, evaluation and recruitment processes. Why is talent overlooked?

There are many reasons for this phenomenon. Prioritization tops the list. The very nature of high-growth means that a company is so focused on opportunities that it often doesn’t notice the ways that sub-optimal talent processes nibble or even bite at performance. Next up is the pace of change. The fact is, with each new surge in sales, de facto, the organization responds and a new company is formed.

Or in other cases, the owners and managers simply have no formal experience in organizational performance. They don’t understand how talent lapses limit or damage performance and growth. In short, they can’t know what they don’t know.

And as highlighted in The Talent Imperative, a recently-released report from Forbes Insights and BMO Harris HRS -0.75%, that damage, at least at first, is hidden by overwhelming success in other aspects of the business. The opportunity is so lush that any organization can find ripe pickings, regardless of the preparation of its individual people for their roles, or the overall integration of talent and strategy as a whole.

What tools are needed?

The shift from an ad hoc to a strategic talent management program can greatly aid a company in the achievement of its business objectives. And while there is no one-size-fits-all solution for talent optimization, leaders should consider implementing elements such as:

•Objective metrics The need for metrics seems obvious. However, amid high-growth, job descriptions are often in flux, as is the nature of the associated opportunities. But regardless of these challenges, no company will ever be able to get the most out of its workforce without clearly defining roles and goals as well as addressing issues such as incentive compensation and advancement. What is it that defines success in this role? How is performance measured? Every employee should have a clear understanding of how they fit in. (Too often, they do not.)

•Strategic alignment Talent, too often, is treated as an afterthought. According to the survey conducted for The Talent Imperative, fewer than one in ten executives from midsized private companies say their talent strategies are intimately aligned with overall strategic planning. This can be a critical mistake, as any strategic plan must be executed by people. So incorporating the views of HR – injecting talent into strategic planning – becomes an essential and relatively easy to use tool for optimizing overall performance.

•Targeted training and development As talent and strategy become more closely aligned, companies will begin to get a better handle on their specific talent challenges. Often topping the to-do list: enhancing training and development.

One way to get things going quickly is to establish a mentoring program. Here the company assigns a more senior and experienced executive to develop a relationship with one or more high-potential individuals within the organization. Another tried and true means is to implement rotational assignments. Here, high-potential employees are exposed to a range of functions in the organization.
Another cost-effective means of training and development is to partner with local schools to develop – or merely refine existing – courses to meet the needs of the employer. Companies can also encourage more experienced workers to develop training videos.

•Key talent identification/retention Going hand-in-hand with talent training and development, fast-growing companies need to make sure that their most valuable employees are engaged and satisfied: with work/life balance, compensation, strategic direction and a host of related variables. Once dissatisfied, it is often too late to turn things around. Companies need to make a concerted effort to proactively identify and work to satisfy the needs of their most critical talent.

•Career-pathing As talent processes mature, companies can begin to add elements that can lead to anything from performance improvement to breakthrough. Providing each worker – particularly their most valuable employees – with a clear job description and performance metrics is only a start. The most enlightened companies take matters a step (or two) further. That is, they engage with each employee to get a sense of personal abilities, aspirations and needs to develop a growth and development plan within the organization.
Where do they want to go in their career? What can they do for the organization? What can the organization do to improve the work/life balance? What training or work experience will they need? If employers can better align the interests of individuals with those of the broader organization, employee engagement and performance are enhanced.

•Talent mapping Talent mapping is a formalized process of linking the talent on hand to the talent that will be needed to support growth in order to assess shortfalls or gaps. As companies pursue greater alignment between talent management and strategic planning, they begin to see increasingly greater value in talent mapping.

Prioritizing efforts :

A sophisticated, comprehensive and value-generating talent function will not arise overnight. Rather, as talent and strategic and operational planning become more entwined, the most pressing opportunities become more visible. Start with those areas determined to be of the most critical importance, and build overall talent capabilities over time. Again, the biggest mistake being made is ignoring talent altogether. Once genuine awareness sets in, the talent equation will begin to optimize itself."

source: Forbes Insights, Bill Millar
http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2013/04/24/essential-tools-of-talent-management/

How to gain role clarity and lead from any position

“More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity” — Francois Gautier, French writer and journalist.

In the March issue of Ivey Business Journal, a publication from The Western Business School, the connection between our role as leaders and our personal identity is explored. Can you still bring passion to your leadership style while checking your emotional attachment to your role? The authors offer 5 ways to practice the idea of Wise Leadership.

I invite you to read the full article and give the concept some thought.

5 Ways to Practice Wise Leadership in Your Role

1. Perform the Role without Emotional Attachment
2. Lead or mentor others to lead, with enthusiasm and clarity
3. Be a great team  player
4. Be authentic in any role
5. Seek role clarity continually and mindfully

source:Ivey Business Journal: March 2013
P.Kaipa, N.Radjou, S.Khizrana

In the context of a business, role clarity means knowing that your role as leader is just that—a role, not your identity. Today you are a director in one company, tomorrow you could be a vice president in another company, and a year later, you could be an entrepreneur. These are merely work roles you play to contribute to the development of your organization and yourself. They also could be very different from who you actually are. This is why role clarity is so critically important: It enables you to perform a chosen role effectively and display behaviors corresponding to that role with enthusiasm, and without losing the sense of your core identity or “the real you” that is behind any given role.

Being merely smart is not sufficient to deal effectively with the complexity of 21st-century business realities. Leaders need to become wise. Leaders who are highly intelligent but not yet wise—those whom we call “smart leaders”—tend to judge and attach a meaning to their role because they view roles through the different glasses they wear. Roles are actions or activities assigned to, or expected of, a person in different contexts (like wearing sunglasses, reading glasses, or driving glasses at different times). Core identity is a person’s conception and expression of one’s values and beliefs and, more accurately, oneself. The distinction between role and identity is important, since leaders sometimes mistake their work role (effective performance of tasks) for their core identity (who they are), which can keep them from seeing clearly and making wise decisions. It’s akin to finding one’s home to be very dark, forgetting that one is wearing dark sunglasses.

In this article, I will try to help leaders understand the crucial difference between role and identity and how they can apply that understanding to be an effective leader.

Read the full article on the Ivey Business Journal website

How to Scale Your Leadership Style

As your business grows or you take on a more senior position, you'll start thinking about leadership style and what would work best for your organization.  Brad Smith, President and CEO of Intuit, discusses the importance of creating a vision people will run towards, and recommends focusing on three E's; Energize, Educate, and Empower. I thought the idea of measuring empowerment success, "not by what happened in the meeting, but how capable the team is able to execute without them after they leave the room" worth remembering.

Source: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130416161816-1940438-how-to-scale-your-leadership-style?trk=mp-reader-card

How to Scale Your Leadership Style
Brad Smith
President & Chief Executive Officer, Intuit

"I was recently asked how I think about scaling leadership. To answer the question, I first need to share my view of leadership, which is grounded in the belief that it is not a leader’s job to put greatness into people. But rather, it is our job to acknowledge the greatness that already exists and create opportunities and an environment for that greatness to come out.

So as your organization grows in size and complexity, how do you move from being a personal trainer where it's one-on-one training for a small team of employees, to someone who can have an impact across a large group of people and advance the capability of the entire group? From my experience, this requires three techniques:

Your ability to create focus. A leader should strive to paint an inspiring vision. Most people don't want to run from something, but rather they seek to run to something. As individuals, we want to be a part of something greater than themselves. A leader should paint this inspiring vision, and then articulate the priorities to help people know how to make progress against that vision.

Your interactions should produce the three E’s. The second thing I believe underpins scaling leadership is your interaction model. My view is the outcomes a scalable leader should create in every interaction is the three E's:

1. Energize: You should leave people with their hearts beating faster. This does not mean always being a cheerleader. In fact, constructive feedback and course adjustments can be equally stimulating if they are delivered in the form of coaching, versus judging. Seek to energize in every interaction.
2. Educate: Leave every encounter with the team having learned at least one thing they didn’t know (or had not realized) before you met with them. You should also seek to learn at least one thing you didn’t know as well. Scalable leaders use every opportunity to learn and to teach.
3. Empower: Scalable leaders measure success, not by what happened in the meeting, but how capable the team is able to execute without them after they leave the room. Did you build capability during the interaction?

The secret to the three E's is principles-based decision making. Bring your coaching to the level of guiding principles. That way, the next time a team faces a similar situation they can refer to the principles as guidelines, and will have a better sense of what to do.

How you invest your time. The third and final piece to scalable leadership is how you choose to invest your time. As leaders, the resources we leverage include time, people, and dollars. We can often find more people and more dollars, but we can never manufacture more time. It is so critical to be very discerning about where you’ll invest your time for two reasons. It is your most scarce resource, so getting the maximum ROI is essential. It is also the strongest signal you can send to a team around what you deem to be the most important.

So to scale your leadership as your organization grows, create focus through an inspiring vision. Be clear about your interaction model and the three E's. And keep a close eye on how you spend your time."

Source: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130416161816-1940438-how-to-scale-your-leadership-style?trk=mp-reader-card

About Hire Quality Hire Quality partners with clients to build high performance teams by recruiting and selecting new talent and by upgrading current staff through training and development. For more information go to www.hirequality.ca or call 705.734.2698

Five Top Tips for Hiring Top Talent

Here's an article from the Globe and Mail that I thought was worthwhile sharing with you all:
 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-managing/human-resources/five-top-tips-for-hiring-top-talent/article10773129/
 

A firm’s biggest asset is the people behind their product or service. Great employees are the foundation of a competitive organization and the best companies go to great lengths to locate and procure these individuals.

Top Tips For Hiring Talent

For startups, recruiting top talent is easier said than done. Potential employees want stability and high compensation packages – variables that not every entrepreneur can provide.

Recruiting the right people is a task too important to be overlooked or not taken with the utmost priority. Effective staffing comes with experience, and everyone makes mistakes; however, it’s never too late to improve your recruiting skills.

We’ve based the below five tips on some great hiring insight from Jenn Hanley, who is the chief operating officer and co-creator of Fizziology, which has brilliantly correlated social media interaction to determine real-world human behaviour. Ms. Hanley and her partner are proof that a great product, intelligent people and a passionate environment, regardless of size, wins the best talent.

Here are five steps to staying competitive in entrepreneurial recruiting, even for the one-person company:

1. Start to market your company in a better light

There are only so many desirable employees who exist. Since every company wants to hire these individuals, you must formulate a compelling reason as to why your organization is special.

Think in terms of the benefits that the job seeker will receive by being employed at your firm and what type of future they should expect.

Remain ethical. Don’t promise things that you can’t deliver. However, make sure that you are set up to provide: employment stability, competitive benefits, an enjoyable working environment and career potential.

2. Making requirements more flexible

The No. 1 that prevents companies from procuring the most talented people is overly stringent requirements. The more specific the needs of an employer, the less applicant choices they’re going to have, the more expensive the employee is going to be and the longer the job search is take.

No employee is ever going to be perfect and the ones who appear so on paper can be far from ideal.

Rather than knowledge, focus on personality and future potential first. As the owner of the business, be confident in your ability to lead and train the employee, rather then rely on the employee to change your company.

3. Adjust compensation rates  and don’t rely on equity

The most effective way for a small company to be competitive in recruiting experienced talent is to pay the right amount and offer great benefits.

In a rush to obtain employees, many entrepreneurial companies attempt to bypass a competitive salary, benefits and bonus package, and instead offer company equity. While stock is alluring to some employees, it will not be at the forefront of their priorities.

Recognize that employees are not entrepreneurs. They don’t want to own a business; rather, they want to be paid by one and, the higher the pay, the more demand for that position.

4. Use additional avenues to find employees

Often, job postings come up empty; they are overly passive ways to staffing and, if your firm doesn’t have a reputable name in your industry, it could prove to be a waste of $500 plus.

To get the word out that you’re hiring and express exactly what you’re looking for, supplement this by subscribing to résumé databases, using LinkedIn and other social media avenues, posting the open position on your blog, listing it on your website and turning to local universities for typically free or highly discounted posting abilities.

Like I said, recruiting takes work.

5. Confidence when interviewing

Remember, when you narrow down the people whom you want to interview, be confident in your abilities to interview these individuals and to do your due hiring diligence. Don’t hire someone simply because they are interested; hire based on mutual respect and passion.

Know that you deserve great talent and let that confidence come through when both pitching the job and asking the questions to obtain the information you need to in order to procure the right person.

Practice your pitch; know what you’re going to say and constantly fine-tune your message until it shouts benefits, confidence and future ambitions. If you don’t believe in your product or service, don’t expect others to.

In the end

As an entrepreneurial company, each hire you make is going to impact your firm either positively or negatively more than it would a larger organization. One rotten apple can make or break your fiscal goals while one motivated employee can exceed all your expectations.

Source: The Globe And Mail 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-managing/human-resources/five-top-tips-for-hiring-top-talent/article10773129/

About Hire Quality Hire Quality partners with clients to build high performance teams by recruiting and selecting new talent and by upgrading current staff through training and development. For more information go to www.hirequality.ca or call 705.734.2698

LinkedIn Is The Best Tool For Recruitment, But Here's The Case For Facebook

For my needs as an executive search recruiter, I use LinkedIn as my primary social networking tool - it's excellent, easy to use and provides me with everything I need! 

However, there is a case to be made for using Facebook, maybe as a generalist tool, for general positions and background checks, but its not for me, as I deal with mostly 'C-Level' positions. As LinkedIn offers a huge amount of extra networking opportunities for high level talent searching.



Facebook Recruitment

The article below is the case for using Facebook as a recruiting tool, written from the perspective of a recruiter ... What do you think? Please let me know - as your feedback is always welcome!

Facebook and Phone Calls: A Recipe for Recruiting Success
by Gail Miller - ere.net

According to a recent Facebook blog post, “Half of employers (50 percent) are using Facebook in their hiring process. A majority (54 percent) already using the social network anticipates Facebook becoming a more important part of the talent acquisition process in the near future.”

Job candidates are also infusing their job search with Facebook activity. In a recent study conducted jointly by Facebook and Carnegie-Mellon University, results revealed that job seekers with strong ties who shared private messages, commented on each others’ posts, or posted directly on each others’ walls found new jobs at a rate of 33.2 percent over the three months. Those with weak ties found jobs a fifth as often, at only a 6.5 percent rate.

This data suggests two things: The first is that we are hiring people who are spending a lot of time on social media. (Let’s hope they’re not doing it while on the job!) And second, Facebook is a powerful tool for active, hands-on users. Like job seekers, recruiters need to do more than just jump on to the Facebook wagon — they need to learn how to drive it and not to forget to use the phone along with it.

Sure, Facebook is an effective social media candidate screening tool. In fact, 37% of employers surveyed by CareerBuilder are using it to weed out candidates who display poor writing skills, discriminatory comments, or drug use. However, Facebook is also a vital online destination where potential employees can go to connect with your brand, see and share job posts with their contacts, and even respond directly to job ads.

Here’s why Facebook should not be overlooked as part of your recruiting strategy.

Facebook is the largest talent pool in the world. Period. Facebook has 500 million active users, of whom 50% log in on a daily basis. And, according to blogsession.com, if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in terms of population.

If you think Facebook’s audience is composed of only younger demographics, think again. There are actually 220 million people over the age of 45 on Facebook. That’s larger than LinkedIn’s entire population of users.

Set up a business page and passively connect. Facebook allows for a less-aggressive form of recruiting in a friendlier environment than LinkedIn. Plus, with Facebook’s new “reply” feature, you’ll soon be able to have an online conversation directly with those who are active on your page.

Facebook brings passive talent and referrals to you. Although they may not be actively looking, Facebook users who find your content interesting will follow and engage with your brand. This is the first step in developing a relationship with candidates who may look to your firm when they’re ready to explore new opportunities.

Furthermore, job boards are evolving to link with Facebook and enhance the job search. Now, social contacts can be securely plugged into third-party sites or apps so users can easily discover mutual connections in the companies where they are applying. Some Facebook programs even allow employees to share their firms’ job openings with their friends.

Facebook is a good value. Unlike LinkedIn, where 39% of users pay for premium accounts, Facebook provides everyone with wide-open access. There are no premium accounts or upgrades required to make connections. And, if you choose to purchase Facebook ads as recruiting tools, the pay-per-click format lets you target your ad to those most likely to find an interest in your message.

That means you can create more effective messaging and gain valuable insight about who reads and responds to your ads.

Facebook is the future. Unlike LinkedIn, which has the oldest average user base of all social media sites — at 44.2 years of age — Facebook is where younger people hang out. And doesn’t it make sense to establish a rapport with today’s youth? After all, they are tomorrow’s talent pool.
But, I wonder, as we click, scroll, and query on walls and pages more and more often, are we engaging with job seekers less and less?

With all of the promise and possibilities for candidates and recruiters on Facebook, we must keep the following statistic front-of-mind: 57% of people communicate more online than they do in real life.

It’s easier and more efficient for job seekers and recruiters to jump onto Facebook than it is to pick up the phone. But, while we are building up pipelines of Likes and Friends, our interpersonal skills may be deteriorating while our networks become more and more superficial.

Sure, Facebook provides great opportunities for connecting, but these interactions should be considered stepping-stones to face-to-face engagement.

Recruiting is a “people” business. Ultimately, we are in sales. Our job is to promote our companies and our brands. We need more than connections — we need to develop relationships! This requires ongoing dialogue. Certainly, a reply button helps, but a voice builds a bond. Human contact enhances trust. People like doing business with those they know. Recruiters can’t rely on Facebook to forge connections — we must continually hone our personal style and natural charm to conduct insightful interviews, present compelling offers, and yes, deliver rejections, too.

Source: http://www.ere.net/2013/04/10/facebook-and-phone-calls-a-recipe-for-recruiting-success/?utm_source=ERE+Media&utm_campaign=3d81282dec-ERE-Daily-Lousy-Hires-Lousy-Culture&utm_medium=email#more-31435
 
About Hire Quality
Hire Quality partners with clients to build high performance teams by recruiting and selecting new talent and by upgrading current staff through training and development. For more information go to www.hirequality.ca or call 705.734.2698

4 Tips for Good Resume Writing - A Recruiters View

I'm often asked what would a perfect resume look like?  What type of resume catches my attention most, and what type of resume is put onto the pile of 'maybe' candidates to consider for an interview?

Firstly, after a full consultation process with our client we can determine the exact assignment specifications for that position.  We will therefore know exactly the background, qualifications, abilities and qualities that are right for the position we are hiring for.



Customize the Resume

Our task is to short-list suitable candidates for our client - so what are we looking for when the resumes start to come in?

During our first review of resumes, we are looking for candidates that have that have the best matching combination of background, qualifications, ability and qualities, for that position of course!

  

As a potential candidate, your task is to present that information in a succinct and attractive manner.


Here are My 4 Tips for Good Resume Writing: 

  

1. Make Sure it's Your Very Best Work

 

A good resume profiles you in the best possible light and should get you to the interview and ultimately the job. A bad resume will leave you in the reject heap with all the other bad resumes.

  

2. Invest the Time to Properly Customize the Resume

 

There is no such thing as a one-size fits all resume no matter how well it is written. Instead of using a generalised resume approach, we strongly recommend a custom and targeted resume for each job application you apply for.

 

Properly preparing your custom resume is the first and most important step in applying for a position. No matter how well a candidate can do a job, if he or she cannot communicate this effectively in their resume they will be passed over for someone who looked better on paper.

3. Things That Will Not Get You An Interview

 

The purpose of a resume is to get you an interview. Your resume is an advert about you and should be carefully crafted to highlight the skills and experience that make you the right person for the job.

 

Your resume is NOT a biography in which you spend pages outlining in chronological order the different positions you have held hoping that something will catch the eye of the reader. This kind of generalised resume is not going to be successful on the whole because:

• It is generic and ambiguous with no specific target in mind.
• It will contain non-relevant information for that particular application. That is at best going to cloud the points you are hoping to make and at worst actually put in something negative that you did not need to.
• It will be too long and wordy. It will also probably be pretty boring!
• If there is a spelling mistake, a typo, an error in printing, or a inconsistency in the formatting, layout or content - then it will be rejected.

These kinds of resumes rarely get you an interview no matter how great your career or how much blood, sweat and tears you have spent on putting the resume together.

 

Given that many surveys show you have often less that 20 seconds to get your resume application noticed, you have no choice but to be targeted in every word of your resume if you want to stand out from the crowd.

 

4. 7 Key Resume Features

 

Here are the key features we recommend to be the basis of a high impact targeted resume, which is designed o make the best impression.

 

1. Short, clear and concise. Aim for no more than two-to-three pages, at a font point size no smaller than 10.
2. Clear and easy to access contact details on every page.
3. It must contain relevant information – and only relevant information. Look at the position you are applying for.  What are they looking for? If you have that background and those skills, concentrate on them.
4. Relevant job titles. This sounds simple, but if you are recruiting for a Sales Director, you probably want to see resumes with ‘Sales Director’ in them.
5. Outline your achievements, not your job description. Your resume should be about you, what you have achieved and most importantly about what you could bring to the new employer. A list of responsibilities and job descriptions just won’t do it.
6. Achievements and scale/scope must be quantified. “Increased sales” is not as punchy as “Built sales from $3 million to $10 million over 2011-12”.
7. A final point. Your resume must be complete, with all dates and periods of employment listed. Concentrating on the relevant information does not mean you should leave big gaps; they will be picked up very quickly by us.

 

Now you have the foundations of what we're looking for in a good resume. 

 

This is basic stuff, so if you don't get it right, your resume will get passed and put on the reject pile..

Be specific, honest (of course), targeted and concise it will get you standing head and shoulders above the generic resume applicants and may put you in the running for an interview.

 

So once again, what am I looking for in a resume? The resume with all of the relevant experience, skills, achievements and abilities laid out in an eye-catching, easy to read and succinct format. The resume that says “Pick up the phone and call me”. In short - you are showing me you are the right candidate for the job.

 

Hire Quality partners with clients to build high performance teams by recruiting and selecting new talent and by upgrading current staff through training and development. For more information go to www.hirequality.ca or call 705.734.2698