Hiring Solutions

Laser coaching requires you to stop managing

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Effective bosses know that everybody has their own learning style. Instead of telling your employees how to get the job done, provide assistance that is focused on a quality process and an intentional end result. As a manager, take time to listen, ask the right questions, and use qualified assessments to become a laser-focused coach with the ability to guide your team and provide the necessary adjustments. Encourage your employees to interact with one another, other teams, and their clients to develop new processes and systems to achieve the required end results:  satisfied customers and a positive return on investment. (http://SeibCo.com/assessments)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Hiring biases cost you money.

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Today, many recruiters are complaining about not finding qualified candidates. Yet candidates with the credentials and required experience never hear back after applying for opportunities. Or, if they are interviewed, they’re told they are overqualified, don’t have a particular skill set, or don’t have the right pedigree (e.g., industry experience, professional titles, salary history, etc.).

Age does matter. Although the EEO and other agencies frown upon age discrimination, we all know it happens all too often. Recruiters are simply following edicts from their bosses to find someone younger and cheaper. They don’t know how to “sell” a qualified candidate to these bosses. Bosses and recruiters don’t believe they have the time to strategically assess what is truly needed and are unwilling to think outside the box to find the gold. Statistically, younger employees are more job-mobile and will leave a position when more qualified ones will not. More-experienced employees have been through the instability every company experiences and have learned to roll up their sleeves and wait it out.

Here’s a newsflash: Amateurs don’t save companies money! A well-qualified professional who fits the job, regardless of age, can normally do it faster, more thoroughly, and with better quality than someone without experience. The failure by hiring managers to objectively assess for job fit by using qualified assessments can hinder your company’s ability to select the right employees. The truth is poor job fit will create short-term employees or employees who simply do enough to get by and keep their paychecks but no more. It’s a costly status quo with a limited return on investment, because it keeps your company focus in a reactive mode, not on proactive growth.

Filter and invest. Infuse objective data into the process upfront, before the interview, because quality information will make for better decisions. Interviews are inherently biased and can filter out well-qualified candidates because of bias factors (e.g., age, weight, tattoos, gray hair, bald, etc.). Example: If you’re looking for a trainer and have candidates who have done training, talk with them. Use a qualified assessment to determine if they have an interest in presenting the subject matter required. What training and skill development will they need over time? Will they be comfortable in small or large groups? Can they write training content or do they rely on off-the-shelf programs? What will be the best return on investment for the company in the long run? What other skills are currently missing in the company that they can provide?

Remember, using qualified assessments can make a huge difference in vetting the right people, regardless of experience. Hiring qualified people, regardless of age and other biases, and investing in them builds a stronger company faster.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Your boss is leaving.

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When your boss leaves, whether willingly or not, you need to be ready. If you are qualified for the position, find out how to apply. Have your brag statements available and share them appropriately. (http://TimeToBrag.com) If you’re not qualified, see this as a great opportunity to network with your former boss (or boss’s boss) to determine what you need to do to be ready for the next opportunity—don’t wait until after your boss has left; he or she will be less likely to want to maintain ties at that point. Be prepared to seek other jobs within the company or new opportunities with new employers, since new bosses tend to bring in their own people. Although new bosses should always assess current talent before replacing them, shake-ups happen too often, which makes it imperative for you to be ready to move on. In the meantime, be willing to take on other job responsibilities to broaden your depth and breadth of experience and knowledge. Build a great working relationship with the new boss. It may save your job, or provide valuable references or contacts for the next one!

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Your job may be ending soon.

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Is your employer is in the red? If yes, it does mean your job may be ending soon if you don’t get in action now. As a leader, it’s important that you network to determine what can be done to change the organization’s financial situation before sending out your resume. (You’re right: This process should have started prior to now.) Are there new markets to pursue? Tweaks required to keep current customers? Additional training of staff? Get busy … urgency is the key! Waiting only encourages more procrastination.

A confidence builder for employees is to put together brag statements for the business—i.e., what you’ve achieved as a group—and share them with your network. Second, put together brag statements outlining what you’ve done for each customer and share those statements with them. Most customers stray because they don’t know what you’ve done for them lately. (http://TimeToBrag.com) If you have been ignoring customer demands, immediate and progressive changes are required, but first you need to ask your customers what those changes should be. Be responsive and make it happen. Along the way, it may be time to network for your next position, send out resumes, and learn how to brag about your own achievements in a business-savvy manner. (http://TimeToBrag.com)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

 

Are your next leaders ready?

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Many companies today are starting to feel the squeeze of needing experienced leadership and looking for it in all the wrong places. It starts with vetting and onboarding your future leaders now and providing them the learning opportunities they need to build business acumen. (Read more on this topic is my eGuide “Companies and Executives Need to Vet and Onboard Each Other!” http://ow.ly/qYzMB)

Onboarding your leaders in new jobs require:

    • An inside mentor and outside business advisor (or executive coach)
    • Building upon strengths and providing opportunities to develop and grow
    • Developing initiative, resourcefulness, and an ability to work with and through others to achieve results through collaborative opportunities
    • Very importantly, coachability. Hiring know-it-alls will only limit their ability to grow, be promotable and your company’s ability to attract and retain top talent.

Use a strategic hiring process to ensure the candidate can do the job now and appears to have the objective ability to be promoted in the future. Qualified selection and coaching assessments along with qualified 360-degree feedback can make a significant difference in selecting and developing the right person, one with executive potential, regardless of past work experience. (http://SeibCo.com/assessments)  

When interviewing candidates for employment or promotions, drill down—most candidates are adept at telling you what you want to hear. Ask the right tough questions and listen to their responses and examples. Many times candidates truly believe they can handle job responsibilities and don’t take into consideration other life commitments, a different work culture, or different expectations required in the executive office. Devise a structure to ensure that if candidates fail, they aren’t automatically fired. You’ve invested a lot of time and money in employees’ success—simply restructure their upward movement in a lateral direction. (For additional insights in how to interview, get your copy of Hire Amazing Employees: Second Edition (http://BizSavvyHire.com)

Stop managing and start coaching.

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Effective bosses know that everybody has their own learning style. Instead of telling your employees how to get the job done, you should provide assistance that is focused on a quality process and an intentional end result. As a manager, you should take time to listen, ask the right questions, and use qualified assessments to become a laser-focused coach with the ability to guide your team and provide the necessary adjustments. You should encourage your employees to interact with one another, other teams, and their clients to develop new processes and systems to achieve the required end results:  satisfied customers and a positive return on investment. (http://SeibCo.com/assessments)

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Learning Opportunities Can Be Priceless

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As a leader, it’s important for you to be receptive to new ideas generated through collaboration between different work groups. They foster teamwork and can bring about cost-effective and competitive-edge systems, procedures, and off-the-wall solutions. Create a safe structure for employees to take their ideas and run them through the company’s business model – doing so enables employees to understand how business decisions are made.  Include budgetary and other market-driven concerns in their learning repertoire. Remember, some of these innovations will work and some won’t— it’s how you handle the debrief that will provide priceless learning opportunities and encouragement.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Promote the best, not the ones you like the best.

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Too often we use a “halo effect “when promoting employees into leadership roles or coveted opportunities. These people looks like the right ones because we like them or they’ve done something extraordinary recently. Unfortunately, they may not have the thinking style, core behaviors, or occupational interests to get the job done in their new positions. To approach promotion more objectively, first, understand the competencies required of the job. Second, use qualified assessments to discern candidates’ inherent strengths and weaknesses. Third, promote based upon merit, not likeability. Always use the same strategic hiring system for both internal promotions and external hires. To learn how to create a strategic hiring system that works, get your copy of Hire Amazing Employees, Second Edition, http://BizSavvyHire.com.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Culture is the fall guy

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Why do so many executives fail in new jobs? While many blame company culture, I would suggest that culture is the scapegoat. Poor cultural fit simply amplifies or points out what the C-suite or board members on the hiring committee failed to uncover during the vetting or onboarding process!

Instead of blaming culture, management teams should take the time to think through and write out a strategic hiring process that works, and design it to ensure that each party explores and investigates the other. They should use qualified systems and tools, trust the process, and follow it. Remember, more conversations will be required when hiring an executive to ensure consistency of philosophy and provide deeper exploration of issues and potential solutions. If you follow a well-designed system and use it in the spirit in which it was intended, you will know that you’ve done your best to ensure a positive partnership—even though there are never any guarantees. Excerpt from Companies and Executives Need to Vet and Onboard Each Other! http://SeibCo.com/books/eguides   

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013

Are Your Company’s Values Meaningful?

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Everyone brings their own set of personal values into a company, whether it’s when to pay bills, if and when to respect authority or follow rules, or even what’s an acceptable time to arrive at work or an event. Some employees’ values will naturally fit into your organization’s culture, while other employees won’t align with your written business practices and unwritten business expectations. (Qualified core value assessments can reduce selection errors so you hire the right people with values that match your organization. [http://SeibCo.com/assessments ])

The purpose of having a written set of company values is to get everyone on the same page in order to create a workable structure for open communication, clarity of expectations and ethics, respect, trust, and so on. For values to have a positive influence, all employees and managers within an organization need to feel free to voice their concerns and learn how to interact without fear of retribution. Creating meaningful workplace values contributes to reducing turnover, increasing sustainable profits, and building a positive business reputation, since everyone is working from the same set of company principles.

(c)Jeannette L. Seibly, 2013