Hiring Solutions

Companies today are experiencing difficulties attracting the better candidates they want to hire. As a result, great employees leave because of their frustration with the employer’s turnover, disruption of services and other issues. These issues can be easily avoided by using first-rate hiring systems and selection practices. The question is, are you doing all the right things to strategically improve your company’s results (regardless of the size and revenues of your company)?

Strategically Fine-Tune Your Systems for Better Hiring Results

Did you know that top talent is 3 to 6 times more productive than your average employee? Experiencing actual results and the positive difference great employees provide will have you wanting to hire more of them! Unfortunately, many companies today are failing to attract and select the right people because they rely on gimmicks, post poorly written job ads and use non-qualified assessments. It’s a costly problem that can be resolved by strategically reviewing how to attract better candidates and retain great employees.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Do You Know Your Numbers? Get real about the company’s numbers! Unfortunately, many companies do not effectively track the cost of turnover, administrative and training time, and the impact on their customers (to name a few of the tangible and intangible costs of bad hires). Believing you’ve done all you can do when your company’s turnover is less than the industry average is foolish. It only hurts your company’s bottom line and its ability to attract better candidates and retain great employees!

Who Are You Really Seeking? Clarity can help you attract and select better candidates. Focus on what you really need now and in the near future. Too often we simply dust off the job description when someone leaves. Take the time (it doesn’t need to be a long, drawn-out process) to brainstorm and uncover what the company really needs. Hire a facilitator and select a couple of top employees to objectively uncover the traits, job responsibilities and other competencies that will make a true difference in growing your business.

Do You Have the Right Online Presence? Take time to review third-party sites for postings about your company from former employees, then, address them. A company’s negative online reputation is often caused by disgruntled employees, bad bosses and non-competitive pay! This can limit the ability to attract better candidates!

Do You Use the Right ATS? Finding the right job candidates, including passive job seekers, requires that you do your homework. Not all automated tracking systems (ATS) are created equal (like anything else in life). Avoid bells and whistles (aka gimmicks), since they can actually inhibit better candidates from applying.

ATS enhancements you want to have:

• Use a fast and easy application process that works on mobile devices … if you lose applicants now, they rarely return.
• Use systems that push job ads to job boards and provide search engine optimization—do not rely on your company’s name and website to draw traffic to you.
• Better candidates want to know more about the company. Include quick and short bullet-point information about the company, very short (1- or 2-minute) product videos and video testimonials from great employees (remember, applicants today have shorter attention spans).

Are You Posting the Right Job Ads? Applicants today are attracted to on-the-job training, rapid advancement and a competitive salary, so include this information in all job ads. Candidates will overlook your company when job ad titles are misleading, boring or jargony—it’s why companies receive too many non-qualified applications. Remember, it’s important to use the company’s name and address, since blind ads do not attract potentially great employees.

Are You Using Qualified Assessments? Getting to know the real person is critical to hiring great employees who fit the job and company culture! While assessments have been around since the beginning of humankind, most are not compliant with the Department of Labor’s 13 requirements for pre-employment and promotion use. Relying on information from non-qualified assessments only shows you how candidates want to be seen NOT who they really are. When you use smoke and mirrors to hire, you cannot expect to hire top talent!

What Do You Talk About in Your Interviews? The purpose of job interviews is to talk about the job requirements, your company’s goals and the candidate’s ability to excel at the job and in your company. The biggest challenge is that many hiring bosses don’t take the time to improve their interviewing skills and rely on biases and inappropriate interview questions before making job offers. As a result, today’s top talent will simply say no to working for these bosses.

Is Your Due Diligence Thorough? Improving your hiring successes requires collecting the right objective data. While collecting public data from background checks is important, relying solely upon it creates avoidable hiring mistakes. Statistically, 75 percent of resumes and applications contain inaccurate information (and you only have about a 15 percent chance of discovering it during the interview). In addition to conducting background checks (these should include every state in which the applicant has worked), include qualified core value assessments (which measure values such as honesty and integrity), education and employment verifications, and employer and professional reference checks to uncover non-public information.

Remember, great employees are out there! Your success in attracting better candidates requires improving your company’s hiring systems and selection practices. Ask and answer the above questions so you can do the right things in a strategic and cost-effective manner.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Does your company need a strategic review of your hiring systems and selection practices? Contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation regarding how to get the best answers to the above questions. With over 35 years of experience in hiring, she can pinpoint and resolve issues to positively impact your bottom line!

Jeannette Seibly is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will take a business and its team to the next level of performance and success. She has been a business advisor and executive coach for over 24 years; along the way, she’s guided the creation of three millionaires and million-dollar results for employers across the United States. Also, she is a PXT Select^TM Certified Professional and Authorized Partner. Check out her website, or contact Jeannette for a free confidential conversation.

Effective leadership requires we balance everyone’s wants and needs. Working with customers (meeting their deadlines, concerns about quality, and sometimes, unrealistic demands), along with the expectations from your team, boss, and board, can create a lot of pressure to make everyone happy. Effective leadership does not need to be stressful when you manage with clarity.

7 Keys to Reduce Stress and Manage with Clarity

One: Create Clear Expectations. Overpromising rarely works when you are unable to deliver … instead it creates unrealistic expectations. To keep customers happy, and employees happy and productive, when you make promises, honor your commitments and keep them.

Two: Brainstorm! This one word can create a new world of clarity and excitement for your team and customers when managed correctly. Take the time to gather all ideas first … then, delve into the details of how to make one or two of them work.

Three: Establish Realistic Deadlines. Nothing is worse for team morale then “hurry-up and wait” or “pulling all-nighters”. This can usually be avoided when true goals are created, focused action plans are managed and the team is committed in fulfilling the outcome.

Four: Encourage the Team Ongoingly. Being a 30,000-foot-high helicopter boss is rarely an effective leadership style, and will create a lot of stress for everyone. “Roll-up your sleeves” and stay in communication with your team on a consistent basis (e.g., weekly or biweekly meetings, individual reviews, weekly updates, etc.). Never stop managing the team, which includes listening to elicit their best and acknowledging each one for their actions — no matter how small.

Five: Develop a Laser-like Coaching Style. Be open to receiving coaching to uncover your blind spots, along with giving specific hands-on coaching to your team members. Use qualified assessment products to ensure that what you are seeing and what they see can move the team forward and keep you on the same page.

Six: Always Be Listening. Remember to ask, “How I can help you?” Then, listen … follow-through … and listen again. Then, repeat.

Seven: Communicate Frequently. It’s easy for your team to lose sight of the purpose or “Why are we doing this?” while handling everyday tasks. Never stop sharing the vision and reminding each and every person (including yourself) of their value and the importance of their contributions. Remember, attention spans are shrinking so keep your messages frequent, short and on-point.

These 7 keys will increase clarity, reduce stress and improve your effective leadership style.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017

Tired of the same old boring trade association events? Inspiring participants at a trade show can be easy and fun when you have the right presenter. Contact Jeannette.

Selling yourself in less than 20 words builds immediate and important credibility. Without it, it’s like talking to a wall (think, interviewer, buyer, judge of a RFP/RFQ, etc.). Learn the art of bragging because no one can do it as well you can. Master the 5 critical steps and brag with confidence. Get your copy of It’s Time to Brag! Business Edition. 

Jeannette Seibly is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will build a team and move it to the next level of performance and success. She has been a business advisor and executive coach for over 24 years; along the way, she’s guided the creation of three millionaires. Check out her website, or contact Jeannette for a confidential no-obligation conversation.

Today’s bosses are getting a bad rap. They are the number one reason employees cite for leaving their employers. The truth is, many people leave due to poor job fit, work ethic and work discipline, along with illusions about how fast they should be advancing in their jobs or careers.

As a boss, you may believe you have the wrong employees. However, it’s critical to your career, now and in the future, to learn about yourself and how you can improve your management skills: performance, people and profit. Usually when you do this, you will be surprised to find you have great employees. If you continue to believe you don’t have great employees, you will eventually discover you are in the wrong job!

Important Note: Being a good person does not mean you are a good boss!

Transform Poor Skills Into Good Ones

-Performance Effectiveness. As a boss, you may falsely believe that if your employees like you, they will perform at higher levels. It’s a myth! The truth is, as a respected boss (not necessarily a well-liked boss), you become fearless about making the right decisions, finding needed resources and encouraging employee initiatives. While you may not be everyone’s favorite boss, your employees can count on you to develop them into great contributors who produce unprecedented results. They will value you as a leader.

-Great Relationships. Belief in yourself, your teams and your management peers is critical, but believing blindly can create problems. Use objective data to guide you in developing and coaching your people with laser-like skills to ensure job fit. Remember to listen more than talk. When you value others, their ideas and efforts, people will respect and like you as a leader.

-Attention to the Bottom Line. Your boss and top management team will provide important industry insights and rely on your technical and people skills to design, plan and execute new business practices. It’s important for you to be able to work with and through your team profitably to achieve the intended results. It will determine your fate as a good boss now and in the future.

Boss Development Is Required Now

Note: You may see yourself or one of your employees as having “bad boss” traits. It’s critical to act now to fix them. The longer bad habits continue, the harder it is to transform them into effective ones.

-First, hire an executive coach to work through the challenges and perceptions for an extended period of time. There are no quick fixes! Take a qualified assessment to help you see the connection between your work habits and attitudes and how they conflict with good boss practices. Participate in a qualified 360-degree feedback to better understand the workability of your management style based on objective feedback from your boss, peers and direct reports.

-Second, review the information provided by both assessments with your executive coach and create a strategic plan to develop skills you are not using, acquire skills you do not have and become effective when handling the challenges, conflicts and changes required of any boss. Remember, you can build on strengths. You cannot build on weaknesses.

-Third, implement the strategic plan you just created with your coach and stay focused. Being a good boss is not an easy career path. However, it can be really fun and highly rewarding.While no one expects you to be perfect, it’s important you transform your “bad boss” reputation before it derails you and your career options.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2017-2018

Need a speaker or facilitator to successfully address company issues? As a future leader, are you ready to develop the key skills now? Contact Jeannette Seibly. She will provide confidential, laser-focused coaching that works! 

Jeannette Seibly has been called a catalyst. She is celebrating 25 years as a business coach, advisor and consultant who guides her clients to achieve unprecedented results. Remember, everyone can be a leader, with or without the title. First, you must step up! Check out her website, or contact Jeannette for a preliminary confidential conversation.

In a recent article Are You Ready for Your Next Opportunity?, I wrote about readiness factors — skills that prepare you to be a successful leader. In this article, I’m examining leadership mindsets that often get in our way.

Many leaders believe they are ready to take on spearheading larger projects, groups of people and companies, and think they know how to get the results required. The question is, are you achieving the needed results through force or are you influencing others to be part of the change? Becoming aware of what type of leader you are, will determine your results. Without awareness of how you influence others, your mindset, or paradigms, can and will limit your success as a leader.

Let Go of 5 Limiting Mindsets:

I Already Know Myself. We want to believe that others see us the way we see ourselves. Unfortunately, we will often be incorrect in this assumption, and our lack of awareness limits our ability to influence change. If you really want to know how you are perceived (and real leaders do), get real by using qualified assessment tools that will provide information beyond what you want to see. Use these tools, along with executive coaching, to help you better understand yourself, how others see you and how to work better with everyone. (To learn more about qualified tools, contact me.)

Failure is Not an Option. We were taught to believe there is no such thing as failure! And yet, at times, we have all failed. Being unable to admit mistakes discourages others from wanting to embrace your leadership style. People stop listening to your ideas, thoughts and opinions – limiting your influence and your career. Learn how to share your successes, failures and what you learned in a way that elicits the best from others.

All Change is Good. This is a serious faux paus that many leaders make! Yes, change can be great and is necessary for a company to grow. But, first slow down, build trust and understand the reality of where you are now. Listen and learn, then listen and learn more before you make any changes – no matter how small.

Employees are a Necessary Evil. Get over it! Employees will make or break your success — they are your most powerful asset when you perceive them that way. Stop hiding behind your “busy work” and walk around to learn their names, interests, and why they like or dislike their work. Do NOT micromanage how they do their work. Simply take this opportunity to get to know them and their jobs better.

Asking for Help is a Weakness. It is actually a sign of strength to ask for advice from, and listen to, your business advisor, mentor and/or boss. Remember, everyone needs a helping hand, and only fools make the mistake of relying solely on their own mental monologue about what’s next.

Remember, your mindset can limit what is possible as a leader. Expanding how you think and act is crucial to being a good leader.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2016

Why is it important to learn how to brag? Understanding your successes and failures, and sharing them in a business savvy manner, has others want to follow you as a leader! Get your copy of, It’s Time to Brag! Business Edition today: http://BizSavvyBrag.com.

Jeannette Seibly has been a business advisor and executive coach for 24 years; along the way she’s guided the creation of three millionaires. She is laser sharp at identifying the leverage points that will take a business and its team to the next level of performance and success. Check out her website, http://SeibCo.com, or contact Jeannette for a free, confidential conversation at http://SeibCo.com/contact. Remember to get your copy of her 5^th and newest book, It’s Time to Brag! Business Edition: http://BizSavvyBrag.com

Consider this scenario: Sara left to start her own company after working for you as a customer service rep two years ago. John was a good sales person before jumping to your competitor for a larger commission. Why would you consider rehiring them … ?

… Because circumstances change. Great talent is in high demand and difficult to find. Former employees who want to work for you again show that your company can be a great place to work. Former employees bring a broader work experience that can be invaluable to attracting and keeping customers, building new systems, and updating policies. But even though rehiring employees may sound like an automatic win-win-win situation, clarity is crucial. Remember, they had a reason for leaving.  It’s important for you to follow the same selection procedures for new hires to uncover those reasons, or the same or similar upsets could arise again.

Clarity Is Crucial

Memories are Not Reliable. The biggest challenge is learning about who your former employees are today — their interests, goals and mindsets may have changed. Part of the interview process should include discussing why they left in the first place and any cultural, procedural and customer changes that have occurred since then. What are the biggest challenges your company is facing today? How would they be an asset?  Drill down for clarity to ensure both of you understand what it will take to execute the solutions required.

Truthfulness is Key. Use qualified assessments to clarify core values, like honesty and loyalty, and job fit. Include skill testing to determine the quality of the candidate’s technical abilities. Remember, they left for a reason – often they were not a good fit with all of the job requirements.  Review changes in work processes and job expectations to ensure they understand how important these are.

Onboarding is Important. Companies change. Although former employees may be able to hit the ground running with less training – it’s important to have them slow down to develop new relationships with other employees and customers. Remind them they need to prove themselves again and not rely on “the way things used to be.” Have them participate in an onboarding program as if they are a brand-new employee and suggest that they listen and behave as if they are hearing things for the first time.

Recruit Proactively. Initially, reach out to former employees by buying them a cup of coffee or a quick lunch. It’s a great way to gauge their career aspirations, now and in the near future. Share with them the mission of the company and your goals. Ask about their recent work experiences, and what their goals are. Give a brief overview of requirements (work schedule, job responsibilities, etc.) to test their interest.  If there is mutual interest, tell them how the selection process works. If they do not follow through, let them go. Clearly, there was a lack of willingness on their part, regardless of what they told you.

Hiring costs time and money. In the end, it may be easier to train a new person than to rehire an employee who cannot adapt to change. However, hiring former employees can be a win-win-win solution if there is clarity and willingness.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2016

Jeannette Seibly has been a business advisor and facilitator for over 23 years; she guides the creation of new solutions for business challenges and is the author of Hire Amazing Employees http://BizSavvyHire.com. Check out her website, http://SeibCo.com, or contact Jeannette for a free, confidential conversation at http://SeibCo.com/contact .