Preparing Your Organization Now For The Recovery: How to Tap into Your Best Resource Part 2

“The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.” La Rochefoucauld

In part one, we focused on issues that come up with communication and we will delve further into this complex subject. We knew one organization that placed a very high performing accounting coordinator into a sales role. This person was very unhappy and ended up leaving the company. If they would have simply recognized the skills and desires of the individual, they would not have lost a top performer. If someone is a troubleshooter, let them troubleshoot. If someone is in need of a process then strive to provide that for them. If someone is very creative then tap into it; otherwise, they could feel unchallenged and bored. When we strive to understand people’s strengths and manage accordingly, we then set them up for success. Use the information you gathered during the interview process, reference checking, and an in-depth work style and personality assessment to gain deeper insight for how to effectively work together.

A Success Story

One final story. An organization with a customer service department was not meeting the volume level they had set for inbound calls. The manager blamed the reps and identified them as “C” players. Later, this manager was placed in a different department and a new manager was brought in. This person sat down with each individual and then with the whole group. The manager utilized information collected from in-depth work style and personality assessments of the team to understand the team members.

As a team, they discovered that within twenty-four hours of delivery, calls were coming in to inquire about the time of the delivery and additional questions about the product. The team brainstormed ideas of how to reduce the inbound questions so that they could take new order calls. Together they came up with a simple idea of providing updates to the customer regarding the delivery as well as creating an information page for the typical product/delivery questions. The call volume changed dramatically. The team members were later asked why these ideas had not been suggested in the past. The response was very simple—no one had ever asked them. They had been reprimanded for lack of performance rather then asking for their input in order to solve the problem. The results were improved productivity, performance, and job satisfaction, since they now had an environment that invited participation and teamwork.

Discover Your Leadership Style

To find out what your leadership style is, you can take a quick leadership assessment by clicking on this link:

http://www.crackingthepersonalitycode.com/LeadershipTest.php

It is a very helpful tool for managers, supervisors and team members to complete and discuss with their team.

Action Items

The following are some action items to consider:

1. Contact Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC to learn how you can use an in-depth work style and personality assessment for the hiring process, staff development, and personal growth (www.lighthouseconsulting.com).
2. Utilize the information gathered from in-depth work style and personality assessments to manage more effectively. This will in turn reduce the learning curve for on-boarding and help to better understand the individuals that you work with.
3. Place yourself and others in positions that take advantage of strengths to ensure success.
4. Be clear with expectations, listen carefully and paraphrase when something seems to be an obstacle for the person.
5. Take the time to mentor people to succeed through empathic understanding of how they might approach an opportunity or challenge, and work together to build a common bridge. You can learn more about in-depth work style and personality assessments and how to incorporate them into a hiring and staff development process for your organization by visiting our website, www.lighthouseconsulting.com. There you can sign up for our Keeping on Track publication that provides monthly proactive articles.

Is your hiring methodology designed to attract top talent. If you want to assess the quality of your hiring process download a free copy of our 8 Point Hiring Methodology Assessment Scorecard. CLICK HERE to download.

You should also join our Hiring and Retaining Top Talent group on Linkedin. There are many great articles and discussions on  hiring. CLICK HERE to join.

Author’s Bio

Dana Borowka, MA, CEO and Ellen Borowka, MA, COO of Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC have over 25 years experience in the area of business and human behavioral consulting. They have been helping organizations both nationally and internationally in raising the hiring bar through using in-depth work style assessments.  They are nationally renowned speakers and radio personalities on this topic. They have built a well recognized organization that provides expert interpretation of in-depth work style assessments during the hiring process, providing a variety of workshops and assisting those with communication challenges. They are authors of the book, “Cracking the Personality Code”. To order the book, please go to www.crackingthepersonalitycode.com.

If you would like additional information on this topic or others, please contact your Human Resources department or Lighthouse Consulting Services LLC, 3130 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 550, Santa Monica, CA  90403, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com & our website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com

Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services, including in-depth personality assessments for new hires & staff development, team building, interpersonal & communication training, conflict management, workshops, and executive & employee coaching.

Preparing Your Organization Now For The Recovery: How to Tap into Your Best Resource Part 1

“The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.” La Rochefoucauld

Communication has come so far over the years. In less than a split second, we can send emails to thirty different people around the world and everyone will receive the same data. Yet the most difficult challenge that can cost organizations thousands if not millions of dollars is still miscommunication in interpersonal exchanges. It’s amazing that this one area has not changed in thousands of years. One could say to a group, “Think of a whale.” Everyone in the room will have a different vision of a whale in their mind’s eye. Similarly, the occasion for a misunderstanding can occur easily when someone is sharing an idea or giving an assignment.

A lack of loyalty and connection to an organization can develop if people feel misunderstood or not valued. This can result in turnover and the loss of top talent. We are often contacted by individuals who have graduated from top schools, have a good job history, and are looking for career guidance. When they are asked why they are looking to leave their current position, we usually hear that they do not feel valued, engaged, or appreciated. They are typically high-level performers, and the loss to their employers is costly. If organizations take time to simply manage individuals according to their needs rather than just treating them like a mechanical part, then these star performers probably would not have the need to look for other opportunities.

Each of us is a valuable part of the whole, and we need to develop an empathic company culture in order to open lines of communication for creative contribution. That leads to engagement of ideas and respect so individuals feel that they can participate in a vision. Developing a supportive environment that encourages mentoring will create opportunities for knowledge to be shared with the various generations. Additionally, this provides a creative foundation for new and exciting processes, products, and services.

Cracking the Interpersonal Communication Code

But where to begin? How do we crack the interpersonal communication code? First, include others on your team or in your department in the discussion and ask the following questions:

• What is an area of your interpersonal communication that is not working as well as you would like?
• Have you seen this come up before? Give an example.
• What would the ideal outcome look like?
• What are you doing that is not working?
• What are you doing that is working?

Next, analyze the answers and look for patterns. Now you can start to develop an action plan. Be sure to utilize information from an in-depth work style and personality assessment as described in Chapter 5 that provides the eight ways to gain true insight into personality. This knowledge will illuminate a more effective way to communicate, encourage greater engagement of individuals, and contribute to creating respect, loyalty, and appreciation. The end results: enhanced retention, performance, and positive word of mouth for attracting top talent.

Over the next 10 to 30 years, finding qualified people is going to get more difficult with a predominantly maturing population. Retention of top people will be more important than ever, and positioning your organization for recruitment purposes is vital. People talk and reputations get developed very quickly through the Internet and word of mouth. How your organization communicates within itself is a good indication of how it communicates to the outside world. Putting people in the “right” position will lead to greater job satisfaction and success.

Is your hiring methodology designed to attract top talent. If you want to assess the quality of your hiring process download a free copy of our 8 Point Hiring Methodology Assessment Scorecard. CLICK HERE to download.

You should also join our Hiring and Retaining Top Talent group on Linkedin. There are many great articles and discussions on  hiring. CLICK HERE to join.

Author’s Bio

Dana Borowka, MA, CEO and Ellen Borowka, MA, COO of Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC have over 25 years experience in the area of business and human behavioral consulting. They have been helping organizations both nationally and internationally in raising the hiring bar through using in-depth work style assessments.  They are nationally renowned speakers and radio personalities on this topic. They have built a well recognized organization that provides expert interpretation of in-depth work style assessments during the hiring process, providing a variety of workshops and assisting those with communication challenges. They are authors of the book, “Cracking the Personality Code”. To order the book, please go to www.crackingthepersonalitycode.com.

If you would like additional information on this topic or others, please contact your Human Resources department or Lighthouse Consulting Services LLC, 3130 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 550, Santa Monica, CA  90403, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com & our website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com

Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services, including in-depth personality assessments for new hires & staff development, team building, interpersonal & communication training, conflict management, workshops, and executive & employee coaching.

Upgrading Your Team in the Recession

Back in July, I made the recommendation on this blog (and was interviewed by Forbes Magazine Online) to use the recession as a unique point in history to upgrade your team.

Have you selected one or two key roles and upgrade the positions yet?

If not, what’s holding you back? Don’t miss out on this wonderful special time in history to attract a level of talent to a couple of key roles that you might never again have the opportunity to acquire.

What’s holding you back from taking the first step?

Here are some of the “arguments” I hear against upgrading when I mention this idea in our workshops and to our CEO/President clients:

• This person has been with me a long time and is loyal
• The individual in that role might have a hard time finding a new job
• I’m embarrassed that the hire didn’t work out – I’m hoping it turns around
• I think the person will eventually get better
• I don’t have time to spend on hiring someone
• The person is okay – they do some things well – no rush to make a decision
• Not sure I won’t make a mistake the second time around again
• No idea where to start or find this person
• I can live with this person – I’ll do part of their job
• What if I screw up the hire – then I wouldn’t look good to my ____ (fill in the blank)

Does this sound dysfunctional? Sure it does.

The number ONE trait of success for managers and executives is the ability to hire and retain an outstanding team of people. Are you a great manager/executive or an average one?

• Do you have an exceptional team in place right now?
• Why are you tolerating average/mediocre performance?
• Are you doing part of the work your team should be doing?

Do you have some people on your team that are good at doing 70-75-80% of their job, but stink at the other 30-25-20% of their job. Who gets to do this piece your subordinate cannot do? You guessed it – you do.

Before you can blink, 50% of your workload is doing the work your team should be doing. You’re doing 8% of Mark’s job, 5% of Susan’s job, 20% of Kelly’s job. Now you can’t do your job because so much time is being consumed by doing the work of your team.

Why are you continuing to accept this less than stellar performance.

Take action now and upgrade a few key roles that are below your expectations. Emerge from the recession with a team that truly is a strategic advantage.

Recognize that right now is a unique historical time period for hiring. There are some exceptionally talented individuals who might consider your opportunity. As the job market recovers – you may never again be able to acquire and/or afford this talent.

Discover the simple steps to find, assess and acquire great talent.

Barry Deutsch

Join our LinkedIn Hiring and Retention Discussion Group to follow the conversation around upgrading your team and finding great talent.

Letting Employees Go Is A PR Event

Most have heard that hiring is a PR event. You should make sure that, whether you hire the person or not, they leave your company wishing they got the job. That way, they will speak highly of your company to others that might want to work there. This is especially true in small industries and communities where everybody knows everybody else.

The last thing you want is people telling future potential employees how bad the company or hiring manager was when they interviewed and that they would never work for that hiring manager or company.

Not good PR if you plan on attracting top talent to your company. In fact, a great way to ensure top talent will work for your competitors.

I don’t think some (not all) companies or managers recognize the same principles apply when laying people off or even firing them.

Well they do, and I can  demonstrate this, because I recently encountered bad PR. Twice.

First example

I was recruiting for a Regional Director of Sales in the upper northeast. Because of the weather, it isn’t easy to relocate people there.  The company was in a very niche industry, and because it was a senior level sales job, industry experience was important.

It didn’t take long before trouble set in. Did I mention the reason for the opening was that the previous person was fired? Apparently, the manner in which the person’s boss fired him was at best inappropriate and at worst down right wrong and disrespectful.

The fired employee had spread the word about his treatment all around, stating what a jerk this person was to work for and how he badly he treated people. He also took the time to go into great detail about how he was fired. Now, what I heard when I tried to recruit people was, “I’m open to talking as long as it isn’t for X company working for X?” WOW, what a way to start a search in a small industry in a small geographical area.

This all happened because the VP didn’t see firing as a PR event. The best way to fire someone is to make them think you are doing them a favor, not by degrading them, surprising them, or throwing them out of the building. This VP took a bad situation (firing someone) and made it worse by the manner in which he did it. If the VP had done it correctly, he would have still reached his goal of letting the person go, but he also could have set himself up as a person that cares and people want to work for.

Second example

I live in Orange County, California. Most people think it is part of Los Angeles. It isn’t. For such a large area, it is actually its own community. Large enough to get lost, but small enough that people get to know people. There are so many networking groups that it is literally hard to plan an event because the first thing that comes up is, you know XYZ networking group meets then. At almost any time day and night, every day of the week, some group is getting together. Some groups have attendance in the hundreds and some have less. Regardless, there are a lot and this is how people get to know people in Orange County, California.

At a recent event I noticed a lot of people were saying, “Did you hear about ABC Company and how they did the RIF?”  RIF stands for reduction in force, or in plain English laid people off.  This was the buzz while people were standing around talking before the meeting started. Apparently, some of the people that got laid off were at the meeting and telling horror stories about how the company treated the employees they let go. Many of whom had been with the company for some time.

How many other meetings do you think these people attended in the next week and started telling the same stories? Not to mention all the people at the first meeting perpetuating the stories to their network, colleagues, friends and family. We used to say, this is how rumors start. Now we say this story is going viral. It won’t be long before this company’s reputation precedes them. When the economy shifts, and they need to hire people, it will not be easy.

All because they didn’t think of letting people go as a PR event. An event that impacts the company’s reputation and how it is viewed in its industry and community.

If you found this helpful, please forward it on to others so they will be helped. You can email it to your team, forward it to your network, post on Linkedin or company Web site. Let’s help everyone build teams of top talent.

You can join our Linkedin Hiring and Retaining Top Talent group where there is a lot more information on this and many other topics. There are also discussions and on-line articles. CLICK HERE to join and participate.

Our 8 Point Hiring Process Assessment Scorecard is available to download for free. Try taking this and learning if your hiring process is designed to attract, hire and retain top talent. CLICK HERE to download your scorecard.

I welcome your thoughts, comments and questions.

Brad Remillard

How To Attract and Retain Sales and Customer Service People Using In-depth Work Style & Personality Testing – Part 1

How do you build up your sales and customer service force in a down economy? The quick answer is don’t be a dodo bird.

While researching our book, Cracking the Personality Code, we examined the essentials of what managers and business owners need to know about hiring and managing sales/customer service people with the help of in-depth work style & personality testing.

An interesting sales management guru we discovered along the way is Lee B. Salz. In June 2007, his widely acclaimed book “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager” was published. In it, he deals with one of the biggest problems companies face, the chasm between managers and sales and customer service people.

He uses the metaphor of the dodo to show what happens when one fails to adapt. Those who adapt, thrive. Those who don’t, become extinct like the dodo bird of ages ago. Some laugh at the use of the word ‘dodo’, but there is nothing funny about a business losing its competitive edge due to unmanaged change.

To hire the best sales and customer service people, and keep them on the team, your sales or customer service manager needs to know what makes them tick. We believe the sales and customer service personality code can be cracked. If that sounds like a bold declaration, consider this:  Studies show that personality tests are a far more reliable predictor of performance than interviews and resumes.

A proper test should reach beyond simple profiles and decipher a sales or customer service person’s underlying needs. This is key for employee development, team building, conflict resolution and succession planning.  If you want to retain the best, you need to treat them the way they want to be treated.

Below are some ways to use personality testing in the workplace to help attract and retain sales and customer service people:

1. Get the real picture.  Of course, every sales and customer service candidate wants to put their best foot forward during an interview.  However, through a personality test, you uncover a great deal about their ability to work well with other personalities, their problem solving abilities, their thought processes, and their ability to tolerate stress. Personality testing gives you objective information that can help you make an informed decision about if this person is a good fit for the job and for the team. If you decided to hire the person, the questions you ask during the hiring process will reduce your learning curve as a manager on how best to manage this person from day one.

2. Help them be all that they can be. Every sales and customer service person has strengths and weaknesses. Find out the real truth with an objective measure. Once you pinpoint the good and the bad, then you place them in the right position and coach them on where to improve.

3. Take me to your leaders. Personality testing gives the manager and sales or customer service team a common language about how they like to interact.  The assessments can help you train future managers on how to get the best out of the team.

4. Know how to manage difficult people. Face it, there will always be difficult people and flare ups on the job. Use objective personality assessments to diagnose potential sources of workplace conflict. The best way to deal with a problem is to prevent it in the first place.

We will have additional ways to attract and retain your sales and customer service people next week. While in-depth work style & personality testing can be a valuable resource before you hire sales and customer service people, perhaps the true value of any assessment comes in using the insights it provides along the entire spectrum of employment. Personality assessments lend objectivity to decisions that may otherwise be largely subjective.

Remember, it is not how many great people you hire. The true measure is how many great people you keep! For more information, please visit our Web site, www.lighthouseconsulting.com to sign up for our Open Line webinars and monthly articles.

Join our Linkedin Hiring and Retaining Top Talent group for more discussions and articles on this topic. CLICK HERE to join.

Our best selling book with over 10,000 in circulation, You’re NOT The Person I Hired, A CEOs Guide to Hiring Top Talent, is available as a resource to help your company improve its hiring of top talent. CLICK HERE for more information.

Author’s Bio

Dana Borowka, MA, CEO of Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC has over 25 years of experience in the area of business consulting and helping organizations both nationally and internationally in raising the hiring bar through using in-depth work style assessments. Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services, including in-depth work style assessments for new hires & staff development, team building, interpersonal & communication training, career guidance & transition, conflict management, workshops, and executive & employee coaching.  To order the book, “Cracking the Personality Code” please go to www.crackingthepersonalitycode.com

Cost Per Hire Versus Value Per Hire Which Is Most Important

The cost of a bad hire rarely impacts an organization, however, the value of a great hire can often transform an organization.

As executive recruiters, we hear about the “cost per hire” regularly. It seems like every time HR calls, this topic comes up. However, I would suggest that a far better discussion for HR to have is on the “value per hire.” Having this discussion not with recruiters, but with the CEO is a far more meaningful and beneficial discussion. It not only helps justify that HR contributes revenue and value to the organization, but it also brings HR in as a strategic partner.

This also goes for the CFO of the organization, who should work with HR to help determine a way to calculate the value of a hire.

A few years back I was sitting in the office of the VP HR when the CFO came by and stuck his head in to say hi. During the conversation he commented, “You know, over the last x years we have paid you over $300,000 for your services.” I think he was expecting me to be apologetic. I replied, “That is all? I completely agree with you that I have been grossly underpaid.” I don’t think this was the answer he was looking for. I continued, “Considering that you are now a millionaire, and the rest of the executive team I have placed here are also millionaires, and that the company went from $50 million in revenue to $250 million in revenue with a valuation close to $1 billion, I believe the fees I have been paid are justified by the value these people contributed to the company. Wouldn’t you agree?”

This isn’t about me. It is to demonstrate that even CFO’s don’t step back and recognize that for some expenses there is often a lot of value created for the company. If you de-humanize this concept, an employee is just another asset. Many often say the most “valuable asset” in the company. So, if employees are assets then shouldn’t the CFO be capable of calculating an ROI just like any other asset?.

Would this concept benefit HR as they justify the costs to acquire these assets? Isn’t it fair to look at both sides of the equation?

Employees are often described as “human capital” so some sort of return on capital doesn’t seem unrealistic. I’m not suggesting that the calculation is an easy one. I’m sure whoever first figured out how to calculate ROI had to tweak the formula more than once before getting it right, but just because it is difficult to calculate doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done.

Defining success in the role before you hire a person is a good start. Our Success Factor Methodology recommends developing a job description that defines what great success is in this role. Basically, by the end of the first year what would this person have to have accomplished so that the hiring manager would consider this person not just a good hire, but a great hire. In our book, You’re NOT The Person I Hired, we refer to these as,  “Success Factors” (for some free examples of Success Factors for different positions  CLICK HERE). I believe this is the starting point in determining the value an employee brings to the company. Top talent in your company will hit these. The average will hit these some of the time and below average will rarely hit the success factors. Obviously, for different levels within the company the value added will change.

At least now the company is starting to look at the value a hire brings to the company and can start to assess the ROI.

To learn more about the Success Factor Methodology to help you attract, hire and retain top talent, check out our best selling book, You’re NOT The Person I Hired.

You can also begin implementing the Success Factory Methodology with our comprehensive hiring system. CLICK HERE to review.

I welcome your thoughts, comments and feedback.

Brad Remillard

Are You Ready for Your Best Talent to Start Leaving?

What would you do if your top performing subordinate left tomorrow? Would the pain be unbearable?

Do they possess your entire customer history in their head?

Would key customers follow them to a new job?

How much would productivity decline?

Would others follow  – like a domino effect?

Can you afford the costs of replacing and developing a new person in this role?

You get the general idea- it would be disastrous if one of your top performing subordinates left? Let’s go one step further – What if multiple top performing subordinates left? Perhaps, Armageddon?

What is the likelihood this might happen in the next year?

There is a tremendous pent-up demand of employees to start actively trying to see if the grass is greener somewhere else. The demand has built up to the level of boiling-over due to very few jobs being available in the last 2 years. Many candidates have felt that they are lucky just to have a job. As the economy rebounds and the job market returns (which it will – although it’s difficult to predict whether that will be in 3 months, 6 months or a year), many candidates will have an opportunity to explore whether the grass is greener somewhere else – an opportunity that has not been available for 2-3 years.

Are you Retention Proofing your company?

Do you have a systematic plan for defining roles, challenging your best people, making sure they are learning and growing, structuring non-monetary rewards and recognition, tuning up your performance management process, and improving your culture?

If you’re not working on all these areas right now, the risk is starting to increase exponentially over losing key people in the coming job market rebound.

If you’d like to see if you’re prepared to keep your best people, request our RETENTION CHECK-UP. This is a 5-10 minute conversation with one of our partners to determine what retention best practices you should be implementing right now.

Barry Deutsch

Don’t forget to join our HIRE AND RETAIN TOP TALENT LinkedIn Discussion Group to participate in the discussion around retention proofing your company to keep your very best talent.

Why Passive Candidates Require Special Handling. A True Story.

I asked a candidate after an interview, “How did the meeting go with the CEO?”

The candidate sarcastically replied, “Remind me again, why would I want to leave my current position and go to work there?”

Not exactly the sort of answer I was searching for.

He was what we refer to as a, “passive candidate.”  Meaning, he wasn’t actively on the job market. He wasn’t in any hurry to make a job change. He was open to exploring opportunities and seriously evaluating them, but would only make a change if all aspects of the position were beneficial to him and his career. He had to have good chemistry with the CEO, understand the company’s vision, and his role in helping achieve the vision. Basically, he wasn’t going to just make a move.

In the same way, the stars have to align for the company to want him. They also had to align for him to want them. A new concept for many companies to really comprehend at a deep level.

Yes, the hiring process is a two way street.

Needless to say, I wanted to understand what happened. As the candidate explained it, “I have now been out to the company three times and spent approximately 4 to 5 hours interviewing. I first met for an hour and  a half with HR going over my background. I then met with the person leaving the position. Once again we spent roughly an hour plus going over my background. Both gave me an overview of the position and about 10 minutes to ask questions. Then comes the CEO. Both previous interviewers spent time explaining how the company was reinventing itself and how this role was critical to helping in that process. I expected when I met with the CEO that we would discuss some of those issues, his plan for the reinventing, how my background would add value, and that I would finally have time to ask some of my questions.”

Sounded right and reasonable so far. As he continued to explain the problem, “After taking the morning off work for the 9 AM interview, I waited in the lobby for 25 minutes for the CEO. I was ready to leave when the assistant came to get me. The CEO explained he has to leave for a plane by 10:30, so I’m thinking why are doing this? There isn’t enough time to discuss any of the issues in any depth. Instead of discussing any of the issues, he proceeded to go through my background now for the third time. Don’t these people communicate? By the time he finished it was about 10:20 and he asked if I had any questions. I indicated that I did, but there wasn’t enough time to discuss them, and would it be possible to schedule another meeting, which we did.”

My conversation ended with the candidate asking me to cancel the meeting they scheduled, as he wasn’t really that interested, so why waste the time.  Is it any wonder?

The company was surprised the candidate wasn’t interested. Even after I relayed the above story to them. This had never happened before.

• A candidate turning them down?
• A candidate canceling a meeting with the CEO?
• A candidate that doesn’t want our job?
• A candidate that doesn’t understand waiting 25 minutes in the lobby for an interview?
• A candidate that isn’t desperate for our position?

They didn’t respect the candidate, his time, his position, and didn’t take any time to build rapport. They didn’t give him any time to address what was on his mind.

Why would a passive candidate be interested?

So I recommended the following changes:

1. All candidates must be met in the lobby at the designated time, the same way a customer would be met.
2. Spend some time marketing the position.
3. Learn about the candidate’s motivations and interests.
4. The candidates meet the CEO on the first interview. This demonstrates the importance of the position to the candidate and starts the rapport building process which is critical to passive candidates.
5. It is an interview, not an interrogation. Make it a discussion.
6. Every candidate is given ample time to ask questions and interact. The interviewer will learn more from the candidate’s questions than from the answers they give.
7. More time to explain the position, the importance this role will play, the impact on the organization and time to build rapport with the candidate.

These simple changes would have made all the difference with the candidate. Instead, they lost a great candidate for not treating the person as an executive and a person.

Every interview is a PR event. It is doubtful this candidate will have much good to say about the company should he encounter another candidate considering employment at the company.

Which is a shame as it really is a good company with good people.

Our “Cost Of A Bad Hire” calculator is available to help you get a handle on your total cost of hiring. Download for free worksheet. http://www.impacthiringsolutions.com/index.php/cost-of-hire

Culture is one of the biggest reasons a good hire goes bad. Find out what your culture is, and how people in your organization define it.  Click here to downloand your Culture Assessment.

On-line Programs This Week for Hiring Managers – August 24th

If you are a manager or executive, you might be interested in two of the programs Brad and I are hosting this week

Brad I will be hosting our weekly Internet Radio Talk Show today for Hiring Managers and Executives titled “Upgrading Your Team During the Recession” at 11-noon PDT on LA Talk Radio. You can listen in and also pose questions live during the broadcast.

We’ll be taking your emails and live calls to discuss the steps you should be taking right now to upgrade your team so that when you emerge from the recession, you’ll have a powerful team capable of propelling your business or team forward as a strategic advantage.

On Friday, we will be putting on our popular one hour webinar presentation based on our half and full day training program titled “You’re NOT the Person I Hired”. You can register for this webinar by clicking here.

We’ll provide an overview of our award-winning workshop that teaches the Success Factor Methodology. This hiring process has been implemented in thousands of companies around the world with validated success in dramatically raising hiring accuracy and improving the ability to hire top talent at every level.

We hope you’ll join us for one of these programs this week.

Barry

Your Reputation Impacts Hiring Top Talent

We were retained to conduct a search for a VP of Marketing . The position had been open for more than six months, during which time the company had interviewed ten people who showed little interest in the position or the company. In fact, one offer had been turned down. At first glance this seemed strange, since it was a good company offering reasonable compensation.

Shortly after contacting prospective candidates working for competitors and in related industries, the mystery became clear. The company had a reputation for high turnover, lack of innovative products, poor leadership and low pay. One candidate stated, “It’s known as a “burn ‘em and churn ‘em company.” Another candidate stated, “I’m interested in hearing about the position as long as it isn’t X company” of course it was X company. All of these issues had been true three years back, but new management had since come on and started changing things. The reputation, unfortunately, lagged behind.

In conjunction with the company we put together a marketing plan beginning with changing the Web site. We encouraged the company to address the baggage of the past while emphasizing the changes that had been made. The redesigned site also included testimonials from happy employees, information about the improved company benefits and management’s new commitment to employees. Another section discussed the company’s new products and how they were performing in the marketplace, as well as the company’s dedication to R&D. Finally, we changed how potential candidates were treated when they came in for interviews. All interviews were now viewed as a PR event.

As a result, even if a candidate didn’t end up getting the job, they still walked away with a completely different image of the company. Most walked away now wanting the job.

We ultimately filled the search with a candidate who originally told us she didn’t even want to interview. In fact, she told us the same thing three times before finally agreeing to an interview. She came away overwhelmed by the change and impressed with the new management. She was eager to go to work for the reborn organization.

Understanding your company’s reputation is an important issue when conducting a search. Regardless of your reputation, developing a compelling marketing plan is key to a successful search. Ensuring your company’s image is well received by candidates will help you attract more top candidates and reduce the cost per hire.

Start with your Web site, as this is the first place all candidates go once hearing the name of the company.

Remember all interviews are a PR event.

We offer a wealth of free resources and tools to help you attract, hire and retain top talent. To review these resources – Click here.

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