Employment brand: Are you walking the talk?

There are organizations that everyone knows, and large crowds want to work for, for example Google,  Southwest Airlines or Disney. These often are on the Top 100 lists to work for, but they get recognized beyond magazine reviews. Word of mouth combined with their savvy marketing guarantees an enviable position in the talent war; the luxury to select the best of the best. The most coveted companies to work for have perfected their employment branding.

Employment branding is more than just marketing the company to potential employees. The challenge is to convey an authentic message about a unique value proposition that includes both the external brand as well as what the company culture stands for. According the Brand for Talent blog, while 97 percent – to some extent – say their organizations have developed an employer brand, only 43 percent believe their corporate culture supports it.

It does not serve you well if you entice new employees in with lucrative messages, and then when the iron gates of new employee orientation slam shut, reality kicks in. If you want to get top talent to stay, your employment branding must be grounded in reality. If your company is fast paced and long work hours cannot be avoided, don’t lead your employment branding with a work/life balance message. If your company is mature and set in its ways, don’t try to pretend to be the flashy new kid on the block. It’s OK to tell that you are looking for change agents.

To build a true employment brand, more is needed than just marketing. Your own employees are your ambassadors, so their work experiences should match the employment brand you want to create. Review your policies, processes and internal communications to make sure they align with your brand. There are many ways to create a unique value proposition for employment. Design clarity around what those parameters are in your organization. The more emotional connection your employees have with your organization, the more they will vouch for it.

In the era of diversity, be clear who you are targeting. Make sure you are reaching all your audiences by selecting various methods of communication. Generational, gender, or ethnic groups may vary in their way of connecting with your messages.

Just like with external branding, building a strong employment brand will take time and consistency. The best will stand above the rest.

Facilitating networking to improve business

I attended a fascinating presentation by Maya Townsend of Partnering Resources. The topic was network analysis in organizations, and the discussion meandered into many other aspects of networking in business. As an excellent conversation, this triggered many additional thoughts afterwards that I want to put together to make my case that networking is an essential function that needs to be built into high performance organization.

Most organizations state among their core values something around teamwork or collaboration. This is not just to make everybody feel warm and fuzzy, but because it makes business sense. People working together get things done more creatively and more effectively. We have all experienced how much more willing we are to help someone whom we have met in person. Virtual teams struggle with this phenomenon in reverse.

Every organization has its power players. Some have position power, some have informal power. A network analysis can reveal who the informal leaders are. Information, expertise and social connections are channeled through these people, usually not according to the organizational hierarchy. Knowing these movers and shakers is critical in change initiatives or in analyzing an organizational problem.

High performers are natural networkers and learn fast how to build strategic networks. To build a truly high performing organization, everybody would do well to be good at building important connections inside and outside of work. The company can assist by building networking infrastructure and skills. A mentoring program can create vertical connections. Intranets and expert wikis create platforms for informal learning and linking through expertise. Company events and buddy programs give a chance to form true human connections. Sometimes classroom training not only serves as professional development, but also as an excellent bonding and networking opportunity. Even office design can enhance networking with employee lounge areas and attractive cafeterias. Access to social networking tools, like LinkedIn and Facebook, is increasingly important, especially for the Millenials, with other generations catching up fast.

In addition to creating the right environment, the organization should consider providing training on basic networking skills. For some, it may come natural; for the rest, a little help may be needed. Whether it is networking etiquette, the use of the social media or basic interpersonal skills, increased collaboration both internally and externally will pay back the efforts.

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Talent resolutions for the New Year

Human resources processes, human capital management and workforce productivity all sound so complex and demanding, with so many moving parts to manage. There are employee handbooks and policies to worry about. There are rules and regulations. How is the management to know what to do with the employee base? Although there are certainly some things that are required by the law, here are three guiding principles that will get you far. Make them your New Year’s resolutions, if you are not already following them.

1. Don’t compromise on talent

Decide what kind of talent will get you where you want to be. Understand what drives performance in your business. Be as specific as you can. Don’t add any unnecessary criteria to narrow your talent pool to choose from. Then go after it. When you hire, don’t bring in anyone else except those who meet your standards. When you promote internally, be just as selective.

2. Hold people accountable

If you want a high-performance culture, accountability is a basic cornerstone of it. The building blocks are so simple, yet seem to be so hard to put into practice. Set clear goals. Set clear expectations for behaviors. Create an environment for open feedback and teach everyone to give feedback to each other. Give both positive and constructive feedback. Track results on an on-going basis. Correct performance as soon as it starts veering off track. Celebrate successes.

3. Invest in your people

Investment in people has significantly higher ROI than investment in capital equipment. People learn, grow and develop. Make the investment purposeful and intentional. Invest time in your people by having weekly meetings with managers, communication meetings by the leaders and also by having career dialogues annually. Invest in mentoring, coaching and training. Plan career ladders and growth opportunities. Most importantly, pay attention to your people. Treat them as individuals, all with a valuable contribution to make.

With these three resolutions, you can’t go wrong.

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Survey here, assess there…

In the current industry of employee surveys and assessments, there are a wealth of solutions to choose from if an organization wants to start producing data and analyzing its workforce. The risk is that the surveys and assessments turn into HR busy work, and forms and filling out boxes become an annual routine with little results to show.

There are many steps in the talent life cycle where assessments can enhance talent processes. Candidate assessments can improve the quality of candidates you end up interviewing and thus result in higher efficiencies in your selection process and ultimately in better quality of hire. Talent assessments certainly make workforce planning more effective. Various types of 360 assessments help in development planning. When it comes to managing the organization culture and evaluating the HR strategies, employee engagement surveys are critical in tracking progress.

However, all the assessments and surveys are just data points. There are two red flags to be cautious about.

1)      Don’t forget the human factor

In assessments, it might be easy to be seduced into letting the assessments do the ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ decisions for us. However, assessments are just indicators. They cannot replace human judgment and interpretation.  Also, don’t think that a paper report thrown over the fence is all your employees need as a result after an assessment. They need to discuss and reflect on the findings. That is the most eye opening part of an assessment.

2)      Don’t sit on your data

We should use assessments and surveys for making decisions and acting on the data. They are not meant to be binder fillers. Use assessments to support your candidate selection. Take the 360 data and have a frank dialogue. More importantly, create a robust development plan that leverages the strengths and mitigates weaknesses. If your talent assessment identifies gaps, move people to roles where they can succeed, or provide development to bring them to the level where they need to be. In surveys, don’t ask questions unless you are willing to act on the answers. The worst you can do is ask year after year about your management or benefits and change nothing, when your employees honestly tell you what they think. Don’t create focus groups or employee councils, if you don’t plan to use their input and implement some of their recommendations. (There is a chance that their ideas are different from yours.)

The trick is to ask what you really want to know, with the intent of acting on the data you will get back. That’s the point of asking the questions in the first place.

If you need help with employee assessments or surveys and turning the data into action plans, contact liisa@forteconsulting.biz or 512-484 8263.

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The Peter Principle: Is your organization run by incompetent people?

The Peter Principle was developed by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in 1969, and asserts that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence”. In other words, according to this principle, organizations keep promoting employees until they reach their level of incompetence. What are ways to avoid the Peter Principle creeping into your organization?

Everyone in Human Resources is familiar with another principle: “Past performance is the best predictor of future performance.” This is a good rule of thumb, as long as the job role and the environment are not changing significantly. Put your star sales producer into a sales manager position and you might be up for a surprise. Your best leader in solid growth years might not be your go-to person in a turnaround crisis.

So what are your tools to make sure you have competent people in every position? First of all, be clear of what competencies are required for success in each job. When you promote internally, you should be just as specific and demanding as hiring externally.

Second, the 9-box assessment is a wonderfully simple way to discuss among the management, which employees have reached their limit and which ones have a great journey ahead. A 9-box grid categorizes employees based on their current performance (low-medium-high) and their future potential (low-medium-high). Based on these two dimensions, the organization can design targeted development programs for them.

Third, promote learning agility as a competency across your organization. Select employees that are eager to learn and try new things. Promote a culture that is open to feedback and change. Encourage everyone to learn from mistakes instead of looking for someone to blame. This creates an employee base that is less likely to get stuck in their level of development.

Fourth, create talent processes that systematically push new talent upwards. Define key positions and what type of competencies and experience they require. Slate high performers and high potentials for the positions, and intentionally create experiences they need to gain. Let them test their skills before they have to step up. Coach and mentor them until they are ready to move. When it’s time for promotion, they have already proven their competence. The Peter Principle can go and hover above some another organization.

If you need help with 9-box assessment or high potential development plans, contact Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks at liisa@forteconsulting.biz or at 512-484 8263.

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Want to move from B-talent to A-talent?

Let me warn you – moving from B-talent to A-talent is a bit like going on a diet. It SOUNDS easy – Eat less and exercise more – but it’s a pain to follow through. You will be more successful, if you consider it as a permanent change of lifestyle instead of an event. It’s not just going through the motions, but really starting to think differently about talent.

Set the baseline

First you have to answer the question: What does A-talent look like to you? If you don’t define this clearly, you will get what you ask for; anything. Competency definitions and clear job descriptions are the foundation of an A+ organization. Once you know what talent you need, do a thorough talent assessment. Who meets your performance, skill and culture fit standards and who doesn’t? The next hard question is this: of those who don’t meet the standards, who can be developed via training, coaching or reassignments? Brace yourself for finding some employees who may not be up to par and need to be managed out. For the rest, create a serious development plan to reach the level of performance that you aspire to.

Fill in gaps with A-talent

Most likely, your talent assessment reveals gaps that need to be filled with new talent. If you cannot fill the positions internally, it’s time to go for the top performers out in the market. This is the first test of your new hiring strategy. Using your new criteria, you only select those who meet your standards. Go for the best. This requires a competitive rewards package and an attractive employment brand. If you are still building your brand, your challenge is to be tuned into the personal priorities of the candidates you are competing for.

Make it sustainable

Once you have an existing arsenal of A-players, you can’t afford to erode it. Maintain a no-compromise selection process that brings in more top performers. Develop a performance management process that relies on frequent feedback and mature managers. Reward and promote best performers. Make sure you are market competitive. A-players are on constant lookout for more challenges. Train your managers on using developmental assignments and having career discussions. Create growth opportunities through expert and leadership pipelines.

Create a talent culture

Make talent development and high performance part of your everyday culture. People development should be a top-of-mind issue in managers’ decision making and goal setting. Mentoring, feedback and setting challenging goals should become a way of living. For A-talent it already is.

If you need help moving from B-talent to A-talent, contact Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks at 512-484 8263, or liisa@forteconsulting.biz .

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My working definition of talent management

Believe me, there are tons of frameworks for talent management out there. Many of them are quite complicated with multiple parts and fancy words. I am going to introduce one that is a bit easier to work with and get your arms around.

Talent management starts with performance management. If you don’t know what levels of talent you have to work with, the rest of the processes will be pretty much useless. Performance management helps you identify solid performers who are the bread and butter for your company operations, star performers who will be your future leaders, and low performers you need to deal with one way or another. This part of performance management is useful for talent management purposes. (Do not forget that real performance management that drives performance happens on a daily basis and is dependent on skilled managers. Performance ratings have nothing to do with this aspect of performance management!)

Once you have visibility to your performance levels, you can turn on follow-up talent processes. Smart companies practice differentiated investment in their talent: Their best talent gets the most rewards as well as special developmental plans that can feed into the leadership and expert pipelines. Investment in strengths has the highest return. Talent management feeds into rewards planning, annual training planning and succession planning. It creates company rigor around individual development plans as well as career plans. One branch of talent management feeds into the HR process of performance improvement plans: the low performing talent will improve or will be managed out.

Let’s look at the beginning of the talent management process. For companies to have A talent, they must grow or bring A talent in. Talent management secures a robust selection process that aligns with the organization’s talent goals. Companies with a good talent culture do not compromise in their selection process just to fill an opening. They also have a comprehensive onboarding process, which is part of talent management.

To enable a well functioning talent management process, a foundation of clear competencies and metrics is needed. Competencies are based on the organization’s core values, top performer qualities, future strategies and functional requirements. As any world-class process, continuous improvement requires solid metrics for monitoring progress.

An essential part of an organization’s competitive edge comes from its culture. Talent management intentionally monitors and manages the culture, the employee engagement and the diversity of its workforce.  If you have introduced any new process or initiative, you know well that process compliance only gets so far. A true talent culture is in the fabric of how every employee and manager thinks and acts. When talent is perceived as truly the most important asset of the organization, you are starting to get where you need to be with talent management.

If you need help with talent management processes, contact Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks at liisa@forteconsulting.biz or at 512-484 8263.

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Should you hire unemployed talent?

I sat in a meeting last week and heard from a talented and very experienced peer who is currently on the job market that a senior leader refused to interview him simply because he is unemployed. Not because of a gap in his resume or a cultural fit – just because of this manager’s perception of unemployed people. I can tell you that tons of bad karma was flowing in her direction from all of us in the meeting. This new trend has been brought up in the media. It’s not just that it feels wrong; turning away a whole talent pool based on one factor is not a smart thing to do.

Human resources and hiring managers are getting inundated by hundreds of resumes every time they post a job opening. They have to find a way to screen out the unqualified candidates and unearth the best of the best. They cannot use methods that would discriminate against protected classes (race, gender, disability etc.) One area where employers are already stepping into landmines is by increasing job requirements just because the talent is available. If you require a degree or certification for a job that didn’t use to need one, you may be headed for trouble.

Discriminating against unemployed status is not illegal, although not smart. Some employers are still under the impression that the people currently seeking work were laid off for performance reasons. Newsflash: Whole departments were slashed. Some companies had to reduce 50% of their workforce. One of my least favorite corporate assignments was to coordinate a (large) reduction list. The managers who had to submit names were fighting tooth and nail to keep their employees. There were no low performers to let go.

The talent thrown over the corporate fence has been through good in-house schooling and knows the functional best practices. The talent from small and mid-sized companies is truly versatile and has learned to perform multiple roles and keep many plates spinning in the air. Savvy recruiters and hiring managers should give both a second look.

There are better ways to screen talent than unemployment status. Use clear job requirements; know your culture and what kind of behaviors you are looking for. Consider an applicant assessment before you interview. Use an employee referral system.

Current job seekers are not standing still. They are retraining, learning new skills, volunteering, networking and doing pro bono project work. I hope they are highlighting these activities in their resume. One of them might just be the right one.

Hiring managers, HR, recruiters and job seekers: Do you agree or disagree? Share your experiences!

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Social media trends and talent implications

I attended the Austin Tech Fair today, and some of the panel discussions inspired me to summarize a few thoughts around how talent requirements are being shaped by social media trends.

Social media changes how relationships are built and how collaboration works. The connectivity brings people together in a new way we are learning to embrace. Some of the competencies listed today were virtual collaboration skills, cultural competence, ability to process information and continuous learning agility.

Virtual collaboration skills become increasingly important, as teams work together across geographical and organizational boundaries. We are expected to command the technology that enables us to edit documents, facilitate discussions and coordinate projects between multiple locations. With the virtual nature of the work comes the challenge of forming authentic relationships without face-to-face contact. Those who know how to overcome this barrier will lead productive teams and successful customer interactions.

I raised a question to the panel whether they think the technology will replace some of the face-to-face interaction and what the implications might be. Scott Ingram, the Sales Director of Bazaarvoice and the founder of Network in Austin, responded that instead of replacing, the technology will complement the face-to-face interaction. In between the in-person meetings, social media enables us to keep up-to-date on the lives of our connections and thus form deeper relationships than otherwise possible.

Social media connects people across national boundaries as well. As the geographical distance becomes a non-issue, cultural competence and international business acumen increase in value.

David Armistead from Social Web Strategies pointed out the current challenge of the information overload. The talent imperative is the ability to filter and process information for competitive advantage. A related question from the audience was regarding time management. Dave Evans from Social Web Strategies stressed that one needs to be purposeful with the use of social media and allocate a certain time slot for it and not go over it.

As we are headed towards the new technological revolution, the cyber age, perhaps the most important quality of future talent is learning agility. Lifelong learning, an open mind and reinventing oneself are critical for the workforce. Many of the jobs as we know them today will not be necessary. Many of the jobs of tomorrow don’t yet exist. A career will no longer be a monolithic path, rather it will be like social media; nimble, interactive and ever-evolving.

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Talent management in high tech – Part 2: Management development, succession planning, culture

In the high tech industry, the manager’s role is impacted by how high the skill level of the workforce is. Close monitoring and supervising only alienates employees who are used to a more self directed style. Managers must balance between the need to develop their employees and get the deliverables out the door. Many managers get promoted from individual contributor roles and don’t necessarily have any formal education in management. However, having worked in a team based environment, almost every manager has had opportunities to lead a team without the reporting authority, which is a great way to gain leadership experience. Management and leadership development is an area where high tech companies invest their training dollars.

When it comes to grooming senior leaders, succession planning is a process that is typically in place only in larger high tech companies, although it is equally important for smaller companies, who may be even more vulnerable for gaps when a key contributor leaves the organization. Succession planning basically serves two purposes; It manages the risk and proactively prepares for having choices of good candidates when positions open. It also systematically clears the path for high performers who company wants to invest in. In high tech, where the right mix of domain expertise and functional knowledge is sometimes elusive, succession planning takes a hard look at the best talent for the long haul. As high tech companies go global fairly early, international assignments are not rare.

There is something distinct about the high tech culture. We see comics about the software engineers in their loafers and shorts. The high tech industry is certainly more casual than, say, the banking industry. The employees have come to expect a more comfortable setting, and for some it is quite important. Autonomy and low bureaucracy are sought after cultural dimensions. Heavy manuals, helicopter managers and long policies are not too welcome. In exchange for flexibility, the employees accept and sometimes expect a fast pace and long hours, especially around product releases. However, as the generational  mix changes, and the talent war and need for innovation force the companies to reach out to more diverse candidates, work/life balance is becoming a higher priority even in the high tech industry.

High turnover is not the hallmark problem of the high tech industry. Employees come to stay in the company, as long as they get challenged at work and the work environment stays positive. Engagement and productivity may be tougher nuts to crack. With high paying jobs, it is critical that the employees feel compelled to give their 100% at work. The high tech companies that find the key to the hearts and minds of their employees gain sustainable competitive advantage.

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