Recruiters: making strong relationships

Getting the job filled with the right person may be the ultimate goal of a recruiter, but instilling trust and confidence in clients should always precede that target.

At the core of this challenging profession is the desire and skill to understand clients’ needs, specific industries and the geographical landscape of placement territory.

A “good recruiter” never rests on the laurels of past performance – its opening night every day for those in the recruitment business, and having more than a passing knowledge of the industry in which they specialize is paramount.

Many recruiters get into the business after enjoying a career in the industry for which they recruit – this rings true particularly in recent years within the high lay-off high technology realm. Having the ability to “speak” a client’s language cuts down on potential miscommunication and in due course the time it will take to make that working match. In addition, recruiters who have been personally involved in a specific industry understand how to best locate candidates for a particular geographical area.

Recruiters with the right stuff know the impact of trust. A client company should never have to worry about being left out in the cold if a new hire doesn’t work out. A dependable recruiter will be there with “replacement warranty” in hand to make sure that this bump in the road is smoothed out in the short distance.

Beyond building relationships with clients and candidates, recruiters must have integrity. They will never steal candidates from one client to “sell” to another and will always be available to clients to iron out problems.

And the cream of the recruiter crop will take the time to understand a client company’s corporate culture. It should never be about merely filling a position – it should always be about filling it with the right candidate, one who will meet the needs of a client and in turn make for a happy “marriage” between employer and employee.


About our Benefits Installment Author: James E. (Jim) Moniz, CEO of Northeast VisionLink, a Massachusetts firm that specializes in structuring executive compensation. James E. Moniz is a national speaker on the topic of wealth management and on executive compensation. Jim Moniz will be presenting at this years SHRM conference in Phoenx, be sure to check out our presentation: “Creating and Sustaining a Competitive Advantage, The Role and Impact of Effective Compensation and Rewards Strategies”

The Peak Interview

A friend and associate, Bill Burnett, has just published a book.

The Peak Interview


New insights into the job interview process can give you an edge to win the interview and get the job. By the time you get to the job interview, the company has determined you are qualified for the job. But so are all the other interviewees. Your experience, skills, competencies, and abilities will not differentiate you. Your competition is just as qualified as you are. You need an edge.



The Peak Interview talks about how to create that edge using Nobel Prize winning insights.

Read more about this small book at: Superinnovator

About the author:
With more than thirty years of business experience, Bill Burnett is a problem solver and a proven leader. He has led both line organizations larger than 250 people, and staff groups with less than ten people. Burnett's special talent is his ability to recognize and leverage hidden inventiveness of knowledgeably internal employees. His track record of building and leading problem solving teams at both the global and local level has delivered ingenious performance improvements in Product Development,Business Models, Customer Service, Operations, Network Infrastructure, Systems Functionality, and Policy Management. Burnett has traveled to and worked with a multitude of cultures in local businesses in over sixty-five countries.

Do your employees know where they stand?

Sure... right? We do our annual reviews. We sit down with our employees and we say, "good job with this or that" or "we'd like to see some improvment on your TPS reports". Of course our employees know where they stand.

Ok, and if I were to ask you, say, "what percentage of your employees is uncertain about their job security?" or perhaps something a little more specific like, "what percentage of your employees thought they were on the right track for a promotion right up until they didn't get one?" and "how did not getting that promotion affect their performance?", "did they start looking for another job?", "do they think you care?". You might say something like, "I'm not sure. But, more importantly, I'm not sure it matters"... and I'd believe you. And you'd have to also give me that your employees don't know where they stand; that you don't know where your employees stand; that maybe you don't know where you stand.

It starts to look somewhat amazing that the company functions. Of course, if you were to ask around, folks would say, "ahh, but we are such a dysfunctional, uncooperative, catty, bunch." He knows it, she knows it, I know it and you know it.

If you're a mamanager, start scheduling some time, right now, for each memeber of you team to come in and talk to you about "things". Maybe type up and distribute a little survey and put a box outside your door or cube or tent. Make it a "check yes or no" survey and pass it out. Get some feedback. Ask your team if they want to do a little survey too. Ask HR if you can do a big survey. Ask HR to ask if you can do a really really big survey. Ask some questions.

The Trouble With HR

Today we present an article by guest Coaching Author, Wendy Reeves.

* * *

As a former HR manager, and latterly in my employment as HR director, I know only too well the pressures and the difficult assignments that befall the corporate HR department.

The key function of good HR is to provide a service to the organisation and its staff. The workforce, from the top to the bottom, need to be treated as ‘the customer’, supporting and delivering to that customer as required. I have always believed in HR operating an ‘open door’ policy to anyone within the organisation. An accessible and visible HR department creates trust and confidence, and cohesion. Not always easy at the best of times, and in this current economic climate beleaguered HR personnel are beginning to suffer.

Cut backs and waves of redundancies are currently on businesses’ agendas, as they fight to survive the credit crunch. Head office functions and responsibilities such as marketing, are being removed and re-assigned to be delivered by line management, and effecting the change that these situations bring not only for those leaving, but also for those remaining - often requires HR input. And frequently when all that is done, it’s the turn of HR being the last to go. If your boss asks you for details of the redundancy process, be wary.

At my last employment the company was working towards floating on the stock market, and the share options awarded to me at the time of my directorship would turn in to ordinary shares, which I could cash in. It was at this stage that I made the decision to make some life changes as this windfall would support and help me move forward to a new chapter in my life. Part of the company’s preparation to float was to tidy up the management structure, which fell upon my department. Even though I was preparing my own exit some months ahead, it came as a huge shock that I was included in that tidy up process – they didn’t require an HR director going forward. Thankfully, the timing of my redundancy hit three years ago when the economy was buoyant, and receiving a redundancy package as well as the payout from the shares did ease the blow. I was lucky. But at the time, being forced out of a job you’ve given many years to is never easy to face, no matter what the circumstances.

So, who looks after the wellbeing of HR during these difficult times?

In my coaching business I have come across many HR people who are really struggling to cope under these current pressures. Their sense of self preservation buckles as they try to deal with making their colleagues redundant - colleagues whom they’ve known over a number of years and who perform well with an excellent record of conduct.

Before we can attempt to minimise the stress and pressures we first need to recognise that we are suffering from it. The next step is to realise what the triggers are. Stress comes in two directions; internally – the stress we create…pressure we put on ourselves, and; externally – work, boss, family etc.

Here are some tips on how to deal with stress:

• Find a support network, either a ‘buddy’ at work, or someone outside whom you can talk to about how you are feeling.
• Build up a resilience to stress and implement the three “R’s” to help focus on things you can control
• Rest: For example, move away from your computer and do something different, such as getting a drink every 30-40 minutes.
• Relaxation: What can you do to chill out? Perhaps listen to music or meditate? Yoga or other holistic therapies can really help.
• Recreation: Physically being active in some way, walking, swimming or going to the gym. Don’t become a hermit - keep up a social life.
• Always aim to take a break for lunch. Taking time out during the day is very important if you want to stay fresh and recharged for the next part of the day. The mind has an opportunity to relax and think about something else, which helps improve the concentration. Change your state, go for a walk and get some fresh air to rejuvenate and restore energy, do something for yourself and fulfil a personal task. These small steps reap huge benefits – stress levels reduce, performance improves and you will feel a lot better.
• Stress can really effect how you sleep exasperating how you feel. Try and follow some basic rules; for example, avoid caffeinated drinks in the evening; go to bed when you are tired; relax before bedtime, many find taking a hot bath really helps relax both the body and the mind; exercise regularly (but not before bedtime) and stick to a healthy diet. By getting plenty of sleep you will be rewarded by performing more efficiently and sustainably.
• Mind Set: Think positive and focus on what you can do and influence, rather than on what you ‘can’t do’. Negativity is unhelpful and gets you nowhere. Ask yourself empowering questions. In the midst of a crisis, for example, don’t ask why you got into this mess; ask how you can improve it.
• Be self-aware: Stress and worry lead to loss of motivation and procrastination. If you feel you can’t break the stress cycle, seek help to get you back on track and in control.
• Consider the ‘what if’s’ and what your options are.

* * *

By HR-Worldview guest author Wendy Reeves, founder of LifeGoal.

The New First Class Compromise

When companies cut budgets, a typical target is anything considered to be a frivolous gadget. An unneeded gizmo. There certainly are a lot of frivolous gadgets and unneeded gizmos. It all makes perfect sense.

But then I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone when I talk to clients who have cut their annual or bi-annual on-line performance appraisals and assessments when I clearly remember them saying to me in the past that they don't know how their team, their department, even their business as a whole could continue to function and grow without them. 

They used to say stuff like “We were such a dysfunctional, uncooperative bunch.” 

So when the tools that 'functionalized' the dysfunctional and got the 'uncooperative' to cooperate are put to pasture, I always want to say “My word! Is it that bad? I hope you didn't have to get rid of the Tassimo coffee maker too!” But, inevitably, I get my head on straight and get with it again.

Here is what we need to do. 

If your team, department, or company as a whole is a dysfunctional, uncooperative bunch but you can't seem to find room in the budget for the tools and support that you need to 'fix it' then either you're company is not taking the 'human factor' seriously enough or providers are not taking your budgets seriously enough. It's probably a little bit of both.

They say that in money, a perceived need is as real a need as a real need. I don't know if they actually say that, but I think it's true. We were going in this direction anyway, and it is simply the case that the state of the economy has accelerated the HR market's need for easy to use (which is time efficient) and cost-effective (which is cash efficient) technology solutions. 

HR needs to start making the case that these tools are as necessary a part of the frictionless functioning of a business as the workstations, the network bandwidth and the Tassimo. Uncooperative people don't just start cooperating especially when they are afraid that their jobs are on the line. No company would sell all of their workstations and replace them with typewriters to save money. It would end up being more expensive... that's why we have computers. The best question to ask is, “How is that any different than getting rid of the other tool that time and again has provided stability and openness to the workforce?” 

At the same time, HR solutions providers need to start innovating and moving away from the old model that companies don't see room for in their budgets. Solutions providers cannot just weather the storm and when the skies clear up approach their clients with the same garbage that got tossed at the first sign of trouble. That is about as backward as selling off workstations for typewriters. HR solutions providers need to learn that HR is now going to want more control over implementation and management of these systems. It's a particular brand of protectionism. HR solutions providers need to have a whole new game that's easy to learn. The products need to be better than they were before and we can actually define what we mean by "better": easy to integrate into company culture, easy for the client to learn, easy to use, quick to deploy, stable, error free. Of course, some HR solutions providers will be quick to say “oh but our systems have always been like that”. But, if that were true then we wouldn't be having this conversation.  

Results: 360 Degree Feedback Systems

Year after year, companies treat their 360 Degree Feedback process as a routine. They claim they are happy with it. We have never encountered a 360 Degree Feedback program that is perfect. There is always significant room for improvement.

I want to thank all of you who participated in our survey to study the perceived effectiveness of 360 Degree Feedback projects within companies. This has been just one of many studies conducted by HR-Meter and HR-Worldview into the effectiveness of 360 Degree Feedback.

Here are the main results:

• 45% of individuals surveyed believe that their current tool is not time efficient.
  
• 38% of individuals surveyed say that their current report types are not easy to read.
  
• 46% of individuals surveyed said that their tool did not ask the relevant questions.
  
• 68% of individuals surveyed said that their tool would profit from more customization to their job.
  

For the full report, Click the Report Button below

or just click here

Survey: 360 Degree Feedback Systems

Have you participated in a 360 Degree Feedback Project in the last year?

We are gathering information about the perceived effectiveness of various 360 Degree Feedback Systems.

Please take a moment to think back on the last 360 Degree Feedback project you participated in and answer the following questions as if they were about your specific project.

Click the Start Button to take this survey

or just click here

We will make the results of this survey available to those who request them

Benefits Installments

As you may remember, back in January we announced (rather prematurely) that we were considering running monthly Benefits Installments to broaden the scope of our forum into an area of Human Resource Management as yet untouched by HR-Worldview.

Well, today we can make good on that announcement! 

Begining in May, HR-Worldview will run a regular Benefits Installment.

 

Jim Moniz (President of Northeast VisionLink and Northeast Wealth Management) will pen these installments.

For a sample of what you can expect from these Benefits Installments, check our Jim's latest article, here.

It is our hope that you will find these installments interesting and helpful. 

2 Questions: Taking Advantage of Potential

I've got two "management-esque" questions for you. I'll set it up like this:

There is a lot of potential right now for growth, improvement... profit... like a tightly wound spring. Take stock prices, for example. This is bargain basement business right now. A buyer's market. Look at Citigroup ( C ). This is a stock that was consistently trading at $50. It dropped to around $1, got rescued and now, well, it looks to be headed back from whence it came. 

Of course, it's an analogy that I'm pointing at here. 

Companies have shaken things up, right? They've thinned out their rosters (hopefully they've kept their high potentials), they've moved some money around. They might be feeling a financial squeeze, but when it comes to Human Capital, they've got some wiggle room. Didn't like the old management? Well... A spring thaw.

So, this is the big 'What's up?' It's one thing to ask, “what should a company be doing right now”. You can ask that anytime. It's a little broad. I want to know about 'taking advantage of potential'.

1) What should companies be doing to take advantage of this 'potential'?

2) Has your company done anything to take advantage? If so, what?

Newsletters

We here at HR-Worldview are excited to announce that we now have monthly e-newsletters! 

These e-newsletters contain:

• The most recent articles on HR-Worldview!
• Invitations to our free webevents!
• Information about the latest and greatest tools!
  
• Results from our online surveys!

And would you believe it: we even customize these newsletters! That's right, so far we've got customized content for folks interested in the following:

• Recruiting
  
• Coaching (all types)
• General Human Resources

Click the icon below to subscribe

or just click here

Field Research: 360 Degree Feedback

We recently wanted to do a little "field research". We asked some serious HR executives and consultants the following question:

"Have you experienced a case where you found that a 360 Degree Feedback and a follow up coaching simply didn't provide the longer-term performance tracking that you were looking for?" 

The question was ambiguous and broad enough that we weren't surprised at all to receive a wide variety of responses. Nevertheless, there is a common theme!

* * *

So, let's have a look at what some folks had to say.

"In my opinion these feedback systems work when they are not only used as appraisal systems, but as developmental systems as well. Effective 360 feedback systems seem to work better when a manager is engaged in implementing these systems and when the employee is given timely feedback that they can use in goal setting and improving their performance. These systems should be used to reinforce organizational values set forth by the company."

- Anonymous HR

"While 360 Degree Feedback is widely accepted as a critical tool for key HR interventions, many a times it falls short of delivering on the objectives it was destined to achieve. One of the key reasons for this is the credibility of the feedback as perceived by the feedback receiver. Many a times feedback providers are either chosen by the feedback receiver or become known to the feedback receiver through informal communication channels that exist in every organization. Once the curtain over the feedback providers is raised, a smart feedback receiver knows what tone of feedback to expect. In such cases, not only does the feedback receiver become a little indifferent to feedback, but also contributes to the lack of impact of the intervention on his/ her performance tracking/ other program objectives."

- Lakshmi DVS, PHR, SPHR

"I have had experiences where 360s or other similar processes raised the client's awareness, which is itself of real value. I can think of several instances where the clients were just not ready to take the next steps (declare that they wanted to make a specific change and develop practices to develop new habits), and I found myself taking on more responsibility for their change than they did. Good lessons learned for me as coach (particularly when I was in an internal consulting HR role). In hindsight, I recognize many alternate paths I might have taken to better serve my coachee."

- Anonymous HR

"In my experience this can happen if the Manager is not clear in his/her expectations of the employee. You can have great 360 feedback and coaching with mixed signals from the manager. When this happens this sets the employee up for failure. The saying that you "join a company and leave a manager" is very true. In this economic environment I am seeing even less leadership at the management level which unfortunately makes it very difficult for the employees working with that manager to succeed."

- Alanea Kowalski

"Even most of the managers find the 360 Degree Feedback a task and not a development process. But who told us that any manager can act as a coach? Who can say if the manager has the right skills to coach, train, lead and support? This is the question I guess we, HR, should ask ourselves and should never take it as granted. Actually I'm more and more convinced about individual employee initiative for development rather than a company's one, or support coming from his manager!"

- Anonymous HR

* * *

OK, so the big question to ask is, what's the common theme here? Is there one? I think that there is, but I won't spill the beans because I want to hear from you! 

Hint: It has something to do with "after" or "the next step".

New Tricks

It's a cooling economy... sort of. It would be a stretch (though it's made everyday) to claim economic hardship across every industry. With these “troubled times” comes a series of booms and busts.

HR Vendors are booming. Why?

Employees are expensive (everybody knows that). But it is estimated that a new hire can cost around $5,000 in time and money spent. That's quite a bit of money and a lot of companies have decided that, given the way things look (with the fed estimating a stabilization of the markets sometime in the middle of 2009) they no longer want to throw that kind of cash around on straight gambles.

So, the old selection methods learn new tricks. Metrics and quantifiable analysis made possible by on-line reference checking systems (external 360's and the like) shave the “time spent” column down a hair while revamped internal performance assessments, employee and organizational engagement / climate assessments help manage, benchmark and improve existing “human capital investments”.

Firms are starting to see these methods not as new-fangled “techie” approaches, but as smart, cost conscious and effective reinvestments in their capital assets. The picture doesn't even have to look that sterile. When employers are viewed as caring about their employees, they are viewed as caring about their business just like when they take time to wash the windows and cut the grass, do the books, and send out their PR announcements.

How does your company reduce turnover, improve employee engagement, streamline performance reviews, etc.? To put it another way, what are your “new tricks”?

Connectivity and Productivity

I recently read an interesting report in The Economist that really got me thinking about something that many HR executives are coming to see as a problem: how do we foster a more portable, “always on”, virtual type of working style for our employees while, at the same time, retaining the kind of cohesiveness and sense of control that made the last century so unbelievably productive?

The argument has always been that as technology grows more sophisticated (and perhaps sophisticated isn’t the right word), we grow more productive, we break free of “Malthusian equilibrium” and so, from a very modern historical prospective, we are liberated from the arduous nature of “labor”. And, to a certain extent, we’ve really seen this kind of evolution.

Computers have changed everything, right? Well so have cellular phones, fax machines and the internet. The necessity of the vast cubical farms that make Dilbert cartoons so funny, from a technical standpoint, really isn’t there anymore.

But there is still that practical standpoint. Technically, we could save hundreds of thousands of dollars by doing away with the vast majority of our office space, and sending our employees home with their “terminals” and getting them all a Blackberry and an HP C1340 All-in-one printer. Done. We might even save enough to pay a percentage of their rent or mortgage and upgrade their health coverage.

But will they work?

My guess, along with virtually everyone else’s, is that, no, they will not work. So if we are going to actually make use of our new gizmos in the work place, we need to find some way to reconcile the more recent advances in mobile technology, bandwidth, and mobile computing with the stationary, “conventional” (and this is perhaps the focus for change), work arrangement; to knit the two together with some rather unconventional Human Resources Management.

We all know how they are doing it at Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. But how do we do it at the insurance company, the consultancy, the paper distributor?