Category: Human Resource

Article Contributed by Sara LaForest and Tony Kubica

The hiring retention success rate is disheartening with some studies reporting a rate lower than 50%. Through more than 50 years of combined experience 50+ in helping organizations improve their business performance, we (Tony Kubica and Sara LaForest) have uncovered three reasons why most companies and organizations fail to hire and retain top talent.

The First Reason Why Most Companies Hiring Retention Rate is Less Than 50%!

In the movie “Field of Dreams” , Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) hears a voice as he walks through his cornfield—”if you build it, he will come”. Over the years it has since become part of our lexicon of misused quotes. It has even seeped into the talent integration and talent management world.

Many CEOs, executives, managers and HR directors believe if you hire them (or promote your employees) they will contribute. Well, to use another well- known phrase—”not exactly”.

Why would you believe that hiring or promoting employees into a new job or position will result in immediate success?

The Second Reason Why Most Companies Retention Rate is Less Than 50%!

Many executives, managers and HR managers fail to plan out completely:

.  The job requirements
.  What needs to be done
.  What skills, behaviors and attitudes are required for success now
.  What role adaptation is anticipated for the future

If you fail to map out exactly what you are looking for as well as the position you are hiring for –  you might as well spend your money on a trip to Las Vegas to roll the dice! The chance of winning is about the same –  or maybe slightly better in Vegas (and likely you will have more fun).

The Third Reason Why Most Companies Retention Rate is Less Than 50%!

Most companies are still hiring and promoting candidates using the standard elements:

.  An application
.  A resume
.  An interview (or two, potentially including a panel)
.  Perhaps a background check,
.  And references.

However, these really only tell you only what the candidate wants you to know. Meaning, good creative writing and strong impression management skills do not necessarily equal the most suitable candidate for your organization. Just because candidates can report experience and expertise on a resume does not mean they have the personality and character attributes to do the job and it doesn’t mean that they are the right fit for your company.

For example, we saw one of our clients hire a department director who was charged with turning around an under- performing department. He appeared to be well- qualified, coming from a department that recently had undergone a very successful turnaround. He was the assistant director.

But, he floundered in the new job. One of the reasons is that he was too empathetic and had a very high- interpersonal sensitivity toward others. Simply, he could not make the tough people decisions. Nowhere on the resume, during the interview, nor with the hand- picked references did this come out.

To Integrate Your New or Promoted Talent Effectively, You Need to Start Considering the “Talent Integration Potential”

This means, you need to look specifically to how a candidate fits the prospective role and how suitable the candidate is to your organization. Just as you cannot fit a square peg in a round hole (without damage), you cannot make successful a person who does not have the basic ingredients for success in the job you need done.

This does not mean the person cannot be successful. It just means they cannot likely be as successful in a particular job or perhaps even in your organization.

So, how can you know?

4 Ways to Uncover If a Candidate is Perfect For the New Role & For Your Organization

1.  Use behaviorally- based interview questions that probe their history of actions and outcomes respectively

2.  Include some culture- based questions to help you determine values and motivators as compared to company values and attributes

3.  Include/give them time for a scenario based problem to work and resolve and report back on

4.  Have top candidates complete personality- based and job performance  indicators that measure a candidate’s potential for success in different business environments and roles. (Though such an assessment should never be used as the sole criteria for selection. As part of a selection set, it can be an invaluable tool to avoid hiring the wrong candidate for the job.) It can also be used as a tool to support and coach the new employee in areas that need to be addressed to ensure a fast and effective integration into a new job and organization.

Now, are you ready to start increasing your top employee retention rate? Great! Then, change your thinking from “if you hire them or promote them – they will contribute”  to “if I hire the right talent, they will contribute.”  And, start following my advice by taking action on the items listed in this article – along with the information we reveal in our free talent integration white paper at: http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com/resources.php

About the Author:

Management consultants Sara LaForest and Tony Kubica have 50+ years of combined experience in helping organizations accelerate their business growth in record times. Now, you can learn how to manage transitions and hire the right executives with their free special report on talent recruitment and integration at http://www.kubicalasforestconsulting.com/resources.php

Article Contributed By Mystique

The Corporate life is getting more competitive day by day with the flow of incoming candidates for jobs. If you want to get shortlisted for a job then you need to make some small changes in your resume so that it doesn’t get lost in the HR’s stack. Sometimes companies lose good candidates or rather Candidates lose a perfect job due to poor presentation of their skills, education and experience on the white paper. Here are some small tidbits which can help you build an excellent resume and stand high on the stack.

Avoid writing too much about irrelevant experiences

People who have a loads experience they like to write about all their experiences which kind of makes the resume long and boring. What the HR wants on the resume is that whether you have the particular skills and experience for the job or not. So write about the skills and experience which is needed for the applied job and just mention (don’t describe) your other job experiences. By this the HR who doesn’t want to read other stuffs will not get bored and the HR who is more inquisitive will be getting the answers easily.

Don’t look dull

Some people write formatted lines “My aim will be reaching the top position of the company …” which they usually copy from different sites or formats. Please avoid those formats as they are used when people are using resume for the first time. HRs try to find some new & exciting feature in your resume. Unless they think you resume copied from somewhere and it proves that you’ve got no talent writing your resume yourself. People also write common hobbies and interests. It makes your resume look dull and that’s when the HR starts to think of throwing it to the trash.

Avoid boring Objectives

Most of the people like to write boring objectives in their resume which they think will give it a direction which is actually wrong. It just diverts you out from the line. Rather you can replace the objective with a career summary. Because when you include objectives then it gives your resume a format and the thing is HR doesn’t want format, he wants what innovation you used to present yourself.

Don’t look Hazy on the Career Summary

Some people have got so many experiences that they get confused while writing the career summary and there is when you lost the job. When you come from various fields and applying for a new job, then first decide how to summarize your all other job as per your choice. Don’t go for any format, just write the way you enjoyed your all previous jobs. So there the HR finds that you didn’t quit your previous jobs because you get bored.

Attach a Photo

If you’re applying for a job which needs presentation skills and has a face value then you must attach a photo with your resume. Sometimes employers’ shortlist candidates from their looks as they need those faces to present the industry. As per the corporate rules face value should not get counted when you’re selecting a candidate, but most of the time its not followed. So there is no harm if you can attach a photo.

Be simple with the wordings

Don’t write complicated sentences about your job. You may have job experiences about which the HR may not know, so just make it simple to him by explaining what overall you or your previous company did. Don’t go for complicated job descriptions and use simple known words. By this the HR will read it simply will find some new thing on your resume too.

About the Author:

Mystique is a new Job Blogger and wants to share his job experience with the job bloggers. Mystique likes to write about the factors that help you get a job, surviving on the job, the job environment and how to get kicked out of it too, on his new blog The Job Factor. He is an avid gamer, computer geek, web designer and a jobber too.

Article by Skip Weisman

When approached and I ask Human Resource directors and corporate training directors, and even CEO’s about how they feel “training” is going to help their organizations, I usually learn that they have grossly over-estimated what “training” can be expected to do.

Personnel problems? Bit of training will fix it. Sales down? No problem, bit of training will fix it. Inter-office problems? Training will fix it. Productivity down? Training will fix it. Cooperation non existent? Training will fix it. Low morale? You guessed it… bit of training will fix it.

The problem is that often there are issues occurring in the work environment that training can not help and can, in fact, even make the problems worse. Training is not a panacea for all a company’s problems. Of course, training can be of immense value and benefit in addressing many problems, but if the cause of the problem comes from higher up or outside their area of influence, then it can be a waste of time. You need to address the root cause of the problem if you want to stop it and rebuild and retrain effectively with positive, long term results.

A classic example is communication. A lack of directness in communicating can be devastating to a work environment.

Throwing “training” at a work environment problem, which often means it is steeped in low trust and respect between team members, will exacerbate the problem. This plays out in almost every training I deliver where none of the managers or organizational leaders participate in the trainings. At the end of the trainings, at least 30% of the feedback forms I receive respond to the question “What could have been better about this training?” with “If all of our department team members, including our managers and other company leaders had this training.”

If the individuals most responsible for the team or organization’s culture and performance are not participating with their team members, the training to “fix” a problem is guaranteed to do more harm than good.

Another issue is that often the issues the training addresses offer solutions that require sensitive or challenging conversations between individual participants in the training. Since the open forum of the training environment is not the appropriate environment to address these issues head on, participants become frustrated and resentful of the training and it just reinforces the negative situation.

Here’s another example. In a meeting with the VP of Human Resources and VP of Operations for a large manufacturing firm, the first half of which we discussed management and leadership training for their middle managers and shop managers, I used the phrase “toxic” to describe some of the work environments I’ve helped transform.

The VP of Operations shot back in his next breath, “Toxic, hmm, that’s what we’ve got.” To which I informed him that training was not going to fix it.

They both nodded their heads in agreement and the conversation took a turn in a new direction.

We began focusing on inviting the President/CEO and other senior leadership team members to discuss addressing issues at the very top of the organization. And training will not be on the agenda, at least not initially. It is going to take some significant team development and trust building activities and consistent accountability to a new approach to leading and communicating in this company.

So, the next time you think you need “training” for your organization ask this question –

“Why and what ‘problem’ are we trying to solve?”

About the author:

Skip Weisman is The Leadership & Workplace Communication Expert. He’s the author of the white paper report titled, “The 7 Deadliest Sins of Leadership & Workplace Communication: How Leaders and Their Employees Unknowingly Undermine Morale, Motivation and Trust in Work Environments.” The white paper is available as a free download for a limited time at www.HowToImproveLeadershipCommunication.com . If you’d like to learn how you can improve your work environment by improving communication contact him directly with any questions, or for a complimentary Strategy Session at 845-463-3838 or e-mail to Skip@WeismanSuccessResources.com

Article Contributed by Skip Weisman

What I’m about to say, will shock most organizational leaders….It’s time to retire the mission statement.

-They don’t motivate anyone.

-They are a waste of time and energy to develop.

-They quickly become part of the corporate wallpaper.

During a recent leadership workshop a participant proclaimed, “When I hear the word mission, I think of a military mission.”  Not exactly the image that is going to get most employees excited about their jobs.

Lookup the word “mission” on dictionary.com and 15 references are cited. Only these three even come close to filling the definition organizations use the concept for and none are very inspirational:

-an assigned or self-imposed duty or task; calling; vocation.

-a sending or being sent for some duty or purpose.

-the business with which a group is charged

Is it any wonder why few employees are motivated by their organization mission statements? Yet, most every organization in the world spends countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars trying to create the perfect mission in strategy sessions.

How Successful Organizational Leaders Motivate Employees Without Having a Mission

If organizational leaders want to inspire and motivate employees, connect at a deep level with customers and build a brand around something that shows the organization makes a difference, they should burn their organization’s mission. Then, they should dig deeper to identify the organization’s “Purpose.”

Dictionary.com’s definition of “purpose” includes:

-the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used,
-an intended or desired result; end; aim; goal.
-determination; resoluteness.

Those three definitions provide a much greater foundation that will help you inspire a group of employees to work toward your organization’s goals. The inspiration will become more real, however, by experiencing actual organizational purpose statements.

My Favorite Purpose Statements…

I believe Yellowstone National Park has one of the best organizational purpose statements.   Sitting across the archway leading into the park, their purpose statement reads “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People.” It’s simple. It’s easy to remember. And it’s something that focuses park employees on serving the millions of visitors to Yellowstone every year.

Here’s another example:

A regional not-for-profit organization recently completed a strategic planning process decided to take my advice and created this as its purpose statement: “Our Purpose Is To Instill Hope, Empowerment and Self-Determination in People with Mental Illness to Foster Recovery and a Transition to Mental Wellness!”

Again, this is a one-sentence statement that is memorable and motivational whereas most mission statements are many sentences in length, are cumbersome for employees to memorize and are rarely associated to or referenced after they are created.

To create a powerful purpose statement for your organization you might think that all you have to do is ask “why does our organization exist?” That question can be tricky, especially in a for-profit organization that needs to meet shareholder expectations, turn a profit and dividends or attain a certain share price. Instead, the focus should be on the thing the organization must to in order for it to position itself to be able to achieve those things.

Two Questions You Should Be Asking to Create Your Purpose Statement…

“What is the one thing that our organization must do for our customers and our community, at a very high level, that will absolutely ensure our financial success for the long-term?”

“What is it that we do consistently that makes a difference in our customers lives/businesses every day?”

Even with these questions leadership teams have a challenge answering them by themselves.  Often, internal facilitators fail to push the issue deep enough to get to the core essence of the organization’s existence.  What is created is a statement lacking power and emotion.

For organizations serious about creating a memorable and motivational purpose statement that actually inspires team members to perform and achieve high level results there also needs to be an implementation and integration strategy to infiltrate the purpose throughout the organization’s culture. Often times the best results are attained by having an outside facilitator and consultant assist the organization’s leadership with this process.

Creating a powerful organizational purpose that will motivate employees while building a powerful brand image is just one component of “The 3 Strategies Champion Organizations Master that Too Many Leaders Take for Granted,” a white paper and audio seminar that can be downloaded at www.SkipWeisman.com/3LeadershipStrategiesTraining

About the Author:

Skip Weisman of Weisman Success Resources, Inc. of Poughkeepsie, NY (www.WeismanSuccessResources.com) works with organizational leaders to improve personnel, productivity and profits by helping them “Create a Champion Organization,” one that communicates effectively and takes action with commitment towards a shared compelling vision. His latest White Paper Report is “The 3 Strategies Champion Organizations Master That Too Many Leaders Take for Granted” and is available as a free download at www.SkipWeisman.com/3LeadershipStrategiesTraining