Best Practices in Hiring & Inspiring the Right Workforce

Best Practices for Hiring and

Inspiring the Right WorkforceTom Morley, President, Snowflake Llc

www.highroadsolution.com

Today’s Content Leader

Tom MorleyPresident, Snowflake LLC

• Strategy, organization, and people subject matter expert

• 17 years consulting to leaders in all sectors, US and abroad

• Twitter: @snowflakellc


The “right” people

A Simple Workforce Challenge

InspireHireIdentify

• A changing world calls for different resources

• People are a limiting factor for strategy

• It’s hard to hire the people you need

• Today’s challenges require inspired solutions


How to Hire and Inspire “Right”

Key takeaways from last week’s webinar

• It starts with a strategy

• Know your requirements

• “Right” is “realistic”

• Flexibility expands opportunities

• You can hire for inspiration

• Recognition is critical

• Inspiring is a process


Best Practices: Identifying

Use role “personas” or profiles to define the types of people you want (and don’t want) for your key roles

• Personality

• Aptitude

• Knowledge

• Experience

• Motivations

• Compensation

Profiling


Profiles can help you determine whether those people are accessible in the labor market

• Who they are

• Starting level of interest

• How to recognize them

• How to reach them

• What they need to hear

• How to identify pretenders

Best Practices: Identifying Profiling


If they don’t exist in the labor market, profiles can help you find out why, so you can adjust your approach

• Want more compensation

• Incompatible styles

• Used to different norms

• Divergent interests

• Don’t match skill needs

• Not the right experience



Why take the time to build profiles and “test” them in your target labor pool?

• Save time and money searching

• Increase recognition

• Focus recruiting resources

• Enhance ability to attract

• Reduce the risk of bad hires

• Optimize workforce cost-effectiveness



Spend time building up your employer brand to attract interest, even when you’re not actively hiring

• Association mission

• Industry recognition

• Innovations

• Participation

• Work environment

• Other profile interests

Best Practices: Hiring Branding


Effective branding builds an image that makes people want to work for you, even if not immediately

• Coordinated efforts

• Continuous presence

• Clarity of identity

• Consistency

• Honest representations

• “Blanket” + targeted



Now is a good time to focus on your employer brand, especially if you can get ahead of the “digital curve”

• Candidate pool has changed

• New entrants into the labor market

• Competition is increasing but not saturated

• Key demographic wants to make an impact

• You have something others don’t

• “Cutting edge” sells



Why is it worth taking the time to invest in building up your employer brand and image?

• It’s been shown to be effective

• The “right” talent is limited

• People will come to you

• You don’t have to “buy” to hire “right”

• You’re more likely to “hire inspired”

• It has a cascading effect



Use detailed, accurate job descriptions when posting (or linking to) job announcements

• What you want people to do

• How they’ll do it (methods, tools)

• What they need to know, and why

• Performance expectations

• Work environment and culture

• Other descriptive factors

Best Practices: Hiring Describing


A good, thorough job description helps to attract the “right” candidates, and weed out the “wrong” ones

• Envision performing tasks

• Willing to take on expectations?

• Fit within the culture

• Acceptability of employment conditions

• Ability to grow in job

• Confirmation of employer brand



If not done effectively (e.g., incomplete, inaccurate, or overstated), job descriptions create major challenges

• May get flooded with applications

• May attract the “wrong” people

• The “right” candidates may self-select out

• Can set false expectations for new hires

• “Inspired” can quickly become demoralized

• Reputation sticks



Why spend the time developing detailed descriptions and ensuring that they’re accurate?

• Reinforces brand

• Assists recruiters

• Better candidates

• Easier to evaluate

• No misunderstandings

• Lasting impression



Evaluate candidates in real-life settings to get a better sense of how they think, and how they fit

• Profile-driven

• Interactive

• Inclusive

• Intensive

• Knowledge

• Attributes

Best Practices: Hiring Evaluating


Well-constructed, well-run case studies, simulations, etc. enable you to see candidates “in action”

• Reflective of a real-life challenge

• Sufficient information

• As ambiguous as the environment

• Need for preparation

• Scripted roles, with latitude

• Clarity on what’s being evaluated



Using case studies, simulations, etc. can backfire if not carefully orchestrated and executed

• Can’t show everything important

• Candidates can “read between the lines”

• Word can get out

• Reliant on participants

• Confusion creates an image

• Legal risks in construction, execution



Using case studies, simulations, etc. can backfire if not carefully orchestrated and executed

• Displays “red flags”

• Shows employer and candidate

• Offers multiple perspectives

• Builds camaraderie pre-hire

• Gives meaning to selection

• Can energize those hired



Incorporate a well-designed on-boarding experience to transition from “new hire” to “inspired employee”

• Welcoming

• Preparing

• Equipping

• Integrating

• Immersing

• Supporting

Best Practices: Hiring On-boarding


An effective on-boarding process bridges the gap from acceptance through full integration into the workplace

• Engages before “Day One”

• Covers the “essentials”

• Provides everything the employee needs

• Establishes important relationships

• Transfers critical knowledge for full participation

• Doesn’t end after “orientation”



Organizations that do not have, or have inadequate, on-boarding programs miss key opportunities

• Fail to establish a connection

• Inhibit new hires from participating

• Leave employees “out on their own”

• Implicitly communicate apathy

• Pass up a key chance to inspire



Why spend money and take time away from work to engage employees in a rigorous on-boarding process?

• Positively identifies with brand and mission

• Exponential increase in initial productivity

• Efforts align with objectives

• Enhanced teamwork

• Early course correction

• Less likely to leave prematurely



Take performance management seriously, establishing a system that connects, guides, and differentiates

• Aligned goals

• Individual interests

• On-going dialogue

• Set milestones

• Transparency and fairness

• Rewards and remediation

• Trained managers

Best Practices: Inspiring Connecting


A sound performance management system enables managers to manage, and employees to connect

• Setting goals that progressively build to outcomes

• Demonstrating how mission cascades to individual

• Committing to supporting aligned interests

• Meeting frequently, regularly plus interim checks

• Reconciling individual, department, enterprise

• Delivering on incentives and consequences



Employees of organizations without good performance management are less engaged, and less productive

• Don’t see how they impact outcomes

• Don’t feel “part of the solution”

• Find it harder to correct course early

• Can’t adapt to changing conditions

• Become demotivated

• May see themselves as “ambushed”



Why should you spend time and energy developing and maintaining a performance management system?

• Key tool for inspiring

• Reduces risk

• Provides flexibility

• Encourages internal cohesion

• Improves outcomes

• Enables correction and detachment



Keep employees engaged by providing meaningful forums for information-sharing

• Vertical and horizontal

• Open and honest

• Frequent

• Well-orchestrated

• Educational

• Entertaining

Best Practices: Inspiring Interacting


Effective information-sharing is on-going, informative, and engaging, and can be inspirational

• Regular executive briefings with honest information

• Frequent manager-team meetings

• Peer-to-peer communication opportunities

• Cross-department exchanges

• Team-building activities

• Multiple media, informative content



Organizations that don’t share information effectively, and/or don’t encourage interaction, suffer greatly

• Employees lose connection to strategy, direction

• Best practices and lessons learned aren’t shared

• Innovation is stifled

• Meetings are demotivating burdens

• People can’t adapt their approaches

• More likely to act as individuals, not teams



Why should you make the effort to share information, and provide opportunities for staff to do the same?

• Builds trust

• Continuous improvement

• Encourages teamwork

• Develops connection

• Improves morale and productivity

• Inspires people



Organizations use a variety of methods that have been shown effective in identifying, hiring, and inspiring

• Outsourcing to specialized recruiters• Human Resources upgrades• Job shadowing and mentoring• Off-site organization, department events• Executive panel discussions (open Q and A)• Rotating opportunities to represent organization• “Cookies and content”, “brown bags”, etc.• Communities of practice• Public (internal and external) recognition

Best Practices: Other


More Information

Learn more about best practices and how they might apply to your organization

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Best Practices in Hiring & Inspiring the Right Workforce