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Monday December 19, 2011

Topic:  Employee Management

Reference: Karlee Weinman (December 13, 2011). “Hiring With Your Gut Is The Worst Thing You Can Possibly Do.” BusinessInsider.com: http://www.businessinsider.com/hiring-tips-geoff-smart-2011-12.

With the end of the year fast approaching it is time to turn towards planning for next fiscal year. Many are finally looking at expanding hiring at some point in 2012 and finding new employees with the knowledge, skills and abilities to add to the substance of the business is finally rising on the list of priorities. If you are like most, it has been awhile since any meaningful hiring has taken place. Old sources of candidate flow have gone out of existence and potentially new ones have replaced them. Hiring boards and job sites are showing signs of renewed activity and passive candidate search through social media and the like is all the rage. Still most candidates are sourced through private networks and recommendations. Only about 25% of positions are even listed on the job boards. Despite this, there is at least a 50% failure rate for job candidates and it is like a coin toss to find career candidates that work well for your organization. All hiring managers have missed on hiring for critical positions in their firm. As the business cycle starts to ramp up again, do you really want to reinvest in candidate processing that has a high rate of failure attached to it? If you could do things differently what would and should you do? As I contemplate these issues at least three things come to mind: 1) cast a wide net to get a good set of candidates; 2) start early so that time pressure does not enter into the equation; and 3) look beyond personalities to find the skills sets that function well in your organization and that match what you plan to have the person really do in the short-run and grow into in the future. In the referenced article, the commentator really sheds some additional light into this whole area. There she breaks the hiring process into 4 phases a) Scorecard (what person is supposed to do); b) Source (locating candidates); c) Select (right choice based on fit); and d) Sell (getting the best candidates to commit). Each phase is very important, but the place where the most mistakes are made is in selection and in selling the candidate on accepting the position. “The average manager has a profile of the candidate they’re hiring, and that’s a no-no, you’re not supposed to do that. Instead what you’re supposed to do is say, “I’m going to hire this person to be editor of my next book. I need her to do these five things and achieve these outcomes.” The selling portion is interesting and critical. After you have spent significant effort finding a great person, do what you must to close the deal. The best advice is to avoid relying solely on a gut feel in the absence of data. “Facts, data, reality. These are your friends when hiring, not just gut feel and falling in love with candidates’ personalities.” Wise counsel for reloading the talent in your organization.

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August 11, 2011

Topic: Employee Management

Reference: Penelope Trunk. (August 8, 2011). “How to Land Rockstar Employees By Buying Companies For Free. “ American Express Open Forum: managing. http://www.openforum.com/articles/how-to-land-rockstar-employeesby-buying-companies-for-free.

Just when you thought that the nightmare of the recession was fading, part of the Congress worked overtime to drag the economy back into the danger zone.  Money and credit remain tight and many companies continue to have a lid on discretionary spending. Still innovation and new project expansion demands new talent and skills that your organization may not have. If you can’t afford to pay for that talent, to use consultants, or to outsource these critical requirements what else can you do besides sit on the sidelines?  I thought first about job sharing or partnering as viable alternatives to achieve this business objective.  However, the referenced article opens up an entirely different channel.  In the article the commentator mentions acquiring talent through no cost business purchases.  The rationale is straight forward: entrepreneurs tire of running certain businesses and need a financial exit to keep their credibility up for the next business idea. As a result, they may be willing to sell the business to you for little or nothing and work for you for up to a year.  “The best kind of people to hire for a small business are self-starters. The type who are curious, motivated, don’t do anything halfway.” These are the kinds of people who start companies.  Potentially this is a terrific solution for several reasons. It may allow you to acquire the skills that you need until the crunch passes. It allows you to tie into some new network connections and bond into future transactions. It also provides real value to the exiting business owner. This is a win-win scenario. Still my caution meter says that you have to be careful about such transactions because the talented but exiting former owner may not want to continue to work on your behalf or exercise the effort necessary to justify the transaction. That is why it is imperative to do thorough due diligence and have a well-drafted service contract with sufficient incentives to make the project work.  Otherwise a well intended acquisition strategy might get mired in significant legal fees.  In short make sure that your Rockstar is for real and not an impostor.