Leadership Trends and Realities

Want to Attract Talent? Be Talent!

Dana Theus, Principal, Magus Consulting

Someone recently asked me for my secret to making a good hire and attracting talented employees. I had to admit that I’ve never considered myself particularly skilled at hiring, even though I’ve made some stellar hires – if I do say so myself – so I had to dig deep for some executive coaching advice. But it came pretty quickly.

If you want to hire very talented people, BE talented. If you want to hire go-getters and innovators, BE go-getting and innovative. If you want people to think outside the box, don’t sit in your box.

Why? People like to work with and for people they like and aspire to be like. And these are qualities that many people can talk about but only those who really get it can demonstrate enthusiasm for. When you are like this and others know it, they will send you the best and the brightest. You’ll be like honey to the bee.

One other piece of advice: Deliberately look for people smarter than you and who you can learn from. One of my first bosses said it this way: “A people hire A+ people. B people hire C people.” You get a threefer when you hire above your own talent level. You get smarter, your team gets more done and you look like a smart boss for knowing how to put your ego aside and go for talent. So even if you think you’re an A- everyone else thinks you’re an A. Other talented people will notice. More honey. Spread it thick and see who comes.

 

Talent Attraction, Retention and Development - The Business Imperatives

Jonena Relth, TBD Consulting

Recently I had the privilege of attending a Global Mobility workshop in Los Angeles hosted by Ed Cohen of GlobalHRNews. The presenters represented "cream of the crop" professionals who manage all aspects of global mobility planning, hiring and training expats to work for their companies all over the globe. The topics covered everything from risk management, legal considerations of home and host country, immigration law, intercultural support, training, ROI, and Return on Recognition (ROR) - and yes, the new issues around the use of social media, too!

One thing that struck me from an organizational development perspective was the obvious: No matter whether filling positions locally or globally, organizations need to put detailed, strategic plans in place that align with measurable business goals and that each employee need to be vetted to be sure that they are the right person for the position.

Adding the component of overseas assignments adds a whole new dimension to who is best suited for oversees assignments. The best person technically might not be the best person to send due to personal or family issues that need to be taken into consideration.  To the best of our ability, we want every expat to succeed in every assignment. This requires that we do everything possible to ensure a positive experience from the get-go. We need to take into consideration our hiring processes, training, cultural awareness and the individual's family needs. Whether bringing employees to the US or sending them abroad, great care is required to prepare our employees to succeed. Our businesses depend on it!

The costs of attracting, training and retaining the right employee for international assignments can be staggering with the average "cost" estimated to be $1,000,000 per employee. Each assignment that fails - the employee comes home early or leaves the company upon returning from their assignment - makes a huge dent to the bottom line. Additionally, a failed assignment contributes to poor morale for the expat as well as his/her colleagues, which adds a whole new HR/OD component to our already, overworked HR and OD professionals.

While the workshop wasn't aimed at change management, tried and true disciplines used today to manage change in our organizations should be a critical component of any initiative as important as attracting, developing and retaining employees. Those same employees may be the ones we intend to lead our organizations in the coming years.

It was refreshing to attend a workshop that took at inclusive approach of addressing the varied topics and then linking them together with the importance of staying on top of all aspects of global mobility including making sure we train and prepare employees to succeed.

Jonena

TBD Consulting has a 20-year, proven track record for ensuring employee performance improvement which translates to employee performance success. Whether you need help developing an in-house training organization or simply need "extra hands" to meet your deadlines or ROI goals, please contact Jonena. She and her qualified staff are here to assist you with your organizational development, coaching and training initiatives.

Corporate Office 602-263-1961. Email Jonena today!

Creative Benefits Package

We would like to welcome a new blogger to our leadership blog: Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice — a resource for selecting online HR software and more — and reports on trends, technology, and best practices in human resources and recruiting.

The lines between work and personal lives are blurring for many employees. They’re seeking balance between the two and are finding value in the ability to choose the specific benefits that best meet their needs at this point in their lives. And, employers are learning that, when chosen and implemented effectively, benefits can demonstrate leadership’s concern for the well-being of employees, reinforce cultural values, and foster deeper employee engagement.

According to James Berkeley, Director of Berkeley Burke International, however, there’s still a disconnect. “The decisions made regarding what benefits to offer are often based on subjective viewpoints, viewpoints that are far removed from the actual needs of employees.” Rather than assuming you know what your employees want, Berkeley suggests you ask them. Though answers will vary, many people are interested in more benefits in these areas:

• Healthy Living and Wellness Benefits. Susan Combs, President of Combs & Company, “The biggest benefit that employees ask for is gym membership reimbursement." Wellness programs like WalkingSpree–which creates walking clubs, assigns teams and creates competitions – are another great way to motivate and engage employees to live healthy (thereby reducing your health care costs).
• Flexible Work Options. Telecommuting and other forms of flexible work options make employees healthier and happier.  And as Sara Sutton Fell, Founder and CEO of FlexJobs points out, studies show that, “Employers who offer flexible schedules and alternatives to the traditional nine-to-five not only see higher productivity, but also save on health-related benefits they already offer.” Stanford University conducted a big study that showed that telecommuters were four percent more productive than office workers, working more hours and taking a larger workload.
• Commuting Relief Benefits. More and more are looking for commuting relief benefits from their employers. Incentivize carpooling; use services like Transit Chek so employees can purchase transit tickets with pre-tax dollars; Or promote healthy living and alternative commuting options by installing bike racks your the office.
• Perks You Can Afford. Great perks aren’t just for the guys in Silicon Valley. Many companies–big and small–bring in a massage therapist who offers chair massages to employees. Convenient and relaxing, this perk costs the employer nothing and might just keep employees in the office longer. Others adopt reward programs like BetterWorks where employees are given an allowance to spend on discounted food from local restaurants, dry cleaning, gym memberships and more.

Clearing the Great Leadership Hurdle

By offering benefits that are actually competitive, an organization can set itself above the competition--and build a strong culture of engagement and motivation. But as Eddie Trieber, CEO of HRI, points out, “Getting there requires the support of leadership--and there are a few common concerns that need addressing.” Leaders are often focused on Costs, Immediate Benefit, and Employee Utilization. It’s up to you to deliver on these key points.

Address the issues of cost by reminding leadership how little (if anything) creative benefits cost the organization. It might also help to frame benefits in terms of investments--not costs--in new employee acquisition and retention. And educate your employees. Actively promote offerings in your recruiting strategy. Use open enrollment to re-educate employees. Add FAQs and educational content to the employee self-service portals in your HRMS.

For further reading, you can find the full article on Kyle's HR blog.

 

Drawbacks of Leadership Evaluations

Robert Whipple, www.leadergrow .com

Having a philosophical framework in place is a good start, but you also need a detailed plan for moving forward. The plan will include the most important business drivers for your organization, how you intend to measure and improve them, along with the needed strategies and tactics. For non-leaders, the plan will constitute a personal map for improvement.

Start by identifying the key drivers for your organization. These are things that, if done well, will propel your business toward the vision.  Customer satisfaction is a key driver for most businesses, as is profitability. Others may include things like quality improvement and improving cycle time.  Develop a handful of key drivers.  If the list is too long, it will confuse rather than focus. I will use an example of a typical key driver, “improving profitability,” to demonstrate the process of creating a strategic plan.

Identify how you will measure progress in each of the key driver areas.  Measuring things is crucial for forward momentum. The old adage, “what gets measured, gets done,” is literally true. Strive to identify 2-3 ways to measure each key driver area from differing angles. The measure provides a focus for energy and also data on which successes can be noted and reinforced. Possible measures for our current example might be “manufacturing margin” (revenue minus cost of goods sold) and “return on investment” (revenue divided by total investments.)  These can be plotted against short-term and long-term goals to identify progress and celebrate it when appropriate.

Now identify improvement opportunities. These will be ways to make each measure move in the desired direction. For this example, you might identify a productivity improvement program in manufacturing or a new advertising campaign to increase sales. Each measure should have a few improvement opportunities that will drive progress.

You are now in a position to document strategies required to accomplish these improvements and to identify specific tactics. In our example, you might identify a strategy to engage in a Lean Manufacturing program to improve margins. The next step would be to identify associated tactics, such as hiring a consultant, training all employees in lean concepts, instituting a new reward system based on implementation of lean principles, etc. You may have several strategies and dozens of tactics for each key driver. Finally, you make the commitment and begin executing your plan. 

Assess the relative priorities of the tactics so there is a cohesive plan consistent with the vision in the event of resource constraints. A plan that is well documented, internalized, supported, and communicated will drive the business rapidly toward the vision. It also lets people know what to do and, more importantly, what not to do. It provides a roadmap for focused effort.

The preceding information was adapted from the book The TRUST Factor: Advanced Leadership for Professionals, by Robert Whipple. It is available on www.leadergrow.com.

Robert Whipple is also the author of Leading with Trust is like Sailing Downwind and, Understanding E-Body Language: Building Trust Online. Bob consults and speaks on these and other leadership topics. He is CEO of Leadergrow Inc. a company dedicated to growing leaders. Contact Bob at [email protected]