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10 Strategies for Recruiting In a Highly Competitive Job Market

March 21, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 1 Comment

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We continue to hear how recruiting is a challenge. In a research report published last year by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), sixty-eight percent (68%) of HR professionals are experiencing difficulty recruiting candidates. There are several reasons for the increased difficulty including skills gaps and lack of experience. However, forty-nine percent (49%) of HR pros cited competition from other employers as part of the challenge.

I feel like l’ve always worked in highly competitive environments. My thought is there are two different kinds of competition:

Industry-based is specific to a type of work, like the competition for tech talent in Silicon Valley. It could be based on a highly technical position. Or it could be the result of a geographic region becoming a hub for certain types of businesses.

General competition applies to all jobs, and is the result of low unemployment, increased voluntary quits, etc. It could also be the result of a geographic region getting a large employer and creating lots of jobs. Another reason could be a skills gap in a much-needed area like supervisory skills or critical thinking.

Organizations are not immune to competition and must be prepared to address both types. And, the answer isn’t poaching employees. It’s taking steps to make your organization rises above the competition.

10 Activities Your Organization Can Do to Recruit More Effectively Against the Competition

Build a solid employment brand. It starts with understanding what makes your organization unique. If your recruiting team doesn’t know, how will they sell candidates on the value of coming to work for the company. Make a concerted effort to find out why employees stay. Hiring managers could make this a “stay interview” question during their one-on-one meetings.
Be a great employer. Don’t hesitate to apply for a local/state/national “best places to work” award. It’s a great way to promote your organization and culture. Also, consider allowing the HR team to present at conferences. Not only is it great professional development for HR but they are sharing the company’s best practices.
Have a competitive compensation and benefits package. I realize a lot goes into the conversation about employee compensation and benefits. But the reality is, as the job market gets more competitive, so do compensation and benefits. Organizations need to ensure their packages are internally fair and externally competitive.
Have a good employee referral program. Employee referrals continue to be the most cost effective source of quality applicant flow. If the company is offering a bonus for recommending candidates, make sure it’s appropriate given your cost per hire. And consider adding alumni and contingent workers – both in terms of being referred and providing referrals. They’re a key piece to today’s recruiting strategy.
Give candidates a realistic job preview. Job seekers are doing their homework before applying with a company. Organizations should develop a career portal where active and passive job seekers can see a typical “day in the life” of an employee. This can be done with video and using employee testimonials. Also, while I know it’s an extra step, consider using more readable/relatable job descriptions (versus legalese ones.)
Make it easy to apply. HR professionals and hiring managers should try to find and apply for a job at their company to understand what applicants go through. Organizations need to distribute their job openings where candidates spend their time – one of those places being social media. And, candidates should be able to easily view and apply for jobs using their mobile devices.
Build a talent community. The days of recruiting only when there’s an open job requisition are over. Competition means recruiting all the time. If you don’t have an opening, find a way to keep job seekers engaged. And if job seekers aren’t ready to apply, find a way to keep them engaged. Create a community where future candidates can learn about the company.
Promote your brand! I know I’ve said that organizations need to build great career websites, distribute job openings on social media, and make sure your site is mobile responsive. That alone isn’t enough. Recruiters need to start taking media requests to talk about the company brand. They need to teach employees how to use social media so they can, in turn, talk about the company brand.
Train hiring managers to interview well. Organizations shouldn’t assume that everyone knows how to interview. Interviewing is harder than it looks. Recruiters should help hiring managers understand the connection between cost per hire, turnover, and the hiring process.
Consider boomerangs. This won’t apply in every situation, but giving former employees a door to return to can be a very successful strategy. Allow an employee to leave, gain new skills, and return with a fresh perspective. Just be sure to address old issues that caused them to leave in the first place.

10 Proven Strategies for Recruiting In a Highly Competitive Job MarketClick To Tweet

Good Employees Want to Work for Good Companies

If you’re a good employer, job seekers will want to work for you. Organizations need to get the word out about their culture, jobs, and benefits. Now isn’t the time to be shy about the benefits of working at your organization. Because you can bet your competition is telling candidates the benefits of working for them.

P.S. One other aspect of recruiting that organizations need to address is bias. High-performing organizations are diverse, so it’s important for organizations to deal with this issue in their recruiting process. If you want to learn more about “How to Manage Bias in a World of Social Recruiting”, sign up for a special webinar on April 19 at 1pm Eastern with Emily Brennan from Alongside and workplace leadership expert Pierre Battah.

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A Bad Idea (When Perfectly Executed) Is Still a Bad Idea

February 28, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

Execution is essential to the success of any idea or project. It’s the most visible part of launching a new program. Do it well and you’re a hero. Do it badly and there will be questions. Frankly, the questions would be well deserved. It makes no sense to spend weeks or months doing an analysis, pitching the idea to senior management, asking for resources, etc. only to fail during the rollout.

I’ve written before on this blog about the importance of execution. There are books dedicated to the topic like Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan’s “Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done”. In fact, I just learned of a software platform called GlitchPath that will help organizations do a project “premortem” to reduce the chance of failure.

But here’s the thing: the idea or process or project that you are implementing has to be a good one. A bad idea, even if you implement it flawlessly, is still a bad idea. And a bad idea implemented poorly, well…that’s a disaster. All the good implementation in the world will not turn a bad idea into a good one.

The goal is always to come up with good ideas and implement them well. But that’s not as easy as it looks. At least if you have a good idea and it’s not implemented well, there might be an opportunity to recover. Take Listerine for example. In the book “Freakonomics”, the authors say that Listerine was originally invented as a surgical antiseptic. It was also sold as a floor cleaner. But it didn’t reach success until it was pitched as a cure for “chronic halitosis.” Listerine was a good idea that wasn’t executed well (a couple of times) but eventually found success.

While I will admit that sometimes you can’t tell if an idea is good or not until it goes to market, there are a few things you can do to get some initial feedback about the idea or plan. It can help the organization decide if they want to make the investment into development. Here are four questions to get you started:

Does it solve a problem? If so, what is the problem?
Is it easy to explain – without charts/graphs/PowerPoint?
How many other companies are offering the same thing?
Will people spend money for it? Enough to support the idea?

Once organizations have decided to start turning an idea into reality, they must spend dedicated time discussing execution. This doesn’t need to be a lengthy process. It does need to be thorough.

WHEN will the process start? Are there milestones that must be accomplished?
WHO will be responsible?
WHERE will implementation take place?
HOW will the idea be implemented?
WHAT should we communicate? To whom? When?

Sometimes thinking about execution can expose vulnerabilities in the project. That’s a good thing. I understand that some organizations today aren’t looking to launch products when they are perfect. They just need to be good enough. But the organization needs to be conscious that this is what they are doing. They are still striving to introduce a good product in the best way possible.

The competitive nature of business tends to create a race to be first to market. Organizations must decide if first is where they want to be. It is possible that perfectly executed second to market is a more desirable position.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby after speaking at the 2016 MBTI Users Conference in San Francisco, CA

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Quick Shots for #HR and #Business Pros – Curation Edition

February 24, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

There’s been a lot of conversation lately about what is being termed “fake news”. While the discussion about fake news has been related to politics, it occurred to me that this could easily happen in the business world. ERE had a blog post about it – “Fake News Afflicts the Workplace Too.”

Sue Meisinger, former CEO of SHRM, also talked about “HR and Fake News” in her latest Human Resource Executive Online column.

NPR had a nice read recently on “Fake or Real? How to Self-Check the News and Get the Facts.” What I liked about this article was that the author wasn’t trying to tell you ‘this source is fake news’ and ‘this source isn’t.’ They just provided a list of steps you could use to figure it out for yourself. Step #1 – Pay attention to the domain and URL.

Candidates and employees use the internet for information. There’s no way around it. Organizations should make sure that employees are able to identify good, trustworthy sources. I call it curation. And I believe it’s a business competency that needs to be developed.

In fact, some organizations are implementing programs to help employees refine their curation skills. A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to hear how Fujitsu Labs was using content curation in organizational learning. Their 3-step approach for learning curation can be used in many organizations.

1) Employees search the topics they wish to explore, identify relevant sources, and select content.

2) After analyzing the content, they synthesize it by adding their point of view or context.

3) Then, employees share their curated materials and comment on others curated materials.

Training Magazine also has a feature story on “The Art of Content Curation.” This article focuses on the connection between subject matter experts (SMEs) and content curation. I believe in today’s business world everyone is an expert at something, so making sure that SMEs are perceived as trustworthy sources of news and information is important to their credibility.

I saw an article that said the world’s internet traffic surpassed one zettabyte last year. I cannot even fathom how big that is…but it’s big. Huge. It goes without saying that there will be some less trustworthy information. And unfortunately, some flat-out made up stuff. We must be responsible internet users and, before we share, make sure what we’re sharing is accurate.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby at the Newseum in Washington, DC

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Using an #HR Career Portfolio to Develop Your Skills

February 16, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 3 Comments

We talk a lot on this blog about the need to develop skills. No matter where you are in your career, it’s important to regularly take inventory of your skills and develop learning action plans. I recently came across a new way of thinking about learning that I thought was worth sharing. It’s the idea of a “portfolio.”

In the book “Developing Proficiency in HR: 7 Self-Directed Activities for HR Professionals”, author Debra Cohen PhD talks about creating a portfolio for HR competency development. The first thing that popped into my mind was an artist’s portfolio. You know, a place where an artist keeps their work. A portfolio tells us what we’ve accomplished and what we’re still working on, so it’s very practical and flexible.

Speaking of flexibility, a career portfolio allows you to make it your own in a couple of ways:

Format: Your career portfolio can be housed wherever you wish – online, paper, or maybe even in a planner or journal.

Content: Depending on your goals, a career portfolio can focus on accomplishments, current learning, or future development.

Self-awareness: A career portfolio would be an appropriate place to keep assessment results, reference letters, or thank-you notes.

It’s important to keep your resume up-to-date. I can see how a career portfolio would be a great tool to help with that. Or if you’re considering a job search, a career portfolio might be a place to compile information for review prior to a job interview. At annual performance review time, a career portfolio might be a good way to highlight what you’ve accomplished during the year.

In her book, Deb identifies a list of documents you can include in your portfolio along with a worksheet so you can keep inventory. I thought this was especially helpful because I can see it being very easy just to chuck everything into the portfolio. After a while, there’s this huge file full of stuff and the value has diminished because it takes too long to find what you’re looking for.

Deb suggests keeping your portfolio manageable. “You don’t need to discard older documentation altogether; you can store it in a portfolio archive. Consider whether you are trying to show an evolution of skills or what’s relevant to your current career level or aspiration; for example, you may decide not to include transcripts late in your career. You may want to show an evolution in some areas and not in others.”

If you don’t already have a career portfolio, this might be something to consider putting together. I’d suggest reading “Developing Proficiency in HR” first to give you some ideas. And let me add, if you’re not in HR, using this book as your guide isn’t far-fetched. HR’s competencies include communication, critical evaluation, and leadership…so we’re talking about skills that translate to many jobs. Every business pro should have a career portfolio.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while enjoying Downton Legacy Tea in South Florida

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Managing Organizational Hierarchies In a World of Networks

February 2, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 2 Comments

During KronosWorks 2016, I had the opportunity to hear keynote speaker Seth Mattison of FutureSight Labs talk about the future of work. One of the things that I found intriguing about his session was his comment that, “You can’t talk about the future without having some perspective on the past.”

I totally agree with his statement. Understanding where you came from and what makes you successful can be a huge asset for your future success. The key is not clinging to the past so tightly that you miss out on what’s coming next, which I will admit is often hard to identify. I’ve said it before, the world is moving so fast – is the “thing” we’re being exposed to a passing fad or a legitimate trend?

One trend Mattison touched on was the value of networks in business. Today’s digital world is full of networks (i.e. social media networks, web communities, etc.) These networks have been created so we can learn from each other, whether that’s via a YouTube video or a TweetChat. Our networks provide us with information – powerful information – because networks embrace openness, trust, and transparency among the members of the network. Networks provide an exponential reach where everyone has a microphone and anyone can have a platform. Power comes from sharing, not hoarding, information.

Networks provide us exponential reach. Power comes from sharing information.Click To Tweet

However, the challenge both individuals and organizations face is that we work in a world built on hierarchies. A perfect example is the organizational chart. Organizational charts are more than simply a diagram you might find in the employee manual. They speak to how the company operates. They’re about policies, procedures, etc. Mattison even pointed out common phrases like, “The higher ups have a meeting in that room.”, “She worked her way up.”, and “We need to communication this information down to the troops.” that accentuate the point.

As organizations adopt more technology, they will have to figure out how to balance those old-school hierarchies we’ve been accustomed to with new world networks. I don’t want to say replace because I can see where both have their advantages. Hierarchies can be helpful in communicating information and establishing authority. Networks can encourage collaboration and team development. Dr. John Kotter wrote an article in Harvard Business Review several years ago, suggesting that organizations need to support two structures (hierarchy and network) under the same roof. He added that it’s the network structure where big ideas and innovation will happen.

Chances are that most, if not all, organizations have the hierarchy structure in place. It’s the network structure that will need some planning and discussion. And it’s important to note: network doesn’t mean anarchy. Network structures involve leveling the playing field where job titles don’t matter.

Some organizations might tend to think that the fastest way to build a network structure is with technology. But Mattison says the first and the most important component is MINDSET. He defines that as employees being courageous and making the intentional choice to decide how they’ll show up.

I don’t want to minimize the mindset point. This can be difficult. Individuals have worked hard for their titles. This isn’t about ignoring what went into the title. It’s about understanding the audience and learning how to process change so you can adapt to both the hierarchy and network structures as necessary.

Organizations that want employees to be skilled in multiple structures will benefit by investing in training and giving employees the ability to practice in a safe environment. Self-management will give employees the tools to help the organization accelerate their growth.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby at the 2016 HR Technology Conference in Chicago, IL

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The 3 Key Metrics in HR Predictive Analytics

January 31, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 7 Comments

For the past few years, every HR related trends post included predictive analytics. So, what exactly are predictive analytics? I like to think of it this way: HR metrics tell you what happened in the past. For example, time to fill. Or they’re focused on cost-containment, such as cost per hire. Both of these metrics are valuable, but it’s not all the information we might need to make business decisions.

Predictive analytics offer insights into the future. It’s focused on probabilities and impact, so it provides flexibility to the organization’s needs. I know, that sounds like a tall order. I decided that I wanted to learn more about predictive analytics so I picked up a copy of the book “Predictive Analytics for Human Resources” by Jac Fitz-enz and John Mattox. (Fitz-enz’s book “How to Measure Human Resource Management” is my go-to book for HR metrics.)

Why should HR pay attention to predictive analytics?

There are times when today’s business environment is moving so quickly that we cannot always be focused on what’s happened in the past. We have to give equal time (and some might argue more time) to what we think is going to happen in the future and plan accordingly.

That’s where predictive analytics comes in because it’s what you do with the information you gather. Predictive analytics measures the three things business people talk about the most: efficiency, effectiveness, and outcomes.

Efficiency measurements include some we already calculate such as average number of days to fill a requisition and cost per hire.
Effectiveness measurements might contain new hire performance ratings, engagement survey results, and exit interview data.
Outcomes measure profitability, productivity, and retention.

Predictive analytics is about the connection between these three types of measurement. Here are a few examples:

Number of open hires (efficiency) – Quality of hire (effectiveness) – Length of employment (outcome)

Average cost per hire (efficiency) – Cultural fit (effectiveness) – Contribution to product quality (outcome)

Amount of training attended (efficiency) – Hi/lo potential status (effectiveness) – Increased profit margin (outcome)

HR metrics aren’t going away. Neither are predictive analytics.

A few months ago, I wrote a post about the need for HR pros to focus on their analytical abilities. If you’re looking for a way to increase your skills, wrapping your arms around predictive analytics might be a good place to start.

An increasing number of HR departments are designing analytical roles. If you’re looking for a job in human resources, knowing something about predictive analytics will be important.

HR wants to be on the front-end of this trend. Because it’s not going away anytime soon. If ever.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby near the Wynwood District in Miami, FL

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Definitions Bring Consistent Answers – Friday Distraction

January 27, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 2 Comments

When I was younger, I would ask my mother questions and if she didn’t give me the answers I was looking for, I’d go ask my father. I’m sure that I’m not alone in using that tactic.

When I started in human resources, I discovered that employees sometimes do the same thing. They ask one supervisor and if they didn’t get the answers they were looking for, they’d ask another supervisor. As you can imagine, it created challenges. One supervisor would say “yes” and the other would say “no.” At some point, the supervisors and the employee would end up in HR trying to resolve the matter.

I was reminded of those different responses when I saw this Time Well Spent from our friends at Kronos. When we ask for information, it’s possible the answers can be different depending upon who we’re talking to. And that’s not what we want. Especially when it comes to data.

But there are ways to ensure that people get the right information:

Define the request. In the cartoon, the request is for productivity data. Well, how is productivity defined in the organization? That will help the person requesting the data make the proper request. Even if they don’t know how the data is extrapolated, they know what they’re trying to accomplish.

Understand the use. Requests for data and information should not be a one-way conversation. Regardless of how the request is made, the person supplying the information should understand how the data is being used, so they provide the proper info.

Don’t make assumptions. Once the data is received, check it for accuracy. Make sure the requestor knows how to read and use the information. Often the process of getting the data is the easy part. It’s making sense of the data that’s the hard part.

When we ask the right questions, we get the right data and information to make good decisions.

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