Onboarding Executives

May08
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Onboarding Executives

“About 40% of executives who change jobs or get promoted, fail in the first 18 months.”

The ‘Leadership 101’ is a series of leadership training articles. We started this knowledge base with the goal of bringing different leadership perspectives from all corners of the web into one easily digestible format. In this series we will be looking at HR industry best practices and trends; in an attempt to keep you informed, while adding to your leadership arsenal. In an attempt to keep this forum open we would like to invite you to provide feedback here or through our@Hire4Impact feed on Twitter

“About 40% of executives who change jobs or get promoted, fail in the first 18 months.” A staggering statistic from the article ‘New Job? Get a headstart now’ (Anne Fisher, 2012). Before we carry on, here’s a quick recap:

In our last installment we talked about onboarding; specifically, the 4 essential tactics that will help your onboarding process (The Onboarding Battle). To put it simply: be prepared on the first day (and before); set expectations early; provide a guide; and focus on relationships. Before we continue, let’s take a quick look at some of the benefits associated with a rock-solid onboarding plan:

  • New hires feel welcome and are prepared to help the company complete its mission;
  • New hires are valued and feel confident carrying out their tasks;
  • Reduced costs associated with turnover;
  • Training lead times are reduced;
  • Increased morale; and most importantly
  • Strengthens the culture of the organization as a whole.

Now you’ve probably heard us mention that the cost of a mis-hire is approximately 3 times their salary. Well here’s another statistic for you to wrap your head around: according to a 2008 IDC report, “US and UK employees cost businesses $37 billion every year because they do not fully understand their jobs.”

This report is a little older and is based off of companies with 100,000 employees, but it does lend some perspective. These issues could be caused by a number of problems:

  • New hires have misunderstood/misinterpreted the task at hand;
  • New hires were not informed on company rules/policies and business processes; or
  • There is a ‘one-size-fits-all’ mentality to the onboarding plan.

In any case, it is rarely just one thing that causes the problem. Moreover, there are still some companies out there that don’t even have an onboarding plan in place.

This week we will be looking at onboarding at the executive level. Think back to that little nugget at the beginning of this article. The article goes on to note that this failure rate stood for at least 15 years. What can we do as an HR community to rectify this situation? If you’re one of those companies using a one-size-fits-all approach, then this article is for you! The problem with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is that most onboarding plans are designed for employees and focus on standard topics such as organization policies, HR procedures, and the all-important “here’s the cafeteria.”

When companies fill an executive position, one of two things occurs. Either they hire a candidate from outside the organization, or they promote someone internally. Any way you ‘slice’ it, this individual has to learn all the different ways in which their role is affected – unwritten policies and informal networks that influence how thing really get done. Suppose the new executive was promoted, and for that very reason lacks the necessary leadership experience required to succed – what then?

Whatever the scenario, there needs to be a specialized onboarding strategy in place to bridge the gap for these executives. According to Maggie Moore (Spotlight on Executive Onboarding), “On average, it takes new executives a minimum of six months to become fully productive in their new role.” That’s twice the time required to onboard general employees.

To that end, here are 5 tips to consider for implementing a successful Executive Onboarding plan:

  1. Program objectives should be relevant to your organization
    This is a no-brainer. For your executive onboarding plan to be a success, it has to be tailored to the executives in your organization. A copy-and-paste job will only hurt you in the long run. At the very least, it should help new executives understand the organization’s business goals, culture, clarify performance expectations, and shorten the learning curve associated with the new position.
  2. Solicit buy-in from senior leadership
    As with any operation or process within the organization, it is extremely important to have program support from senior leadership. Failure to do so will only create more roadblocks and ultimately result in the failure of your new executive (cue the blame game).
  3. Provide a blended learning approach
    Make it as easy as possible for the new executive with the right tools and information they need (website/intranet, coaching, mentoring). Make sure (if and whenever possible) that these materials are available in more than one format and easily digestible. More importantly, these materials need to be available at all time during the onboarding process.
  4. Establish accountability
    Assign an executive-level peer or mentor that will ensure the onboarding process is carried out through to completion. The peer/mentor should also be actively providing feedback and answering any questions the candidate may have.
  5. Monitor and Evaluate
    No process is complete without a clear set of metrics – as part of the executive onboarding plan, key success metrics should be recorded and used to evaluate the success of the program.

Taking these initial steps will ensure your organization’s executive onboarding plan is a success. Not only will you have strong leadership within your organization, but leadership retention will also improve.

If you’d like to learn more about creating an onboarding plan, join us for a complementary Lunch & Learn on May 15, 2013 at the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center. Topic of discussion: Create a Rock-solid Onboarding Plan.

Related Articles
The Onboarding Battle
New Job? Get a head start now

VisionSpark is the Talent Planning and Retained Executive Search Firm of Alec Broadfoot and Adam McCampbell. For more news and updates, follow the conversation at @Hire4Impact or like us on Facebook.

Attracting and Hiring Superstars to your Organization

Apr03
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Attracting Superstars

Attracting superstars to your organization

The ‘Leadership 101’ is a series of leadership training articles. We started this knowledge base with the goal of bringing different leadership perspectives from all corners of the web into one easily digestible format. In this series we will be looking at HR industry best practices and trends; in an attempt to keep you informed, while adding to your leadership arsenal. In an attempt to keep this forum open we would like to invite you to provide feedback here or through our@Hire4Impact feed on Twitter

In one of our earlier posts in September 2012, we wrote an article on the ‘7 deadly sins of hiring’. If you missed that one, we talked about a few issues plaguing the HR and Recruiting industry in terms of hiring. The question still stands today: How do you attract superstars to your organization? If the solution was simple, then we probably wouldn’t still be talking about it.

While reading a column in the latest issue of Entrepreneur (Ask a Pro); the answer was laid in manner that may be an oversimplification: Don’t hire the wrong people. Pretty simple, right? So how do you know your attracting superstars to your organization? Gregg S. Lipman (Managing Partner at Cbx, a New York branding agency) has a simple motto when it comes to hiring: “Prima donnas need not apply.” Just like anyone who has made a hiring decision, he has had his fair share of “disrupters and agitators” – people whose personalities and work habits clash with the existing workforce. He found that bringing these people in ended up bringing a new kind of energy into the company. The problem, was that it was the wrong energy. The end result: you and your management team end up fixing problems and putting our fires instead of focusing on business practices.

To remedy this issue, Lipman talks about using culture as guidepost – bring on people that mesh well with your existing culture. New skills can be taught, but it’s a little more difficult to teach new behaviors. We are seeing more and more companies move away from job descriptions and using position profiles. So why are we still using qualifying candidates solely on their resumes? It’s time to move away from the cliché process of validating a candidate’s resume and go deeper into the reasons they want to work for you. It’s easy for candidates to give the “right responses” to questions based off of their resumes. Instead, Lipman suggests throwing in the occasional curveball: why are you here? Why do you do what you do? These questions engage the candidate and allow you to unearth their passions and motivations through open dialogue. As the candidate begins to open up, you as the interviewer can start to see whether or not the candidate is looking to contribute to your organization – or if they are just looking for a job. This process will also help you avoid that all-too-common error of hiring based on gut feelings : Deadly Sin #6.

Hiring better starts with attracting better candidates.

In the past we have talked about implementing Employer Branding and Employee Value Propositions as part of your hiring strategy. These superstars/potential candidates won’t find you if your company and its culture are the nation’s best secret. There’s no point in spending the time and resources if nobody knows about you. According to Chris McIntyre (author of Roadmap to Freedom), you have to make the superstars look for you.

Re-examine your talent pipeline and communication strategy. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do superstars seek us out? Why? Why not?
  • Why would they want to work for us over the competition?
  • What measures do we have in place to manage our reputation (employer brand)?
  • Are we actively trying to be the best employer?

Taking an inside look could help you highlight/identify new areas for you to be proud of, or at the very least, new competitive opportunities.

Use and extend the power of your network. The new buzz word today in HR is social recruiting. Tap into your network to find your superstars. Don’t forget to use your existing talent to refer you to other superstars in their networks. Even if you’re not hiring, it doesn’t hurt to build a talent reservoir. Keep open communication with your network to identify prospective superstars (current employees, key suppliers and vendors).

Don’t overlook the ‘unlikely’ candidates. We’ve all heard that the economy is slowly improving, and  Gen Y/Millennials joining the workforce – don’t forget about the experienced candidates who were laid off at the beginning of this recession. This is your opportunity to pick up premier, experienced talent at a low acquisition cost.

Just remember to use the right hiring process.

Related resources:

 

VisionSpark is the Talent Planning and Retained Executive Search Firm of Alec Broadfoot and Adam McCampbell. For more news and updates, follow the conversation at @Hire4Impact or like us on Facebook.

Employer Branding Impacts the Bottom Line

Feb19
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Employer Branding Impacts the Bottom Line

Employer Branding Impacts the Bottom Line

The ‘Leadership 101’ is a series of leadership training articles. We started this knowledge base with the goal of bringing different leadership perspectives from all corners of the web into one easily digestible format. In this series we will be looking at HR industry best practices and trends; in an attempt to keep you informed, while adding to your leadership arsenal. In an attempt to keep this forum open we would like to invite you to provide feedback here or through our@Hire4Impact feed on Twitter

Investing in your employer brand can help your organization attract the best talent; which in turn increases productivity and profitability. This notion is becoming increasingly important today as we continue to battle the global talent shortage. Employer Brand International’s (EBI) 2012/2013 Global Research study found that 39% of companies plan to increase their investment in employer branding in 2013. As encouraging as that may sound, how do organizations know they are getting the most out of their investment? Focusing on the wrong areas will just result in wasted resources or worse, a damaged brand – which in most cases is difficult to repair. Furthermore if you don’t know what to measure, it’s next to impossible to determine what’s working and what isn’t. Data from EBI’s 2011 study found that:

  • 38% of companies use ‘employee retention rate’ to measure ROI of employer branding
  • 33% of companies use ‘employee engagement levels’ to measure ROI of employer branding
  • 29% of companies use ‘quality of hire’ to measure ROI of employer branding
  • 27% of companies use ‘cost per hire’ to measure ROI of employer branding
  • 26% of companies use ‘number of applicants’ to measure ROI of employer branding.

While these are all valid metrics to use, the decision on which ones to use should be dependent upon the situation. For example if you’re hiring/staffing for seasonal positions, it would make sense to measure the number of applicants rather than retention. Obviously this is an oversimplification; the underlying point is that there is no universal metric to measure the ROI of employer branding.


Employee Value Proposition: Building Your Employer Brand

Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Zappos didn’t just become talent magnets by accident. Building your employer brand doesn’t happen overnight – it takes time and resources. Conducting interviews and discussion groups with both current and future employees are just a couple of ways you can find out why candidates want to join the company, what makes them stay, and why they would leave (as we know, it’s not always about money). Identifying and understanding these elements will help build the foundation of your Employee Value Proposition (EVP). An EVP is the experience offered by a company in exchange for productivity and performance of an employee.

A well-crafted EVP will help your company attract, retain, engage and motivate employees to drive business goals. When developing your EVP, consider the following (all of which should be communicated to prospective candidates):

  • How the company is viewed by the world
  • The company’s mission, vision, and values
  • The rewards and recognition system
  • Company culture

Implementing your Employer Branding Strategy

For your employer branding strategy to be successful employer branding leaders should:

  1. Clearly define employer branding objectives
    Obviously attracting and retaining the best talent should be the goal of employer branding. More importantly, a successful employer branding strategy has implications on your organization’s productivity and profitability. Whatever your goals, they should be articulated because they determine where the resources are allocated.
  2. Understand key drivers
    Understanding what attracts and retains talent for your organization is just as important as stating the objectives. If research shows that your onboarding process is responsible for retaining the talent, then that should be where your attention is focused.  
  3. Measurement
    Data doesn’t collect itself. As you progress through the employer branding strategy, you should have a team dedicated to collecting data and measuring the outcomes of your efforts. The data should also be readily available throughout the organization – this will help ensure that you have continued support and buy-in from top-level executives. 
  4. Evaluate
    As your business grows, it’s very likely certain objectives will be outgrown. This should be no different for your branding efforts – the branding strategy should evolve with your organization.  
  5. Benchmark
    Keeping an eye on your competition will help you unearth potential opportunities. Just be sure that your efforts are aligned with your strategy.
  6. Listen to feedback from the employees
    After all, they’re there because of employer branding efforts.
     

VisionSpark is the Talent Planning and Retained Executive Search Firm of Alec Broadfoot and Adam McCampbell. For more news and updates, follow the conversation at @Hire4Impact or like us on Facebook.

Talent Acquisition: Building a Workforce Plan

Feb05
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Workforce planning

Developing a strategic workforce plan

The ‘Leadership 101’ is a series of leadership training articles. We started this knowledge base with the goal of bringing different leadership perspectives from all corners of the web into one easily digestible format. In this series we will be looking at HR industry best practices and trends; in an attempt to keep you informed, while adding to your leadership arsenal. In an attempt to keep this forum open we would like to invite you to provide feedback here or through our@Hire4Impact feed on Twitter

In our last post we talked about talent acquisition; specifically, finding the right people for your organization. We discussed how the talent gap is being caused by the lack of ‘qualified’ candidates. In today’s climate companies are not willing or able to pay the salaries demanded by top-tier talent, nor are they willing to take the time and money to identify and develop high-potential candidates. We also introduced the notion of hiring for attitude and training for skills.

In this article we will continue down this path and talk about workforce planning and how this can help your organization reduce the talent gap. Before we do that let’s look at a few trends that are continuing to grow and are making business operations difficult (retrieved from PwC’s 15th Annual Global survey, 2012):

  • The introduction of the business services model due cloud computing
  • Increased mobile technology
  • The continued explosion of social media
  • Increased globalization of the company workforces

So how does this affect talent management and recruiting efforts? Well, for starters, for an organization to deliver its products and services it needs people. Now if these people do not possess the required skills to work within the new business models, the result is a shortage of talent. Without adequate human capital, organizations cannot survive. The organizations that have a firm grasp on these trends and their respective industries are already planning their workforce needs for the future. In an attempt to retain talented workers, organizations are providing employee training programs (re-skilling, cross-training, and pivotal talent cultivation). The problem here is that these are short-term solutions and only focus on the talent that is available within the organization. What these organizations need is a workforce plan that looks into the future. Your organization’s workforce plan should focus on having the right people, in the right seats, at the right time.

Step 1 – Carefully Identify and Define Your Business Strategy and Talent Demand Drivers

As your organization continues to grow, what areas will have the greatest demand for talent? If the organization is planning on implementing new strategies, will the current talent be able to handle the changes or will they need to be trained? Furthermore will it be cost-effective to train them internally or are you better of outsourcing the talent? Answering these question will not only help clarify organizational goals, but will also help your organization gain a competitive advantage.

Step 2 – Model Future Needs for Talents and Skills

When identifying future talent needs, your strategy should focus on the following:

  • Demand – the required skills and people required to reach your goals
  • Supply – available talent both internally and externally
  • Employee behavior – knowing what skills your current talent possesses and how they approach training. Assessment tests can help you identify productivity levels, top performers, and engagement levels. All of which are necessary components when reaching your goals.
  • Finances – how much will it cost to maintain the appropriate labor pool now and in the future? This kind of analysis will aid in realizing the true cost of your talent and help you identify your ROI on human capital.

Step 3 – Analyze the Talent Supply

Taking a close look at historical data can help identify trends in your supply chain. For example, how many people come into a given role year after year? Are they promoted from within? Are they external hires? How are they leaving that position? What percentage of your talent pool is close to retirement? All of these questions will help you plan for the future – especially if your needs tend to be seasonal.

Step 4 – Develop an Action Plan to Remediate Talent Gaps

Once you’ve identified and understand your talent supply, it will be easier for you to decide which strategy you need to implement. Your plan will typically fall into one of three categories: acquisition, retention, or training.

Step 5 – Implement the Plan and Monitor Its Impact

This will probably be the most difficult part of the entire process. To make sure the plan is a success:

  • Integrate your talent plan into the company vision
  • Have a change management process in place to make sure you have buy-in from all stakeholders (both employees and management)
  • As with any plan, there needs to be some kind of measurement to make sure it’s actually working; so have a clear set of metrics in place.
  • Above all else, it is imperative that you have roles and responsibilities assigned for implementing your workforce plan.

If you would like to learn more about effective hiring practices, engaging your workforce, or terminating problematic employees – join us at our next Hire4Impact event on Friday, February 15, 2013.

VisionSpark is the Talent Planning and Retained Executive Search Firm of Alec Broadfoot and Adam McCampbell. For more news and updates, follow the conversation at @Hire4Impact or like us on Facebook.

Talent Acquisition: Finding the Right Talent for your Organization

Jan22
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Finding the right talent for your organization

Finding the right talent for your organization

The ‘Leadership 101’ is a series of leadership training articles. We started this knowledge base with the goal of bringing different leadership perspectives from all corners of the web into one easily digestible format. In this series we will be looking at HR industry best practices and trends; in an attempt to keep you informed, while adding to your leadership arsenal. In an attempt to keep this forum open we would like to invite you to provide feedback here or through our@Hire4Impact feed on Twitter

So we’ve all heard about the looming talent shortage. Perhaps people are being confused by the term ‘talent shortage’. It almost sounds like there are no more candidates out there… which, if you take it from us, is not entirely true. The talent shortage is not due to a lack of candidates. It is the lack of ‘qualified’ candidates with the required experience that is causing the shortage. This is especially true in high-skilled, technical positions. In today’s difficult climate, one of two things is happening:

  1. Companies are not willing to pay the salaries demanded by the top-tier talent (especially at the corporate level); or
  2. Not willing to take the time and money to identify and develop high-potential candidates.

Perhaps organizations should consider a strategy where they hire for attitude and then train for skills. This training should not be a costly endeavor because most of (if not all) the resources are already available internally. Furthermore, this notion compels companies to continue training their talent – a necessity in today’s work environment. In many cases filling a full-time position isn’t always possible. If this is the case, contingent workforces are a viable option because they are cost-effective and flexible. The decision to combine external and internal talent sources needs to meet current and future needs, so it is up to your talent acquisition leaders to carefully examine the talent pipeline.

Herein lays the question… How do you hire for attitude when (according to Mark Murphy, author of Hiring for Attitude) 89% of new hires fail for attitude and for skills?

In order to find the right candidates, companies need to ask more of the right questions. For example – “What are those unique attitudinal characteristics that set our company apart from everybody else?” or “Who succeeds and fails in our culture?”
All of this information can be easily retrieved using internal assessment tools. Knowing the answers to these questions will help organization better understand their own culture and attitude.  Once you have identified your organization’s culture, it will be easier to recognize those candidates that exhibit those traits. It’s also important for hiring managers to move away from the traditional and ever-so-cliché “Tell us about yourself” or “What are your strength and weaknesses?” questions. These questions don’t unearth any new information about the candidate that you haven’t read on their resume. If anything, these questions may cause you to hire the wrong candidate because they ‘wowed’ you for a brief moment. Your hiring practices should always focus on the bottom-line impact or what we at VisionSpark call: Hire4Impact.

If you would like to learn more about effective hiring practices, engaging your workforce, or terminating problematic employees – join us at our next Hire4Impact event on Friday, February 15, 2013.

VisionSpark is the Talent Planning and Retained Executive Search Firm of Alec Broadfoot and Adam McCampbell. For more news and updates, follow the conversation at @Hire4Impact or like us on Facebook.

Conversations on Hiring with Real Business Owners

Dec04
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Conversations on Hiring with Real Business Owners

Hiring is all about practicing the fundamentals

The ‘Leadership 101’ is a series of leadership training articles. We started this knowledge base with the goal of bringing different leadership perspectives from all corners of the web into one easily digestible format. In this series we will be looking at HR industry best practices and trends; in an attempt to keep you informed, while adding to your leadership arsenal. In an attempt to keep this forum open we would like to invite you to provide feedback here or through our@Hire4Impact feed on Twitter

Over the past couple of months we have been looking at ways to increase employee engagement throughout your organizations. While we can all agree that this is an important role for any leader; we have to remember that at the end of the day, it’s still about making sure that you and your business continue to carry out what you set out to do.

In this week’s issue we will be looking at two interviews that were contributed by Brent Long, a speaker at our last Hire4Impact Event.

“Thought maybe it was time to post another article related to “hiring” that was really a picture of practicing fundamentals. The following are actual, real life conversations. See if you can guess which business owner was becoming…”
Brent Long, Long on Life

Conversation with Business Owner A:

“What is the most important thing you can do to give your company the best opportunity for growth?’
“Oh, that is easy… I must consistently recruit top talent, and constantly interview people.”

“What does that look like for you?”
“Each month I interview 3-4 candidates for various positions in my company. Sales… Operations… Admin… it doesn’t matter as long as I keep at it.”

“How does this help?”
“Oh that is easy too… Should anything happen and we would need people for whatever reason, I’m already ahead of the game. I know exactly where the talent is for most positions in my company.”

“How does this impact your current employees and turnover issues?”
“What turnover issues? We haven’t had any turnover for over three years. We have been able to add 2-3 people, but we have zero turnover!”

“How is that possible?”
“Well, everyone here knows I consistently recruit top talent, and constantly interview people.”

Conversation with Business Owner B:

“What is the most important thing you can do to give your company the best opportunity for growth?’
“Finding the right people… getting the right people on the bus.”

“What does that look like for you?”
“Man it is hard. I just don’t have enough time to find the good ones”

“Really? How much of your time over the last month did you invest in this pursuit?”
“Things have just been crazy and finding the time to put effort into this just hasn’t happened.”

“Any employee issues and turnover problems?”
“Oh my stars, yes! These people… they are killing me… morale is horrible and turnover is ridiculous. It seems like all I keep doing is hiring the same people over and over again. That’s all I do. One leaves, and then I have to scramble to get someone else in that position. It’s killing us! Don’t they get it? How can I grow this business when I have to deal with their junk all the time?”

Sometimes we actually have to schedule becoming… and sometimes it gets scheduled for us. Either way, I trust these real life conversations help you practice fundamentals with a new sense of purpose and intentionality.

VisionSpark is the Talent Planning and Retained Executive Search Firm of Alec Broadfoot and Adam McCampbell. For more news and updates, follow the conversation at @Hire4Impact or like us on Facebook.

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