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.

Managing Millennials in the Workplace

Mar19
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Managing Millennials in the WorkplaceThe ‘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 few months we’ve talked (at great length) about a variety of issues ranging from employee engagement to employee retention, and motivation. One of the main objectives of our blog posts is to help you, our community, become better, more engaged leaders. One of our earlier posts focused on communicating with a multi-generational workforce. More recently, we changed our tone ever so slightly when we posted an article from our very own Meg Jenkins: A Letter from an Engaged Millennial. In this article, Meg talked about the challenges she faced right out of college. If you missed this article, please take some time to read through it as it sets the foundation for this article.

So who are these Millennials?

Millennials, sometimes referred to as Gen Y, are those who were born between 1980 and 2000 (though this distinction will vary slightly depending on your source). Currently, Millennials are the fastest growing demographic in today’s workforce. According to Dan Schawbel, 75% of the global workforce will be made up of Millennials by 2025. Approximately 80 million alone are in the United States – 4 million more than the Baby Boomer generation.

Common Millennial characteristics and traits

Raised on a steady diet of gadgets and gizmos, Millennials are a very tech-savvy demographic (especially with mobile technology). Despite being independent by nature, they work better in teams with little supervision. Millennials have this uncanny, enthusiastic approach to work and eagerly confront the challenges of the workplace. In short, Millennials tend to be very resourceful and innovative. They relish in the opportunity to contribute to an organization’s overall strategy. They seek leadership and structure from their older counterparts (while they feel the need to be heard and respected). Above all else, Millennials need to see where their careers are going, but more importantly what is required to get there.

With 70% of Millennials saying they would switch jobs given the opportunity, how do you keep the winners from leaving your organization? Before we can answer that question, it is important for us to address some key myths that surround this generation.

  1. Millennials don’t want to work hard to get ahead.
    This is simply not the case; Millennials are focused on deliverables. You simply need to understand what drives them in an attempt to get the best out of them.
  2. Millennials can’t lead.
    Yet another fallacy. According to Amy K. Hutchens, there are 7 critical skills leaders will need to be successful in the future: leading people, strategic planning, managing change, inspiring commitment, resourcefulness, doing whatever it takes (digitally), and being a quick learner(digitally). Baby Boomers and Generation X-ers tend to be quite competent with the first 3, while Millennials are experts in the last 3.
  3. Millennials have no respect for authority.
    This just isn’t the case. In reality, much like anyone else, their respect has to be earned. Once it’s earned, it is given without reproach. At this point they believe in you, your organization, and will do whatever it takes to help you succeed.

How do you manage Millennials for greater impact?

If you want to attract, engage, motivate and retain Millennials, here are 5 tips to get you started:

  • Provide constant feedback
    Instead of waiting for annual or semi-annual reviews (which sometimes never happen), Millennials want constant feedback from their managers and supervisors. Moreover, holding regular meetings and communicating regularly will give them the opportunity to voice their concerns. The end result: a hardworking, committed individual that is loyal to the organization.
  • Establish a reverse mentoring relationship
    While managers and supervisors have years of experience that has been earned over time, Millennials were born in a digital age. Developing a reverse mentoring program can help build relationships (learning from each other), which in turn, will increase productivity.
  • Develop a work-life balance
    Millennials tend to keep office hours that are outside of the normal 9-to-5. Furthermore, friends and family are also a huge part of their lives; so it’s no surprise that they are eager to share this. Managers/supervisors need to pay attention to this and support their talent if they want to see them strive.
  • Challenge them at work
    Allow your Millennials to work on multiple projects (if they can handle it). This is not to be confused with setting barriers or micro-managing their tasks. Allowing them to get bored will result in disengagement and ultimately increased turnover.
  • Place emphasis on teamwork and collaboration
    Millenials enjoy collaboration. Putting them in teams will allow them to make friends while utilizing their strengths (in addition to learning new skills).

Remember, failing to adhere to these simple principles, will only hurt you in the long-term. This is a growing demographic and will only continue to do so over the next few years. Are you ready to embrace them?

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.

Employee Value Proposition: Getting it Right

Mar11
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Employee Value Proposition

Employee Value Proposition: Getting it Right

In our last article we talked about Employer Branding and how it affects your bottom line. In that same post we briefly touched on one important aspect: the Employee Value Proposition (EVP). The EVP, as we described, are the characteristics and appeals that your organization offers current employees and future candidates. A well-crafted EVP will help your organization attract, retain, engage, and motivate your talent to drive business goals (if you happened to miss this article, take a second read Employer Branding Impacts the Bottom Line). Furthermore, much like any other type of brand message, the EVP will help differentiate your organization from other organizations competing for the same talent. Unfortunately while developing an EVP most organizations sometimes find it difficult to differentiate themselves from the competition and/or there is a disconnect between the perceived message and the reality (resulting in perpetual disengagement).

Apart from the aforementioned benefits (attracting, retaining, and engaging talent), an effective Employee Value Proposition will:

  • Help your organization build a robust talent agenda. Knowing what is important to current and future talent will help identify gaps within your existing talent pipeline (knowing what areas need improvement, and what factors are contributing to employee turnover).
  • Strengthen your Employer Brand – being known for the way you treat your people adds credibility to your EVP.
  • Reduce the cost of new hires – candidates who want to join your team could potentially demand smaller compensation packages when accepting offers.

So how do you go about creating an effective Employee Value Proposition?

Start with the data you already have from internal employee satisfaction surveys. This will tell you what your employees find attractive and why they continue to show up day after day. If you don’t already have this data, now would be a good time to start collecting. Some questions to help you get started on your EVP include: Who are we as an organization? What do we do? Why does it matter? What are the talent needs to succeed and where do we need them? Who are they and what matters most to them? With whom are we competing for talent? The more information you gather, the easier it will be to define what benefits to offer, and in turn, what to expect from employees moving forward. A word of caution – make sure you cover your bases, especially in larger/global organization. You have more than one kind of employee within your organization, so make certain that your EVP is representative of that fact. As with any business or organizational endeavor, always test your EVP to make sure you’re hitting your mark. Test it with current employees, and test it with future candidates. That will help you attract the best talent possible, while retaining the stars within your organization.

With as many ways of getting your EVP right, there are just as many ways (if not more) to get it wrong. So in closing, here are some key practices for getting your EVP right – courtesy of Towers Watson:

  • Develop a formal EVP.
  • Effectively communicate the EVP to employees.
  • Align the EVP with organizational principles and goals.
  • Deliver on EVP promises.
  • Differentiate the organization from competitors.
  • Design customized EVPs for all critical employee segments.
  • Employ key metrics to test the effectiveness of rewards programs.

 

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.

Communicating and Relating to a Multi-Generation, Diverse Workforce

Oct11
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Multiple Generations in the workforce
Multiple Generations in the workforce

Have you ever quit a job? Why? Was it for more money? Better career opportunity? If you said it was because of a bad boss, you would not be alone. According to a Gallop Survey of one million US workers, the number one reason people quit a job
is due to a bad boss or supervisor.  In a book based on this research, First Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham, he states “Talented, engaged employees must have great managers, how productive they are and how long they stay is directly determined by their relationship with their manager.”

While that research is a decade old it is more important today than ever before. Over the past five to seven years Generation Y has entered the workforce bringing the total number of generations in the office to four.  Nearly 60 percent of HR managers at large companies have observed office conflicts from generational differences, according to the Society of Human Resource Management.

Who are the generations? They are Traditionalists (1900-1945), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1979), and Generation Y (1980-2000). Each generation views work differently. Let’s take a peek at what makes each generation tick. When talking about the generations, one must look at the events that shaped their character and their personalities.

For the most part the Traditionalists have retired and left the workforce, but many of them created companies and their values and ways of doing things are still in place. The Traditionalists were heavily impacted by the World Wars. The leadership style of this generation was formed by the military. They are very comfortable in a top down management structure. They communicate on a “need to know” basis, and all information must go through the appropriate channels. The Great Depression fresh in their mind, created a cautious generation with an aptitude for saving their earnings and protecting their wealth. Their ultimate aim was to join a company and stay with the same company until they retired. This is not unusual, given their deep devotion and trust to institutions; church, government, marriage etc.

Baby Boomers are the dominant force of the C level today. The time period they grew up in was a bit different than their Traditionalist parents. They challenged the status quo with Woodstock and the Civil Rights movement, which made them optimistic and willing to speak out. Their trust in institutions weakened with events at Watergate and Vietnam. Yet the Boomers main influencer was their sheer size; on most accounts there are 80 million of them. This made this generation very competitive. They had to claw and fight for everything, spots on the sports team in school, scholarships to college and the corner office. They are proud of their experiences and hard work. They are more loyal to a career than a company, but for the most part staying with one company was good for their career. Not wanting to give a leg up to any peer or junior associate eyeing their job they saw information as power and did not always share information openly. While many Boomers are hitting retirement age, most have no intentions of retiring due to their hard work and perseverance in getting to the top (not to mention lousy 401ks).

While Traditionalists and Baby Boomers have significant differences, they are similar in their willingness to stick it out with one company due to their loyalty for that company or career. That changes with the next two generations. Generation X was raised during constant change of the 80’s and 90’s. They saw the advent of the personal computer, 24/7 cable television, and the ever shrinking world. They witnessed mass lay-offs of their parents. This impacted them greatly, since many of their parents sacrificed everything for that company or career. In many cases even families were sacrificed, the divorce rate tripled during the formative years of this generation. This created the “latch-key” kids, who often were left alone in after school programs or at home; creating a fiercely independent group of people. This generation got dubbed “slackers” because they did not have the same work ethic. They did not want to work seventy hours a week like the Boomers. The realities were they didn’t want to spend that much time away from their families as their parents did often. Many became entrepreneurs in order to have more flexibility in their schedules and first coined the phrase “work life balance”. Gen-X saw so much change growing up that when it comes to communicating they want it straight, no BS. How does this impact me? What do I need to do?  Gen-X values the profession above their company or career. If another job offers a better opportunity to sharpen their skills they will take it. They were the first to start “job-hopping”, but not the last.

The traits of Gen-X are shared with Generation Y but often in more exaggerated ways. This generation was marked by tragedy, not in far off countries like their parents and grandparents, but at home.  Events of 9/11, Columbine and Oklahoma City bombing rocked this generation. They are drawn to friends and family because they understand life is fleeting. Another major shaper of this generation was the self-esteem movement. As children this generation was told by teachers and parents they were special and they must express themselves. They were brought into major family decisions and their opinion counted. Parents operated much like consultants giving them feedback on how to make the grade or shoot the basketball. Many of these parents have had a hard time letting go and have followed their children to college and even the office, getting the nickname “helicopter parents”.  Gen-Y is comfortable giving their opinion to supervisors, even the CEO. They want to see how their work counts; they hate the phrase “entry level”.  They are constantly connected to technology due to the fact they were the first generation to have computers from kindergarten. Their comfort with technology gives them a piece of leverage that “entry-level” workers never possessed in previous generations. Many Gen-Y members double as IT people in small companies and are often mentoring other generations. It’s been said this generation is the most talented and high maintenance group than any other previous generation.  They desire as much information as possible. They desire constant feedback from supervisors telling them how to get better, so than can advance.  They value a very relational atmosphere with co-workers and supervisors. They are extremely collaborative and do their best work with other peers and minimal supervisor input. If they do not get what they want from a supervisor or if they decide they would rather live in Oregon they will quit. The key to understanding Gen-X and Gen-Y is identifying where they place work in their values. Traditionalists and Boomers organized their lives around either their company or career. Gen-X and Gen-Y organize their profession or job around their lives. For Gen-X their focus is on family and for Gen-Y, their social life.

As I said earlier, now more than ever companies must hire talented managers. Gen-X and Gen-Y will not put up with managers who do not challenge, inspire or care for them as previous generations might have done. Companies must invest in their selection process especially when it comes to managers. Companies must also look at their mix of generations in the office and especially at the leadership level. Does one generation’s preferred method of communication “win-out”? Does that cause conflict or put up road blocks to getting other talented people in the door?

To learn more about managing a multi-generation workforce and to find out what industry leaders are doing to Hire4Impact, visit VisionSpark.

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

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