The Asia Pacific Headhunter

How Doing Good Work Hurts You

Most of us wouldn't think of doing "good" work as hurting us. But in a recent conversation between Michael Bungay Stanier and David Allen on GTD Connect (subscription only) Michael made this point loud and clear. Based on a previous description by Designer Milton Glaser, Michael asserts that in our lives we are only ever doing three kinds of work:

• Bad work
• Good work
• Great work

Michael believes that you will only ever do more "great" work if you can endeavor to remove some "good" work from your life. This idea resonated with me as I believe that the characteristics of great work are fundamentally different from good, in particular I believe great work requires either a challenge or learning in order to give you a feeling of achievement and satisfaction. And I also believe that great work requires imagination and creativity. Good work can benefit from it as well, but for great work it's a necessity.

In our careers we often get caught up in the mundane or the routine, in work that is neither challenging or a learning experience. But I believe that the key to turning this around is to taking some of the good work you do and focus on using your creativity to make it great. Challenge yourself, stretch yourself to make your work into a creative environment. It will make all the difference for yourself in your career, as well as in your enjoyment of your life.

In particular I have found that the more creative I was at work the more I enjoyed myself. Quite often it led to success, but not always! But despite any failures it has always created indirect benefits that I never considered beforehand. I think it is tough to be creative in our everyday work. And unfortunately many companies seem to pay lip service to wanting people who "think outside the box" (See Kathy Sierra for more). I also think that a lack of tools to really evaluate someone's creativity is a set back for companies in the hiring process.

Have you have had an opportunity to be creative at work and have had that backfire on you? Or had it be wildly successful? Would you like to share that story? I would be more than interested in hearing about stories of creativity at work as it seems to be a topic that many readers are really interested in.

Checkout accounting jobs, UK at AccountantCareers.co.uk.

Onboarding: The Simple Way

A while ago I wrote Onboarding: 8 Ways to Get New Hires Onboard, which talked about how you get new employees up to speed as quickly and as easily as possible. I just read a chapter from Bill Jensen's The Simplicity Survival Handbook: 32 Ways to Do Less and Accomplish More, suggesting how new hires can be proactive in getting "the orientation they deserve". He points out the unfortunate reality that many companies are pressured with short-term needs and don't want to spend the extra time and attention required for the long-term need of providing quality orientation and onboarding. So he suggests another take on it - for employees to take control over their orientation and be more proactive. Jenson suggests three simple steps:

1. Do your homework about your company, department, job, etc. Get info such as your department's goals, performance, biggest projects in the past and next three months, etc. from the day you accept the job offer and read up so you can be prepared on your first day with questions.
2. Get a list of names for  building your network - try to meet face-to-face with key people not only within your department, but outside of your department and even outside the company, i.e. customers, etc.
3. Ask for a two-way review at the end of your third month.

Following these steps, a new hire can make the most of his or her first 100 days. Even better,  a manager who takes the iniative to prepare and plan for these things will definitely make the most of the new hire's first 100 days.

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HRSEO offers consulting for Internet recruiting initiatives to employers.

Job Interview Mistakes to Avoid

Job hunting, and even being headhunted is a long and arduous process. So why would you want to mess it up when it comes to the job interview? According to a recent global recruitment survey conducted by Korn/Ferry International, the most common mistakes made by executive candidates are:

• Talking too much
• Lack of knowledge about the company or position
• Over-inflated ego
• Appearing overly confident

As you can tell, 3 of the 4 above mistakes have absolutely nothing to do with the technical skills or competency required for the specific position being interviewed for. It has more to do with how you would be as a potential work colleague - how well you'd work with others in the company.   Sure -  skills, talent and experience count for some things, but at the end of the day, people choose people they like.

Another telling point with these mistakes is that these candidates weren't listening. If a candidate listened carefully to the questions asked and talked at length giving clear examples and relevant details that answered the questions, I doubt the interviewer would have thought "he talks too much". BUT, if the candidate started talking at length about things that don't answer the question, then that's when the candidate "talks too much" and wastes time. Good listening skills is key.

And lastly, what all these mistakes point to is the poor attitude of a candidate who isn't taking the job interview seriously by not preparing for it, or assumes he is a shoo-in. Always be prepared and never assume you've got the job until you've got the job offer in your hands signed by you and the company.

 

How to Make Your Company the "Best Place to Work"

Access Communications, a PR firm in San Francisco was recognized as one of the "Best Place to Work in the Bay Area". So what makes this a great place to work? Susan G. Butenhoff, Access president and CEO puts it this way:

"To attract and retain the best players, you need to treat people right. Today's workforce expects more from employers. Whether it's telecommuting, fun-filled 'Whoopee Events' or a full curriculum of professional training that builds expertise and value for our staff, we know that investing in our people pays off handsomely for both us and our clients."

Annmarie Edwards, author of 50 Tips to Energize Your Workforce provides a sampler of Seven Secrets to an Energized Workforce:

1.Build bridges. The formation of a strong social network is vital to building connections within staff. A social network has many benefits such as increased productivity, improved communication, and a greater commitment from employees.

2. Lend an ear. An open door policy enables employees to talk to management freely about work-related matters without feeling intimidated.

3. Facilitate teamwork. Empower employees through team building activities, which can help to create a sense of belonging. Team building can also improve productivity as teams are challenged to compete with each other.

4.Educate staff members. Learning new skills is empowering. Conduct career development workshops to identify and expand individuals skills.

5. A motivated and energetic staff is key to productivity. By sharing the mission and vision of the company, employees will be motivated to work toward company objectives. They will be aware of what the company hopes to achieve in the short-and long-term, and how important their individual role is to the company's vision.

6. Fun is a highly effective motivator. Leaders can infuse fun into the workplace by organizing events for staff members such as: bowling parties, after-work social events, luncheons, and holiday parties.

7. Happiness is contagious. Leaders who display a positive attitude and pleasant demeanor, and who set a positive example will energize their workforce and increase employee job satisfaction.

For me, personally, I feel that strong leadership is important- where employees can clearly see the goals of the company, the department, their team, etc.; see that competent managers are leading the way toward those goals; and actually see the progress that's been made. I also feel that investment in employees training is crucial. Star employees are always pursuing personal and professional growth and development, so a company that promotes and/or provides opportunities for learning and growth will most likely keep those star employees.

Key to Interviewing Candidates - Character over Presentation

I was rereading an old issue of the Harvard Business Review (June 2005) and came across an interesting article on Herb Greenberg, CEO of Caliper, a human resource consulting firm. Blind since childhood, Greenberg gave some great advice on “Knowing What to Listen For” when interviewing candidates. All too often, managers tend to place a lot of importance on appearances and presentation or misread visual cues. The interview that ensues then becomes skewed according to those first visual impressions.

In a nutshell, Greenberg states that character is more important than presentation, thus the need to rely less on appearance and visual cues. For him, the key to hiring people is “to find out what drives them <and to> try to get at what is genuine.” Not surprisingly, he pays close attention to a person’s voice. From that, along with good questions about their accomplishments and failures, you can derive a sense of that person's inner character.

In fact, not only has he consulted to corporations, but also for professional sports teams, revealing that evaluating professional athletes is very similar to evaluating corporate professionals. Athletes clearly need talent, but if they don’t have the drive, or “inner fire” to push themselves, they won’t win or succeed. It’s the same in the corporate world. Listening for and getting at that inner drive and motivation is key.

It's interesting to note here about the belief held by some hiring managers and recruiters that meeting people face to face is essential in finding a good candidate. I think every siutation, positions and company is different - so it all depends. But this goes to show that meeting face to face is not a prerequisite for finding out whether a candidate is good or not.

I'd like to quickly add here a story from Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink:The Power of Thinking without Thinking. As the classical music world began to implement “blind” auditions in the past thirty years, the make-up of the orchestra changed drastically. Historically dominated by white male musicians who were often thought to be superior musicians than women, the number of women winning orchestra auditions increased five-fold since screens were placed between the musician and the judges. How’s that for relying less on sight and getting genuine results?

What do YOU do when the Billion Dollar Man Fails or 4 Ways To Support Great Employees

A while back I read "Jack: Straight from the Gut" by former GE CEO Jack Welch. There is a lot of really great advice in the book from a career perspective. But one of the most interesting pages (page 29) is where Jack explains about what happens when people make mistakes. Without the right support, they can get into a downwards performance spiral. This spiral can ultimately end in them having to leave the company. The interesting point around it is that he had seen this spiral downwards in more than just average employees. In fact he had seen it happen to "strong, bright, and self-confident general managers of billion-dollar businesses".

That's right - even great people fail and need support when things aren't going well. Obviously everyone wants to hire a "ready-made" star - those who have done it before and can hit the ground running. Nothing wrong with that, but that doesn't preclude a company from supporting and helping someone reach their peak, NO MATTER WHAT LEVEL OF EXPERIENCE AND ABILITY THEY CURRENTLY HAVE. After all, even general managers of billion-dollar businesses can lose confidence and spiral downwards.

With the above in mind, can you name some things you can do to help support your BEST employees? I have some suggestions, but am always looking for more.

1. Pay for their MBA (or other education opportunity).
2. Give them responsibility as a leader for a change to the business that is outside their current responsibility but that they have an interest in.
3. A surprise bonus or trip away.
4. A Thank You letter!!! You might laugh, but you should see how Jack Welch used them. If you are a manager of integrity and someone they respect, a written thank you will go a long way.

By the way, there is a right way and a wrong way to give these things. Make sure you know what that is before you start handing them out.

Want Great Results from your Recruiter? Start with These 5 Steps

Business is booming with too much on everyone's plate. You need some good people right now! So what do you do? You tell your recruiter or HR that you need a superstar who can do this and that for you. Whip up a quick job description, and tell them "get me some resumes, I know good when I see it." So where does that leave HR and recruiters? And is this the best way to start a search?

Not usually. To get the best search results - that means, to see quality candidates whom you would seriously consider, I’d like to address factors that happen before those candidates are put before you; mainly on how you can make hiring successful when working with third-party recruiters or even your internal HR team. These are parameters that you need to clearly convey to your recruiter or search consultant in order to make the search as efficient as possible in finding a suitable match; that is, someone who can and wants to do the job, be successful at it, and fit into the culture of the company. This is not a hit-or-miss process. That kind of profiling just doubles everyone’s efforts, and most often doesn’t end up with a good hire.

The following 5 parameters should be defined and then conveyed to your recruiter to get the best search results:

1) Have a clearly defined job description of what’s needed and desired. This “job order” should include:

• the duties and defined outcomes - the accountability the position will take on – what the person will be responsible for and how their performance will be measured 
• the technical skills required to carry out those duties
• and all those other intangible soft skills that are necessary in working and interacting with either other staff and/or customers. It’s one thing to say “excellent communication skills”, and it’s another to explain that this person will be liaising with technical and non-technical internal teams and different levels of management on a daily basis, or that they may have to field inquiries from customers as back up support even though their position is mostly technical. 

2) Have a clearly defined culture of company values. If you read an earlier post on Adaptive Path’s CEO Janice Fraser’s podcast, you’ll know how important culture is when hiring someone new. To fit in and grow with the company, the prospective hire should uphold similar values as those of the company. A new hire who can thrive in your company’s environment is further motivated to be successful at work.  For example, someone who functions well in very structured environments, may not be the perfect fit for your company which  is very free flowing,  allowing for a lot of freedom and independence.

3) Define performance indicators that you use in your company. How will you assess this new employee? What kinds of measurements or track records will you consider as “evidence” when looking at a candidate’s background and accomplishments? For example, if you’re looking for a new Sales Director, what is considered as a good track record? Someone who can manage up to 30 different Account Managers? 50 or more?  Bringing on 5+ new accounts a month? Every company will be different. If you are going to bring someone into your culture and environment, a realistic performance indicator is going to make comparisons easier and more effective.

4) A realistic range of factors that you will be negotiable on (as well as being firm on those qualities you can’t be lenient with). Explain why these factors are or are not negotiable.

5) A clear idea of the salary range for this position. For the most part, salaries do indicate the level and experience of a person – although this is not always the case.

If you’re clear about these parameters and share them with your recruiter, you’ll be presented with some great candidates to choose from. From there, you can take heed of Lou Adler’s advice (which I posted earlier about Hiring Mistakes)to make sure you don’t quickly dismiss someone based on preconceived biases or gut feeling, or end up hiring someone who wasn’t a good fit in the end. These parameters will guide all those involved in the decision making process, allowing them to easily look for the kind of evidence that Adler talks about in supporting a manager’s decision.

At the end of the day, if you're working with a recruiter and/or your HR team, you have to consider this: What you put forth to them shows your committment to getting this job filled. If they can see your committment, and clearly gain a good understanding of what you're looking for, you'll have yourself a recruiter who's going to work hard and smart on filling that job. If you don't put the effort into the beginning of the search, by being unclear or unsure of what you want, I doubt a recruiter or your HR team will be as committed to your job search as you hope.

Lou Adler on Hiring Mistakes

Recruiting veteran and expert Lou Adler wrote an insightful article: How to Stop Making Dumb Hiring Mistakes. He points to last month’s issue of Harvard Business Review which focused on improving the decision making process. From the HBR, you learn some causes of bad decision-making in hiring:

- Managers who have biases and perceptions who end up not using enough evidence to support their decision

- A consensus that wasn’t derived from true discussion of diverging viewpoints

- Gut decisions made in time of crisis, therefore not all factors were considered carefully

Adler continues to suggest 8 ways to improve a faulty hiring decision-making process by creating a more formal process, where opinions supported by evidence and true discourse on alternate views are key. For those who are involved in any way with hiring decisions, it’s worth a read.

What Will Recruiting Look Like in 2016?

Jim Stroud asks this question in his interview with Gerry Crispin in a Podcast on his blog. Crispin, of CareerXroads Consulting, first interestingly pointed out how much recruiting has changed in the past 10 - 15 years in which companies have become much more aggressive about doing their own sourcing, and hiring third party recruiters internally to do that for them.

And so looking at 2016, recruiters will be on their way out as we know them. Their role will change from a more external and transactional nature to one that is more internal, requiring a more creative skillset with much more discipline in helping hiring managers redesign jobs for the flexible worker. As the type of worker evolves away from the standard 5 days/40 hour week type work toward flexible work involved with independent contracting, job sharing, temp, temp-to-perm, contingency, semi-retirement/mentoring, etc., companies need to rethink their jobs and needs. They will require that flexibility to overcome both a labour shortage and a candidate that has more choices.

I agree that recruiters need to be working even closer with hiring managers. I feel for my clients who are in HR and who seem to get hamstrung by their hiring managers who insist on the old "I'll know it when I see it" method of profiling jobs and candidates. There's often distance and lack of communication between HR and hiring managers, and therefore passed on to external recruiters. A lot more effort, efficiency and creativity put in at the beginning of the hiring process will ensure great results and a recruiting vehicle that's agile and nimble, not reactive.

Anyway, go have a listen; it's well worth your time.

5 Steps to Attract Top Talent

Your company isn’t only selling services and products to customers. Your company is also selling itself as a GREAT EMPLOYER to prospective employees, in particular, motivated and talented people. The more talented people you have, the more services and products you create and sell to more people. Take Steve Ballmer’s word for it. In the December Business 2.0 article My Golden Rule , which compiled the single most important philosophy for each of 30 business visionaries, the Microsoft CEO chose: Make Hiring a Top Priority. He explained, “You may have a technology or product that gives you an edge, but your people determine whether you develop the next winning technology or product.” I’ll take it a step further – your people market and sell that winning technology – determining whether or not your business grows.

Attracting talented people takes a lot of time and effort. And that’s why so many companies are investing in better HR departments, or outsourcing to third-party recruiting/executive search firms. But there are many fundamental things you can do to position yourself as an attractive employer to top talent.

To take a look at how Google does it, read here. Also check out their recruiting video targeting female engineers from an earlier post.

Certainly, Google has the capital to invest in all these things, so Google aside, what can smaller companies do without spending a huge chunk of their budget? Here are 5 steps to ATTRACT TOP TALENT to join your company.

How to Attract Top Talent:

1) Build your Company Culture

2) Be Employee-Centric as well as customer-centric

3) Have an excellent Onboarding Program for new hires and excellent Review Program for employees

4) Be Transparent and Accessible

5) Be Proactive in Marketing and Recruiting to prospective candidates

Company Culture
Probably the first place to start is to define your company culture. What are the values that you uphold? These values should go across the board, to which every person in every department or position adheres. What is the mission statement of your company? What are the long-term goals that your company is striving for? These goals should be clear for all employees to align the way they work within your company. Listen to Adaptive Path's Janice Fraser's podcast on company culture that I posted earlier.

Employee-Centric
Most companies already focus on the customer. That’s where the revenue comes from, right? Unfortunately, some of those companies seem to set employees aside as a secondary priority to pursue revenue and marketshare. Well, if you don’t focus on your employees, you probably won’t retain many, nor will you get the best results from them – affecting the bottom line in the end. So think about the kind of environment that your company creates. Is it supportive? Do you consider the big problems that your employees face that set them back from doing amazing work? Is the environment flexible enough? Is it structured enough? Is there strong leadership allowing for a give-and-take relationship? Do you allow for employees to give constructive feedback and take it into consideration? Are there clear opportunities for employees to advance or self-improve? Do employees feel energized and motivated?

Did you know that one factor that consistently ranks high for employee dissatisfaction (thus leading to resignation) is poor management? Employees who have a poor relationship with their direct supervisor/manager, or who feel their manager is incompetent, unhelpful or hostile, leave their company sooner rather than later. So it’s essential to focus on a manager’s supervisory role, requiring accountability on their part. Clarity of objectives and targets and fostering an open environment for communication and feedback will help supervisors to maintain a healthy and productive relationship with their subordinates.

Onboarding and Review Programs
In an earlier post, Onboarding: 8 Ways to Get New Hires Onboard, I explained why onboarding is critical in not only retaining your new hires, but also for building your brand of being a great employer for future employees. Word of mouth is very strong – people always talk about their work – especially when they’ve just joined a company. It’s so important to integrate those new employees and get them up to speed and EXCITED about being there.

It’s also important to KEEP them motivated about being there – show them that there’s a clear pathway for growth and development. That’s why a review program is just as important as an onboarding program. You should allow for some kind of structured review with clear benchmarks that takes into account performance based on defined goals/outcomes, as well as feedback from that employee, colleagues and/or managers.

Transparency and Accessibility
Now that you’ve got your defined culture and employee-centric focus fostering productive creativity, you’ve got to let everyone know. How can you be transparent and accessible to others who are interested in you as a possible employer? Open up. Reveal more on your website regarding company culture. Encourage employees to give “testimonials” of their positive experience as a member of your company. Encourage employees (or even better, managers) to maintain blogs about working at the company or in the industry. Encourage or participate in online communities, usergroups, industry associations and forums. Host regular sporting or recreational events for your employees to bring friends to. Not only does this provide a benefit for employees, but it also allows for networking. Many companies sponsor recreational sports teams and host competitions. Get involved with local universities and student groups who will soon graduate and become part of tomorrow’s sought-after workforce.

Proactive Marketing to Candidates
This should really be a whole other post, but I’ll address it quickly here. This goes hand-in-hand with being transparent and accessible. The big key is to always think in this mindset – that you’re not WEEDING out people who want to work for you; you’re trying to ATTRACT people that YOU want to join your company. So when you are active networking and participating in different events and online communities, or even writing up a job ad, you are always marketing to a targeted audience. Be prepared with your selling points about your company – how does your company benefit people in their pursuit of personal and career growth and success? What does your company stand for? And why is your company the better company to work for over the competition?

While proactive recruiting and executive search are the most effective ways of finding top talent, all these other factors I’ve mentioned are things that a recruiter can’t do for you. In building on your company’s culture, environment and branding as a GREAT EMPLOYER, you can work even more effectively with a recruiter to get those top people you want.