Insights to Growth

Strong Teams Spark Success

How to Attract More Online Job Applicants

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Finding the best applicants for each role is the key to success for many employers. Since most applicants find you online, you need to improve your online presence to increase your applicant flow.

Through your hiring process, you put online job applicants through a series of actions in order to find the best, and it should come as no surprise that online job applicants do the same.

This means that you need to make the best impression on these applicants, and you achieve that by improving your online presence.

What does your online presence tell candidates?

Research from SHRM tells us that candidates choose opportunities based on: company culture (23%), career progression (22%) and benefits (19%).

How to Improve Your Online Presence:

To boost your likelihood of having candidates apply to your company, you need to take a critical look at these three items and make adjustments as you see fit.

1. Do you have a dedicated careers page that allows applicants to search job location and job type?

You want to catch the “just browsing” candidates and get them to look at something specific.

2. On your career page, do you have a variety of real pictures and video testimonials from several employees who enthusiastically talk about their experience?

Showing career growth and diversity examples are great. Do not use stock photos! Invest in good photography within your company.

Also, video is king, so if you’ve not taken the leap into video, it is time. Millennials and GenZ are the largest workforce to attract, and they want video. Here are 6 specific examples of great videos.

3. Do you make it easy for them to apply?

If you have an ATS system that requires online job applicants to cut and paste each of their resume experience versus a single resume upload, then you will lose out on a percentage of online job applicants. We need to lower the obstacles of an online application.

What are your tips? 

If you have other best practices for attracting more online job applicants, I’d enjoy hearing them in the comments below or on a call. Happy Hiring!

7 Tips for Conducting a Structured Interview

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Finding the best person for a role means comparing apples to apples not apples to oranges in your candidates; structured interviews can help you achieve this.

What’s a Structured Interview?

A structured interview, also known as a standardized interview, is a quantitative research method commonly employed in survey research. The aim of this approach is to ensure that each interview is presented with the same questions in the same order and by the same people.

According to Data Driven Recruiting, a LinkedIn eBook, “Data matters for finding talent faster and more efficiently. Talent acquisition teams with mature analytics are two times more likely to improve their recruiting efforts and three times more likely to realize cost reductions and efficiency gains.”

How to Create a Structured Interview:

Here are my 7 tips for establishing a structured interview process:

  1. Craft a deeply detailed job description that has behavioral components not just skills.
  2. Create role-specific questions that capture skills and experience.
  3. Create interview questions that explore interest and culture.
  4. Choose a rating scale for these questions.
  5. Train interviewing team. They have to be expert at the questions they are going to ask.
  6. Conduct the interviews.
  7. Evaluate candidates based on the rating scale.

The next step is to gather anyone who is a stakeholder for this role.

Who Makes a Great Stakeholder?

You want to have people who really know the role that you are trying to fill. SHRM has many great articles on this, but I especially like this one.

If you do not have 100% agreement on hiring the person, it is best to pass. Why do we need 100% agreement? Because if we hire a person and there is not complete agreement, then over time as this person is in the organization and makes a mistake or isn’t performing, you will have the dissenting person vocalizing “I did not want to hire that person, or I told you so,” or other derogatory remarks. This never works out.

You want each and every stakeholder to be fighting for this person to succeed in their role.

What level of interviewing structure do you have and is it working for you? Please let me know in the comment section below or contact us if you need more support.

Do you have the right mindset for hiring the best candidate?

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You should always look for the best candidate when hiring. This can take time. However, with the right mindset, you’ll understand why holding out for the best candidate ultimately benefits your team.

The idea of having the right mindset for hiring was really solidified for me thanks to the following two concepts.

The Law of Diminishing Expertise:

In the world of hiring, experts, or 10s, hire 9s, 9s hire 8s, and so on. Martin Jacknis refers to this as the “law of diminishing expertise” in an Inc. Magazine article.

With this idea in mind, it wouldn’t take long before we have a bunch of underperforming 7s running our organization. This happens particularly in organizations that do not have a high functioning culture.

So when hiring, you should focus on finding the right fit for your team. Someone with the same level or a higher level of expertise.

Build a Team of 10s:

The second concept directly deals with combating the issue of hiring people who are less capable.

I had the privilege of attending a conference where Jim Koch spoke about top performing teams. Jim created Samuel Adams beer in 1984 and has since been known as a founding father of the American craft brewery movement.

During the conference, he spoke in depth about the hiring process that he developed over 30 years. When a team wanted to hire a person, he would ask his last and deciding question: “Will this person raise the average of the team?”

If the hiring team responded with no, they would pass and move onto another candidate. He sometimes said that they would wait a year for the best candidate who would RAISE the average of the team. In his structure, putting in a person that lowered the average did not make sense–the cost of a mis-hire was too costly to compromise.

The Cost of a Mis-Hire:

Most mis-hire calculations estimate that turn-over of a $12 hourly employee will cost the about $4,000. The cost of an executive mis-hire can run twice their annual salary. Click here for the Predictive Index disengagement calculator.

Does your mindset when hiring focus mostly on who is available versus raising the team average?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments below.

3 Tips for Handling Difficult Conversations with Employees

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Many people leaders struggle handling difficult conversations with their employees.

If you haven’t been in this situation, then it’s only a matter of time. Here are three tips you can use next time you discover an employee problem that needs addressing.

1| Addressing Skill-Based Problems

Is the problem skill based, like someone consistently submitting an expense report late or with errors?

If the issue is skill based, then you can approach the person and say, “I know you are so skilled at your job, and I don’t doubt that skill. However, I do see that you consistently struggle with turning in your expense report accurately and at the agreed upon time. Can you tell me a little about what is happening with your current process?”

By doing this, you decrease the chances of them reacting defensively.

2| Addressing Personal Problems

Is the problem personal, like an employee who consistently shoots down other team members’ ideas in meetings?

When the issue is personal in nature, you can approach the person by letting them know that one of your top priorities is having them be successful and that you need to share information that is sensitive.

By sharing that you want them to be successful, the person is more likely to take the information with a more constructive mindset.

3| Practice Makes Perfect

My third tip is to practice this conversation, so you appear comfortable having it. The more relaxed you are, the better the conversation will go.

Of course the worst thing to do is nothing. Issues like these will not go away when we ignore them.

Keep in mind that meetings can turn into difficult conversations as well. If a meeting goes off track and is no longer productive, you should stop the activity and bring the group back to purpose.

On the other hand, if the conversation turned unproductive to the point where the group needs a break, then there’s no shame in rescheduling the meeting.

My favorite book, and I read it at least every 18 months is, Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high by Patterson, Grenny and McMillian.

What do you do for difficult conversations? Comment below or get in touch.

4 Important Steps to Add to Your Onboarding Process 

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Even the most promising new hire needs an adequate amount of support during the onboarding process when they first start working for your company.

I frequently talk about finding the BEST person for each role, but that’s only half the battle. Once you’ve found the right candidate, it’s time to give them a big dose of your company culture through an effective onboarding process.

Ensure Your New Hire Starts Off On the Right Foot

Onboarding and training are two different processes that require a different approach.

For onboarding, you need to put yourself in a new hire’s shoes. They’re making a big change, so onboard them to your company by rolling out the red carpet–literally!

An article by Social Talent informs us “when employees go through a structured onboarding process, they are 58% more likely to remain with the company after three years.”

Important Steps for Effective Onboarding

1. Engage with the person a week ahead of their start date. A short email or text message letting them know that you are excited to have them on the team can put them at ease. For extra points, have the hiring manager or senior executive do a “Welcome to the Team” Video.

2. Provide a 5-day schedule 2-3 days in advance. This tells a new employee that you are thinking of them, and your organization is buttoned up. The schedule should be educational, and people based. Bonus Tip: PLEASE do not stick a new person on 8 hours of video learning.

3. If you are in an office environment, have a welcome committee that lets the new person know that the whole team is excited they are joining the team.

4. Have EVERYTHING ready for the new team member on their first day. This includes their computer, account log-ins, business cards, coffee cup, badge, workspace, etc. I mean, you HUNTED for this person. You should show them that you want them and you are serious about making them successful.

How’s Your Onboarding Process?

Many organizations overestimate the effectiveness of their onboarding process. In a survey carried out by OfficeTeam, 54% of employees said that they’ve experienced a mishap in their new job.

Putting the effort into a structured onboarding process will pay off. Ask any new hire that has joined your team.

Do you have any important steps you’ve added to your onboarding process?

Comment below or contact me. I’d love to hear it!

Avoid Unstructured Interviews to Make the Right Hiring Decision

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Hire Beyond the Interview

Have you regretted hiring an employee that appeared promising during the job interview?

If you have, then you’re in good company. Many of us in charge of hiring make decisions based on a positive interview, but we may regret it three months down the line.

There’s a lot of ground to cover on the topic of unstructured interviewing, so let’s get started.  

Acknowledge Their Point of View

We need to acknowledge that the person in front of us is modifying their behavior to be what they think we want them to be.

This behavior is very similar to how someone acts when dating someone new. The person is “putting their best foot forward” based on their interpretation of the job, their impression of who you are, and what you want. The person is not doing this maliciously. They simply want the job.

Overcome Your Biases

You need to overcome all the biases that we all bring to the recruiting process. There are over 300 biases, but the top 13 to watch during an interview are the following:

  • Confirmation bias
  • Affect heuristics
  • Expectation anchor
  • Halo effect
  • Horn effect
  • Overconfidence bias
  • Similarity attraction bias
  • Illusory correlation
  • Affinity bias
  • Beauty bias
  • Conformity bias
  • Intuition
  • Judgement bias

Structure Your Interviews

Our gut is our own worst enemy, and there are many research studies to back this. One such study, shows that our intuition is wrong more than 55% of the time. (Should You Trust Your Gut in Hiring? Arlene Hirsch, SHRM May 1, 2018)

The way to correct this is through structured interviews, which we’ll discuss in a future post. (Skill in Interviewing Reduces Confirmation Bias. Powell, Hughes-Scholes, & Sharman, 2012)

For now, can you think of why you thought your worst hire seemed to be the best hire during the interview process?  

As always, feel free to contact me for help in streaming your hiring process or comment down below.

The Importance of Job Descriptions and Job Postings

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Attract a Good Fit for the Position

Have you hired an employee that matches the job posting perfectly, but they turn out to be the wrong fit 90 days later?

When hiring, it’s common for managers to use the top job description they come across. They post it, attract candidates, and make a hiring decision as soon as a likely candidate walks through the door.

However, these candidates will more than likely end up as turn-over. Why?

I believe that over 50% of turn-over can be avoided by better defining responsibilities, required skills, and ideal behaviors in the job posting itself.

If you didn’t take the time to think through the average day this person goes through, then you probably didn’t hold a stake holder meeting with the employees who will interface with this person. This should all be considered when writing the job description.

We also need to consider the changes our company/industry/environment have undergone, which entails that our “next receptionist” be different from the previous one.

Find the Right Fit for the Company

We have to use the right bait for the fish we want! We only want certain types of fishes to be attracted to our job posting instead of simply casting a wide net.

If you’re looking to hire a receptionist for example, then you want someone who is naturally friendly, flexible, and comfortable with being the “face” of your company. They should be able to instinctively follow up on emails and phone calls while being helpful to the rest of the team.

After thinking through their daily responsibilities, it’s important to pull together the stakeholders for each role. Together, you should discuss the role in-depth and look critically at how specific in the job posting needs to be.

Post the agreed upon job description and interview candidates that respond. I recommend you ask about 2-3 questions to identify candidates that are attracted to the role. Here are two examples:

  • Do you enjoy an environment that keeps you guessing?
  • Are you the go-to-person that your friends come to, to organize a party?

This allows you to attract certain fish and repel the others. I hope this helps, and I would love to hear of creative ways that you write a job description and posting to eliminate candidates that aren’t a good fit. Let’s talk!

How effective is your communication with your direct reports?

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Even when we have 1:1 meetings, staff meetings, and real-time pinging through Slack and other instant messenger tools, I’ve never met an employee who said, “my leader over communicates to me.”

People generally believe that there’s more information to know. In fact, the statistics are pretty scary:

  • 60% of companies don’t have a long-term strategy for their internal communications (Workforce).
  • 74% of employees feel they are missing out on company information and news (Trade Press Services).
  • 72% of employees don’t have a full understanding of the company’s strategy (IBM).
  • 86% of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures (Salesforce).
  • 33% of employees said a lack of open, honest communication has the most negative impact on employee morale (Recruiter).

A direct reports’ need for information and communication increases during time of change and turmoil whether internally or externally driven.

Like any personal relationship, our work relationships thrive or die on our ability to communicate clearly, establish trust, and create a welcoming environment for questions.

To dig further into a manager’s role and the importance of their connection to employees, I found the book by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter, It’s the Manager: Gallup finds the quality of managers and team leaders is the single biggest factor in your organization’s long-term success, to have substantial research and insights. 

Effective communication with our direct reports is a top priority if we want highly engaged team members. I would enjoy knowing what you find to be helpful in communicating with your direct reports. Get in touch!

Do you have a hiring bias for industry knowledge?

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If so, then is your hiring bias founded on facts or can you teach industry knowledge in a short amount of time?

The Challenge

I challenge my clients to look at this, because when you limit yourself to candidates with “X” amount of experience in your industry, you really shrink the available pool of candidates.

I understand that there are truly places where you must know the industry because of regulations, compliance, certifications, or laws, but there are many cases where you might be able to find great candidates and train them. A great resource to understand this bias and many more can be found in Howard Ross’ book Everyday Bias.

The Advantages

Think of the advantages of being able to train a person “fresh” and being able to put your organization’s spin on the industry, so the person starts with a clean slate and without baggage from prior organizations.

We know from Peter Drucker that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” so really, what you want to do is hire for talent, skills, and interest. If the industry knowledge can be taught, then you should focus on culture fit though talent. One of my favorite books is Bet on Talent: How to Create a Remarkable Culture That Wins the Hearts of Customers by Dee Ann Turner.

My Insights

In the past, I was asked to lead a sales team that was in the green industry. The company had historically hired people who had experience in horticulture, agriculture, or viniculture for sales roles. They were convinced that the person must have green industry experience, but the turn-over for the sales role was 40-50% annually.

Why? Well, people who like plants and grapes generally are not people lovers, they are plant lovers. So instead, we determined what skills and talent were for these roles. Once we made a change, we had top sales performers who came from teaching, hospitality, retail, property management and more. This shift was caused by hiring for talent and training for industry.

I believe that we need to seriously take a look at the advantage of attracting talent with transferable skills from outside our industries and rid ourselves from any hiring bias we may have. We can increase our candidate pool and the chance of finding the BEST talent for the role.

Have you had any success with going outside of your industry? Share your story in the comments below or get in touch with me for further support.

Do you invest time in your employees?

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With the many demands of leadership roles, executives struggle to protect the time needed to develop and nurture their direct reports.

As executives, we get caught up in reports, staff meetings, and even customer calls. It’s not uncommon for time to go by, and we’ve not paid attention to our biggest asset—our people! 

Jim Collins, the author of Good To Great, is well known for exploring the relationship between a well-run company and the people on the team. Once of Collin’s core concepts is “Get the right people on the bus!” More directly, he clarifies: “People aren’t your biggest asset, the RIGHT people are your biggest asset.” 

How do you find the right people?

As a leaders in our organizations we need to be involved in recruiting; it’s never “someone else’s job” to do recruiting. 

As people join your team, they need your advice and counsel. They need to hear your take on the company’s strategy and of course seek help from you on obstacles they encounter. 

To further put this into perspective, Jim Collins gives the statistic that in a new company, you need to put 60% of your effort into recruiting. As your team matures, this can back down to 20%.

So once we find the right people, how do we keep the right people?

They won’t thrive when they are running on autopilot, so remember that your direct reports really need you, your wisdom, your vision, your communication, and your attention.  

We need to make sure that our time allocation is appropriate to the level of maturity of the team – is it a new team, a well-oiled machine team, or a combination? One of my favorite resources on this topic is Patrick Lencioni in his book The 5 Dysfunctions of the Team. Keep this in mind as you plan out your week and reserve time for your teams.

How do we invest time in our people when working remotely?

If you are working remotely, which most of us are right now, here are some questions to help you gauge whether you are investing enough time or not. 

  • Have you built the culture of a “virtual open door?”
  • Do you feel like your direct reports proactively reach out to you?
  • Do you proactively reach out to them? 

If for one week you track the time you dedicated to spending with your direct reports that is just about THEM, how much time is this? 

I’d enjoy hearing about this so feel free to get in touch for further support or questions.

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