They are putting Christmas decorations up in my part of the world. This is not good news for someone who typically buys her Christmas tree on December 24. I haven't even eaten all of my Halloween candy yet. Nonetheless, I thought it would be a good time to start kicking around priorities for 2016. I'm sure it always takes your department a while to get the list right and I'd like to put my two cents in early.
"We hire the best people," is a catchphrase even your CEO uses, I bet. It's sure to make you feel good, but what does it really mean? And how do you measure it? By the number of people who receive "exceeds expectations" every year? I doubt it. By the number of graduate and advanced degrees your employees have? Or by the number of employees who are suing you and the validity of their complaints?
Here's where I am going with this. If your goal is to hire the right people for the job, you're thinking more clearly, but odds are you have some work to do. Do you know -- and can you reliably interview for -- the types of attitudes, principles and competencies that mesh best with your culture? And with the culture of the team that the interviewee is joining? If the answer is, "not really," then you have work to do. Employees who are able to use their strengths every day at work are much more likely to become top performers. You'll be giving them the opportunity to be the best people they can be while they are working for you.
Most companies do not have a systematic way of assessing employee fit with the job, let alone with the culture. Yet there are many approaches available that can help make the outcome of the hiring process less about wish fulfillment and more about success. Odds are there's money to be made, too. The investment you make in creating this type of approach would pay off in increased employee productivity over the length of their career with you.
And here's where the biggest payoff comes when we're talking about this sound investment. Understanding what you mean by "the right people" for the job is also a solid foundation for creating a career development approach for your company. Having a systematic approach like this would help incumbents a) understand what that job they have their eye on would ask of them, b) give them words and guidelines to assess whether their strengths are easily transferable to that job and c) help them understand the experience they need to obtain to qualify for the job.
Employees have asked for this kind of career guidance for decades. The millennials are vehement about it, if you take a look at the research.
Don't wander into 2016 without planning an investment in the future. If money is not being invested in salaries, other types of talent investment must be made if you want to keep moving ahead. Maybe employees are wiser than the bean counters, because the payoff seems to be clearer to them.
Thanks, Margaret, for reminding us that maximizing the return on every payroll dollar invested in talent is the proper concern of every human resource professional. During my years spent in recruiting, assessment, placement and employee development, I concluded that there are no bad people but many bad fits. Matching each individual's strengths and interests (usually the same) with the most vital organizational needs is the supreme challenge of total rewards management. All parties benefit from such an achievement.
Posted by: E. James (Jim) Brennan | 11/05/2015 at 02:13 PM