Selling and Telling: How Your Candidates Can Preview Their Future

After making a good — and much-needed — hire, have you ever been surprised to find that the individual quits within the first few weeks? Many companies have early turnover problems but don’t tie them to the fact that applicants are not receiving a complete picture of what a job role entails. Candidates don’t discover the negative aspects until it’s too late.

Voluntary turnover occurring within the first 90 days is typically a symptom that candidates had unrealistic expectations. Less obvious signs are underperformance or low morale on the part of qualified new hires who were previously enthusiastic.

Read: Selling and Telling: How Your Candidates Can Preview Their Future

Partnering with Candidates to Promote Respect in the Hiring Process

Successful companies constantly evaluate their business practices and procedures. From operational efficiencies to talent selection, all aspects of the business merit evaluation when trying to create a high performing organization. “Best companies to work for” have refined their hiring practices to increase their odds of selecting top talent while at the same time ensuring respectful treatment of all candidates. These companies value the impression made to candidates during the hiring process and partner with them by 1) managing candidates’ expectations through a compelling but honest recruiting message, 2) communicating promptly and effectively, and 3) following through consistently on commitments made. Hired or not, these companies leave candidates feeling respected through a recruiting partnership.

Read: Partnering with Candidates to Promote Respect in the Hiring Process

Competency-based Talent Management: Creating a Unique Talent Brand by Scott McTague

Successful companies go through painstaking efforts to develop and market a specific brand to draw loyal customers. When you think of brands such as Volvo and Starbucks, specific brand images likely come to your mind of safety and convenient quality. Companies are now finding that brand differentiation is more than a unique product line and the ability to effectively market that product line – the brand difference is their people.

So, how do organizations create talent brands? First, define clearly what sets your most successful people apart in how they achieve business objectives and then replicate and reinforce that brand in each of your talent management practices. Competency modeling is a convenient process that enables organizations to establish their unique people brand by defining and socializing performance expectations — capturing and communicating the aspects of a job that uniquely define success. An organization can use these targets to select and develop the talent to best suit their business needs.

Read: Competency-based Talent Management – Creating a Unique Talent Brand by Scott McTague

Unproctored Internet Assessment

A Look at Real-life Data from a Large Retailer

Businesses today view unproctored internet-based assessment as a promising, cost-effective methodology for efficiently screening applicants due to the widespread availability of technology and Internet access for job applicants. However, there are many concerns with moving assessment administration from a proctored, controlled setting to an unproctored setting. These include issues of privacy, test security, comparability of testing environments, and authentication of respondents, to name a few.

Read: Unproctored Internet Assessment

Efficiently & Effectively Find the Right Candidate

Sipping from the Firehose: How to efficiently and effectively find the right candidate in an ever-growing pool of applicants

We all know that in the current economic downturn most companies have slowed or even halted hiring. However, the number of applicants is growing at an exponential rate fueled by the current surge in unemployment as well as the entry of new workers into the labor pool. In economic terms our supply of potential candidates is far exceeding current demand. Sounds like a good place to be, right? In some ways, yes, because it is a buyer’s market. However, in other ways this deluge of applicants creates new challenges.

Read: Efficiently & Effectively Find the Right Candidate

Talent in Tough Times: Opportunities, Risks and Strategic Actions

People issues come rapidly to the forefront in a down economy. How do you keep employees thinking forward and moving forward? No one has all the answers, but there is a silver lining to this cloud!

After grieving the present situation, it’s important to take a deep breath and a positive stance, then examine the big picture. Surprisingly, there are hidden opportunities to seize. In addition, identifying any talent risks you face puts you in a good position to address them early in the game. Taking strategic action can give you a degree of control that’s very practical. So let’s begin with a few ideas that will help you put things in motion.

Read: Talent in Tough Times: Opportunities, Risks and Strategic Actions

Assessments Relieve High-Volume Screening Pressures

The increased use of job boards, online applications and automated applicant-tracking systems has made employee screening like trying to sip water from Niagara Falls. Finding gems of talent amidst a flood of applications can be a monumental challenge.

Assessments solve this Information-Age problem by quickly identifying top talent and providing a priority ranking of the entire candidate pool. Assessments supply the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, professionalism and insight that are critical for employee screening.

Read: Assessments Relieve High-Volume Screening Pressures

Unraveling the Sales Gene

Is there a sales gene? The practical implications of this simple question are complex and significant for sales organizations. If sales success is determined by innate talent, then a sales organization would be well advised to focus most of their attention on recruiting the right talent for their sales team. In contrast, if sales ability is primarily a learned skill, then an investment in sales training would be wise. So where should sales organizations invest their resources to get the most bang for the buck – recruiting or training?

Read: Unraveling the Sales Gene

Leaders: Born and Made

The old debate over whether leaders are born or made yields a simple answer with one revision to the question. Are leaders born and made? Of course they are! Nature and nurture both play critical roles in how people develop as leaders.

People vary systematically on a variety of traits and characteristic that we can define and measure. Many are strongly influenced by genetics and early life experiences. A large body of scientific research has consistently shown correlations between some of these attributes and success as a leader. The reasons for those correlations may be obvious, such as the high assertiveness that many successful leaders possess. They may be less obvious or related to other factors, such as tall men and women being more likely to emerge as leaders (Judge & Cable, 2004). Unfortunately, some result from historical precedent or irrelevant factors, such as race or gender.

Read: Leaders: Born and Made

Your Employees are the Face of Your Business – Hire the Best

In the service industry, your employees are the face of your business. Good employees create positive customer experiences, generate repeat business, sell more, and influence positive behaviors in coworkers. Bad employees disrupt the work environment and cost the company money through turnover, inventory shrinkage, lost productivity and lost customers.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review* concluded that job match is the single most important component of job success. Our research has found this to be true of not only skilled professional and managerial roles, but of hourly level roles as well. From a selection perspective, if we can put the right people in the right role, we will maximize success. But how can we best evaluate this person-job fit?

Read: Your Employees are the Face of Your Business – Hire the Best