Prepare to Lose Some of Your Best People

After each recession, there is typically a wave of turnover representing pent-up demand for employee dissatisfaction as advertised jobs increase.

WHAT IF Some of Your Best People Walk Out the Door?

What are you doing right now to ensure your company is capable of retaining your best talent as the job market expands?

I can’t predict whether the job market will bounce back in 6 months, 12 months, or 18 months. However, it will bounce back.

You might say “Barry, we have very low turnover and I’m not concerned about losing some of our talent to competitors”.

I would contend that since there are very few jobs available, most candidates have hunkered down and are waiting out the job market depression. Of course you don’t have turnover issues now. Plan on having those issues within the next 12-18 months.

Job Market Trends Raise Your Risk

We need to recognize a few factors and trends at play in this job market.

First, the tools for candidates to find jobs has increased dramatically.

Secondly, the tools for companies to find candidates have increased, particularly through social media channels.

Third, employee satisfaction is at one of the lowest points since the Great Depression.

These combined factors are unique for the coming job market improvement.

I’m waving my hands in the air sounding the alarms of a dangerous combination of factors regarding your employee satisfaction and available jobs. Perhaps, you’ll write this off as the little boy who cried “wolf” too often. Perhaps, you’ll read this blog post, pull your management together, and start implementing programs to proactively raise your retention capability.

Procrastination, Denial, and Complacency

In my workshops and seminars to CEO groups and management teams, I’ve noticed that many companies might be at risk to lose some of their most critical and important talent over the next 18 months. As I jump back and forth across the country in my presentations, I am stunned at the lack of attention being given to structured retention programs. Perhaps, many company executives feel that since there are no jobs available, there is no need to invest in retention programs – as in “our employees are not going anywhere.”

What if 1 or 2 of your top performing engineers, sales reps, or pivotal executives suddenly walked into your office and resigned tomorrow? Do you have a back-up plan in place? Maybe you’ve been working on a succession plan? What if the 1 or 2 leaving triggered a brain drain or exodus of talent?

Review Retention Best Practices

I would like to suggest it might be time to review your current retention programs to update, improve, enhance, and implement changes to ensure your best talent does NOT leave as the job market rebounds.

Some best practice areas to focus on:

• Culture – is there dysfunction in your culture? Have you surveyed your employees for their satisfaction levels?

• Feedback – do you have a rigorous process for One-to-Ones for coaching, development, and success-based leadership?

• Non-Monetary Rewards and Recognition – top talent only performs to a standing ovation. Do you have a series of programs aimed at supervisory, team, and company-wide non-monetary recognition?

• Acceptance of Mediocrity – top talent wants to be in a success-based environment. Can you claim that you’ve embedded success-based management principles in the fabric of your business?

• Learning and Development – how aggressive are you pushing learning, training, and development throughout your organization? Your best people will stay in an organization that helps them grow at a high rate.

Here’s a great question that might keep you awake at night:

What are you doing right now to improve your ability to retain your best talent over the next 12-18 months?

Share in the comments your thoughts, ideas, strategies, and methods for keeping your best talent engaged, motivated, passionate, and committed to staying in your company.

Barry Deutsch

photo credit Flickr

Are you running an Adult Day Care Center for Your Employees?

In a recent discussion with a candidate, we were discussing a search assignment I am conducting for a senior sales executive.  This particular candidate has a very strong sales background and was then promoted into management, where the focus of his time shifted from selling to overseeing several project managers and sales people.  When I asked this candidate why he wanted to get out of management and instead sell on the front lines, his reply to me was, “To be honest with you Mike, I am tired of running an adult day care center.”

In my 14 years of recruiting, having interviewed thousands of sales candidates and managers, I have never heard such a funny and sometimes accurate description of managing a sales force.  Can you picture what this candidates job is like from day to day?  It was more than obvious to me why he was looking for a role change and how he felt about being in management.

I am sure that not all managers feel this way about managing their sales forces, but I would bet that more do than most people would expect.  What about you?  Do you feel this way about the group you manage?  Too many sales managers are thrown into a management role because they were top performing sales people and the executive team automatically assumes that a top sales person is the best fit to manage a sales team.  While this may be true in some cases, it is more often an erroneous assumption that has drastic consequences for the new manager, the reps that work for them and the entire company.

Here are some indications that managing your sales team is like running an adult day care center:

1.  Whining and Complaining:  When you listen to your sales people, do they see great selling opportunities in front of them regardless of the competition, economy and other factors that are completely out of their control?  Ask questions and listen carefully.

2.  Being asked too many times to do something:  Does the performance of your sales team go down when you are not present and spending personal time with the reps?  I am not saying that managers don’t need to spend time with their people.  What I am saying is that really good sales people don’t need anyone to prompt them to take action and make things happen.  They are confident in themselves and responsible enough to get the job done by themselves.  They are self starters and can hold themselves largely accountable to themselves.

3.  Poor Attitude:  Do your sales people have an optimistic attitude regardless of circumstances?  Are they the type of people who fill your bucket or drain it?  Do they see the water in the glass no matter how full it is or is not?  Attitude is much like water on top of a mountain.  As soon as it hits the ground, it impacts everything in its path.  So to, a person’s attitude, good or bad, will have a direct impact on anyone in their presence including peers, managers, and customers.

4.  Excuses and Explanations:  When your sales team is not performing to expectations and sales are not going as planned, is there always a reason or explanation why this is the case or do your sales people look you in the eye and say, “yes, it is my fault and here is what I am going to do about it?” Too many sales people blame customers, vendors, the economy, competitors, or anything else besides themselves for poor performance. As a manager, do you let them get away with it or do you push back and help your people take full responsibility for their results?

5.  Selfish Behavior:  How much do your sales team members go out of their way to really help others?  What about going the extra mile for a customer even when the sales person will not get paid for it or won’t get “credit.”?  Yes I know that sales people are driven to make money and if they don’t spend enough time building their own business, their income and results will suffer.  However, world class sales people can find a way to drive their own business, get results that exceed expectation and find time to help others and go out of their way when their is a real need to do so.

What are other symptoms in your sales organization that might lead you to the conclusion you’re running an “adult day care center?”

Mike Pierce

Photo Credit Flickr

If you’re looking for a job – don’t apply here.

One of the things I’ve noticed when working with successful business owners and executive leaders in large corporations is that they know who to hire. They look for certain characteristics in the person they put on the team. One of the first things they try to determine (once the skills are out of the way) is whether or not the person is hunting for a job or a position of responsibility.

If the candidate is looking for a job, they don’t go any further with the interview. If the candidate indicates that what motivates them and gets them up every day is a position with responsibility for which they are held accountable, then the interview continues in earnest, with success factors and lots of questions. The open ended questions will focus on how to figure out if the candidate takes responsibility for the consequences of her/his decisions. “What was the single biggest failure you’ve experienced professionally and what did you learn?” “Can you provide an example of  how you made an uniformed decision and then went back to correct it to take the project down a new path?” “Give me an example of how you allowed hard data analysis to override your instinct when making a business decision.” The candidate had better be prepared to give substantial examples that can be verified.

As you might guess, the person asking these questions isn’t looking for someone who is simply wanting to come in, do what s/he is told, let others take responsibility and go home at five. Nor is the hiring manager looking for someone who always sees outside forces or internal bureaucracy as getting in the way or causing failure. No, this manager or executive is not hiring someone for a job. Instead, they are looking for a person who takes responsibility; one who analyzes situations and is willing to look at data with fresh eyes. This manager is likely building a team that isn’t afraid of admitting mistakes, pointing out areas for improvement, or being the bearer of “bad news.” They are looking for a professional.

Let’s look at the other side. If I am a candidate who thrives on being in a position of responsibility, believe in being held accountable, and believe in being “data driven,” then I would want an interview to proceed as outlined above. If the hiring manager isn’t asking questions that lead me to believe they are looking for a professional, then I might take the initiative to ask some of the questions myself. I’d be very tempted to ask, “How will you know that the candidate you hire is successful?” What would you expect to be accomplished in the first three months and how will you measure it?” “How would you describe the culture of accountability in your organization?” If the manager fumbles the answers to these questions, this is not a cultural match for me and I may want to move on. That’s a very difficult decision, especially in these times. However, to settle for a job when you are looking for responsibility and a career position is going to hurt you in the long run.

Readers of this blog will not find too much surprising in this post. Yet, I see hiring managers make the same mistakes over and over again. I also see senior executives taking jobs in a panic – they have bills to pay and a family to support. Here is where I see the problem manifest most often – hiring a salesperson or sales manager. Sales people have a built in aversion to accepting responsibility for failure. Now before you fill my in-basket with hate mail, let me admit that I have come up through the sales ranks and managed a multi-channel sales team at several companies. I found myself succumbing to the very mindset that I’m suggesting isn’t healthy. There’s a simple and understandable explanation for this stereotype of the salesperson (apologies for those of you who have figured this out and grown out of it). A salesperson always faces more rejection in the average day than many people face in a year. They have to build up a thick skin. They have to accept the rejection, BELIEVE that it isn’t personal, and move on to the next opportunity. That understandable need tends to create a habit of looking outside of our own actions for the reasons for failure. We have to guard against that eventuality and admit that while understandable, it is not acceptable to ALWAYS assume the failure is not ours. As the hiring manager for a high functioning sales team, I found it very challenging to dig down and get to the point of “when are you accountable for the failure of a sales initiative or forecast”; both for my sales team (including myself) and with prospective candidates for the team. It turns out getting there was crucial for a successful hire.

So back to the beginning statement. If you’re looking for a job (no responsibility, just put in the time, collect a paycheck and go home), don’t apply here – even if the position is for the assembly line. If you’re looking to take responsibility for your actions, hold yourself accountable and are willing to grow, then let’s get started on what it will take to be successful. Be ready to give examples of how you’ve made mistakes, accepted the responsibility for them and learned from them. Be ready to demonstrate how you are open to various views of and conclusions derived from the same data. If you’re successful, we will be building a highly functional and exciting team. In my book, that’s better than a job any day. Even in this horrible market.

Hiring sales people is difficult for everyone. We just launched our Sales Recruiting Division to help companies with this issue. As the economy turns, good sales people will be harder to find and even harder to identify. CLICK HERE to get a Free Success Factor Snapshot for your sales position.

For more information on hiring top talent, read our best-selling book (0ver 10,000) You’re NOT the Person I Hired. CLICK HERE to read reviews.

About the author

Dave Kinnear is a sought after business advisor and mentor. He works with highly successful executives through one-to-one mentoring and coaching meetings. Individuals who are presently running successful businesses and executives in transition work with Dave to ensure meeting corporate and/or career goals. Through his affiliation with Vistage International, Dave convenes and facilitates Advisory Boards comprising Business Owners, Company Presidents and Chief Executives dedicated to becoming better leaders who make better decisions and achieve better results.

Leadership: How one good apple can save the whole barrel

The private equity firm was in a world of hurt. They paid over $100 million dollars for this fast food restaurant chain and it was now losing over $40 million a year. Their investment was now effectively worth zero. They called me in to find a new CEO for the company. We interviewed many candidates, but one stood out above the rest. Why? Our questions about leadership brought out his greatest strength. You could tell from his answers he was more than a manager, he was a leader. He came from a very large fast food chain where, frankly, he wasn’t all that well liked by senior management. They were uncomfortable with his “style”. But, his “style” created a team where every person who worked for him loved him and would work their fingers to the bone for him. Not surprisingly, he took the worst region in the company and made it into the most profitable region in the company. This guy worked harder than anyone. Despite being an EVP, he wouldn’t hesitate to grab a rag and wipe down a table when he visited a restaurant. He had example after example on how he turned around his region through hard work and leadership.

When he met with our client, in 15 minutes they knew they had found their new CEO. He took the job and within two years had the company back in the black. How? Was he a management genius? No. He was successful because he was a leader, not just a manager. His team believed in him, his banks believed in him, and his private equity investors believed in him. He was able to get the performance he needed from his employees and the financial backing he needed from the financial community. Good leaders hire good leaders and he was no exception. He hired a good team and the rest is history. He was with the company for over a decade and sold it to a financial buyer for over $600 million. (Needless to say, he’s now “on the beach”.)

Lesson: Don’t confuse management with leadership. Ask candidates for examples of where they’ve demonstrated leadership. Would their subordinates say they were a strong leader? Why? Have a hiring process designed to attract and retain top quartile talent throughout your organization and your opportunities will become endless.

Is your hiring methodology designed to attract top talent? If you want to assess the quality of your hiring process, download a free copy of our 8-Point Hiring Methodology Assessment Scorecard. CLICK HERE to download.

You should also join our Hiring and Retaining Top Talent group on LinkedIn. There are many great articles and discussions on  hiring. CLICK HERE to join.

Author’s Bio

Mike is the founder of Hagerthy & Co, an executive search, training and consulting firm. For information on how to arrange for their complimentary Hiring Process Assessment go to www.hagnco.com/page13.html#HiringProcess

Losing a Top Candidate – Perception is The Only Reality. Lessons learned from 20 years on the front lines of the talent wars.

You rarely lose a top candidate at the end of the hiring process. It’s usually in steps taken along the way. In this case the client made a series of seemingly small mistakes that resulted in the candidate declining to go forward. It started simply by the hiring manager keeping the candidate waiting 30 minutes, then, he compounded the problem by not being prepared for the interview. “He didn’t seem to remember much about my background”, the candidate later confided in me. Despite the rocky start, the candidate returned for a series of additional interviews with other members of the management team. All went well, but the last interview was to be with a senior manager who was on a sales trip in Europe. No problem, we would arrange a phone interview. Week one resulted in no interview being arranged. It wasn’t until week two that the senior executive could “make room on his calendar” to call the candidate. The executive was 30 minutes late making the call and it lasted only 30 minutes. (Eight or nine time zones difference and he couldn’t find 30 minutes on his calendar for two weeks?) Finally, the client told me that all of the executives were very excited about the candidate and they wanted to move forward with an offer. I was told to inform the candidate that an offer would be sent to him “in a week or so”, as soon as the hiring manager could get all of the required approvals. At this point the candidate declined to continue. “To me, a hiring process is a reflection of how a company operates and makes decisions. I didn’t like what I saw.” The candidate took a job with a much larger company which had moved faster and more efficiently than this client.

Lesson learned: The best window any candidate has into the culture of an organization is the way it goes about the hiring process. If your process isn’t tight, professional, organized and strategic, top quartile candidates will go elsewhere, and they may tell their friends about their experience. One bad hiring process can equal two problems, the loss of a top candidate and a bad public relations moment.

Check your culture by downloading our Cultural Assessment. CLICK HERE to download a free assessment.

Is your hiring process effective at attracting top talent? Our 8-Point Hiring Methodology Assessment Scorecard will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your hiring process. CLICK HERE to download a free scorecard.

Mike is the founder of Hagerthy & Co, an executive search, training and consulting firm. For information on how to arrange for their complimentary Hiring Process Assessment go to: www.hagnco.com/page13.html#HiringProcess.

Can’t Find People? They Are Hiding In Plain Sight – 3 Examples

Finding people is a consistent problem we encounter just about every time we ask CEOs or key executives what their biggest issue is when it comes to hiring. If it isn’t in the top three it is always in the top five.

Yet when you ask them what their process is to find top talent most reply in the same way, “We run ads” or “We post it internally.” That is the way 80% of all companies go about finding people.

Below are three real life examples of alternative ways of finding people.

1) In 2007, I was having lunch with a partner from a local CPA firm. During lunch he commented that they had been struggling for six months to find an audit manager. In fact, he commented that they would pay a $10,000 bounty for an employee referral. I didn’t add a zero. So I asked, “How many people have you hired?”  The reply, “None.” They were doing the usual, running ads and asking current employees. That was their process for finding people.

So as the lunch continued, he mentioned to me that they had just brought on a new client and that he had just had lunch with the new CFO at this same restaurant. I immediately asked the partner, “Did you ask the CFO who was the best audit manager at his current company?” or “Who were some of the best audit managers he had worked with in the past?” He had never even thought of this. I suggested that he could contact all of his CFO clients and ask them. After all, it is in the client’s best interest to have good audit managers.

This was such an obvious thing to me and yet he was willing to pay ten grand. For those of you thinking it takes too much time to find good people, I don’t think asking these few questions would have extended the lunch that much.

2) Last year I was conducting one of our in-house workshops for a mid-sized technology company in New York. During the workshop, one of the key executives mentioned how difficult it is to hire technical people. I probed a little further and asked about the type of people they hire. She commented that they want people comfortable with technology. People who understand how networks work, people who diagnose a computer problem when a client calls with a problem, install software, and perform basic repairs that clients need right away if something goes wrong. They were willing to train on their specific systems and software. They just wanted someone that was moderately technical and comfortable with technology.

These people were “extremely” hard to find.

I asked if they ever go to Best Buy and engage the Geek Squad. Have they ever taken in a computer and found someone that provides great customer service and demonstrates that they understand technical issues?

She and her team had never thought about these people. I received an email two months after the workshop letting me know they had hired two people from Best Buy.

3) My best friend manages a store for one of the major retail chains. Every time we play golf, I have to listen to him complain about how hard it is to find people willing to work. He complains that his company works people hard and is demanding. The result is a lot of turnover.

So I asked him how often when he or his team is out shopping and they come across a great person in another retail chain do they engage the person, give them a business card and ask the person to call him, or let the person know that if they ever think about leaving to call him.

I mentioned that I go to a coffee shop most mornings when I’m in town for an hour of work. At this coffee shop, every person is probably in their late teens and early twenties. These people run the coffee shop. They open every morning at 6 AM so they have to get there by 5:30, they are friendly, they know customers by name, the coffee shop is clean and they are great employees. So I asked if he ever asked any of them about potentially coming to work a his store.

In both cases he replied no, and that he doesn’t even encourage his team leaders to be aware of potential employees when they are out shopping.

Qualified people are all around us. As a recruiter, I always have my antenna up. Most CEOs and hiring managers just walk right by these people. Work with  your team and start noticing people hiding in plain sight.

Download our Hiring Process Self Assessment Scorecard and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your hiring system. CLICK HERE to get your assessment.

Get our most popular chapter “Sourcing Top Talent” from our best selling book, “You’re NOT The Person I Hired” which is available for Free to download. CLICK HERE to get the chapter.

Consider joining our LinkedIn group,  Hire and Retain Top Talent. This group is dedicated to discussions and articles to help  you improve your hiring and retention. CLICK HERE to join the group.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

Is Your Organization Going To Make It To 2010 and Beyond? Part 2

We focused on the question above in part one of this article. If this is keeping you up at night, we have some additional ideas for you to consider and implement so your organization will not only make it through the current storm but will thrive well into the future!   You’ll know by reading this article if your ship is heading towards the rocks, towards the open sea or on a clear course to your destination.

A Checklist for Success

• When selecting the crew – have a clear understanding of the ideal crew member and have a system and process to assure you have selected the correct crew members. This can be done through interviewing and asking questions for specific examples and compare those answers to what an ideal crew member would do. Gather as much data as possible from reference and background checks as well as provide an in-depth work style and personality assessment with Lighthouse Consulting Services.  The information should be used to validate the interview responses, background and reference checks.
• Ask each current crew member for feedback on where they see the team and themselves could be more efficient in the market place within the next 30-60-90 days. This means that everyone on your ship needs to have their eyes and ears open to seeing where it might be possible to improve and enhance processes, structure, services, customer service, etc.
• Captains and officers need to listen to everyone and create a truly open environment. Come up with three things that you can do that will make that happen.
• Define what the ideal crew member would possess in skills, work style and personality and make it measurable.
• Assist the current crew to fulfill that role. Make sure you have an in-depth work style and personality assessment of your crew members so you’ll have the insight to help everyone thrive and to get the best performance from every member of the team.  You’ll want to know how someone problem-solves, deals with stress, makes decisions, processes information, creates and follows up on leads, etc.  This will help to ensure that you have the right person in the correct position so they can perform to the best of their ability.  Contact us at reception@lighthouseconsulting.com to get started.

If you have the right team in place, your organization will be able to deal with the many challenges that will come along during the voyage. The key is to hire right the first time and to assist those on board to be the best that they can be.  This will lead to happy customers, happy employees, innovation for the future, efficiency for delivery of the product or service and of course, a profitable bottom line.

To take a leadership assessment to see if you have what it takes to help your organization sail well into the future, please click on this link:

http://www.crackingthepersonalitycode.com/LeadershipTest.php

You can gather additional ideas for working with your current and future crew members by reading Cracking The Personality Code. To order this book, go to: www.crackingthepersonalitycode.com.

Is your culture one of team work and does everyone in your company agree? Have them take our Company Cultural Assessment. CLICK HERE to download your assessment.

Is  your hiring methodology designed to attract top talent and weed out those candidates that embellish? You can download our 8 Point Hiring Methodology Assessment Scorecard and find out. CLICK HERE to download.

Dana Borowka, MA, CEO of Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC has over 25 years experience in the area of business consulting and helping organizations both nationally and internationally in raising the hiring bar through using in-depth work style assessments.  Dana is a nationally recognized speaker on this topic and has built a well recognized organization that provides expert interpretation of in-depth work style assessments during the hiring process, providing a variety of workshops and assisting those with communication challenges. He is the co-author of the book, “Cracking the Personality Code”.

If you would like additional information on this topic or others, please contact your Human Resources department or Lighthouse Consulting Services LLC, 3130 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 550, Santa Monica, CA  90403, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com & our Website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com

Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services, including in-depth personality assessments for new hires & staff development, team building, interpersonal & communication training, conflict management, workshops, and executive & employee coaching.

Retaining Top Talent With Non-Monetary Rewards Part 1

As a recruiter for almost thirty years, I have interviewed and spoken with thousands of candidates.  More often than not, compensation isn’t the reason we are able to get them interested in a new opportunity. Most of the time compensation is a secondary concern. In fact, both myself and my partner, Barry Deutsch, have a long standing policy that if compensation is the issue, we will not work with them.

With our candidates, their primary concern is focused on non-monetary issues. Most of the time it evolves around their boss or the company. This is not to say compensation isn’t important to them, but it isn’t the primary motivator to listen to a recruiter.

The reverse is also true. When potential candidates decide not to listen to a potential opportunity, it usually isn’t because they feel they are overpaid and that no other company will pay them as much. Rather it is generally that they have a great relationship with their boss and love working at the company.

After listening to so many potential candidates turn us down because they were so happy working where they are, we have come up with 7 things  these companies consistently do to create a culture that retains their talent. You don’t have to do all of these, but if you aren’t doing any of them you might want to reconsider.

1) Verbal Praise - These companies give what we call, “Standing Ovations” for outstanding performance. They take the time to recognize when someone goes above and beyond the call of duty. They also give praise  or even a simple thanks when someone does a good job. This is sincere praise and thanks, not just given as a matter of fact.  The contrast is a culture in which the employee’s performance  is viewed as, “just doing their job” or “isn’t that what we pay them to do.”

2) Achievement Awards – Another form of praise. These achievement awards are earned. It is not about sooner or later everyone will get one, so everybody feels good. That loses all of their meaning and significance. These awards take different forms in different companies. Some examples include a reserved parking space, employee of the month, a trophy prominently displayed in the person’s office, certificates, mention in the company newsletter, a pin handed out by the CEO, lunch with the CEO and executive team, take a break and cake on Friday afternoon, etc.  The important point is that the employees appreciate the recognition and don’t take it for granted.

3)  Learning and Development – Top performers want to continue to learn and develop their skills. Does your company encourage on-going learning for your employees? This might include giving them some time off to attend classes, bringing a topic expert in to speak to a group, allowing them to attend a workshop, have an on-line training program they can complete, or encouraging involvement in professional association and trade associations. These types of programs generally don’t take a lot of time or can be performed outside of working hours and the ROI to the company can be huge.

4) Fun and Recreational Events – My daughter works for a private university. They recognize that they don’t pay at the industry level. They overcome this in many ways, but one way is that either her department or the administrative team will do some fun thing that takes an hour or two. Some examples include, a putting contest in the office, a picnic at the park for lunch,one time her department took off an hour early to go see the filming of the Tonight Show, they went bowling during lunch time, they will take a few minutes late in the day and play a game of charades or Pictionary, etc. These are just fun things that make it a great place to work. To the workers this is worth making a few dollars less because they enjoy the people and their efforts are recognized.

Part 2 will cover the final three non-monetary rewards you can do to retain your best talent.

A free audio recording from our radio show that discusses these in more detail is available on our Web site. CLICK HERE to download a copy.

Join our LinkedIn Group, Hiring and Retaining Talent for additional discussions and articles. CLICK HERE to join.

If this article was helpful to you, please pass it on to others so they can also benefit. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

How To Attract and Retain Sales and Customer Service People Using In-depth Work Style Personality Testing Part 2

How do you build up your sales and customer service force in a down economy? In part one of this article, we talked about some ways to attract and retain your sales and customer service people. Below are additional ways to use personality testing in the workplace to help attract and retain sales and customer service people:

1. Treat co-workers the way they want to be treated. In today’s fast-paced world of business, there is little time to get to know many of your co-workers. Using personality assessments as the basis for team building exercises can quickly get everyone to have a healthier respect for other ways of seeing the world.

2. Get everybody to play nice. Sales and IT, customer service and marketing, operations and financial people have to interact to make the company run smoothly. Too many employees get frustrated with other co-workers and just wonder why everyone doesn’t act like them. Through the use of personality profiles, managers can coach employees on how to interact better with peers.

3. Make managers better leaders.  The days of seat of the pants leadership are over.  When sales and customer service managers understand what makes their people tick, then they can be better leaders.   Knowing personality traits can help with motivating teams, communicating change and delegating authority.

4. Pick better teams. Today so much work is done by ad hoc teams that come together for a specific purpose.  Before you assemble a sales or customer service team it pays to know the strengths and weaknesses of the team members.  Sometimes this can be the difference between a productive team that gets the job done and one that pulls apart at the seams.

5. Set people up for success.  Sometimes we hire the right employee and put them in the wrong job.  Understanding preferred work styles and where a person would be happiest goes a long way to improving retention and productivity.

While in-depth work style & personality testing can be a valuable resource before you hire sales and customer service people, perhaps the true value of any assessment comes in using the insights it provides along the entire spectrum of employment. Personality assessments lend objectivity to decisions that may otherwise be largely subjective.

If this was helpful to you then it will be helpful to others. Consider passing it along to your team, emailing it to your network or updating  your status on Linkedin. Helping others is always a good thing.

Remember, it is not how many great people you hire. The true measure is how many great people you keep! For more information, please visit our Web site , www.lighthouseconsulting.com to sign up for our Open Line webinars and monthly articles.

You can download the recording from our radio show on Retaining Top Talent with Non-Monetary Rewards and Recognition. This is a two part series. CLICK HERE to download.

Join our Linkedin group Hiring and Retaining Top Talent. Lots of discussions and articles on this topic. CLICK HERE to join.

Author Bio

Dana Borowka, MA, CEO of Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC has over 25 years experience in the area of business consulting and helping organizations both nationally and internationally in raising the hiring bar through using in-depth work style assessments. Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services, including in-depth work style assessments for new hires & staff development, team building, interpersonal & communication training, career guidance & transition, conflict management, workshops, and executive & employee coaching.  To order the book, “Cracking the Personality Code” please go to www.crackingthepersonalitycode.com.

Letting Employees Go Is A PR Event

Most have heard that hiring is a PR event. You should make sure that, whether you hire the person or not, they leave your company wishing they got the job. That way, they will speak highly of your company to others that might want to work there. This is especially true in small industries and communities where everybody knows everybody else.

The last thing you want is people telling future potential employees how bad the company or hiring manager was when they interviewed and that they would never work for that hiring manager or company.

Not good PR if you plan on attracting top talent to your company. In fact, a great way to ensure top talent will work for your competitors.

I don’t think some (not all) companies or managers recognize the same principles apply when laying people off or even firing them.

Well they do, and I can  demonstrate this, because I recently encountered bad PR. Twice.

First example

I was recruiting for a Regional Director of Sales in the upper northeast. Because of the weather, it isn’t easy to relocate people there.  The company was in a very niche industry, and because it was a senior level sales job, industry experience was important.

It didn’t take long before trouble set in. Did I mention the reason for the opening was that the previous person was fired? Apparently, the manner in which the person’s boss fired him was at best inappropriate and at worst down right wrong and disrespectful.

The fired employee had spread the word about his treatment all around, stating what a jerk this person was to work for and how he badly he treated people. He also took the time to go into great detail about how he was fired. Now, what I heard when I tried to recruit people was, “I’m open to talking as long as it isn’t for X company working for X?” WOW, what a way to start a search in a small industry in a small geographical area.

This all happened because the VP didn’t see firing as a PR event. The best way to fire someone is to make them think you are doing them a favor, not by degrading them, surprising them, or throwing them out of the building. This VP took a bad situation (firing someone) and made it worse by the manner in which he did it. If the VP had done it correctly, he would have still reached his goal of letting the person go, but he also could have set himself up as a person that cares and people want to work for.

Second example

I live in Orange County, California. Most people think it is part of Los Angeles. It isn’t. For such a large area, it is actually its own community. Large enough to get lost, but small enough that people get to know people. There are so many networking groups that it is literally hard to plan an event because the first thing that comes up is, you know XYZ networking group meets then. At almost any time day and night, every day of the week, some group is getting together. Some groups have attendance in the hundreds and some have less. Regardless, there are a lot and this is how people get to know people in Orange County, California.

At a recent event I noticed a lot of people were saying, “Did you hear about ABC Company and how they did the RIF?”  RIF stands for reduction in force, or in plain English laid people off.  This was the buzz while people were standing around talking before the meeting started. Apparently, some of the people that got laid off were at the meeting and telling horror stories about how the company treated the employees they let go. Many of whom had been with the company for some time.

How many other meetings do you think these people attended in the next week and started telling the same stories? Not to mention all the people at the first meeting perpetuating the stories to their network, colleagues, friends and family. We used to say, this is how rumors start. Now we say this story is going viral. It won’t be long before this company’s reputation precedes them. When the economy shifts, and they need to hire people, it will not be easy.

All because they didn’t think of letting people go as a PR event. An event that impacts the company’s reputation and how it is viewed in its industry and community.

If you found this helpful, please forward it on to others so they will be helped. You can email it to your team, forward it to your network, post on Linkedin or company Web site. Let’s help everyone build teams of top talent.

You can join our Linkedin Hiring and Retaining Top Talent group where there is a lot more information on this and many other topics. There are also discussions and on-line articles. CLICK HERE to join and participate.

Our 8 Point Hiring Process Assessment Scorecard is available to download for free. Try taking this and learning if your hiring process is designed to attract, hire and retain top talent. CLICK HERE to download your scorecard.

I welcome your thoughts, comments and questions.

Brad Remillard