I just read an article written by a colleague of mine, Marty Caldwell. Here is a link to his article https://goo.gl/8K09Mr. The title of the article Corporate Vision and How It Creates Sales Success applies not only to sales but to all areas of an organization. Corporate Vision can also attract the right people to your organization. The phrase “Employer Branding” is getting used more often today. If you aren’t familiar with what it is, I suggest you take some time research it, and learn how, not if, your organization implements it.
What is “Employer Branding”?
Universumglobal.com defines Employer Branding as the process of promoting a company, or an organization, as the employer of choice to a desired target group, one which a company needs and wants to recruit and retain.
In Marty’s post, he begins with the line Successful sales organizations begin at the top and execute at all levels. He also says that that Vision, Mission, Values, Strategies and Tactics are the guidelines to sales success. I would suggest that same philosophy applies to how you attract, recruit and retain people for your organization. In this post, I want to really focus on the attracting and recruiting.
Nothing new about hiring A-Players? Think Again.
Everyone wants to hire “A-players”. But how do you define A-players? How do you define A-players for your organization? Do you have the ideal profile for those A-players? If you don’t, then how do you insure that your hiring the right person? Some people say it’s just a gut feeling, others would say they were the best we could find at the time. I would say, that’s all garbage!
In a soon to be released eBook titled “The ART of Hiring A-Players Today” it mentions the cost of mis-hiring and mis-promoting is 5X-24X the individual’s salary. DO THE MATH! For a $50,000 a year employee, that amounts to $250,000 to $1,200,000! It also asks the question, why are so many people are bad at hiring? The reason for mis-hires are many, but the top 7 reasons for it are:
1. No clear definition of the hiring requirements. What are the MUST HAVE items?
2. No clear ownership of the hiring process. Who is ultimately responsible for the hire?
3. Reliance on one person to make the decision for the hire. Who else interviews?
4. Hiring for functional attributes ONLY. Do they fit in with the team or group?
5. Hiring based on interview only. Are they really who they say they are?
6. Lack of thoroughness in the process. Who validated their claims? References?
7. Poor on-boarding. How do we acclimate them to our team / company / products?
Attracting, Recruiting and Retaining – Starts at the Top
So, no need to panic, we all stink at this process or have in the past. How can we make sure we are attracting-recruiting and retaining those A-Players?
1. Define what an A-B-C player looks like within your organization and communicate throughout the ENTIRE organization. State what having the right players on your team means to the success of your organization, and what the wrong players mean to your detriment. Think in terms of $$$ and overall morale. Make it a part of your dialogue both internally and externally. It must become a part of your culture, who you are. (Vision)
2. Determine who is responsible for the process. How it will be implemented and communicated throughout the ENTIRE organization. Also, develop a training protocol for success. Define expected outcomes. (Mission)
3. Discuss expectations with everyone on the team and what attributes or skills are critical to measure for recruiting and retaining the correct people to and within the organization. Also define metrics that will measure the success of the organization (Values)
4. Decide how you will find these candidates. Whether using internal or external sources. If using external sources, they must also be on board and understand how you define your hiring strategy for A-players. Also create tools, that make it easy for those interviewing and hiring. (Strategies)
5. Train on the message and implement the tools. Measure your success using well defined metrics. Also, make sure you are getting feedback from your organization on a regular basis. If you think once a year is enough, you’re wrong. (Tactics)
I think there is so much more to be stated about this topic. May be more in my next post. Also, if you would be interested in the eBook “The ART of Hiring A-Players Today”, drop me a message and once released I will make sure you get a FREE copy.
Jeff can be contacted at jrivers@cercatalent.com or by phone at 800-350-9303 x103