hiring Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

19
Feb 21
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Team Selection and Scarcity or Abundance

Tags : entrepreneurs hiring team dynamics team selection

It’s just you and your team. Sometimes it may feel like it is only you, and for some entrepreneurs, this is literally the case. For everyone else, team selection requires careful choices.

When there is a scarcity of talent or just warm bodies, it requires special choices. The opposite is also true, if there is abundance, while the selection is different it still requires choices.

There are hundreds of thousands, likely many million, podcasters, vloggers, and bloggers. Who pops up in the search engine? How are the top five or ten, or two-hundred and fifty selected?

Whether you’re searching for an answer to your technology problem, a recipe, or how-to put-on makeup, who arrives at the top of the list?

It is a mad race to create scarcity amongst abundance.

Team Selection

It may be happening for you in the workplace too.

It is likely happening with your company or team. Who is selected to join the team, who gets promoted, who serves as the engine to lead or propel outcomes to the top?

Your culture is made up of the people. Not only the people who completely agree with everything said and done, but those who disagree as well.

A group of programmers get together because of mutual interest in coding. A team of marketers, service experts, and accountants all do the same.

What do they build?

There is a really good chance that they build something that delights people who are just like them. However, the programmers may not do well with marketing. And the marketers may screw up their financials.

Diversity in the team always matters for long-term success. For people like you, and people not like you.

How will you pick who rises to the top? How will you sort out the best of the best from an abundance of choices?

The strategy you deploy will make the difference. Your philosophy for selecting team members and the culture you’ve created will impact future selection. It is also alive and ever-changing.

Creating scarcity amongst abundance is based on your system. It’s based on the algorithms of how you’ll search.

Be aware of how you get to your top five, or more importantly your number one.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

19
Jun 20
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Recognizing Workplace Culture is the First Step

Tags : culture employees fit hiring

Every group who has assembled has an element of culture. Recognizing workplace culture can be tricky. It’s tricky because you are inside of it, living it, breathing it, and surviving it.

When you’re on the outside looking in, or else you’ve already taken a step inside, it may look quite different than what you consider normal.

It’s no secret that culture is driven by leadership. Sub-cultures may be driven by sub-groups, cliques, and special interests. Yet, someone is still leading those efforts. Even when they may not realize or consciously identify the leaders.

Can Anyone Fit?

Many businesses suggest that they hire for fit. Fit in some cases may mean unique skills for the job, but in many cases, it means that the candidate will fit the organizational culture.

Some might suggest that culture is about systems. Systems for work flow, systems for measurement, and systems that protect the secret formula.

Employees are frequently reminded of their need to operate within the system. Do as we say, never do this, always do that.

In a general sense, this is probably all okay. It is however, a baseline for the culture. It is also directly connected to the brand.

Recognizing Workplace Culture

When there is attraction or lust for the culture, it’s easy to find members to join.

Run an employment ad, and lots of people apply.

And yes, absolutely, the current unemployment has a cause and effect.

Setting aside the aspects connected to the unemployment rate, are people interested to work with your organization?

Are people jumping at the chance?

What is the chatter on the street? Is the appearance of the physical facilities attractive, neat, and organized? Is it historical, modern, or hi-tech? What are the working conditions, hours, and rate of pay?

Organizations have two struggles with culture.

What should it look like and what does it look like?

What happens within the culture explains the ease of success or the struggles of failure.

A really good culture may be one where anyone can fit.

-DEG

29
Oct 18
-

Confusion About Finding Your Best Employees

Tags : best employees best fit differences hiring

We decide quickly who we want to work with and who we don’t. The job interview is largely about fit, the skills are often assumed based on a resume or CV. Are you one of the best employees?

Low unemployment means challenges to hire, yet everyday someone still seems to be interested in more work, improving their career, and creating a better life.

Best Fit

The very small business, they often get along. There isn’t really a choice, you are on the team or you are off. As an organization grows so does the opportunity to have a path in mind that is different from the prescribed.

Many organizations pride themselves on selection based solely on their perceived idea of fit. Workplace politics guide acceptance, promotions, or establish differences.

Navigation becomes an art. It is often not determined by value or merit.

The board of directors, the C-Suite executive, or employee of the month may be chosen based on relationships and who agrees the most with the flow.

Someone has a back itch, someone else scratches.

Best Difference

People go to the pub, the microbrewery, and they order a flight of beer. Not because they want what others are drinking but because they want to choose from different options.

Pairing wine with the entree requires an opinion, some knowledge, and some skill. Ketchup on mashed potatoes may seem like a strange idea, but so is hot sauce on chicken, or deep-fried pickles.

What does all this mean or why does it matter?

Best Employees

It matters because your very best employees may not have the right name, a certain look, or fit perfectly into your club.

It may matter more what they bring to your organization that is missing and not how they align with the clutter of confusion, roadblocks, or group think that is already present.

People leave organizations for many reasons. One reason is that someone or something is blocking their way. Their energy, skills, and talent are being overlooked, underappreciated, or wrongfully dismissed.

Sure, they may be different but the talent that they will deliver to the next organization is the exact talent that you gave up.

It is sad when the worst employees stay and the best employees go.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

20
Jun 18
-

Job Candidates and Picking The Right One

Tags : candidates fit hiring job

So many choices, which will you choose? Job candidates often come by the dozens, or even more. What factors or indicators do you use? Best resume, most personable, or the one who appears to be the best fit with your culture?

Certainly, all your choices are often connected with the specific job. Not all jobs in your workplace are the same. They are not always seeking the same level of skills or talent, and not all of them will hold the same potential for growth.

How do you decide?

Irony of Choice

Go to your local grocery store or farmers market, who has the best watermelon? The crate has fifteen or twenty, which one is the best? Searching from the presentation is challenging, it is hard to know what is inside.

Banana’s they are another story. As they ripen, which bunch will be the best? You have dozens to choose from, the pick is yours.

Do you take a chance? What is your best guess? How often are you successful?

Job Candidates

It may be true with people too. We search around on the surface. We look at the outside, the packaging, the presentation, and the stand out.

Pushed against time, we feel pressured to make the decision sooner rather than later. We want the best pick.

We may review resumes, curriculum vitae, and let technology do some of our filtering. Telephone calls are scheduled, we may hold face-to-face interviews, and we may spend a little time scouring the web for any bad press.

Clothing is often judged, the presence, the fit, and an assessment of the feeling. Is there comfort, appropriate confidence, and how will we get along?

References may be checked and for some candidates we may ask around. Who knows this person and what will they say about them?

Do you make the right choices?

The Right Pick

You can take your best guess with the watermelon or bananas, neither will last for very long.

Who is the best job candidate? How will they change across time?

It seems you really have two indicators, what you see on the surface and what you will get.

Remember that the grocer often chooses what you’ll see.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

09
May 18
-

Succession and Building a Small Business Empire

Tags : hiring human resources leadership succession

Many small business owners and CEO’s wonder what they’ll do next. Many are not serial entrepreneurs but they are passionate about the work that they do. What happens as the window of their reign starts to close? Have they prepared the organization to continue, will there be successful succession?

It is interesting to ask the small business CEO, “Who is number two?” It is not uncommon that they’ll flinch and squirm a little. Certainly, it is understandable, it is their business, but they probably aren’t preparing appropriately for what is next.

Considering that they are a successful CEO, they probably will have trouble admitting that they haven’t really been looking or building the team. In fact, they’ll likely argue that they have but that true talent eludes their operation.

Largely, this is confirmation bias for why they are still at the reins.

Succession

Is it true that no talent is available to fill some spots? Can it be that it is too challenging to line up a few possibilities for number two, three, or four?

Every human resources leader, manager, and CEO should consider a few key elements for the atmosphere of onboarding.

Does the organizational culture for both current and advertised positions have the following dynamics?

Trust. People (employees) are encouraged to take action, not wait for permission to move.
Movers. Many small businesses hire to lock someone in, not provide a path for growth.
Risk takers. Certainly, you don’t want someone to sink the ship, but risk within bounds of authority is important for organizational advancement.
Experts. Good enough is only good enough, it is not high performance. Hire (or create) experts, they desire more, they will create more.
Confidence. A culture that honors achievements and exceeding expectations. It builds confidence, and confidence is a desired cultural attribute.
Investment. Invest in employees and they’ll be much more likely to invest in you.
Respect. Everything starts within the team. Respect is mutual, not one way. A lack of respect is a momentum stopper.

Business Empire

Many small business owners hire to fill labor requirements. They equate the process to hiring a house painter, someone to cut the lawn, or shovel the snow.

Nothing is wrong with any of these jobs or the people performing the work. The trouble spot is that the culture provides no growth. Most of all the mindset is to hire for fit. In this case, fit means just this position, all day, every day, for the rest of time.

Unfortunately, sometimes the owner, CEO, or board of directors, does not prepare early enough to make an appropriate difference.

As the window starts to close is the organization prepared?

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant and succession coach who helps organizations and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

15
Jun 17
-

Onboarding and Training Recent Generations

Tags : generational differences hiring onboarding training

The workforce has quite a few frustrated supervisors. Often they are frustrated by onboarding and training recent generations. Do we sometimes have to give to get?

The frustration with those representing the youngest in our workforce is not uncommon. It’s why there is so much chatter about the generations. We hear many comments about the millennial and generation Z population and their presence in the workforce. Often they are comments connected with frustration.

Can we all get along? Is there a happy medium, a space where our values and believes can happily work side by side?

Training Recent Generations

Here are a few things to consider if you are frustrated by the most recent generations in your workforce:

Expect change. Everything changes and being too forceful about keeping your organizational culture exactly the same might leave you with an average employee age that continues to climb. Worse, it might not mean a future for the organization.
Culture is not process. You may have a way that you assemble the widget or pack it into the box. Certainly, that is always a consideration for efficiency. However, your cultural values, not the process might be the real problem. Understand what should be different.
Values and beliefs are drivers. The youngest generations might not want a big house payment or a high priced car. Their view of success might be maximizing their free time, traveling, and living small. That doesn’t make them wrong. It might mean you need to understand their personal purpose.

Hiring the right people from any generation can be challenging. Hiring people who don’t fit your culture might not end well. Expecting that you will hire and then change their values and beliefs is probably unrealistic.

The organizations that figure out how to shift will get the best results.

It means you’ll have to give in order to get.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

03
May 17
-

Creating a Culture of Loyalty and Flow

Tags : culture hiring leadership loyalty

Have you ever experienced a culture that simply flows? Some organizational cultures might feel like they are really about the drama. In others the turnover is so high that it might be hard to determine the culture. How do you create a culture of loyalty and flow?

The difference for many successful organizational cultures certainly has something to do with the people. Often the emphasis is with on-boarding practices. Finding, hiring, and retaining the right people.

Certainly on-boarding plays a significant role but when you strive for a diverse and well respected organization the culture might be more about flow. Perhaps it should be more about pull and less about push.

Pushing for Loyalty

Some organizational cultures have more of a push atmosphere. People are hired based on their resume and an interview. Most of the focus is on knowledge, skills, and abilities. Secondarily there is interest in attitude, work ethic, and fit.

Once they’ve joined the organization the push begins. Certainly their job performance matters but now there is pressure for fit. Some of the pressure might feel picky, petty, and leave employees wondering why.

Push is often connected with the authoritarian approach, an atmosphere of dictators, and a network of underground social cliques.

Employees are pushed towards say this, do that, and make sure you get it right each time. There is a lot of concern about the words that are used, appearances, and the image that is created.

The feeling might be, “I don’t care about you. I care about what you get done.” The focus is on throughput and the employees are tools.

This is in sharp contrast with, “You’re important in this. Let’s focus on what we can accomplish.”

Culture of Loyalty

Having an organizational culture that pulls people into it seems to be much more effective. Attraction, being drawn in, it makes a difference.

It is a culture about actions, results, and the focus is on products or services. Instead of a theme about what to say or how to act and who isn’t complying, it is a theme about the customer experience and lasting relationships.

Social interactions are caring, natural, and flowing. The focus is on doing what matters for the business and for the customer. Because of this intense focus there is less room for drama, fewer rules are violated, and policies serve more as guidelines.

It Flows

In a culture of loyalty and flow ideas are valued and opinions matter. There is much more interest in participating. There is respect. Employees are engaged.

For this culture outsiders want in and insiders want to stay.

Every organizational culture will need guidelines, policies, and rules.

Some will need to enforce them, others will just flow.

– DEG

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

20
Oct 16
6

Hiring Millennials and Gen Z: Will They Stay?

Tags : employee turnover generation z generational differences hiring leadership

Many organizations are searching for employees who represent the millennial or generation Z population, but if they hire them, will they stay?

Questions like this are good. They help us to focus and be better prepared to make good decisions. Many organizations desire to on-board employees representing both generations but often they report difficulties in finding suitable candidates or challenges in having them stay once they are hired. Generalizing on this subject is tricky because each industrial sector, geographic location, and organization size has an impact on the data.

Let’s consider just two points:

Millennials are staying longer with their early career employer (Whitehouse Report 2014).
Enrollment in 2 and 4 year colleges has been volatile (up and down) since 2010.

These points are important because many informal reports suggest that many who get hired stick around only from a few minutes to a few months and then take off for a different job; and that many are college educated and as such only accept the highest paying, no manual labor white collar job opportunities. This data set might support a different hypothesis.

Research data behind the millennial and generation Z population is complex. Millennial behavior has been studied and trends exist, but much of the trending has numerous other factors involved which only add to the confusion. Some of these factors include rural vs. urban living, home ownership, and marriage and family, and this is just naming a few.

It is worth mentioning that there appears to be a trend with the most recent generations preferring to relocate to more urban settings leaving businesses in smaller rural communities feeling like they have a lack of choices. The emerging generations might choose to start their own families and become homeowners later in life, and as such they might not share the same style of community commitment as those generations who have come before them. This is not about right or wrong, it is an indication of differences.

Will They Stay?

Complex issues sometimes have to be broken down into simple terms. Organizations need to make the best choices possible for their workforce. There will always be trade-offs with skills, compensation, and other employee value based factors. So how can organizations improve their millennial and generation Z turnover ratio?

Hire Smart. Use interviewing skills and techniques to make the best choices for your organizational needs and location. Having a strategy that includes competency models and employee demographic data that illustrates the characteristics of the ideal candidate are best.
Cultural Values. Value the most recent generations, emphasize this with actions and a well-illustrated culture. Many are eager to earn an honest living, but they’ll seek to be respected and not feel as though they are being inappropriately used.
Mentor. Build and encourage mentor opportunities with role model employees of a similar generation. Often organizations will attempt to form connections for mentor opportunities by pairing mentees with role models of a different generation, while this might be somewhat situational, this is often not as effective as someone within the same generation.

My experiences working with many different organizations in both rural and urban settings indicate that organizations that lack a specific strategy for on-boarding the most recent generations are the same organizations that struggle the most to have them stay. In contrast, organizations that have a strategy and follow it are most likely the same organizations with a culture that is acceptable across the entire generational framework.

Hiring decisions are certainly complex and not every person (employee or employer) will actually deliver exactly as they present throughout the interview process. You’ll never get a guarantee that every employee is going to stay, and perhaps not every employee you’ll want to keep.

Generational Denial

One last thing worth mentioning, occasionally I encounter organization leaders who believe that generational differences are not real and that the generational problem has been going on since the industrial revolution. If the leadership team cannot agree on the problem, it is unlikely that a solution will be found.

Create a strategy that builds a culture that achieves your desired results.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and coach that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is the author of the newly released book, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: hiring

Feb 21

-

Team Selection

Jun 20

-

Can Anyone Fit?

Recognizing Workplace Culture

Oct 18

-

Best Fit

Best Difference

Best Employees

Jun 18

-

Irony of Choice

Job Candidates

The Right Pick

May 18

-

Succession

Business Empire

Jun 17

-

Training Recent Generations

May 17

-

Pushing for Loyalty

Culture of Loyalty

It Flows

Oct 16

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