Down came the rains recently and literally washed my office out. While I was moving furniture and pulling up bad carpet, I used the opportunity to purge years of magazines and conference proceedings. In the process, I was given a damp reminder that what’s old soon becomes [...]]]> It’s the return of the crisis in recruitment and retention.

Down came the rains recently and literally washed my office out. While I was moving furniture and pulling up bad carpet, I used the opportunity to purge years of magazines and conference proceedings. In the process, I was given a damp reminder that what’s old soon becomes new again.

15 or 20 years ago, the conferences focused heavily on recruitment and retention. Special sessions were devoted to behavioral interviewing and aligning recruiting and staffing with the strategic corporate agenda. Interestingly, today the same topics seem to be of top concern again. What goes around comes around.

As I contemplated my water problem and wondered why I hadn’t done anything to prevent it, I also wondered why organizations are still grappling with recruitment and retention a couple decades later.

If the conferences and books from back then were right in their recommendations, organizations should be enjoying the fruits of a sustained and engaged workforce now. Or was all that shared learning of the late 80s and early 90s misleading and ineffective when applied in the real world?

Taking stock and reflecting on what I’ve seen in the intervening years, I don’t blame the books and the shared learning, I blame the focus on problem solving that’s rampant in corporate cultures. Organizations are always trying to solve the crisis of the moment, and the areas of human capital or talent management are no exception. We hire people who look exceptional because of some urgent skill need, even when those golden haloed angels don’t fit the organization very well. Or, we downsize and shed ourselves of people who do fit the organization when we no longer need to fill their roles. Or we outsource to low-cost providers without considering the larger impact on customer service. Or we react to some demographic change like the emergence of Generation X while we forget the needs of the Baby Boomers.

All of this means we’re not thinking of the future, we’re just plugging the leaks of the moment. We’re exhibiting a pattern of crisis manipulation to solve problems instead of looking for lasting and sustainable results according to a plan. Making matters worse, in the lulls between crises, we see managers become apathetic about the long-term knowing from experience that something urgent will soon show up again. That familiar oscillation between the newest and greatest talent management intervention and a complete disinterest in people as a strategic resource leads to a lot of cynicism.

If we don’t want to be in the same situation 15 years from now, we need to stop looking at the current recruitment and retention problem as a crisis to be fixed, and begin looking for solutions that will have a sustainable and positive impact.

The essential long-term priority is to recruit people who fit your organization and the job. Good fit has four components: skill, knowledge, behaviors and values. An ideal employee needs the appropriate skill set as well as the knowledge and ability to actually execute the work. In addition, more important than achieving results is achieving results in the right way, and when it comes to identifying those behaviors the past is the best predictor of the future. Finally, a candidate’s values need to be aligned with the organization’s values – an assessment which can be judged by whether the employee feels the organization is a good place to work.

Of course, none of this is new. In fact, it’s a kind of inefficient recycling. We’ve been saying since the late 80s that we need to hire people who fit the organization, and we’ve also been saying that fit and behaviors trump results and resume. But now that such concerns are coming back into vogue, organizations are reaching, in their urgency, for the wrong solutions. Behavioral interviews, and well-trained managers who perform them, remains the best and most cost-effective means of evaluating fit and behaviors. Yet, we now see a resurgence of assessment center type processes as the “new” solution, taking hiring and promoting away from the manager and guaranteeing that costs will skyrocket.

If you want to avoid plugging leaks and establish a long-term approach instead, here are some temporary crises to avoid.

Boomers

We’ve been waiting for boomers to leave organizations in droves. But what if they don’t? Should you consider a valued employee who fits the organization and has a potential 10-15 years of work life left, a non-essential contributor because some trendy book or academic says a great demographic shift is coming? Some succession management experts say boomers have only one promotion left in them, but with a possible 15 years of work remaining, many are highly promotable and have great potential.

Generation Y

The common perception is that members of Generation Y are not loyal. The truth is they are as loyal as any employee group, they just exhibit more courage than most in leaving a bad company or boss. If you hire according to fit, you can expect to retain your generation Y as long as any employee.

False Measures of Successful Recruitment

The primary question, whenever recruitment becomes a strategic priority, is a demand for measurable ROI. But how do you measure something in advance of determining whether it has turned out to be successful? You can measure time to hire or cost per hire. I can advise on how to reduce those numbers. But doing so doesn’t mean you will get more quality. Acquiescing to measure something that can’t be measured just to look robust about numbers puts us in a hole. We need to speak up and offer the facts about quality measures and avoid measures that are meaningless. We’ll only be able to judge the results of successful recruitment and hiring through higher levels of retention and higher levels of commitment, loyalty and engagement.

Ultimately, managers are the main cause of good retention. People don’t leave companies, they leave their immediate boss. Salary and benefits are rarely the reason. If a manager does not hire for fit, the employee is less likely to stay. In such cases, chances are, the manager him or herself was hired or promoted without regard to fit.

That’s what happens when you try to solve problems with expedient solutions. You get recirculated crisis. If you select or reward the wrong behaviors, you’re guaranteed to perpetuate the recruitment problem. And you’ll be feeling like you’re reliving the past when the rains come, and wash your office out.

David Cohen is president of Strategic Action Group, and author of “Inside the Box: Leading with Corporate Values to Drive Sustained Business Success”.

For many companies, it’s time to retrench, cut back, slim down and duck for cover until the storm blows over and it’s safe to start thinking about hiring again.

But those are the companies that are going to be in real trouble in the future. Because when the tide turns, those organizations that haven’t focused [...]]]>

For many companies, it’s time to retrench, cut back, slim down and duck for cover until the storm blows over and it’s safe to start thinking about hiring again.

But those are the companies that are going to be in real trouble in the future. Because when the tide turns, those organizations that haven’t focused on retaining their best talent are going to be stuck on the rocks. Meanwhile, the smart company that thought long-term about future leadership needs will be in full sail, putting distance between itself and the rest of the pack.

Think about it this way. Jack Welch, CEO of GE, said, you don’t go looking for bargains when the market is at its peak. You make your best strategic acquisitions when times are tough because prices are low and everyone else is too scared to be bold.

And the same goes for recruiting and retaining the talented employees who will be your future leaders.

On the one hand, this is a great time to be looking for bargains. During the talent war frenzy, it was always a challenge to be distinctive and attract the best. Money alone couldn’t do it. Someone else could always outbid. Even perks were getting outrageous. And the truth is, money and perks were never what the best people wanted. When pressed to name what really matters, most answer that they are looking for somewhere to belong, an organization that inspires and energizes them, a place that has meaning because its values fit with their own. Those are the people you want too, and convincing them to join you has just gotten a whole lot easier.

When it comes to hiring, this is not the time to ignore the people who may be banging on your door. It’s the time to add highly skilled and much desired employees to your labour force. If you’re smart, you will figure out what you want and need and intensify your people strategy to make your company stronger.

In the same vein, it’s also the time to make sure you keep the best that you already have.

If, in the next few months or years, you focus more on cutbacks than on keeping your key employees, your best people will be the first to hit the road. Ironically, the employees who are most insecure about their abilities and market potential will be the ones who hang on the tightest. And those are the people you’ll have available to select from later on when grooming your future leadership team.

Make no mistake, developing leadership is ultimately your number one strategic issue. That’s why you’re looking to attract and keep the best in the first place. And the pressure for leadership is going to intensify in the next decade – not lessen. Why? It’s a matter of simple mathematics. Demographically, there are significantly fewer 35 to 45 year olds out there to replace the “Boomers” who are currently running your company. And the leadership potential within your ranks is thin right now because you’ve been hiring for technical skills (rather than leadership behaviors and people skills) to get you through the boom period.

During this downturn, you need to identify, nurture, develop and, most importantly, retain the key people you have in your ranks who are capable of leading your company in the future. If you don’t, you can be certain that other organizations will leap frog yours.

So what is your strategy to attract, hire and retain the best? Forward thinking CEOs are rating Human Resources as the vital link to organizational renewal and longer term success. The value of recruitment and, even more importantly, retention is clearly reflected in the bottom line. And the bottom line – the real dollar costs of losing key people – is the language you need to speak in when making your point internally.

But there’s another language, too, that you need to learn – the language of “Employee Brand,” a way to capture and showcase the heart of your organizational culture in order to ensure that the right people choose your company over others, and think of you first as the place they want to be and stay.

Employee Brand is the subject of next week’s column.

David Cohen is president of Strategic Action Group, and author of “Inside the Box: Leading with Corporate Values to Drive Sustained Business Success”.

Are you laying off talent, trying to hire for specific positions or hoping to just hang on to your best people during all the uncertainty? Or are you doing all three at once?

We’ve been listening to HR leaders and managers all over the country talking about their workforce challenges. Here’s another one:

How can we continue to [...]]]>  

Are you laying off talent, trying to hire for specific positions or hoping to just hang on to your best people during all the uncertainty? Or are you doing all three at once?

We’ve been listening to HR leaders and managers all over the country talking about their workforce challenges. Here’s another one:

How can we continue to send a message about engagement and retention while we lay good people off? It feels counter intuitive and I’m afraid the message will be met with cynicism.

Fair enough. It may seem paradoxical but it is true that a retention message during layoffs not only makes sense but is crucial. Following downsizing, your vulnerability for employee disengagement and departure actually goes up. We know this from looking at history and tracking the “second wave” of departures that follow restructuring and tough times. A senior leader told his employees at an all hands meeting, “You might think it’s odd that we have a speaker today on the topic of engagement and retention, especially give our recent layoff. Here is what I know. We have a lot of work to do. We have big contracts to deliver on and we’re poised to do it. But we cannot do it if we lose talent – leaders and individual contributors alike. We must keep our eye on the ball. We must not lose momentum in the engagement and retention arena.”

Dr. Beverly Kaye is a thought-leader and best-selling author in the area of employee engagement. Her company, Career Systems International, helps organizations worldwide maximize the strategic engagement, development and retention of key talent to increase profitability and deliver significant returns on investment.

Are you laying off talent, trying to hire for specific positions or hoping to just hang on to your best people during all the uncertainty? Or are you doing all three at once?

We’ve been listening to HR leaders and managers all over the country talking about their workforce challenges. Here’s another one:

I can’t give them a [...]]]>  

Are you laying off talent, trying to hire for specific positions or hoping to just hang on to your best people during all the uncertainty? Or are you doing all three at once?

We’ve been listening to HR leaders and managers all over the country talking about their workforce challenges. Here’s another one:

I can’t give them a raise, their bonuses or any perks for the foreseeable future. How can I hope to hang on to my top talent?

The same way you hang on in good times. (Remember, it’s not all about the money.) Have “stay interviews” with your talented people. Find out what matters most to them – is it a little more flexibility in work hours, a chance to learn something new this year, more customer interaction (or less?), the opportunity to participate on a task force that’s exploring a brand new product or service, or the chance to discuss and deal with these tough economic issues? Once you know what each one wants, team with him or her, get creative and find a way to make it happen.

Don’t stop asking because you’re afraid you can’t deliver. Your employees know you can’t hand them the moon when things are so tough. But they will notice that you care enough to ask what they want and need and they’ll appreciate your doing your best to deliver on their requests.

Dr. Beverly Kaye is a thought-leader and best-selling author in the area of employee engagement. Her company, Career Systems International, helps organizations worldwide maximize the strategic engagement, development and retention of key talent to increase profitability and deliver significant returns on investment.

We compared notes with our consultants and facilitators nationwide and found there are at least five issues that are raised [...]]]> What’s your current reality? Are you laying off talent, trying to hire for specific positions or hoping to just hang on to your best people during all the uncertainty? Or are you doing all three at once?

We compared notes with our consultants and facilitators nationwide and found there are at least five issues that are raised over and over. Here’s one:

Engagement and retention are definitely back-burnered as important issues for now. My employees should quit whining and be glad they have jobs.

We heard this refrain from many managers during the U.S. recession of 2001 and 2002. They thought it or (worse yet) said it to their employees. What happened as a result? The minute the economic lights came back on, the best and brightest people (overworked and demoralized, with updated resume in hand) started looking. They logged onto job search sites by the thousands and answered recruitment calls from head-hunters with gusto. From 2003 through 2006, numerous surveys cites that 50 to 80% of employees were actively looking for new work. And they found it!

Your attitude and actions toward your valuable workers during this economic downturn will, to a large degree, predict your ability to keep them once the economy improves. We’ve seen it happen. So have you.

Dr. Beverly Kaye is a thought-leader and best-selling author in the area of employee engagement. Her company, Career Systems International, helps organizations worldwide maximize the strategic engagement, development and retention of key talent to increase profitability and deliver significant returns on investment.