Accountability Culture #4

Systematic Power is Step #4 of an Accountability Culture, if I am limited to only five aspects.

You will NEVER achieve your strongest possible company culture unless you are as systematic with your employees as you are with technology, accounting, development, manufacturing, client delivery, sales...

1. This means a system for hiring great people.  (My Hire The Best & Avoid The Rest hiring system has 10 steps.)
2. You need a system for managing people day-by-day, weekly, monthly... through the year.  What does that look like?
3. And what about a system for professional development?  Do you know what certifications your people have, what additional certifications are needed prior to year-end, and what your people want to learn? We track this in Certle along with our vendor programs.
4. Last, but definitely not least, what is your system for retaining top employeesand continuing to motivate them to perform at a high level?

We teach all four of these systems and more in our LEADERSHIP Essentials Service and Academy. Let me know if you need help.

Be a Systematic Leader - because inconsistency hurts.

You are a full-time recruiter

The third step of my Hire The Best Avoid The Rest hiring process includes a key encouragement: YOU are a full-time recruiter. Here is an example of one way a top company demonstrates this:

I was in a Starbucks the other day. In the area where they offer cream, sugar, etc. there were business cards from the district manager (not the store manager). Here are some interesting things about the card design:

1. His title, "district manager," is in lowercase letters.

2. Below his title is a small icon, possibly like coffee leaves, and the title, "Coffee Guy"

3. It lists his cell phone number, a corporate toll-free phone number and his e-mail address.

4. The full list of contact information is:

• Cellular 
• Fax 
• His toll-free corporate voicemail 
• His email address 
• www.starbucks.com/careers

5. The left side of the card as the Starbucks logo, company name and address of that location.

6. The back of the card is most interesting. It says:

We are looking for people we can call partners.

That's what we call ourselves. If you ask partners why they enjoy working here, they'll probably tell you it's the people, the experience and the great benefits for those who qualify, which may include:

• Medical, dental and vision coverage
• Tuition reimbursement
• Paid vacation
• 401(k) savings and stock programs
• Discounts on our great coffee

Apply online at www.starbucks.com/careers

Starbucks is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse work team.

Often your best source of great people to hire is from your most loyal customers. They are, if you have not noticed, already raving fans of your company. If you are hiring this year, why not brainstorm with your people how to better reach people who already believe in your company?

Meeting Ideas

Take my last suggestion and apply it in a meeting. How can we increase the number of people who know we are hiring so we can attract new team members from people who already believe in us (customers, people who read our blog, vendors…)? Should we add a hiring message to:

1. The back of our business cards (similar to Starbucks’)
2. Every company employee’s email signature
3. Every thank you note to clients, vendors and community
4. Every business review meeting with key clients (not that we want to hire you, but “If you hear of anyone, we are hiring people for the following positions…”)
5. Should we try to get an article placed in our local newspaper describing the hiring process we go through, how difficult it is to hire qualified people…” (Maybe team up with 3-4 other businesses and everyone shares their story.)

Engaging Gen Y

Last week I was asked by a client:

"We have a candidate for a summer intern position that is graduating from high school this year with a 3.3 grade point average. We think he is very smart. He completed most of his high school curriculum early and has been taking college courses and currently works in the high school IT department.

"When he was asked about his 3.3 grade point average, he said that he is really good at taking the tests but doesn't complete the homework if he finds the class boring.

"What is your impression of this? Does this throw up a red flag for you?"

My response: Not really, no. Much of public school education these days is a waste of time, particularly at the high school and college level. It is one of many reasons our nation is in decline. Very correctable, but our leaders lack vision, guts and... I've said too much already.

On the contrary, this lets you know that he needs to understand WHY he is doing something and WHERE he can grow in your organization. This should be constantly reinforced (with all employees). He will work for a PURPOSE more than a paycheck. To test my conclusion you could try the following:

1. Tell him 3-5 stories of problems clients had, how you solved them and how that enabled the clients to positively impact the lives of others. Touch his heart. If he seems bored or disinterested during these stories then do not hire him. At the end ask him to describe a situation where he has had a similar impact as part of his role in the high school IT department. Does he tell a story or explain why he works there in a way that demonstrates passion and/or purpose?
2. Ask him what he wants to be doing in 5 years. He may not know. 2 years? If he likes working for you then will he want to continue during college? Try to define a rough "career path" of learning, not titles, for the next two years if he stays with you. Does this excite him?
3. Give him 1-3 typical scenarios he might face on the job as homework. Ask him to solve them and bring them to his next interview.

Meeting Ideas

When a job candidate, employee or client makes a comment, try to understand the "disease" rather than the "symptom." In the example above the young man was not doing his homework in boring classes. That is a symptom. What is the disease? Being asked to learn things he feels he will never apply in his life.

Here are some ideas to discuss this in your next staff meeting:

1. Read the story from my client and ask your people to answer their question. Have an open discussion and do NOT jump on anyone who says something you do not like. Remember, that is a symptom. Be wise and consider what disease is causing that symptom (response).
2. Read my ideas, one-by-one, and ask for their thoughts. They may disagree. (If you get some good feedback, please let me know. I am still learning too!)
3. How can we do a better job at helping our employees understand WHY we do our work?
4. How can we do a better job at helping our employees understand WHERE they are growing in our company?
5. How can we do a better job at helping our employees understand our PURPOSE - how we apply our mission and values daily to achieve our vision of improving people's lives? (your vision may be different)

Babies

A young engineer arrived for his scheduled interview. The interviewer's responsibility was to confirm the candidate's technical skills. There was one problem: The candidate arrived carrying his baby in a bassinet.

He apologized to the interviewer, explaining that at the last minute the sitter for his child canceled. He offered to come back another day, but he did not want to inconvenience the interviewer at the last minute.

The interviewer said it was not a problem. During the interview the candidate had to take a few breaks to take care of the baby, but the interviewer did not mind.

If you were the interviewer, what would you have done? Should the person not be hired because the child may interrupt their work schedule in the future? Based on this situation, would the candidate fit into your company culture?

You have to make your own decision. The interviewer and I agree:

1. The baby actually was a blessing in the hiring process because the situation enabled the interviewer to see a different aspect of the candidate's behaviors and values. This is a huge benefit because it was an opportunity to get the candidate talking "outside of his script" so the interviewer could get to know him more personally.
2. The interviewer was still able to confirm all the technical skills of the candidate.
3. This brought up a potential work issue in advance.

This is a true story. The interviewer recommended the candidate be hired. For some reason, the company decided not to hire the candidate.

Meeting Ideas

Virtually everyone I know shares two things in common: (1) They are hiring this year; and (2) they are extremely busy. If this describes you, then you will benefit from reviewing and improving your hiring process. Every person you hire who works out saves you $50,000 or more (1x annual compensation) and the time to re-hire a replacement, or several replacements.

Let me know if you want to talk about your hiring process. Here are the 10 steps of my hiring system to discuss with your team:

1. Systematic Power: How can we be more systematic in the way we hire people?
2. Team Member Strategic Plans: Are we fully defining the job before hiring?
3. Promote the Opening: How can we promote our openings so we attract better candidates?
4. Interviewing: How can we better structure our interviewing process to discern great candidates vs. actors?
5. Talent Assessments: How can talent assessments, like the Success With People Talent Assessments, help us in our hiring process?
6.  Background Checks: Never hire someone without doing a background check. Discuss this. If you do not have a company doing this for you, then find one.
7. Reference Checks: How can we gain more insight about our candidates from our reference check conversations?
8. Making The Offer: How can we do a better job of winning top candidates in the way we make offers?
9. First Day: How can we improve our First Day experience so new team members are productive more quickly?
10. Never Stop Selling: What should we be doing on an ongoing basis to convince new hires they made the right decision to work for our company.

Companies Throwing Everything At Recruits! Sounds like the wrong focus...

In Silicon Valley Hiring Perks: Meals, iPads and a Cubicle for Spot, Claire Cain Miller describes the fierce playing field in the market today for talent engineers. Companies like Google and Zynga are offering free iPads and allowing recruits to bring their dogs to work. Makes me wish I had chosen a different major! However, at the same time, I see a fundamental flaw in this recruiting process.

The problem with this emerging business model is that it is not sustainable. It is based on the value that, "It's all about me." Teaching people how to start their own business and the beginning of their employment relationship? Ridiculous!

Truly great companies are built based on strong values, a mission that provides meaningful work for all employees to achieve a purpose greater than themselves, and a clear vision for how everyone, including customers, benefit from the company’s success.

Once again, Americans are being fed a fantasy that the only true success is greed, fame and being an entrepreneur who is the top dog and owner. This fantasy is just another get rich quick scheme repackaged by the media to appeal to people's natural self-centeredness rather than to truly motivate a sustainable job creation engine for our nation. The life of this latest fad will be in dog years rather than the thousand year commitments of Chinese nationalist leaders.

11 job interview questions you should avoid asking

This is a quick reminder on which questions are legitimate and which to avoid when interviewing job candidates. I’ve seen these questions for years. This particular list comes from an article in Tech Republic from last year.

Which of the following questions can you not ask a job candidate?

1. Where were you born?
2. What is your native language?
3. Are you married?
4. Do you have children?
5. Do you plan to get pregnant?
6. How old are you?
7. Do you observe Yom Kippur?
8. Do you have a disability or chronic illness?
9. Are you in the National Guard?
10. Do you smoke or use alcohol?
11. When did you graduate from college?

You can’t ask any of them, however, many of them will be answered on your job application so your human resources department will be informed of the person’s background for benefits purposes. Make certain your managers avoid these questions during interviews.