Happy Victoria Day Weekend

I am just about to finish packing the family truckster and head out on the highway for a beautiful Victoria Day Weekend. I hope everyone has a great one.

Jim

Surviving The Workforce Crisis - Podcast

One more post for today. Check out our new podcast of Surviving the Workforce crisis at http://cc.readytalk.com/f/kzoumix/subscribe.html

Jim

Attract, focus and retain Talented Employees

Today's post is an idea I have lifted from one of my favourite management books. It is "First, Break all the Rules" by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. If you have not read this book, run, don't walk to the nearest bookstore or library and get a copy. It is fantastic. In the book they discover 12 questions that are most important to our employees. If your great employees have an answer for each of these, chances are they are happy and motivated and not looking to ditch you for the next job offer around the corner. If they don't have an answer for them, well, let's just say you should get your recruiting hat on quick. So without any further ado, here are the 12 measuring stick questions:

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

Well there you have it. How well are you doing? How well are your managers answering these questions for your employees? Have you implemented some form of measuring stick in your workplace? If not you are leaving turnover and productivity to chance and unfortunately, I don't like your chances.

Jim

Behaviour Based Interviewing

Recently I presented a short webinar on the basics of behaviour based interviewing that got me thinking even more about the interview process. The key to effective interviewing is preparation. So many managers and small business owners go into an interview and "wing it". Winging it is great if you want a snack during a football game, disasterous when hiring someone. The Society for Human Resource Management did a survey and found that the majority of hiring decisions are made in the first 5 minutes of an interview. This means that most of the questions that get asked are just verifying the fact that the hiring manager likes the person in front of them. So how effective is hiring someone in the first 5 minutes, not very. According to a study by the University of Waterloo regular unstructured interviews are only effective 19% of the time. I would submit that most interviews are unstructured and so most hires in North America only work out 19% of the time. No wonder turnover costs billions each year. Remember that the cost of a bad hire is generally twice the monthly salary if caught in time, much more expensive if you keep the person long term. So what investments are you making to make your Hiring more effective? Are you investing the time to prepare for interviews? Are you using assessments to objectively support and review the interview information. Are you investing in courses to learn the proper interview techniques. A small investment at hiring can bring large returns when you calculate the costs involved in bad hiring. For more ideas on Hiring systems check out the services at www.empowergroup.ca.

Jim