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Archive for the "Onboarding" Category

2 Reasons Why Culture Matters to Recruitment

2012 23 May

Recognize This! – Strong talent always has a choice of where to work and increasingly is choosing an organization with purpose.

On Monday, I wrote about the importance of culture for organization success and how to do that through consistent, frequent recognition of employees. But your culture matters long before a new employee ever steps through your door for a first interview.

Your organization culture is tied up closely with your employment value proposition. Whether you know it or not, your culture is drawing to you right now the type of talent you can hire.

1) Strong talent is drawn to a strong culture.

Tim Sackett, a recruiting pro, wrote recently in TLNT about a client he ultimately fired:

“The company was tough to recruit for because they had a super bad reputation and nobody locally wanted to go to work there, and on top of that, they weren’t willing to pay leaders to make up for their terrible reputation. I’m not in the business of providing bad talent – it won’t keep me in business long – and they could only afford average talent. But average talent doesn’t want to work for horrible companies, unless you pay a premium, so what you’re left with is bad talent.”

Do you want the best talent available to work for you? Guess what – so does everyone else. Top talent has their choice of work environment. Many even choose less compensation to work in an exciting, invigorating culture. But even average talent won’t work for an organization with a terrible reputation. And that reputation is a result of your culture.

If you want to hire the best, make yourself desirable to the best by creating a powerful culture of recognition and appreciation.

2) Purpose matters

A culture that illustrates purpose is also growing in importance. Calling Brands global research revealed in this news release:

“A new report by global brand consultancy Calling Brands reveals a dramatic shift in employee attitudes towards work – with corporate ‘Purpose’ emerging as a powerful new driver of attraction, retention and productivity that few businesses are leveraging. … The survey also revealed that, on average, 57% of respondents (64% Germany, 58% US, 48% UK) said they would favour joining an organisation that has a clearly defined Purpose. Furthermore, an average of 65% of respondents claimed that Purpose would motivate them to go the ‘extra mile’ in their jobs and 64% claimed it would engender a greater sense of loyalty towards the organisation they work for.”

Is your culture attractive to the top talent in your industry? Does it offer purpose to employees in a way that motivates them to achieve more?

Polishing Company Culture & Brand to Attract the Best Recruits

2011 10 Jun

Recognize This! – Companies are once again looking at how they are perceived by potential employees as well as prospective customers.

Following on yesterday’s post about the “acqhired” trend to get key talent on board, companies are also looking to polish their company culture and brand in an attempt to recruit skilled talent in short supply.

 Nearly half (43%) of HR professionals surveyed by SHRM  said “creating a corporate culture that attracts the best people to our organization” is the biggest challenge facing HR executives over the coming 10 years.

 Part of this is communicating the value of the culture through the employer brand most visible to potential hires. Doing so isn’t easy. It’s more than hoping your company brand conveys what you want potential employees to see in your organizational as a desirable place to work. It’s also communicating what the employee may experience in the organization – high quality leadership, meaningful work, a culture of recognition and appreciation in which all are encouraged to thrive to the best of their ability.

Sure, compensation and benefits play a role in this, but companies cannot rely on these as the sole attractors of top talent. In fact, CFO reported compensation as last of 11 items – outranked by manager quality, empowerment and recognition, among others.

What are you doing to polish your employer brand? Revamping “Careers” pages on the website? A publicity campaign? Changes in recruiting approach? Is this linked into efforts to burnish your company culture as well?

3 Tips for Onboarding the Right Way

2011 10 May

Recognize This! – It can take weeks to recruit the perfect employee, but just 1 day to disengage them.

An impressive recruit wants to work for you. You’re quite impressed with the recruit’s achievements, personality and seeming fit with your organization. Then they show up at work the first day, experience your onboarding process, and are ready to beg for their old job back after two days.

What happened? This story in TLNT (and more awful examples in the comments) tells the story of “Herb” who had long wanted to work at a financial institution, was quite excited to move through the interview and selection process quickly, and started to a first day of nothing but disappointment. No one knew he was starting. No workstation and accompanying materials were ready for him. No one welcomed him, trained him, or offered him any kind of onboarding experience.

If you’re going to go to the trouble and expense of recruiting and hiring, doesn’t it make sense to be sure the new employee actually wants to stay once they start? Three tips to make sure that happens:

  1. Be ready and welcoming – Inform reception of the new hire’s name, expected time and who to call. Be sure the on-site manager is ready to welcome the person with a complete workstation (including all necessary computer equipment, working telephone, etc.) and introduce him/her around the office. Have someone lined up to take the new person to lunch.
  2. Introduce them to your culture on day 1 – Don’t just hand the new hire the employee handbook, which typically reads as guidebook to what NOT to do. Also introduce the new hire to everything that makes your company a great place to work. If you have a strategic recognition program, show the employee how it works. Make it clear your company is all about working hard and praising hard work.
  3. Have meaningful work ready for the first day – Too often the first day on a job is spent dealing with minutiae, forms, etc. Give the employee an introduction to the valuable contributions they will be making to the company. Have a project ready they can begin on day 1 to give them a flavor of the work they will be doing, but also set realistic expectations on delivery and completion based on training needs, etc.

Do you have a first day on the job horror story? What do you wish had happened instead? What onboarding process do you follow in your organization? How well does it work?