A Culture of Recognition and Rewards 

Alright, this post is the third and final in a series about attracting and retaining top talent. The first post gave you some killer tips to sift through applicants and only hiring the best of the best. The second installment aimed to make sure that once you got people in the door, you didn’t let them down when it came to the company culture, training, and general support. Now, I’m going to tackle arguably the most important of the three-recognition.

You may be thinking-how is recognition more important than supporting your employees, or even making the right hiring choice for that matter? Thanks for asking, I’ll tell you exactly why. Having a great recognition program can literally make or break your company. I’ll explain.

Ok, let’s say you hired Susie in the third quarter of the year. She came with excellent references, aced the interview and has a lot of experience that will benefit her new team. Susie jumps in with both feet and gets to work leading innovative solutions and rallying the team to achieve new goals. At the end of the year, you sit down with Sue to go over her performance review and talk about merit raises. Here’s where it gets sticky.

Some managers or companies feel that someone who hasn’t been with the company long doesn’t deserve a raise at the end of the year. I totally disagree. If that person has contributed significantly to the company’s objectives, it’s a bit insulting to give them a NA on their review and a 0% raise. I’ve heard some managers say that the person just negotiated their salary when they were hired-how can they justify a raise so soon?

Well let me ask you this. How many of you have bump on the log employees that barely stir from their cubicle throughout the year, and definitely do not do anything that remotely reeks of innovation? Sound familiar? Well, those folks-the ones that do the bare minimum-are usually assured at least a 2.5 raise at the end of the year, simply for “meeting expectations”. How uninspiring. A five year old that can dress himself is meeting expectations, but is that anything to get exited about? No.

So the same goes for the people who scrape by year after year barely making an impact, but consistently increasing their salary. Compare that to Susie who came in and right away began blazing new trails. Who deserves recognition more? Now some people will say that our girl Sue should be put on ice for a while so we can really evaluate her over a longer period of time. Now this thought is a bit dangerous. I’ll explain why.

Susie was very happy to join your company and put all her energy and creativity into making the most out of her role. She worked tirelessly, rallied teammates, even incurred personal expenses for projects, without seeking reimbursement. She really wanted to make a difference.

Now it’s review time and what you’re telling Sue is that what she did was nothing special. Thanks, but no thanks. Don’t bother working so hard in the future, because we really aren’t the type of company to appreciate that sort of thing. Are you following me?

Dampening the enthusiasm and drive of a stellar new employee is a BIG MISTAKE. Sue will think to herself-wow, I guess I should just blend in, not go the extra mile. What’s the point? You’ve just lost an asset as a company. In an organization, your people are your biggest asset and they can also be your biggest liability. You decide.

Now, if you had done the right thing and expressed to Sue how much you appreciated her work, the story would end differently. Even if your hands are tied and she gets a pro-rated increase, make sure you give her the max. Let her know honestly that things are a bit different for new employees, but if she keeps this up next year, she is guaranteed to be sitting pretty. This does two things.

First, Sue feels the warm glow of appreciation. She will eagerly look for ways to aid the company in the coming year, for which the organization will undoubtedly benefit. Also, the fact that you have rewarded a go-getter will not go unnoticed. The other team members will sit up. Shake off the dust and be motivated to make their mark as well. Now, of course you’ll have some that will only move for a fire drill or free pizza, but they’ll end up erasing themselves from the equation anyway. The point is for those with potential, this will help fuel their fire.

Now this is a year-end review scenario. However, recognition is a year long thing. The best type is on the spot recognition when someone does a good job. You would be surprised at how much a simple “Thank You” means to someone. An email to the team, lunch on the company, these are all ways to show your staff you appreciate what they do.

As HR professionals, we have to be in the forefront of recognizing our teams and crafting recognition programs that truly celebrate the accomplishments of employees in the company. Just like with Sue, unrecognized staff will sour, try a lot less, and over time turn into those hard pieces of gum that you can’t get unstuck from under a table. Do you want that on your conscious?

So how about you? Share your thoughts on recognition. Do you think Sue should get a raise? What about your company-what types of recognition programs do they sponsor?

Master the Art of Employee Engagement to Reduce Attrition

In my last post, I gave some key strategies for hiring rock star employees. You know the kind that recruiters and hiring managers fight over? If you didn’t read that article, check it out here. Once you’ve ingested those golden nuggets, it’s time to move on to part 2.

Ok, you’ve fine tuned the hiring process and have a group of new hires any HR person would be envious of. They are energized, full of ideas and ready to make their mark. Just make sure that your company does not make a common, yet fatal mistake. We’ll call it killing the “new hire buzz”, otherwise known as suffering from acute employee disenchantment.

All too often eager recruits hit a number of roadblocks that sap their enthusiasm and leads to them being the type of employee who just shows up, but doesn’t contribute much. And although they are still there, they are constantly online searching for a new job to escape your company. Check out the top reasons for employee disenchantment and honestly think about whether your company is guilty of some, or all of the following offenses:

Problem:

The old Switch and Bait. In the interview, everyone described the company in such glowing terms. The open door policy, employee focused programs and a commitment to quality over production. However, when the employee actually settles into his/her job, he/she is met with a frosty supervisor, an unforgiving attendance policy and a grueling production schedule. The company he/she was told fostered a healthy work/life balance, seems to be the type of organization to cause its employees ulcers, if not a divorce!

Solution:

Always be honest. Even if your company is not perfect, there are positive points that you can highlight to a prospective employee. Give them a real view into your culture and allow them to make an informed choice as to whether they want to jump onto your ship or not. Remember, telling tales will always come back to bite you in the end.

Problem:

Poor Training-You have an employee who is bright and motivated and can’t wait to get started. However, you just lost your head trainer and don’t plan to hire another before the New Year. The only problem is that you have people that need basic new employee and system training. The new employees are left hanging and most likely will be trained by fellow employees who may not have enough experience to train anybody. Worst yet, if they have any bad habits, they will be passed directly onto your new employee. Try cleaning up that mess.

Poor training is a huge employee complaint because it makes them feel inadequate, insecure, and ill prepared for dealing with your customers and processes. A poorly trained employee will make many mistakes, and may even cover up things knowingly, because they just aren’t sure how to deal with them.

Solution:

Do not bring in a group of new hires without a specific trainer already lined up. If your pro trainer bounced unexpectedly, you should have a backup. Even if you get an employee who is a subject matter expert, make sure he/she trains the new people off of the floor in a dedicated training room.

Believe me, not having a professional new hire training set up goes a long way in damaging your reputation with a new employee. Plus, how can you fire an under performing employee, if they never received training in the first place?! Take the steps now to avoid this problem in the future. You’ll thank me later. 

Problem:

Lack of Support - Employees spend more time at work than they do with their families. You get their time, energy, creativity, everything but the kitchen sink. But why is it that with all of this commitment on the part of the employee, The Company they work so hard for doesn’t seem to support them or their goals?

Your company falls in this category if you have policies like mandatory overtime, do not consider flex schedules, impossible production standards, wield an autocratic management style, and foster an atmosphere of backstabbing and retaliation. Sounds yucky doesn’t it? I know I wouldn’t want to work for a company like this.

Solution: 

As an HR representative, a major part of your job is to champion the employees. This includes ensuring the company engages in fair labor practices, is receptive and flexible to employee concerns and needs and creates an open door atmosphere. Also, this is not the schoolyard-employees should never fear retaliation. If you have some bad apples in your organization, flush them out. Pulling the weeds and pushing a collaborative culture will enhance the entire company and keep the good employees from walking away.

These are just a few of the MAJOR reasons why a company may bleed employees. Take an honest look at your organization and ask yourself if it is a good place to work? Are employees supported with training and management commitment? Are the benefits and policies family friendly? Take stock of what may need changing and put together an action plan to GET IT DONE.

The last major reason for employees choosing to pack it up and roll is a chronic lack of recognition and rewards. In the next post, we’ll get into this subject in depth, as it is HUGE. In the meantime, take stock of your company and check me out in the next post.

It’s time to talk staff. With the New Year coming up quickly, HR professionals are busy developing budgets, forecasting staffing needs for the next year and thinking about reviews and merit increases. Of course, we know that the lifeblood of a company is the staff. But do we put enough time and planning into getting and retaining superstar employees?

With all that we deal with, there can be a tendency to get distracted by the problem employees, legal issues, and other problems that occur on a seemingly hourly basis. I want to use the next few posts to bring the focus back to the real reason we all love HR-recruiting and developing employees that ROCK!

So in that vein, this post will take a look at recruiting and hiring standout candidates. In the second part of the series, we’ll talk about engaging our employees and reducing attrition. The final post will delve into rewards and recognition. So, let’s get to it.

Just as in the popular television series, finding exciting and skilled talent for your company can be a euphoric and at times, disappointing job. But hey, someone has to do it. In this post, well take a look at the ideal candidate, killer interview and whittling strategies, and how to keep a poker face when making an offer. Think of this as Talent Acquisition 101.

When recruiting, the first major item to nail down is your desired employee profile. Similar to one of those online relationship match sites, you want to have a clear profile of exactly the type of person you want to get to know better and invite in for an interview. This may seem silly, but failing to clearly identify your ideal candidate can cost you a lot in time and frustration. If you’re sitting across from someone with retail experience and you’re interviewing for a Laboratory Technician position, you only have yourself to blame. Set up your prospect profile before you end up trying to ditch your date-I mean candidate.

Now that you have your dream employee all laid out on paper, the next step is to go through the gazillion resumes you are likely to receive. When doing this, do yourself a favor. Only pick out resumes that truly impress you. If someone is borderline or just “seems interesting,” chances are you will be wasting your time. To be most efficient, zero in on the resumes that are a very close match to the profile you developed. This will allow you to interview a great group of candidates and you may end up trying to decide between them.

Now let me ask you this-do you make it a habit to sit and wait for interested candidates to contact you, or are you proactive in filling jobs? I’ve found that especially when it comes to filling management and executive jobs, it pays to throw on your prospector’s hat and go in search of gold. Networking is invaluable and being plugged into the places where your ideal candidate hangs out can pay off big time. With the huge upsurge of professionals connecting through social media, sites like Facebook are no longer just for your 20 year old nephew and his college buds. Plus, there are sites such as Linked In, which specifically target professionals. Having a few contacts with the top recruiting firms and headhunters can also bring you that perfect prospect. Bottom line-make sure your company is plugged in.

OK, so you’ve developed your profile and targeted a great group of prospects. Next up is the interview. It’s time to separate the men from the boys so to speak.

Interviewing is an art and with practice, you can develop a killer routine that helps you weed through the candidates, assess skill sets and experience, and identify any attitude problems. Here are a few tips for laser focused interviews:

• Consider doing a panel interview. You can either invite another HR member, or the hiring supervisor in with you. Each of you can take turns asking questions and afterwards you will be able to compare notes. One of you might pick up on something the other missed-strength in numbers.

• Have a list of interview questions already written out. Ask the interviewee to respond in the SAR format- what was the SITUATION, the ACTION they took, and the overall RESULT. This is a great way to really gauge experience and weed out the people shoveling horse manure.

• I always begin by asking a prospect what they know about our company. To me, if you couldn’t take five minutes to do some internet research before coming in for an interview, you’re not exactly impressing me with your enthusiasm for working with us.

• Always ask behavioral questions to really get an insight into your prospect, their sense of teamwork, and ability to take direction. One of my favorites is “Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your Supervisor about what should be done. What was the situation and how did you handle it?” You should see them squirm with this one! However, the people who you really want to hire know that it’s not necessarily a bad thing to disagree with a superior, as long as there is a level of respect and professionalism in the way you approach the situation. But I must warn you-get ready to be entertained.

• If you want to take the subjectivity out of picking the candidate, consider coming up with a scoring matrix. As the candidate answers each question, score them IMMEDIATELY. Then after the interview, add up the points at the bottom of your sheet. If you have a panel interview, take an average of all of the scores. Once you complete all of the interviews, the clear leaders will be evident.

• I always close an interview by asking if the candidate has any questions for me. The more professional and well prepared individual will open their portfolio or attaché and say, “Why, yes I do.” Music to my ears. This is the point in the exchange that I relax and get a chance to get an inside view of how the person thinks and what things are important to them. You can learn a ton by paying close attention in these last few minutes.

Alright, we’re moving into the homestretch. Once you sift through the results of all of the interviews, the top contenders should be clear. If it’s a tight race, you may want to call the best candidates in for a second interview and have a few very specific job related questions to ask them. You may even want to take them on a tour of the facility and let them meet some of the staff. Seeing how they interact in your environment can often be the tie-breaker in a tight race.

Now it is time. The offer. Like a game of cards, this is the time when every player is on alert. No one wants to show what cards they’re holding and they’re expecting to get hustled. The manure detectors are on full blast.

I know most of us are trained to make the lowest offer first, then to look pained when the prospect asks for more. We go into our spiel about the great benefits package and how that adds an extra 10K onto their compensation. But know this. While benefits are important, most people at this point want to talk cold hard cash-especially in this economy.

My advice is if you have a rock star prospect that you’re secretly drooling over, don’t insult them by low-balling the Initial offer. You just may sour their enthusiasm. At least start with the mid range and then negotiate from there. I find that if a prospect feels I value their experience and potential contribution to the team, they will haggle less anyway.

Ok, so that’s it. My best tips for acquiring and hiring a great candidate. The next challenge is to keep him engaged. Next post, we’ll go into keeping that rock star new hire from fizzling out into a dud. But until then, share your best recruiting tips.

I’m all ears.