| |
| |
|
Careers & Employment Information |
|
|
|
Old Hiring Foxes vs. The Hedgehogs
You are about to compete for the best people again. The recovery is happening. Labor statistics indicate over 280,000 new jobs were created in the U.S. last May. Is your company's hiring process a competitive weapon-or a ball and chain? If you're not sure, here are some places to look: 1. You abdicate hiring responsibility to an HR person or executive recruiter. That's their job, right? Wrong. The job of HR is a support and advisory role. The role of a recruiter is to help you build a stronger pipeline of available candidates and advise you on key hires. For key positions, take a proactive role and implement a recruiting and interviewing process. One software client of mine once relied on HR to design their job descriptions. For years, they attracted people with the right education and skills for open positions. The bad news is that the job description did not help a hiring executive assess a person's behaviors or cultural fit for that division. Two Directors who were hired under the old model were demoted after much customer uproar about missed deadlines on product launches. 2. You think lunch appointments and golf outings are great settings to conduct interviews. How much do you spend time wooing high-flying producers this way, yet cannot seem to get any decision from the interviewee? Listen for the much-dreaded response: "I'll think about it (which is a polite, wimpy way of saying no)." 3. You become attached to specific candidate(s). Do you ever hear yourself saying things like, "she would really do well in our culture?we go to the same church?I have a good feeling about her?" You lose commitment to hiring the best person, and get attached to a personality. 4. You confuse selling with interviewing. I recently heard the VP of a mortgage company tell me, "we want to build our candidate pipeline, get them in here for a meeting, and pitch them on our company." If you have to waste 2 hours "pitching" somebody to come work for you, what kind of loyalty and credibility are you fostering? How likely will they see through that inauthentic gamesmanship? Pretty likely. 5. When someone asks, "what makes your company an exciting place to work?" you draw a blank or start pitching. This may indicate that your company does not know its uniqueness-or, as Jim Collins calls it, your "hedgehog." In Good To Great, he describes how enduring companies are extremely clear about three things: what they are deeply passionate about, what fuels their economic engine, and what they can be best in the world at. If your company is facing this situation, how can you expect your future employees to be intrigued by what you offer? Collins applauds GE's "process hedgehog." Their model is: build the greatest management development system (their passion), profit per unit of top executive talent (their economic engine), and developing the best general management talent (they are best in the world at it). Collins says "this basic hedgehog has driven their economic flywheel since 1910." In my interviews and analysis of over 50 CEOs last year, I discovered that scattered, fox-like hiring behaviors truly separate the average companies from the superstars. I assert that in today's global economy, our only remaining competitive differentiators are our people, our innovations, and our hedgehog. How will your company secure solid ground in at least one these areas? In our next ezine article, I'll present some fundamental hiring tune-ups every company needs to consider. As the Greek parable says: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Lisa Nirell is President of Nirell & Associates in Del Mar, CA. She helps culturally creative leaders who want to attract and retain employees in order to sustain profitable growth. Lisa recently completed a 10-month study of top performing services CEOs. For a free subscription to the monthly NirellNews ezine and a Special Report on this study, call 858-481-8787, visit http://www.nirell.com, or email marketing@nirell.com.
MORE RESOURCES:
Employment - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
What Do You Want From Life? The tragedy for millions of people is that they never decide what they want from life and make plans for it. Life will provide whatever we demand. Taking Job Loss Seriously Anyone reading this article and hassuffered a job loss recently IStaking the job loss seriously. Thestages often are: 1. How To Type A Resume For Employers Learning how to type a resume may feel like a daunting task. Even the most affluent writers have asked themselves, how to type a mind-blowing resume. Successful Job Seeking - The Importance of Your Cover Letter As an employer I receive many job applications each week. Some cover letters are so well written that I am compelled to review the attached resume even if our company is not currently hiring. Home Healthcare Careers One of the fastest growing sectors of the medical industry is that of home health. There are many reasons for this growth, but most important are:The number of aging and infirm citizens in the country. Career Advice: Are Resumes Obsolete As A Primary Job Search Tool? In a day of background checks, pre-employment drug screening and multiple interviews, where do resumes fit in? According to many successful job applicants, not very well. An ever-increasing number of new hires say that resumes were not crucial in landing them the job. Marketing You and Your Career Imagine if a business invested years into the research, design, and creation of a new product, and then failed to tell anybody about it. What if the company assumed (even expected) that consumers should discover their new product, just because it was â??greatâ??? Flawed logic, right? Yet, thatâ??s how many people treat their careers! They spend years learning a trade, gaining education, and writing resumes - but do nothing to promote themselves. How to Transform a Boring Note Into A Killer Cover Letter - Part II In Part I, we covered how to grab the reader's attention with the opening sentence. Now we'll get them interested, arouse desire, and get them to take action. Stacking The Deck In Your Favor Many people do not bother to look at their own magnificence and without that view it is not likely that we will recognize the need for strategies to maximize our strengths. When we buy an outfit for a special affair, we automatically try to coordinate each piece so that they enhance one another and amplify our sense of "looking good" from head to toe. Any Job is an Honorable Job Seeing your job as an honorable job, adds more meaning and peace to your life. Also, seeing the honor in what you do now, creates an ideal foundation upon which a career change can be built. Career Killers to Avoid Many professionals and managers are so involved in day-to-day crises and fighting fires that they forget about a key leadership characteristic: self-management. Effective leaders are first of all effective in managing themselves - their time, their focus, their emotions and their careers. Three Ways to Transition to a New Career As a Certified Personnel Consultant working for Find Great People International in Greenville, South Carolina, I receive telephone calls from people who are considering a career change. For some, transitioning to a new career is easier than others. Do You Need A Mentor? And How Do You Find One? Whether you're self-employed or you work for someone else, you're new to business or a seasoned expert, one of the best ways to get ahead in business is to find a mentor. And some highly successful people even have more than one. Take the Personal Out of the Workplace: Leave Your Troubles at the Door! Bringing your emotional baggage into the work place is inappropriate for all the reasons you may imagine. Yet employees, managers and business owners do it all the time. Does Retirement Fit Into Your Busy Schedule? Why do you work?Stop and think about it. Other than the income you derive from the various tasks and responsibilities you perform on the job, are there any other reasons you get up every morning before the birds do, drive your car in rush-hour traffic, get into the office and go to several meetings throughout the day that have yet to change life as we know it, and sit at your desk going through all the things you need to go through that are a part of what's been called, work?You've been doing this for a long time. How to Deal With Workplace Inflexibility You've been a model employee: responsible, industrious, creative and productive. You've gone the extra mile time and again, with a smile. Losing a Career When Youre Moving for Love Those who watched HBO's Sex and the City (SATC, now available on DVD) know the last eight episodes were less about sex and more about city. And the last three episodes, taken together could serve as a case study for a decision faced by many clients Should I follow my heart or hang on to my job?Whether you want to move to be closer to aging parents, or follow a lover into a new life, the stakes are extremely high. Get Inspired About Your Career Get Inspired about Your CareerDo you linger in bed long after your alarm goes off on work mornings? Do you dread Sunday nights because they lead to Monday mornings? Do you watch the clock and wonder if the day will ever end? Do you look outside your workplace and ask, "Is there more to life than just this job?"If you suffer from any of these symptoms, it is time for you to create a new career! In her CD book, Advanced Energy Anatomy, Carolyn Myss, Ph.D. How To Write A Resume Cover Letter That Will Get Your Resume Read A Resume Cover Letter has only one purpose - to stimulate the recipient of your resume to review your resume. This free resume cover letter tutorial assumes that you will be sending your resume and resume cover letter by email. Are You an Ex-career Woman Living In a New Country? Were you once a successful, professional woman who had a significant status level and received adequate remuneration for your work?Have you re-located to a new country where the educational degree you worked so hard to achieve is neither recognized nor considered valid?As a result, have you now settled for a job for which you are overqualified and living paycheck to paycheck?If you once had a successful professional career and answered yes to the above, you probaby understand how frustrating it is, to be unable to practice your profession in a new country.The decision to immigrate to another country is a courageous act which involves leaving everything that you know and everything that makes up who you are.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
