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Are You Ready for the Upturn?
by: Dr. David Hyatt, President and Partner
While the economic numbers suggest the worst of the recession may be over, or at least coming to a close in the near future, we are far from out of the danger zone. Most of us know that this recession dealt a huge hit to employment levels across industries and a staggering pullback in the pay and benefits for surviving workers. Few of us know the long-term impact of these measures but details are starting to emerge, and the results are not pretty. Specifically, a report recently conducted by International Communications Research on behalf of Robert Half International indicates that 55% of workers plan to make a career change, employer change, or go back to school once the recession ends. Imagine for a minute if over half of your team walked out the door over the next 6 months. What would you do? How would you deliver the customer experiences you envision with less than half of your current staff? And, the worst part of this is that the ones who will leave are going to be your best performers because they have options. Instead of letting this issue cause your business distress, a more productive alternative is to prepare for the impending recovery by focusing on three critical people issues. Specifically, now is the time to be finding out how your people feel about their employment experience, selecting the people whose values and skills are a match with your organization, and developing the talent you will need to grow your business in the future.
Our premise is simple: put the foundation for growth in place before you try to grow. If your people are critical to your success, focusing on these three issues will ensure you are ready to capitalize on the coming recovery.
Employee Experience Surveys: Take Action to Ensure a Compelling Employee Experience
by: Dr. Brian Frost, Lead Assessment Development Manager
If your organization is like most right now, your voluntary turnover rates are at historical lows. How do you know whether your people are staying because they are happy with their employment situation or because the current job market leaves them with few to no options? If your people are “holding on until the market improves," what kind of experience are they delivering to your customers? Now is the time to understand how your employees feel about your organization and minimize the churn that may occur when more options are available. Using a quick employee survey to evaluate and target improvements to the employment experience will pay large dividends in the future. Focus on evaluating the factors that are critical to the quality of the employment experience. Addressing those factors will ultimately reduce voluntary turnover and improve the quality of the customer experience.
You've probably heard of short surveys that gauge how well supervisors are 'engaging' their people. An employee experience survey measures engagement but also looks at other factors critical to the experience of an employee, like teammate support, compensation, and work-life balance. By using specific, actionable survey items and comparing the response patterns to key indicators of retention and pride, the results of an experience survey can identify exactly what needs to be improved to drive morale, retention, and ultimately the customer experience. Ideally, these survey results not only identify what is critical to your people's decision to stay or leave, they should also offer specific suggestions for how to make improvements to those areas. An experience survey designed to this end will empower your managers with the information needed to act now to ensure retention of your top talent when the job market begins to grow again.
Creating a Positive Work Environment through Employee Development
by: Dr. Bobby Baker, Vice President
Research consistently shows that not being developed is a leading cause of turnover. To get the most from your people, and to ensure they stay with you, provide them with development planning that will give them license to succeed. Frontline managers and company leaders must take actions that let their people know that the organization is committed to their success. By preparing employees to grow, providing them with adequate resources, and offering them tangible opportunities for development, your organization will be able to maximally leverage your employees' talents – talents that can then be turned to the creation of a truly remarkable customer experience. The key is to focus on teaching and empowering your people rather than simply relying upon discipline and routine procedure. It is about creating opportunities that ignite passion, commitment, and energy within your workforce. Prepare your people to grow and watch your entire business follow-suit. Showing such commitment to the development of your people fosters genuine feelings of pride, loyalty, and passion. For example, research has shown:
- Employees working in organizations with a strong commitment to employee development were found to be 30 times more likely to indicate a strong sense of pride in their work.
- Employees who indicated such a strong sense of pride were 6 times more likely to stick around.
- Employees who were not provided necessary resources to be successful were 8 times less likely to indicate commitment to their organization.
- In a large, multi-location company, employees working in locations where at least one manager offered encouragement around their development reported more than twice the desire to please their customers as compared to employees working in locations without such managerial support.
As you can see providing employees with a development plan will not only improve organizational performance and productivity, it will also increase morale and trust within your organization.
Identify the Right Candidates who will Grow Your Business
by: Dr. Paige Graham, Director of Experience Solutions
As the job market improves, the time will come when every business will need to find the right people to help grow their organization. While the shifting economy will help introduce a flood of potential new candidates, not all of these candidates will be suited to move your business to the next level. How will your organization determine which candidates are most likely to succeed?
There are three major ways you can improve your selection process. First, use a Realistic Job Preview (RJP), incorporate scientific assessments, and employ structured interviews. RJP's are often in the form of a pamphlet, handout, or introductory speech. They provide candidates with a clear understanding of your company's culture and job expectations. Include details such as general tasks, typical hours worked, benefits, make-up of your customer base, and nuances of your culture. Don't just paint a pretty picture either. While an RJP includes a bit of marketing, the key is to be realistic in order to help candidates select themselves out if they are not passionate about the job requirements or the culture.
Second, assessments are one of the most cost effective and predictive tools available. However, not all assessments are created equal. Make sure the assessments you choose are valid for the job, target what you are hoping to achieve (e.g., employees with leadership potential or a drive to serve others), and have been shown to be predictive through rigorous scientific research.
Finally, structured interviews are often used to delve into a candidate's past work experience and identify his or her thinking in terms of strategy, developing others, and growing a business. The key to effective interviews is that they must be structured (e.g., pre-determined targeted questions that are used with every candidate). This is the best way to ensure objectivity, low bias, and true predictive power.
While each of these tools will help with the selection process, employing all three will be your most powerful ammunition against a job market flooded with both good and bad candidates. Once you find the best of the best, you will be positioned to successfully grow your business in 2010 and beyond.
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