Misalignment is the root of all evil in recruiting

Misalignment is the root of all evil in recruiting, according to Chris Bruzzo, Chief Experience Officer at Electronic Arts. To address this, they created alignment meetings, which all hiring managers must attend and present at before recruiting for a new or backfill role.

At these meetings, a number of key questions are asked, below three are highlighted:

  • Was the hiring manager’s criteria realistic?
  • Were the job ads written to attract a diverse talent pool?
  • Are we learning what works and what doesn’t work?

If you never change your hiring process, it could be considered pretty insane; expecting a different result but doing the same thing. Jobs are often “sold” to candidates in an unrealistic way, meaning the expectations to perform in the job aren’t aligned with how it was initially presented.

Properly aligning professional expectations at the start has the potential to remove the root of all evil from recruitment.

too long

How long before you realize you’ve made a hiring mistake? The short answer is, always too late.

Very successful businesses and their employees have made costly hiring mistakes, and some are willing to admit it, but how long does it take for the company to recognize a bad hire? How long does it take for the employee to realize?

According to research, one out of two employees is looking for a new job within the first year of employment due to a mismatch in expectations. In a commercial context that would translate to, what I’ve been sold, is not what I’ve been promised.

Imagine how much money companies could save, and at the same time, how much well-being could be boosted if hiring mismatches were to be avoided up-front.

satisfied but not engaged

Satisfied employees are not necessarily engaged employees. Vice versa, engaged employees are not necessarily satisfied employees.

Satisfied employees could be happy with their paychecks, the fact that the company is close to where they live, and enjoy their colleagues’ company. Even satisfied employees could be mentally disconnected from their job, while doing the bare minimum. Meaning satisfied employees aren’t necessarily engaged with their actual job, hence less productive.

Inversely, employees who are engaged with their job could be dissatisfied with the company, their managers, and their salary.

Ideally, satisfied employees are engaged, and vice versa. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

vital

Nurses play a critical role in healthcare and the well-being of patients. For them to perform optimally, it is essential that they feel engaged and valued in their workplace.

Employee engagement is more than just job satisfaction; it drives increased productivity, better patient outcomes, and a more positive work environment. Investing in nurses’ engagement will not only benefit them, but the hospital as a whole.

Showing appreciation and commitment to nurses by fostering an environment that values their contributions, supports their growth, and recognizes their efforts is potentially one of the best ways to decrease patients’ mortality rates.

intermittent reinforcement

One of the many reasons social media is addictive is “intermittent reinforcement.” This refers to the infinite scroll or the way endless items reappear when you reach the bottom, creating a feeling of no end in sight.

People can sometimes experience the same sensation in their job. Without a clearly defined endpoint for a task or project, achieving a sense of completion and fulfillment can be difficult.

Social media addiction can be emotionally draining, as can work that feels never-ending.

employability

Labor market regulators and public employment services (PES) can help people become more employable by promoting soft-skills. Here are six ways they can do this:

  1. Incorporate soft-skills training into education and workforce development programs. PES can team up with educational institutions and training providers to ensure students and job seekers know how to communicate, work with others, and solve problems.
  2. Encourage employers to put a value on and prioritize soft-skills when hiring and promoting. PES can explain to employers how important soft-skills are and remind them to look at them along with technical skills when recruiting and promoting.
  3. Develop and promote industry-specific soft-skills standards. PES can work with industry associations and employers to create and advertise soft-skills standards specific to different industries. This can help job seekers and employees understand the soft-skills in demand in their chosen field. Or vice versa, they can help people choose a specific field, taking the required hard-skills into account, based on their soft-skills.
  4. Give incentives to employers who train their employees in soft-skills. PES can incentivize employers who invest in training their employees in soft-skills. This encourages them to help employees develop their soft-skills and become more employable.
  5. Create and advertise certifications for soft-skills. PES can create and advertise certification programs for soft-skills. This can help job seekers show their abilities and help employers find people with matching soft-skills.
  6. Use a two-sided model to assess people and jobs for soft-skills. PES can evaluate people and the jobs they’re offering regarding the soft-skills required. Preferably, a scientifically sound model.

primary job

Human resources professionals’ primary job is to create career development perspectives and opportunities. Recently, I heard Howard Schultz, longtime CEO of Starbucks, say this. Below, I’ll try to create insight into how this could be achieved, through 10 pointers, taking into account the potential pitfalls.

  1. Offer training and development programs, such as workshops, classes, and mentoring.
  2. Create clear career progression paths within the company.
  3. Encourage employees to take on additional responsibilities and stretch assignments.
  4. Provide opportunities for employees to work on cross-functional teams or projects.
  5. Offer tuition reimbursement or other educational assistance.
  6. Facilitate networking opportunities with other professionals in the company or industry.
  7. Offer leadership development programs.
  8. Provide regular feedback and coaching.
  9. Encourage employees to set career development goals and track progress.
  10. Be open to flexible work arrangements and remote working opportunities.

All these initiatives rely on insight and a clear understanding of the employee’s skills — both hard and soft — and professional expectations. Without this, you’re flying blind.

Many companies believe they’re performing well on people analytics, but in reality, many valuable insights are still missing.

half gone

Nearly 48% of white-collar workers in Belgium are open to a new job within the next six months, a reflection of the growing dissatisfaction with their current job and its related responsibilities. This lack of engagement and commitment to their current job can have a detrimental effect on productivity, as many employees may be subconsciously scaling back on their responsibilities or even mentally dropping out.

This readiness on the part of employees to move on can be a major concern for employers, as it not only means reduced productivity but also creates uncertainty, as it can be hard to tell which employees are interested in leaving and which aren’t. Having nearly half of your employees wanting to leave is serious, without question.

Not knowing which half is even more dramatic.

analytics journey

Five things that make or break a data-driven analytics journey.

Companies that want to work in a more data-driven way should consider these five things before embarking on their journey. Whether it’d be marketing, hr, finance, or sales… The foundation has to be solid. To measure is to know; hence not knowing exactly what you are measuring doesn’t propel a company forward on its journey, au contraire.

Imagine a company that wants to identify so-called high potentials. What it means to be a high-potential could be drastically different in Europe as opposed to Asia or America. That’s why an unambiguous, shared language is required, so definitions are clear.

Ideally, a baseline is established. Without one deciding if trends are positive or negative becomes more of a guessing game. Also, data should be measured continuously. A one-off measurement can never represent the context and nuance that it needs.

If a company can only rely on analysts to reveal insights, there is a chance a lot of other valuable insights remain uncovered. The data should be accessible to the right people and presented in a comprehensible format.

Apples and apples or apples and oranges? Without the ability to compare, the data remains isolated. Comparisons in time or benchmarking with industry standards help with orienting where the company is.

Garbage in, garbage out. The adage doesn’t surprise anyone. Yet, dubious data input happens relatively often in analytics journies. These five pillars revolve around laying the right foundations, and quality is an absolute must.

Those five pillars once again; shared language, baseline & continuous measurement, comparing, and quality.

why not two

Companies hire people to do one job. Why not two? Or Three?

I’m not saying people should perform in two or three jobs simultaneously. I’m saying that companies should visualize a trajectory that features progression and evolution between different (internal) jobs.

Doing so requires insight into learning paths. Regarding both hard – and soft skills.

Definitely worthwhile looking into. The degree to which companies can convince people to choose for them as an employer correlates heavily with the degree to which companies can provide a career perspective.