knowledge sharing Archives

Learning Culture: Ideas for Nurturing Growth in a Hybrid Work Environment

March 28, 2023/Career Development, Company Culture, Hybrid Work, Learning, Learning and Development, Skills Development, Winner: Impact Award for Content Excellence /by Glen Vondrick

At what point in a career does learning stop? Hopefully, never! Most business and technical professionals realize that becoming proficient in a job and becoming more capable over time requires continuous learning. But this can be difficult for employers to support, particularly in a hybrid work environment. Here’s why…

The Business Challenge

According to research, 70% of employees feel inadequately trained for their current job. What’s more, 74% feel they could benefit from additional training. Yet, the U.S. economy loses an estimated $550 billion a year from workforce disengagement, due in part to a lack of learning opportunities.

Training is critical for employee retention. And retention is critical for organizational success, especially in difficult economic times when companies need to accomplish more with less. But in the wake of the pandemic, hybrid work is becoming more widespread, which further complicates employee development. It’s no longer enough to rely on classic learning strategies based on in-person classroom training, seminars, and conferences.

Although hybrid work creates new challenges for employee training, it also opens the door to fresh thinking. Effective training in a hybrid work environment requires an organization-wide learning culture that ensures equitable opportunities for in-person, remote, and hybrid workers, alike. That’s a tall order, but these ideas can help:

What is a Learning Culture?

“Learning culture” is a simple concept. It’s an understanding that professional growth and development are integral to daily work life and success. It’s also an active commitment to continuous improvement among individuals and teams within an organization.

A strong learning culture encourages and rewards people for developing and sharing knowledge and skills. That’s why employee training is often seen as a benefit, alongside retirement savings accounts, paid family leave, or medical and dental coverage. But a true learning culture isn’t just a perk. It’s a way of thinking and doing that enhances work experiences, while paving the way for future advancement.

This commitment is clearly good for employees — but it’s also good for business. In fact, statistics show that organizations with a strong learning culture enjoy 24% higher profit margins, on average. Also successful companies are nearly 5x more likely to have a healthy learning culture. So it’s worth the effort to improve the way your organization develops employee capabilities.

Despite the simplicity of this concept, a learning culture can be difficult to manage. In fact, ATD estimates that only 31% of organizations have a culture of learning. And now, as hybrid work environments take hold, fostering this kind of culture is becoming even tougher. Why?

The Social Learning Hurdle

Hybrid work complicates learning cultures because it introduces a different mode of remote engagement. This is a problem because many organizations still rely on more traditional methods of informal learning — what psychologist Albert Bandura called “social learning.” Specifically, he notes:

“Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling. From observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed. This coded information serves as a guide for action.”

In other words, we learn how to do our jobs largely by watching others perform similar tasks. As we watch, we pay attention to their expectations and responses, as well as the behaviors of others in our environment.

This is relatively easy to accomplish when people are located at the same place. But when work involves a mix of in-person, remote and hybrid experiences, social learning manifests itself in different ways. This can create problems — especially when our location is determined by factors like commute distance or personal preference, rather than our work role. Ultimately, these unpredictable work patterns can lead to social learning barriers and disconnects across an organization.

To attract and retain top talent, employers need to create a cohesive culture that overcomes these barriers by making continuous learning opportunities and reinforcement available wherever people are located.

Training Resources For Hybrid Work Settings

Bandura was clearly on to something with his social learning theory. Humans are social animals. We learn best from exposure to great teachers, whether they’re formal instructors, informal mentors, or peers. Keep this in mind when developing a training strategy for any hybrid environment. You don’t want to sacrifice the power of human interaction by focusing solely on classic modes of online learning, like asynchronous self-guided training modules. Otherwise you risk disconnecting people from one another.

Where should you focus instead? Hybrid is the keyword here. Invest in next-generation training experiences that bring in-office and remote workers together, with social learning as the glue. For example, consider these resources:

1. e-Learning platforms that support instructor-led breakout sessions, advanced gamification functionality, and in-training assessment and analysis. These capabilities support richer social experiences than isolated on-demand training modules.

2. VR and metaverse technologies that make it possible to create three-dimensional virtual spaces where social learning participants can engage within a shared digital environment.

3. Tools that enhance popular web meeting tools. For example, the Adobe Connect open architecture lets industry partners extend the platform’s core capabilities. Extensions include custom pods, learning management system integration, advanced authentication, login functionality, and much more.

4. Discussion and collaboration tools that function as standalone products or as features you can integrate into a learning management system.

5. Social tools that work within a digital learning environment to supplement and reinforce traditional onsite and online training. For example, Adobe Learning Manager offers built-in social learning tools that make it easy to informally share ideas, content and meaningful insights before, during or after people complete a course.

Supporting Learning Engagement in a Hybrid Work Environment

Of course, identifying helpful hybrid learning tools is one thing, but providing a culture that drives engagement and performance improvement is another. Here are some useful ideas:

1. Proactively encourage all team members to pursue learning opportunities on a regular basis. For example, allocate a particular number of hours each week to the pursuit of development goals. By making resources accessible across devices, platforms and locations, you can enable people to participate at their convenience.

2. Acknowledge and reward team members for the time and energy they invest in learning. This can take the form of financial incentives or team dinners. Even something as simple as a Slack shout-out can boost motivation when employees achieve development milestones.

3. Knowledge sharing is essential for a healthy learning culture. And when team members are rewarded for sharing knowledge, they become more invested in the learning process. So don’t overlook the deep expertise already available within your ranks. Think about how to empower individuals as subject matter experts. Establish methods for people to create, promote and recommend content, so you can get everyone more invested in collaborative learning, even across hybrid teams.

4. Measurement matters in any learning endeavor, so you can determine baseline benchmarks and track progress over time. Digital systems can automatically track training engagement, progress and completions. But you’ll want to track other metrics as well. For example, think ahead about the kind of feedback you want to gather from team discussions, post-learning quizzes, and organization-wide surveys. All of these can help you determine learning effectiveness and map the way forward.

5. Better culture starts with better conversations — especially in a hybrid work environment. That means open feedback channels are essential. What works? What doesn’t? How can your organization improve hybrid learning experiences? Be sure to involve team members in the process of planning, evaluating and evolving their learning journey, for more successful outcomes, all around.

How Do You Defeat Distance in a Distributed Team?

February 20, 2023/Company Culture, Digital Workspace, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Remote Work /by Vikas Dua

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

No doubt, you’ve heard this familiar quote. You may even have said it to encourage others who are separated from those they love. But although research says this tends to be true, people in long-distance relationships may not find it comforting. In fact, many would say that physical distance creates psychological distance.

Whatever the reality, the fact remains that in professional life, a parallel scenario often arises among colleagues on a distributed team. Physical distance can easily lead to psychological distance. And when that happens, performance suffers.

The Psychology of Teams

Teams define the very essence of organizations. Modern companies are built around a pyramidal structure, which itself is the combination of smaller pyramids we usually call “teams.” Ideally, the team’s diversity, harmony, trust, and commitment directly influence the creativity, speed, and quality of its output. And collectively, the dynamics of an organization’s teams define its overall impact.

For decades, managers have been striving to build teams that “dance” well together. And many have succeeded at driving team performance that rivals a Bolshoi Ballet. What’s the magic in this recipe? The key ingredient is the personal connection members forge with one another.

These connections transcend basic operational interactions. Not surprisingly, in healthy work environments, we sometimes hear people refer to their team or culture as a “family.” The metaphor makes sense — especially in intense environments like the military or an innovative startup company.

However, experts say leaders should tread lightly when using the term “family” in the context of organizational culture. After all, no one should feel so obligated to an employer that they can’t develop a meaningful life outside of work.

Today, as we look beyond the pandemic era, we see a business landscape that is increasingly defined by hybrid work models – where co-workers on the same team are working from different locations at different times. So, as a leader, how can you ensure that the connections among your team members will grow deeper, rather than withering away? Here are several suggestions…

3 Ways to Bring Distributed Team Members Closer

1. Drive Ownership

In a distributed team environment, it is a good idea to get everyone involved in decision-making. While this may not always be practical, it is often easy to accomplish.

For example, say you’re planning to recruit a new team member. Rather than making unilateral decisions about the role and the candidates, it’s a good idea to get buy-in from some senior contributors. This will encourage these colleagues to see themselves as participants in a critical decision-making process. It also helps develop a sense of ownership in the hiring process, so they’ll be more invested in ensuring the success of the new employee.

2. Encourage Cross-Sharing and Learning

Nothing strengthens work relationships better than shared interests. Therefore, it makes sense to make learning a central focus for your team.

Create a distributed framework for formal and informal knowledge sharing, communication, and performance support. This sends everyone a clear message that operational delivery is not the team’s primary goal. Rather, the growth and success of each member should be everyone’s priority.

As team members step up and share their knowledge or expertise with others, it helps to build mutual respect and appreciation, both of which are hallmarks of great teams.

A word of caution, however. Do not make the mistake of treating learning sessions as isolated, one-off sessions. Instead, for maximum benefits, provide relevant context. Weave instructional content, performance support, and informational resources into the fabric of the team’s operating guidelines. And be sure to index and publish these assets where they can be easily searched, accessed, and updated by all.

3. Organize Periodic Physical Meet-Ups

Most of us have discovered the wonders of video conferencing in recent years. We’ve also developed new social norms, thanks to the likes of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and others platform providers. But although we often rely on digital technology to close the distance between people, nothing can replace in-person interaction.

Therefore, to drive remote team success, try investing in periodic face-to-face meet-ups. The ideal frequency will vary depending on multiple factors. For example, you’ll want to consider the nature of work and the geographic footprint of your team members. If everyone in your group is located in the same city, meet-ups could be more frequent than for those in different cities, states, countries, or continents.

Regardless, every manager should ensure that each meet-up offers a balanced mix of work endeavors and recreation. This will help everyone feel more connected and energized throughout the session and beyond.

Do You Manage a Distributed Team? What’s Your Next Move?

No plan or approach is bulletproof, mind you. But one thing is certain. If you incorporate these measures into your daily business practices, you will significantly improve the chance that you’ll reduce the distance between distributed team members. After all, it’s likely you’ve heard another popular quote:

“Out of sight, out of mind.”

For any leader seeking success in today’s hyper-competitive business world, this is a key issue you will want to avoid, no matter where your team members are located. So, go ahead. I encourage you to try these ideas to defeat “distance” across your organization. And don’t forget to share your experience!

Millennial’s Commentary On the Generational Gap: How We Really See You

February 24, 2016/Archives /by Brittney Barbe

Thousands, maybe even millions of research articles flood the web on how Xers and Boomers are trying to understand what millennials really want in the workplace. After all, this is the generation taking over our organizations. With all of this information at your fingertips on how you can engage this sector of the workforce, there seems be too little to no rhetoric spelling out how Millennials view our Xer and Boomer colleagues. This brings me to question, how can you expect engagement initiatives to be successful when you have no idea how we view you?

We think Gen X is cynical

Generation X (1965-79) is one of the most skeptical generations to date, having grown up in an era when many of the institutions built by veterans (1922-1946) and improved upon by boomers (1946-1964) were torn to pieces. We agree it can be discouraging watching companies like Enron and WorldCom crumble and being fed lies about faulty products, but understand that your cynicism stifles the innovation that we are longing for. A check and balance system in the workplace is good but when very idea that spews out of our millennial mouth’s is met with your skepticism, we naturally do want to run home at 5:00 and apply for any other position on Monster.

All you see is the corner office

The Greatest Generation raised Boomers to ensure they would never miss out on their youth the way they did. A noble cause. What parent would not want to give their child a great life? It became all about what they could do for themselves and their families. “Don’t let anything stand in the way of what you want,” Boomers taught their Xer children. This has created a stigma, whether just or not, that Xer are willing to do whatever it takes to get to get ahead. They put their head down, work 60 hours a week and finally land their prize – the corner office. The problem with that for millennials is many Xers do not seem to be inviting us to their marathon to success, quite the opposite. We view your hands-off, because I said so and never take a sick day approach to leading as nothing more than an oppressing attempt to keep us in our entry to mid-level roles. Our goal is not the corner office, but the entire company with a budget for Corporate Social Responsibility.

Them is we

Boomers and Xers, more so than others, tend to use the generation labels much more than millennials or Zs (1995-2012). Yes, I know that seems like an oxymoron considering you are reading an article about generation labels right now but please humor me. No matter who you are you do not like to be pigeon-holed into categories. The rise of individualism is not new nor did it start with our generation. It is simply better documented due to more sophisticated technology. Only a third of millennials say they are millennials. While we will always have categories in place to better organize everyone, Xers and Boomers could relate to us more if they simply stopped using the “young and dumb” approach. I know Xers have spent years trying to live up to the Boomer’s expectations only to have them creep back in to the workforce (Thank you Great Recession) but putting all the ideas you deem naïve in a box and labeling it millennial will never build successful organizations. We are all in this together.

You are on our pedestal

This has and will continue to be one of my biggest flaws. I put my mentors and leaders on a pedestal. I am chomping at the bit to conquer the world and all I need is someone in my corner cheering me on and calling me out when I need it. When my cheerleader cannot find the pom-poms or stifles my innovative idea with negativity, I am heartbroken, confused and angry. I take it personally to the point I almost cannot learn from them any longer. I do make sure I do whatever it takes to prove them wrong though. Maybe they use it as a form of motivation? Millennials as a whole inspire to be incredible people that will make the world better. You do not need to be Steve Jobs or Mohmmas Yunus but you do need to try and get on-board with that.

No matter where you stand in the conversation around generations in the workplace, one thing is certain, we are not going away. 53.5 million millennials are expected to be in the workforce by the end of this year. While I understand some of the stereotypes around our endless texting and job hopping and proven true in some cases, overall, many of us simply want someone to lead us.

Photo Credit: sagitmalka52 via Compfight cc

Set Up For Sales Failure

October 28, 2015/Archives /by Ruth Schwartz

I learn about all kinds of companies and industries as a consultant. Naturally I love seeing people create their unique company, new healthy habits, high-performing teams, and their vision. But I also find it truly fascinating when my learning includes product expertise.

However, this story isn’t about a client. It isn’t how I vicariously learned about selling cars. I spent a day trying to get a job selling cars, and I learned a lot.

I learned that, unlike in most other types of jobs, sales managers in the car industry love walk-in applications. It’s a sport.
I learned that you will interview repeatedly with a committee of sales managers. Game initiation…

But most important:

I learned that there is a reason that car salespeople have the bad reputation they have—it’s not what you may think.

Car salespeople are screwed. The car sales model is designed for failure. The only way a car salesperson can make money is to be a relentless, persistent, unfaltering sales maniac. These are nice people in an extremely unkind job. And the car dealers have designed it that way.

[easy-tweet tweet=”The only way a car salesperson can make money is to be a relentless, sales maniac.” user=”@highperformance” hashtags=”#autosalesfailure”]

So, why did I go? Even though I am not an expert, I love selling. Let’s just put that on the table. So when I needed to raise money RIGHT NOW, I thought, why not go for the “high commission” luxury car market? After all, how hard can that be? Give me a great product with a higher price and commission, and I’ll make some money. Right?

Not so fast. Turns out that most car salespeople are making commission on profits, not sales. When you think about the $30,000 car you are buying, you might assume that the salesperson will take in a respectable 25% of that sticker price. And you might assume, as I always thought, that sales guys made $7500 plus commission on any aftermarket upsells, spiffs and warranty items. NO. Not so.

I discovered that there were two different types of dealers and sales commissions. But the average payout was about $250 to $500 per car, depending on the make and the lot.

Here is how Phillip Reed explained commissions in Edmonds.com’s Confessions of a Car Salesman:

“Commissions were based on the ‘payable gross’ to the dealership and were applied in three tiers. If the payable gross was from $0 to $749, our commission was 20 percent of the profit, from $750 to $1249 the commission was 25 percent of the profit. Above $1250 the commission was 30 percent of the profit.”

P.S. That is not a lot of money.

While I was visiting dealerships, I heard talk about a draw. The highest draw I heard was $1000 per month. Some were less. Additionally, I heard repeatedly that I would be spending 40, 50, or 60 hours per week in the hustle to be successful.

In Confessions of a Car Salesman, Phillip continues:

“Craig asked me questions about myself, but mainly he was there to tell me the realities of the job. He told me that I would be successful selling only 20 percent of the time. So about 80 percent of the time I would be failing.”

I must have talked to three Craigs! This is an amazing similarity. But here is the kicker from Phillip:

“Now I found that I was, in fact, working on straight commission. If I sold cars I made money. If I didn’t sell, I didn’t make a penny. Maybe that’s why there were so many salespeople working here (about 85 in new and used cars). It didn’t cost the dealership extra to have a big staff.”

I had the advantage of sitting with Sales Manager Andrew at the Mercedes Benz dealer closest to my home. In his attempt to talk me out of pursuing my dream, he brought up his sales spreadsheet. What he shared was that there were 10 sales people on two shifts. Two of the guys were making a killing. They were making the highest commissions with the highest sales goal spiffs, and they had the corner on all Internet sales. (Keep in mind that when you spend the day with a guy on the lot driving all the cars and then buy online, the online guy gets the commission, not the one that helped you…)

The two top salespeople had their month’s sales total up around 18-20 units. A quick count, which I confirmed with Andrew, showed that they were close to hitting the $15,000 mark. Not bad…

On the other hand, the next three in line had sold 7-9 vehicles apiece, and unless they crested 10 over the end-of-the-month weekend coming up, they would be lucky to break $5,000 gross (before taxes and benefits). The best commissions and draws didn’t kick in until the 10-unit mark. So those guys were going to live at the lot and sweat bullets until they crested 10. The bottom 5 salespeople were hovering at 2-4 vehicles sold for the month, netting them around $2500 on average.

Dang.

I asked, “ How do you have the conversation with them that they aren’t performing well?”

[easy-tweet tweet=”Who wants to work that hard for $2500? Do you?”” user=”@highperformance” hashtags=”#salesfailure, #autosalesnightmare”]Andrew answered, “I don’t have to. They will quit. Who wants to work that hard for $2500? Do you?”

Double dang.

I don’t want to work that hard for $5000 either.

I did a search on Glassdoor for Auto sales salaries…The national average with commission is $47,000 annual earnings out the door.

This is clearly not a way to get rich. That said, if you are going to be successful at this game, you have to be unflappably good at the game. The game is set up to weed people out, to work them hard, and to spit them out.

I know that the dealers make money, although not as much as they used to. But until they change their model, it will continue to be hell to buy a car.

Here is a study of the industry done in The Economist.

“Since 2013 BMW, taking Apple Stores as its model, has been installing ‘product geniuses’ in some larger showrooms, to talk potential buyers through its cars’ features without pressing them to close a sale.”

But Tesla, who returned to a direct sale model, is now being fought by dealers (RE franchises) in multiple states.

“The legislation, enacted in the 1950s to protect dealers from onerous terms that carmakers were trying to impose on them, is now being used to put the brakes on Tesla.”

I am not expecting that the next time you walk onto a car lot, cringe, and say hello to your salesperson (and goodbye to your day) that you develop a softer spot for him or her. What I learned is that every car salesperson is truly hunting to eat. The game isn’t fair—it’s barely livable, and it is designed for failure. Would you ever think to create that in your organization? It is cruel and unusual punishment.

No wonder car salesmen have a bad reputation. It is built into their job description. Shame on an industry that could do so much better.

Photo credit: Bigstock

Innovate Today To Build A Vision For The Future

March 26, 2015/Archives /by Doug Coull

In addition to leading an organization, I’m a consumer and stakeholder in other brands. Like many people, I recognize what companies appeal to the broader masses and which have a dismal reputation for poorly manufactured products or are laden with bad publicity due to a barrage of public outcry. So as a consumer, I will size up an organization not only for what they do with and for their consumers, but also how a company innovates today looking towards the future. A philosophy I have adopted within my own organization.

Innovation, along with customer service delivery, is dynamic and differentiates your business from another. Differentiation isn’t just knowing the competition in your space, it’s bigger than that. It’s knowing your business model and your customers’ business inside and out, and further how you outwardly value those who matter most. Many companies don’t understand their value proposition. This means they cannot deliver on their promises, whether that’s to their customers, employees, or even their business partners.

Companies like Starbucks, Amazon and Zappos are good examples of companies that understand differentiation and innovation. Information flows in and out of these organizations in a truth-well-told manner and they’ve become recognized for this. Ultimately it’s put them into a different class of company. One factor that is recurrent in these three organizations is that the CEOs have set a vision and outwardly live this vision every day. They’ve not passed the buck, they’ve retained control and took responsibility for steering the ship.

Good companies conduct sound business outside of silos with a few exceptions such as Pharmaceuticals which is government sanctioned and overly laden with patents. Doing good business doesn’t mean giving away the farm or disclosing all your secrets to the World, but it does show the World that information flows to and from your organization and gives the impression that you and your company are approachable to do business. Approachability shows transparency and vision, both can be used to set your business apart from the competition.

There are a ton of articles that discuss vision and innovation and the direct affect they have on the solvency and on-going existence of organizations. There is no one look or feel of innovation. It comes in many shapes and forms and works well when used wisely and liberally. Stagnation and lack of innovation will likely lead to the demise of organizations that refuse to heed the warnings.

So what are you doing to differentiate your organization in a market that’s over-saturated with an abundance of product offerings and services? This is a question that every smart CEO and business owner needs to be asking themselves. A good place to start is knowing your mission and vision. This goes beyond your brand, it is knowing your business plan and vision are on course and your short and long-term goals are attainable and being met. And, critically, understanding that plans must flex and evolve when needed. It, also, means your employees are provided a transparent view of the business mission and objectives and are supporting that vision because they’ve been provided the right tools to do their job and have the information they need.

Business is like a chain. One fractured link will impact the links around it and eventually the entire chain breaks. When you take care of all the links and recognize the intrinsic value each holds, it’s easier to see the bigger picture and that includes what the future can potentially look like for your company. Locking in the company vision today will help create the business you want in the future.

The Craft VS. The Art Of Leadership

July 22, 2014/5 Comments/Archives /by Justin Locke

I think it’s fair to say that I am an expert, or at least, very exper-ienced, in the realm of arts education. Since leadership is an art form of sorts, I thought I would weigh in with an artistic perspective on leadership and management training.

When people talk about “arts education,” most of the time they are really referring to “craft education,” e.g., learning how to find the notes on a keyboard or a clarinet. That is an essential element of arts education, but it is not the same as the “art” part of it, which has much more to do with perception, imagination, one’s unique presence, and evoking emotional responses.

It is important to keep craft and art separate. This is because it is very easy, and very common, to get them out of balance.

Many people get by on their art even though they are short on craft. Pavarotti could not read music, but this did not get in his way. Arthur Fiedler had no baton technique, but it did not prevent him from being the most successful conductor in history. “Fik-Shun” won the title of America’s Favorite Dancer last year, even though he had minimal standard dance craft training compared to his competitors.

But while many people get by despite having minimal craft, many people are defeated by having too much of it. Too much craft can fog up your perception, suppress your imagination, shame the imperfections that make you unique, make you afraid of your audience, and just delay everything generally.

Just one example, when I wrote my first book, I was scared to death of failure and rejection, so I bought and read every book I could find on how to get published. Sad to say, I spent so much time reading these books and following their many detailed systems for success that I ended up never actually . . . you know . . . publishing a book. Years later, it was only due to a sense of total desperation that I finally took on the “art” of it. With guts a-churning, I sent a check and a pdf file to a book printer. Three weeks later, I was “published,” and four months later, I had sold every typo-laden copy. The “experts” had given me lots of nifty advice, but they had not given me the courage to simply place the order and put the book on display. In fact, they had sort of gotten in the way of it. I could tell you identical stories about learning how to play the bass, how to dance, and how to be a public speaker. All too often, lessons in craft get in the way of the art.

In a world where “content is king,” many people promote themselves by publishing advice on how to manage and lead. It is all done with the best of intentions, but beyond a certain point, the sheer volume of it makes it a time-consuming liability. The “art” of leading is made of your own odd combination of desire, perception, courage, imagination, and personal presence. If those imperfect elements are suppressed, no external system or craft can take their place.

So here I am giving out yet more management advice, but in this case the advice is to ignore my advice. Sure, feedback and coaching are essential to cultivating your talents, but one must be careful not to become overly deferential to an outside system. As Dorothy learned in the Wizard of Oz, there are some things that no one can teach you, you have to figure them out for yourself. Don’t let too much leadership craft get in the way of your leadership art.

(About the Author: Justin Locke spent 18 years playing bass in the Boston Pops, and his musical plays are performed all over the world. He is a philosopher, humorist, author, speaker, and coach. He shares an amusing pragmatic approach to personal growth, “people skills,” and management, based on his experience in the world of the performing arts. For more, visit his website at www.justinlocke.com.)

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Kudos To You: 10 Top To-Do’s To Keep Those Customers Coming

July 21, 2014/1 Comment/Archives /by Lisa Ryan

Every day we spend our precious time and hard-earned money out in the market searching for new customers. We advertise, we network, we use social media strategies – all for the purpose of finding ever-elusive hot new prospects and turning them into profitable new customers.

With all this emphasis on attaining new customers, what we are doing to retain our current customers? According to a study conducted by marketing guru, Dan Kennedy, here are the reasons that a customer leaves:

1% die
3% move away
5% follow a friend or relative’s advice and switch to their recommended supplier
9% switch due to a better price or better product
14% switch due to product or service dissatisfaction.

While the first two reasons may be out of your control, you should be able to do something about the other three. However, all of the reasons above still only account for a total of 32%. So, why do the other 68% of customers leave a business? Simply put, they leave because they feel unappreciated, unimportant and taken for granted.

Customer turnover is costing businesses billions of dollars each year. Here are some startling statistics from Emmett C. Murphy and Mark A. Murphy, in their report, “Leading on the Edge of Chaos:”

Obtaining new customers can cost as much as five times more than retaining current customers

Increasing customer retention by 2% has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%

The average company loses 10% of its customers each year

Reducing customer defection by 5% can increase profits by 25-125%

The customer profitability rate tends to increase over the life of a retained customer

Wow – is that a wake-up call or what? Let’s take a look at how you can stop spending so much money trying to attract new clients and instead, learn to take care of the customers you already have.

Here are 10 Strategies that you can begin to implement TODAY for massive results:

1. Keep in touch regularly and systematically.

When your customer places an order, follow up with them to see how satisfied they are with your product and/or service. Invite feedback – both positive and negative. (Chances are you’ll learn more from the negative feedback) Let your customers know that you care about them for the long term and not just for a one-shot deal. Take the time to learn as much as you can about your customers during your follow up calls. A little extra effort can lead to your clients inquiring about other products or services that you offer and you’ll gain new business. Since it’s always easier to sell more to someone you’re already doing business with, think of the lifetime value of each and every one of your customers.

2. Educate your customers with valuable, FREE information.

Sharing your knowledge via a newsletter, social media updates, special reports and blogs will prove your expertise. Providing value will also set you part from all the others that are merely promoting their products and services in every communication. In BNI (Business Networking International), the philosophy is “Givers Gain.” Be a giver. Pay attention to the issues that are important to your customer and make it a point to find answers for them. You’ll become the go-to person for both information and their business.

3. Become a Resource.

Look for other ways that you can serve your customers, even if it doesn’t mean an immediate return on your efforts. Look for occasions when you can refer business, help out with an event or offer suggestions to improve their business. In your clients’ mind, you’ll be the expert and will thereby be “top of mind” for the next time they are looking for your product or service. As you get to know your customers better, you’ll be able to offer them assistance in a variety of areas. Networking events can play a critical role in meeting the “right people” to refer to other “right people.” Be a conduit and you could become your customer’s hero.

4. Write a note of appreciation.

When you send a personalized card or note through the mail (not an e-card), you are setting yourself apart, big time. Not only is a card a pleasant diversion from the junk mail and bills that your customers are used to getting on a daily basis, it adds a personal touch to the relationship, which is priceless. Think about it, you are giving your customer tangible evidence that you value them and support them. Chances are that that card is going to be hanging on their bulletin board or displayed on their desk. When someone picks up the card or asks about it, YOUR name is going to get mentioned – in a good way. Great opportunity for referrals!

5. Respond to customers promptly when they contact your business.

Take care of issues immediately. Ignoring problems doesn’t make them go away, it just makes them bigger and harder to correct. Remember what your mother told you: If you make a mistake, say you’re sorry. Then make things right. Let your customers know that you are committed to a high level of service and that you will do whatever it takes to resolve their issues. Chances are, it will take a lot less than you think it will to completely satisfy (and keep) your customer. There is a study that showed that only 17% of customers would give a second chance to a company that makes a mistake. However, you greatly improve the chances of repeat business when you go beyond their expectations to solve their problems.

6. Pay attention.

Listening to what your customer has to say will provide clues that will help you provide a more personal touch. If your customer talks about their brand new grandchild, send a congratulatory card. If he or she has a child heading off to college, jot a note on the calendar and make sure you ask about it next time you talk to them. Find out birthdays and anniversary dates. Send cards for nontraditional occasions. Remember, you may be the only person that has taken the time to send them a card. It may be a cliché, but people don’t care what you know until they know that you care. Ok, one more cliché – you have two ears and one mouth – they should be used in that proper proportion.

7. Act with integrity.

In everything you do, you want your stakeholders and customers to trust you. Developing trust takes time, yet it can be lost in an instant. When you say you are going to do something, do it. When a mistake is made, admit it, and then make it right. Do whatever you can to earn your customer’s unwavering belief in you and your business. Remember, confidence must be earned continuously. People want to do business with and work for trustworthy companies.

8. Maintain Quality.

No matter how good your customer service is, if you’re providing an inferior product or service, your customers are going to leave. Make sure all of your employees are aware of the importance of maintaining quality. Put systems into place to monitor it. If you have any products that are outsourced, rigorously insure that your quality standards are met.

9. Reward Customers.

Institute a customer loyalty program. Give your customers coupons they can use for their next order. Surprise them occasionally with a free gift. Hold a “Customer Appreciation Event.” Look for different and unique ways that you can delight your customers.

10. Do Good.

Establish a relationship with a nonprofit or charity and invite other local businesses to participate. Share what you’re doing in your newsletter and in your social media campaigns. Remind people when they patronize your business that they are contributing to a greater cause.

All of these strategies work, but don’t overwhelm yourself thinking that you have to perform them perfectly right now. It’s important to get started moving your customer relationships forward. Choose one technique that you feel that you are already doing well, then brainstorm some creative ways you can do it even better.

You may want to rank these ideas in order of importance or impact to your bottom line. Implement systems, one key point at a time, until you see progress and then move to the next one. Paying consistent attention to the way you acknowledge your clients will pay off in way that may surprise you. Go for it!

(About the Author: As Founder of Grategy, Lisa Ryan works with organizations to create stronger employee and customer engagement, retention and satisfaction. Her proven gratitude strategies (Grategies) lead to increased productivity, passion and profits. She is the author of seven books, and co-stars in two documentaries: the award-winning: “The Keeper of the Keys,” and “The Gratitude Experiment.” To learn more, visit www.grategy.com.)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

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Kill Them With Kindness: Ineffective Motivational Tactics

July 1, 2014/Archives /by Sean Pomeroy

Office break rooms are often riddled with “you can do it!” style posters. You know, the ones that have a picture of Sequoia trees in California with something about how long they took to grow. These are great posters with great (and albeit cliché) sayings and quotes, but what do they really do for your employees? Honestly, absolutely nothing. While it’s interesting that Sequoia trees take 3,000 years of trying weather conditions and sustained effort to grow 300 feet, your employees don’t care. In fact, only 19% of employees are happy with their jobs. The other 81% would rather not see your motivational posters while they begrudgingly work for 8 hours to bring home the bacon.

Sometimes it is just another job.

“Choose a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.” –Confucius

Especially in rough economic times, your employees may feel stuck. This doesn’t mean they aren’t engaged. They might very well be engaged in fear of losing their job, however, this doesn’t imply they are happy. Stagnancy creates an atmosphere of disengagement. Even though it is easy to fall into the habits of stagnant behavior in the office, giving programs and advancement opportunities keep employees engaged while they are at work. Workplace giving programs, like donating to a charitable organization, motivate employees to make an impact, and that often will translate into their work. With the growing number of benevolent Millenials entering the workforce, 90% of companies offer a wide range of diverse charities to donate to in order to foster an atmosphere of community. Opportunities for growth can increase engagement as well, so they begin to see it as more than just another avenue for a paycheck. The more employees value their place in your company, the more engaged they become.

An engaged employee isn’t necessarily a happy employee.

“It is the working man who is the happy man. The idle man is the man who is miserable.” –Benjamin Franklin

Engagement and happiness in a company are two completely different aspects of an employee’s attitude. Simply saying your employees are happy with their jobs, so they must be engaged, or even that your employees are unhappy so they must be disengaged, are false equivalencies that will only result in furthering their detachment. There are over 70 million employees who are disengaged from their jobs. This isn’t to say they aren’t happy, in fact they could be extremely content in the security your employment offers them. However that doesn’t mean they are fully dedicated to the projects you’ve left on their plate. It is expected of American employees to work until we can’t anymore. A lot of disengagement can be attributed to this. In a study of 21 developed countries, the United States was the only country that doesn’t consistently offer 10 to 30 days of paid vacation. Regardless if a U.S. employer gives their workforce vacation, they don’t use it because they are trained to work hard no matter the cost, even the costs to their health. In fact, middle-aged men at risk for heart disease who skipped vacations for 5 consecutive years are 30% more likely to have a heart attack.

Employees won’t always like their jobs.

“Do not hire a man who does work for money, but him who does it for love of it.” –Henry David Thoreau

Truth is, they don’t have to like their jobs to be engaged or motivated. Now, those 24% who are actively disengaged find reasons to not be at work while in the office because they honestly hate their jobs. The majority of the workforce does not fall into this category, however. The workforce is primarily disengaged, with 63% of employees sleepwalking through the workdays. Although they are disengaged, it’s not so drastic they can’t be “checked back into” their work. Effective motivation doesn’t come from overplayed sayings on pictures of nature. It just simply doesn’t work the way you hope; all you’re doing is evading the hard work. “Nothing worth it was ever easy,” or so they say. So, engaged employees may not be an easy goal to achieve, but when you take the time and the effort to find what motivates your workforce, it’s worth it.

(About the Author: Sean Pomeroy, CEO of Visibility Software, has worked in the Human Resources industry since he graduated from Radford University with a Bachelors in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. After working in HR as a generalist for a government contracting company, he moved to the HR Technology arena and began assisting companies in the selection and implementation of HR software.)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

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#TChat Recap: Authenticity Is An Inside Job That Starts With Self

June 19, 2014/1 Comment/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

Authenticity Is An Inside Job That Starts With Self

Everyday, there’s a flock of people who head to work and experience a daily dosage of empowerment, then there’s the other flock that experiences workplace dread on a daily-basis. Some people get to work in highly engaging workplaces, while others count the seconds till the clock strikes freedom. Within each workplace culture there exists what’s referred to as workplace authenticity, whether it’s real or fake. Few experience it first-hand, and many can only wonder about what it would be like to be true to themselves at work and ideally, in everyday life. This week, #TChat was joined by Jason Lauritsen and Joe Gerstandt.

Both of them get why authenticity is an invaluable workplace mindset that encourages innovation through openness, trust, and communication. Interestingly enough, authenticity is about being real and true to one’s self. Yet, in the workplace, Jason believes that:

A1 Part of workplace authenticity is being able to encourage someone to be themselves even when it annoys the hell out of you.

— Jason Lauritsen (@JasonLauritsen) June 18, 2014

Yes, even if that person becomes a bit of an annoyance. We must look within ourselves to find who we really are inside our workplace and who we want to be. To do so, we must:

A2 Be bold, others will follow. Speak the truth. Stand up for each other. Make it safe to be unpopular. Invest in relationships. #TChat — joe gerstandt (@joegerstandt) June 18, 2014

Speaking the truth does require boldness and at times being unpopular in the process. It’s through these initial actions that we begin to discover the value in being authentic. We must find it within ourselves to accept authenticity. Instead of authenticity finding acceptance at the bottom of an organization:

Authenticity must flow from the top of the organization to all levels to encourage openness and engagement #TChat — linda l neider (@neideronthemove) June 18, 2014

Authenticity has to begin at the top and work its way down to the entire organization. It should be embraced with open arms. It must be greeted with optimism. Workplace productivity and business results experience a bumpy ride when employees are not allowed the freedom to be themselves at work. Simply put:

A4 Authenticity = engagement = happier workplace = more productivity and better bottom line #TChat

— Chantal Bechervaise (@CBechervaise) June 18, 2014

If authenticity generates better engagement and happier employees, then what employer wouldn’t care about the end results? If organizations truly care about the bottom line, then cultivating workplace authenticity can provide the fruition they seek. Don’t have employees sitting around waiting until the clock strikes freedom (and the end of their workday). Have them working at highly productive levels through the empowerment of workplace authenticity. Keep employees engaged by letting them voice their opinions and developing a cultural mindset of being real with themselves and other people that surround the culture. Any organization will see the results are at least worth taking another look at.

Want To See The #TChat Replay?

View the story “Authenticity Is An Inside Job That Starts With Self” on Storify

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

Thanks again to our guests Jason Lauritsen and Joe Gerstandt. Click here to see the preview and related reading.

#TChat Events: Authenticity Is An Inside Job That Starts With Authenticity

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How To Actually Get Stuff Done

June 18, 2014/2 Comments/Archives /by David Bator

The employee engagement survey results are in. Now what? You can collect data until you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t have a way to turn that information into actionable insights, it’s not going to make an ounce of difference in your company.

Raw Data Isn’t Enough

Managers who gather data about employee satisfaction, performance, engagement, efficiency and the like can run into the same stumbling blocks as executives who are trying to harness big data analytics for business intelligence. According to a recent KPMG study, 85 percent of business leaders indicated that their biggest challenge with data analytics was accurately analyzing and interpreting information. Three-quarters of respondents said they had trouble actively making decisions based on data results.

“From CEOs to CFOs, CIOs and CMOs, the challenge for today’s executive is understanding how to draw actionable insights from data and turn them into tangible, genuine results,” said Mark Toon, CEO of KPMG Capital.

In short, there are a lot of technological resources to collect, store and integrate data, but the information is only valuable when it can drive strategic change.

Surveys Must Be Followed By Action

If you go through the trouble of soliciting employee feedback, you need to have productive and effective ways to understand the information and act on your insights. Of course, analyzing is one thing – acting is another. You don’t want to get so caught up in the reporting and analysis phase that you miss the opportunity to actually bring about a difference with the project. To make it easier for managers to derive insights that they can then act on, some talent management software provides reports and resources for prescribing actions and measuring outcomes.

Swapnil Shah, CEO of FirstFuel, explained in Greentech Media that data analytics must be focused on tangible results. To bridge the gap between data collection and results, he suggested customizing and scaling insights. You might have a lot of information from across your organization – focus on a few key pieces for specific departments, offering leaders manageable suggestions with reasonable goals.

Shaping Employee Culture

In addition to optimizing business practices and bolstering productivity, acting on employee engagement surveys is an important strategy for forming a positive company culture. Workers who are disengaged often feel they lack a voice and their opinions aren’t valued. Responding to feedback creates open lines of communication and demonstrates that management is receptive to employee ideas and preferences. Sharing survey results with team members and focusing on ways to improve the group can also foster a closer working community.

“Engagement is really about what you do every day to make employees feel part of a team. They need to know how they make that team better every day,” Florida Power & Light’s vice president Michael Kiley told the Miami Herald. “They don’t want to let down their peers.”

The source added that employee engagement should be aimed at long-term, sustainable changes, not Band-Aid fixes or diverting perks. Overall, surveys can never be an end in themselves – they’re a powerful tool for measuring and analyzing workplace performance, but their true value lies in the action they inspire.

(About the Author: David Bator is passionate about programs that move people. As Vice President of Client Strategy at TemboStatus he works with growing companies everyday and helps them bridge the gap between assessing employee engagement and addressing it with action. For the last 15 years David has worked with the leadership of companies large and small to build programs that leverage strategy and technology to deliver extraordinary value for employees, customers and partners.)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

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How Clean Is Your Wastebasket?

June 17, 2014/1 Comment/Archives /by Lisa Ryan

If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. But if you can say something nice – DO! – Lisa Ryan

It was my mom’s 70th birthday and I wanted to spend the day at the spa with her. However, because of my speaking schedule, I did not have the time to book an appointment in advance.

If you’ve ever tried to book a spa appointment for a particular day, you know how difficult it can be, so imagine trying to book TWO same day spa appointments. I was on the phone early, calling spas and telling the receptionist what I wanted. Most of them practically laughed in my face, “Honey, we are booked up through the end of next month,” was the general reply.

Finally, I called one last number and Silvia picked up the phone.

I told her, “Today is my mom’s 70th birthday and I’d like to take her to the spa.” Silvia replied, “We would love to create the perfect day for your mother.” I said, “Well, I’d like to come with her, can you do two appointments?” She answered, “Of course we can.” I really wanted two facials, but because of the clinicians that they had working that day, we would have to have one facial and one massage – no problem, massage for mom, facial for me.

Then Silvia revealed, “We can even provide both services for each of you.” By that time, Silvia had created such a high expectation for the day that I didn’t even ask the price, I just said, “Sign us up.” With a single statement, Silvia doubled the amount of money I was going to spend at their spa.

Silvia greeted us at the door and led us into the “Relaxation Room.” She directed my mother to a chair that already had a birthday balloon tied to it and a card signed by the staff. She took off our shoes and put our feet up on the lounge chair. She then brought my mom a tray with assorted goodies – grapes, cheese, crackers, cookies and chocolate. As she offered my mother her tray, she said, “It is my pleasure and an honor to serve you.” She then put together my tray and handed it to me in the same fashion. Wow!

We did not carry our purse or take on or off our shoes all day. The services were far beyond expectation and my mom said it was “the BEST birthday ever.” Mission accomplished. However, it wasn’t the amazing spa experience that had my mother and I talking on the way back to the car.

In the parking lot, my mother asked me, “Did you notice the bathroom?” I exclaimed, “YES!” Every single time my mother or I used the restroom, the wastebasket was empty. It was perfectly clean. The attention to detail was amazing and by taking care of everything, Silvia and the rest of the team created a day that was in a word – Perfect.

What does all of this have to do with your business?

1. Think about how your phone is answered. Do you treat “silly questions” as if they truly are ridiculous, or do you look for a “Yes, and” solution to make the situation work for you and your potential client. Smiling while answering the phone comes through to your client. Silvia’s enthusiasm started our experience off on a positive note. You can find some great tips for phone etiquette from Salisbury University.

2. How do you provide your service? Do you consider it an “honor” to serve your clients? Do you convey that in your tone of voice and come at your business from the place of a servant heart? When Silvia first uttered, “It is my honor and a privilege to serve you,” I had no doubt in my mind that she meant every word. Richard Weylman offers his insight in his report, “The Honor of Serving Others”.

3. What details are you missing? Is there something you can do that is so simple and yet so unexpected that it leaves an indelible impression? It may have taken Silvia three seconds to remove the paper towels from the waste basket between clients, yet that minor detail stood out above everything else. It showed what an amazing experience they were able to create just by paying attention. In his article, “Pay Attention to the Details,” Harrison Barnes explores lots of ways in a variety of industry to make sure you are paying attention.

Take inventory of your thoughts, words, feelings and actions as you go through your day. Your clients don’t need to know what kind of day you’re “really” having, all they need to do is experience the heart of a servant and the desire to take care of them in the best possible way – details included.

PS – Don’t underestimate the power of your thoughts, feelings and words. EVERYTHING you do makes an impression, whether it’s positive or negative.

(About the Author: Employee Engagement Expert and Motivational Speaker, Lisa Ryan works with organizations to help them keep their top talent and best customers from becoming someone else’s. She achieves this through personalized employee engagement and customer retention keynotes, workshops and seminars. She is the author of six books, and is featured in two films including the award-winning, “The Keeper of the Keys” with Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul. For more information, please connect with Lisa at her website: www.grategy.com or email her at lisa@grategy.com.)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

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Power: The Dark Side of Leadership

June 16, 2014/4 Comments/Archives /by Justin Locke

I have a little confession to make. I find power to be delicious.

For most of my life I have worked as a kind of modern-day impresario. I produced events and media, everything from promotional videos to chamber music concerts to recording sessions with full size symphony orchestras. I was a one-man HR office; I had to hire videographers, graphic designers, actors, audio engineers, composers, musicians, editors, you name it. And I will be the first to admit, when you have power to hire and fire, and you have a budget to spend on vendors who are dying for your business, life takes on a patina of extraordinary pleasantness. When you have power, people who would normally ignore you suddenly become your new best friend. They hang on your every word and tell you what you want to hear. When this happened to me, I liked it. I liked it a lot.

Now before talking about this further, I have a question. As someone who philosophizes, speaks, and coaches on issues of management, I try to keep up with the latest, and I read various books and articles on the topic. There seems to be no end of management advice out there, so my question is, why is it that, other than a few books by Machiavelli, I never see any articles about the joys, temptations, and potential pitfalls of simply possessing power, which is the very essence of being in a leadership/management role?

I suspect that at some point I will get a very stringent lesson in why no one else talks about it in public, but until then, here goes.

The first time I had some real power, I was totally inexperienced in its use, and I was totally unprepared for its narcotic effect. I loved the way people who wanted my business would give me “strokes” of sycophantic attention. Being not totally stupid, I knew that this largesse of positive social interaction was conditional on my continuing to have power, and so I became very eager to consolidate my power. I took steps to make sure I would hold on to it as much as possible. I found myself wanting more and more of it. For a while, this goal, of having power purely for the sake of having power, eclipsed my memory of my original purpose, i.e., why other people had given me power in the first place.

It took me a little bit of time, reflection and hard lessons to get used to this aspect of power possession. Learning to handle it was like trying to go on a diet in a chocolate factory.

Once I recovered my wits, I found I actually had to be proactive in training people how to respond to my possession of power. Everyone has a set auto-pilot approach to dealing with people in power over them, and I found I had to endlessly counter that energy. For example, I had to repeatedly train my vendors that their primary purpose was not to meet my many infantile needs for attention. I had to endlessly remind them to focus on serving my customers, even if that meant ignoring me altogether. For most of them, this was a totally new idea, and many of them never truly believed that I meant it. They had seen how other people with power had behaved in the past, so they always hedged their bets by keeping my apples polished. This drained energy from doing actual work. I was always conflicted about this. It was inefficient, and yet I still liked it.

The many ways in which one person having power over another affects relationships and systems is an awfully large topic. Too large for a single article. So the point I want to make is this:

Power is seductive, it is addictive, it is delicious, and when you get power, remaining objective and keeping your wits about you is not easy. It requires restraint and discipline. Everywhere you look, you see evidence of people not knowing how to handle power. Most of us have a painful memory of someone who once had power over us abusing that power. Every day we see people with power using it in ways we disagree with. And even more vexing are people who have power but are afraid to use it, or just don’t know what to do with it. Need I even mention elected officials? It all gets very emotional in a hurry. And that is my point.

Management and leadership philosophy is, more or less, a guide to the use of power. We all have great ideas of how things ought to be, but there are reasons why people in power don’t always do things the way we want. Some are quite logical, some are selfish. Power also has limits to what it can do, no matter how much of it you have.

The purpose of this article is not to offer any quick solutions or a list of tips and tricks– such an approach would fail to recognize the size and complexity of the issue. The purpose is to say we must recognize and discuss the many temptations and emotional distortions that the possession of power causes, and how we are going to deal with how possession of power affects the imperfect beings who we ask to wield it. (This is not a new idea– the United States Constitution is mostly about managing the temptations of power– and look at how endlessly difficult that has been.)

I am eager to teach the introductory class, although it might sound more like a 12 step program: “Hello, my name is Justin, and I am addicted to the thrill of having power.”

(About the Author: Justin Locke spent 18 years playing bass in the Boston Pops, and his musical plays are performed all over the world. As an author, speaker, and coach, he shares a pragmatic artistic approach to personal growth, “people skills,” and managing “top performers.” For more, visit his website at www.justinlocke.com.)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

Do you have great content you want to share with us? Become a TalentCulture contributor!

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#TChat Recap: The Power Of Workforce Culture And Continuous Mobility

June 12, 2014/3 Comments/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

The Power Of Workforce Culture And Continuous Mobility

Time and time again, employers and organizations find their talent on the move. And why is that? What drives employees to leave? Instead of finding ourselves asking this question, we should be asking, “What drives employees to stay?” Sometimes before you can go forward, you have to go backwards. Meaning, we have to retrace our steps and find ourselves at the early stages of onboarding to discover the secrets of retaining employees. This week, #TChat was joined by Tracey Arnish, Senior Vice President of Talent at SAP, who understands what managing and retaining talent is all about.

Getting new employees onboard early plays a vital role in the outcome of each employee in your organization. Tracey provides us with a glance of the short and long-term effects of new hire onboarding:

A1: Short term – initial perceptions, corporate culture, energy & excitement about the org #Tchat

— Tracey Arnish (@tracey_arnish) June 11, 2014

A1: Long-term – understanding the business, their big picture goals + how they can contribute + career paths #Tchat — Tracey Arnish (@tracey_arnish) June 11, 2014

It’s through this glance that employers can visualize a roadmap to their employees’ engagement and development. From here, employers and new hires can build a career path together and:

A2: Highlight their role in the success of the company and make them feel like a valuable asset, not just another warm body. #TChat — Dr. Nicholas Thomas (@NicholasJThomas) June 11, 2014

Because at the end of the day, all employees are valuable assets, that provide your organization with the brain power and muscle to innovate and achieve success. But if you want your talent to stick around, then you have to develop it. You can do this if you:

A3: Make it clear from day one that employee mobility & growth is a supported goal of your company #TChat

— ClearCompany (@ClearCompany) June 11, 2014

Employees need to know that their career growth matters to you, as much as it matters to them. Why? Simply put, your employees’ engagement, productivity, and happiness is what’s at stake here. This all factors into the kind of short and long-term success your organization will have. And don’t forget, it shapes the kind of workplace culture you’ll have.

Want To See The #TChat Replay?

View the story “The Power of Workforce Culture & Talent Mobility” on Storify

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

Thanks again to our guest Tracey Arnish. Click here to see the preview and related reading.

#TChat Events: The Power Of Workforce Culture And Continuous Mobility

#TChat Radio — Are you plugged in to #TChat radio? Did you know you can listen live to ANY of our shows ANY time?

Now you know. Click the box to head on over to our channel or listen to The Power Of Workforce Culture And Continuous Mobility.

Note To Bloggers: Did this week’s events prompt you to write about trends on culture?

We welcome your thoughts. Post a link on Twitter (include #TChat or @TalentCulture), or insert a comment below, and we may feature it!

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Save The Date: Wednesday, June 18!

Next week’s #TChat Topic: Authenticity Is An Inside Job That Starts With Self.

The TalentCulture conversation continues daily on #TChat Twitter, in our LinkedIn group, and on our new Google+ community. So join us anytime on your favorite social channels!

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Ignore The Dream Stealers

June 10, 2014/6 Comments/Archives /by Lisa Ryan

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life he imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau

Do you have dream stealers in your life? You know, those people who think they are doing you a favor by ripping apart your aspirations and sharing their more “realistic” point of view with you? If your dreams are large enough, chances are good that you will make others around you uncomfortable. Many of the people in your life want you to stay at their level – they want you to do well, just not better than them.

There’s a story about putting crabs in a bucket. If you put one crab in the bucket, it will easily climb out. However, if you put two crabs in the bucket, the second one will hold the first one back so it can’t escape. Think about the people you hang out with most, do they encourage or discourage you? Do they hold you back or let you soar? See how blogger Scott Williams shares how he benefits from his mother’s encouragement.

Your goals and desires are yours and yours alone. If you see yourself reaching the pinnacle of your personal and professional pursuits, you can achieve them. How many stories have you heard of people that went against the odds and achieved extraordinary success? How many more people do you know who are stuck in “woulda, coulda, shoulda” land? The “woulda, coulda, shouda’s” will give you every excuse in the book as to why they didn’t make it. Why they HAD to give up. How they just couldn’t continue. They don’t want to admit that they simply gave up.

Sometimes you also have to make difficult choices about the people in your life. If you are not encouraged and supported by others regarding the goals that you are totally passionate about, you may have to leave those people behind. Joe Barton shares helpful “quick and dirty” tips for getting rid of the toxic people in your life. When you are on the path to your destiny, it’s important to associate with people who see you accomplishing your dreams. Your vocation may not be right for everyone, but it’s perfect for you.

Take out a piece of paper and draw two columns. On the top of one column put a (+) and the other column, put a (-). Think of the people that you associate with on a regular basis. Put the names of the people who leave you feeling better about yourself when you are around them on the PLUS side, and those who make you feel worse about yourself on the MINUS side. Which column has more names?

If you find that you need to change your associations, go where others with your same interests hang out. Meetup.com is a terrific place to start. You’ll find kindred spirits – or at least people who know what the heck you’re talking about. You can also join your industry association and go to their meetings. Attend networking events and talk to “friends you haven’t met yet.” Get out of your comfort zone and consciously look for new ways to meet people. You’ll be surprised and pleased with the quality of friendships that develop when you meet people on a similar path.

What is your passion? What spurs you on? What will you do TODAY to move closer to your goal? Take a teeny-tiny baby step today, and then one tomorrow. As you inch closer to your calling, you will meet with fabulous success in unexpected hours.

(About the Author: Employee Engagement Expert and Motivational Speaker, Lisa Ryan works with organizations to help them keep their top talent and best customers from becoming someone else’s. She achieves this through personalized employee engagement and customer retention keynotes, workshops and seminars. She is the author of six books, and is featured in two films including the award-winning, “The Keeper of the Keys” with Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul. For more information, please connect with Lisa at her website: www.grategy.com or email her at lisa@grategy.com.)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

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#TChat Recap: Create A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires

June 5, 2014/2 Comments/Archives /by Fernando Ramirez

Create A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires

There are millions of disengaged workers out there. Working day-to-day in what they feel is a never-ending cycle of the same old routine. But does it have to be this way?

Organizations are now starting to see the “big picture” when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. The process doesn’t just end when employees are hired. To retain employees long-term companies have to build an onboarding process that transforms and innovates the way new employees are engaged and managed.

This week’s guests, Todd Owens, President & COO at TalentWise; & Wendy Matyjevich, SPHR, HR Executive at Entia Ventures & BlackRain Partners, LLC, explain how providing a thoughtful onboarding experience not only keeps new employees around, but it makes them more productive. It builds a culture that can sustain itself.

Todd Owens mentioned:

A3: Don’t start with the status quo, or follow the pack. Start with the customer (aka candidate) in mind. Think big. #tchat @talentwise.

— Todd Owens (@toddcowens) June 4, 2014

You keep the candidate in mind during your onboarding process and think big because:

The onboarding experience must be a great one or your hidden costs will grow. Bad publicity. Negativity. Client Loss. Employee Loss#TChat — Wendy Matyjevich (@myhrreality) June 4, 2014

Hiring costs money. Yes, employee turnover is a costly process that ties into how productive and engaged your workforce is, which ultimately, transforms how clients are treated and maintained. It’s vital organizations don’t forget that:

A1. Candidates are paying your organization with their most precious resources: time, attention and energy. #tchat — Michael Clark (@ReCenterMoment) June 4, 2014

Employees anticipate the same amount of time, attention, and energy from leadership that is expected of them when it comes to how they are treated. It’s a two-way street. If employees don’t receive what they want and demand for, then they may walk and your organization will suffer. Leadership has to remember that:

A4) Onboarding is not a welcome lunch. Engagement is not a birthday party. Although it can include both it should mean so much more #TChat

— nancyrubin (@nancyrubin) June 4, 2014

It has to mean so much more, or else employees will feel disengaged and eventually they will walk. Onboarding is about managing new employees and their transition into your community and culture. By providing them guidance and support along the way, leadership will see the results it expects and meet the demands that employees expect.

Want To See The #TChat Replay?

View the story “Create A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires” on Storify

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

Thanks again to our guests Todd Owens and Wendy Matyjevich. Click here to see the preview and related reading.

#TChat Events: Create A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires

#TChat Radio — Are you plugged in to #TChat radio? Did you know you can listen live to ANY of our shows ANY time?

Now you know. Click the box to head on over to our channel or listen to Create A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires.

Note To Bloggers: Did this week’s events prompt you to write about trends on leadership?

We welcome your thoughts. Post a link on Twitter (include #TChat or @TalentCulture), or insert a comment below, and we may feature it!

If you recap #TChat make sure to let us know so we can find you!

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Sign up for the newsletter to get the scoop on next week’s guest, topic and questions!

Save The Date: Wednesday, June 11!

Next week’s #TChat Topic: The Power of Workforce Culture and Continuous Talent Mobility.

The TalentCulture conversation continues daily on #TChat Twitter, in our LinkedIn group, and on our new Google+ community. So join us anytime on your favorite social channels!

What Truly Motivates People? Is It Money, Or Something Else?

June 3, 2014/Archives /by Justin Locke

Dan Pink’s book “Drive: the Surprising Truth about What Motivates us” has thrown a major monkey wrench into how we think about motivation. For years it was assumed– and it certainly seems logical to believe– that the best way to motivate desirable behaviors was to offer cash rewards. But it turns out that there is considerable science that refutes that notion; in fact, offering cash rewards, at least in the realm of creative work and problem solving, actually encourages worse results.

This topic has opened up a broader discussion, of what human beings are. At work we are doing fewer and fewer purely mechanical/ repetitive tasks. “Value” is coming more and more from personal connections and imagination, so the tradition of seeing people in a simplistic mechanical way, in terms of their “skills” or “function,” no longer works. We are standing on the verge of major historical event, an entry into a new era, where the mechanical/industrial ways of viewing people, education, and work are falling apart. We are struggling to find new paradigms to guide our managerial thinking. For decades, we have suppressed our emotions to make ourselves more appealing in an industrial framework by being more uniform and efficient. We now have re-examine that previously suppressed internal dimension, and find ways to engage with it rather than suppress it.

To that end, Mr. Pink offers three things that motivate people.

These are:

Purpose
Mastery
Autonomy

Given the impact and influence that Mr. Pink’s book is having these days, I felt compelled to question his hypothesis. While it is not wrong, there is something missing. To explain, a story:

When I was a teenage bass player (sounds like a 50’s horror movie), I was tremendously motivated to become a professional player, to the point of obsessiveness. I was practicing eight hours every day, stopping each night only when I had reached a point of mental and physical exhaustion.

My motivation?

I certainly did not do this for the money, since I wasn’t getting any, and the pay for professional bass players is not that spectacular, given the work needed to get there. Mr. Pink was right about some elements of my motivation: Yes, I had purpose; yes, I sought mastery; and yes, practicing is a largely autonomous activity. But there was another element that motivated me, far more than money or any of these other factors:

It was a sense of belonging.

I wanted desperately to be a member of something, in this case, an oh so elegant and elite major symphony orchestra . I wanted to have a sense of belonging and connection. And I believe that a sense of belonging, far more than purpose, mastery, or autonomy, is the primary motivator of human beings.

I confess I don’t have many academic studies to support my thesis, but there is a fair amount of empirical data. Let’s consider just a few of the ways that a sense of belonging (including its synonyms, e.g., social status, acceptance, love, family, membership, and so on) motivates us to extreme effort:

There is all the money and effort many people put into “getting accepted” to an exclusive school, and thus belonging to the alumni network for life; there is the eagerness to spend massive amounts of time and money to “get certified,” and thus belong to a exclusive professional group; there are the fans (a word which is short for “fanatics”) of sports teams, who tout their sense of membership with all sorts of badges, uniforms, and rituals, not to mention paying exorbitant ticket prices; and then there is that warm glow of nationalist belonging you get when the jets fly over during the Star Spangled Banner. And do I even need to mention churches? Rotary Clubs? Street gangs? The plot of “Rudy”? Or the holy grail of social belonging, fame? The need to belong, whether to family, team, social group, or nation, drives people to extreme efforts and sacrifice. People sometimes sacrifice life itself to maintain the survival of a group to which they belong.

“Autonomy” as motivation only has meaning in the context of belonging. The only reason you don’t have autonomy is because you gave it up for something more important, i.e., a state of belonging, e.g., employment.

In my own managerial experience in the orchestra world, I found that the need to belong far outweighed any other motivation, money included. I often had difficulty finding musicians who were willing to act as leaders. Even though they were the best in their group, becoming a leader meant losing their sense of being “part of the gang.” The fun of ensemble playing was in being part of the team, not in bossing the team or otherwise being separated from it. I did not pay my leaders more money to motivate them, and I did not pay them more money because they were creating more value. It was to compensate them for their loss of rank-and-file group belonging.

For most people, not to mention wolves and other social species, belonging itself is key to mere survival. And once people become more successful, they don’t seek exclusion or autonomy; instead, the first thing they seek is ever more group social status and connection. They join the country club or the opera society board, or they run for public office.

There is also the flip side to be considered, which is the “de-motivation” caused by the loss of belonging. People who have had issues of disconnection, such as loss of a loved one, divorce, moving to a new town, or getting fired, experience massive ill effects on self confidence, focus, and every other emotion. At times they lose all motivation, period.

When we speak in terms of rewards as motivators, this typically refers to an inanimate reward, such as money or a cookie. When the “reward” is in the form of greater interpersonal connection, say, a pat on the back from an authority figure you truly admire, or the flip side, perhaps a look of disapproval from someone whose respect and acceptance mean everything to you, suddenly rewards and punishments– in the form of belonging or the lack thereof– come back into motivational fashion in a hurry.

One of the biggest reasons people resist change is the fear that it might threaten their tenuous grasp on belonging. The first thing that goes through the average employee’s mind when presented with a new idea is “belonging loss prevention.” They ask themselves, “Will doing this, or not doing this, get me fired, or result in loss of status in my professional pecking order?” All else is secondary. Consideration of one’s sense of belonging — as well as the fear of the loss of it, is therefore possibly THE most compelling motivational factor in managing people.

I am a big fan of Mr. Pink, and I think he is very much on the right track in challenging the common dogmas of industrial-era management philosophy. I just wanted to respectfully submit that as we enter into a more artistic era of management, “belonging,” as a primary emotional element of motivation, needs to be higher on the list.

(About the Author: Justin Locke spent 18 years playing bass in the Boston Pops, and his musical plays are performed all over the world. As an author, speaker, and coach, he shares a pragmatic artistic approach to personal growth, “people skills,” and managing “top performers.” For more, visit his website at www.justinlocke.com.)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

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#TChat Preview: Create A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires

June 1, 2014/Archives /by TalentCulture Team + Guests

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, June 4, 2014. #TChat Radio starts at 6:30 pm ET (3:30 pm PT) and the convo continues on #TChat Twitter chat from 7-8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT).

Last week we talked about how to visualize real-time talent alignment, and this week we’re talking about how to have a transformative onboarding experience for new hires.

According to the Talent Board’s 2013 Candidate Experience Awards report, based on data from nearly 50,000 candidates from over 90 progressive companies, new hires are sometimes met with less-than-ideal onboarding processes. They’re usually bombarded with disparate paperwork on the first day, as well as left with many questions about everything from benefits to job responsibilities.

Nobody wants to do their “day 1” paperwork from a cold, dark office. They want to do it from the comfort of wherever that comfort derives. They want to get on with the cultural immersion — and get to work.

A good onboarding experience is crucial to the success of every new employee. Since a new hire will decide within the first year if they want to stay with the company or not, the ability to deliver an effective and inviting onboarding process is key to improving employee morale and retention.

A happy candidate experience makes for exceptional hires and happy customers.

Join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn how to have a transformative onboarding experience with this week’s guests: Todd Owens, President & COO at TalentWise; and Wendy Matyjevich, SPHR, Managing Partner of Human Capital for BlackRain Partners.

Sneak Peek: How To Have A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires

We look forward to learning more from our guests, Todd Owens and Wendy Matyjevich, to learn more about creating a better onboarding experience for new hires.

#TChat Events: How To Have A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires

#TChat Radio — Wed, June 4 — 6:30pmET / 3:30pmPT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman talk with our guests Todd Owens and Wendy Matyjevich.

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, June 4 — 7pmET / 4pmPT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guests will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: Why should candidates be treated like paying customers? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: How should companies react to changing modern-day job seeker & employee engagement demands? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How can recruiting and onboarding be transformative for candidates & new hires? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q4: What practices help leaders ensure a compelling and sustained company culture? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q5: In what ways does a collaborative onboarding platform change engagement? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday.

To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

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#TChat Recap: How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment

May 29, 2014/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment

Managing talent is an art form. It is a delicacy few have mastered, and even fewer, have come to understand. Essentially, managing talent is about managing people, and aligning their goals with your organization’s vision. Employees are a reflection of leadership’s ability to instill and align organizational goals with the goals that employees share. Performance is driven through engagement, communication, and most importantly, transparency of what the organization’s vision is. This week, #TChat’s community was joined by Andre Lavoie, CEO & Co-founder of Clear Company; & Matt Norman, a Dale Carnegie Training franchise president, both whom relayed a vital message about organizational transparency.

They understand and know that managing employees and driving performance is about aligning talent with an organization’s vision through transparency. It starts when:

Leaders align recruiting and onboarding when they “own” the process and outcomes vs relinquish responsibility to HR #tchat

— Matt Norman (@MattNorman) May 28, 2014

Leadership has to own the recruitment and onboarding process to begin aligning talent with the organization’s vision. Before you can accomplish this, you must know:

A2: This is 1st about understanding resources you need to achieve your strategy. Align those & your Rec & Onb are also aligned #TChat — Andre G. Lavoie (@aglavoie) May 28, 2014

Creating organizational transparency begins when you realize what resources you need to achieve your strategy, then recruiting and the rest can start to fall into place. This matters because:

A2) Leaders need to understand their needs and predict their growth. Most importantly, they need to retain the ees they have. #tchat — Jen (@JRW_SocialMedia) May 28, 2014

Here’s the wonderful catch about understanding your talent needs and aligning employees with your company’s vision. It makes your people want to stick around. Employee retention helps drive organizational growth and the vision that fuels it. This is why:

A5: Leaders need to be responsible for making the vision accessible to the entire organization. #tchat

— Jessica E. Roberts (@connect2life) May 28, 2014

If you build a culture that gives employees access to your organization’s vision then your talent grows with you. At the end of the day, it’s not always about the “bottom line,” it’s about your people. An engaged workforce is productive, it’s happy, and it’s most likely to stick around. To achieve organizational transparency leaders have to hold employees accountable and must be able to continuously measure their performance to consistently align talent with your company’s vision in real-time.

Want To See The #TChat Replay?

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

Thanks again to our guests Andre Lavoie and Matt Norman for teaching us real-time talent alignment. Click here to see the preview and related reading.

#TChat Events: How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment

#TChat Radio — Are you plugged in to #TChat radio? Did you know you can listen live to ANY of our shows ANY time?

Now you know. Click the box to head on over to our channel or listen to How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment.

Note To Bloggers: Did this week’s events prompt you to write about trends on leadership?

We welcome your thoughts. Post a link on Twitter (include #TChat or @TalentCulture), or insert a comment below, and we may feature it!

If you recap #TChat make sure to let us know so we can find you!

We Want To See You On TalentCulture. Become A Contributor Now!

Sign up for the newsletter to get the scoop on next week’s guest, topic and questions!

Save The Date: Wednesday, June 4!

Next week’s #TChat Show: How To Have A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires with guests Todd Owens.

The TalentCulture conversation continues daily on #TChat Twitter, in our LinkedIn group, and on our new Google+ community. So join us anytime on your favorite social channels!

5 Steps To A Completely Aligned Workforce

May 28, 2014/Archives /by Andre Lavoie

“What on earth is Talent Alignment?”

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that question, it honestly wouldn’t matter because it’s an answer I love giving.

Talent Alignment is a goal-based, totally transparent series of processes that will change every facet of how you recruit, onboard, manage and lead your employees.

Think of talent alignment as a playbook for your entire organization that everyone can see in real-time. In many organizations today, that playbook is hidden or non-existent and seeing results of your entire organization in real-time.

Right now, many organizations have a talent cycle but it’s a vicious one. Vicious is disconnected, fractured and frustrating to top talent – in short, it’s a talent management, communication and culture problem all rolled into one. Here are the ways you can take your talent cycle from vicious to virtuous:

Step 1: Recruit Smarter

Knowing you need to hire and knowing why you need to hire are two separate things. Using talent alignment within your company makes it easy to see which holes need to be filled. All of the sudden, your job requirements are more focused and specific, your onboarding process is streamlined and your employees aren’t threatened by the new addition, because they know exactly what she is working on…and towards. It also gives HR and recruiting a seat at the table in terms of the strategic mission and vision for the company.

Step 2: Communicate Better

The key is to link your teams’ everyday efforts to overall goals, and to make it easy for managers and employees to visualize how work flows up to larger company strategies. By aligning all the middlemen you can ensure your team gets the right message every time. This approach empowers employees because they know precisely how their daily tasks fit into the larger picture.

Step 3: Build Trust

Companies that show what the goals are and individual accountability to reaching them can more easily pick out all-start employees, connect their employees in ways never possible before and create an open and trusting environment. Gossip, backbiting and the glass ceiling aren’t issues when goals and achievements are out in the open. Performance and engagement become natural by-products when alignment and transparency are “baked in”.

Step 4: Get Rid Of Pointless Tasks

A recent survey of more than 2,000 workers showed a whopping 98 percent think annual performance reviews are unnecessary. About a quarter of that group were HR professionals. This is waste of time and money. Today’s workforce works faster, smarter and in more places than the workforce that implemented annual reviews. Stop this senseless practice and use the budget and time for transparent reviewing. A continuous feedback loop between colleagues, leadership, and employees allows your HIPOs to get even better and your less productive staff matriculate or “self-select”. Research suggests that transparent review processes and a continuous feedback loop between managers and employees may even make adequate performers up their game.

Step 5: Nurturing, Training And Growth

Performance. Each team member should know their results compared to expectations. In “The 3 Signs of a Miserable Job,” Patrick Lencioni says that we engage in our work when we can measure it.

Behavior. Most leaders don’t subscribe to a Machiavellian approach to performance. We know that the means are often more important than the ends. We need to sustain performance, our health and our relationships.

Engagement. Emotional connection to the organization and to the team drives commitment, quality and culture. Team members who hide from tracking objectives are either scared or apathetic. Either reveals development opportunities and succession potential.

Alignment. Organizations need empowered and independent thinkers…within the framework of the organization’s goals. Structure brings freedom and innovation. In crew, each rower does his part by following the cadence of those ahead and modeling for those behind in the boat.

Our workforce needs empowered and independent thinkers…within the framework of the organization’s goals. Structure brings freedom and innovation. Just like memorizing a playbook before the season, a virtuous talent cycle based on alignment allows us to improvise, commitment to organizational goals allows us to be entrepreneurial, reallocating resources, budget and shifting goals whenever and wherever they are needed, coming full circle.

(About the Author: Andre Lavoie is the CEO of Clear Company, the first talent alignment platform that bridges the gap between talent management and business strategy by contextualizing employees’ work around a company’s vision and goals. You can connect with him and the Clear Company team on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

ClearCompany is the first Talent Alignment Platform that bridges the gap between talent management and business strategy by contextualizing employees’ work around a company’s vision and goals. Our patent-pending portfolio technology empowers organizations to maximize the strategic contribution of hiring, learning and performance initiatives by realizing the potential of their most valuable asset: their people.)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

Do you have great content you want to share with us? Become a TalentCulture contributor!

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How Transparency Positively Impacts Your Workplace

May 27, 2014/Archives /by David Bator

There’s a basic social contract that exists between workers and their employers. Employees rely on their companies for their living and for a stable work environment where they can thrive. Businesses depend on their workforce to provide the talent and manpower necessary to develop products, serve customers and generate revenue.

It sounds simple, but this arrangement actually requires quite a bit of trust on both ends. For their part, corporate leaders must count on their workers’ honesty and integrity as they give employees access to a whole range of company resources, put them in direct contact with clients, set them to work with sensitive customer information and give them the keys to the office. For the most part, this contract works, and the corporate world keeps on running.

In fact, openness and honesty with employees – which is a natural offspring of this trust – might be even more significant than a foundation that allows basic business operations to occur. According to Fortune, transparency is a key factor in developing positive customer relationships. Part of the reason it’s so important is that greater information about the way the company is running and what its goals are can empower employees to do their jobs better, and this capability leads to better products, higher-quality service and engaged workers.

Transparency In The Workplace

In addition to being open with customers and the public about company operations, fostering greater transparency within a business can contribute to a positive employee culture. Simply demonstrating that executives and stakeholders trust their workers with information about the organization’s successes and failures, strategies and goals helps to build up that social contract of trust and responsibility. Of course, there must always be prudence in determining how much and which information to divulge to the entire company, but greater transparency tends to make a positive impact on workers.

Fortune explained that transparency involves factors such as practices, policies, algorithms, operating data and future plans. It means giving staff members the information they need to develop a deep understanding of what their company stands for and what its objectives are. This, in turn, can foster work pride and inspire innovation, loyalty, independence, positive co-worker dynamics and passion to meet common goals, the source added.

Supervisors who think their company is plenty transparent might want to reconsider. Referring to a recent poll, Forbes magazine noted that 71 percent of employees felt that their managers failed to spend enough time explaining goals and 50 percent said that their organizations were held back by a lack of transparency.

Sharing More information

One place to start is with employee engagement survey results. Many leaders collect information about their workforce by distributing questionnaires and analyzing the responses, but workers are rarely informed about the results. Sharing this data not only helps create an environment of inclusiveness and teamwork, it also brings staff members on board to help solve some of the problems they identified. Letting them know the enterprise’s strengths is a great idea, too, since it can encourage them to continue doing whatever makes the company strong.

Fortune observed that technology makes it easier for leaders to employ resources like surveys and use them as tools to increase transparency. Rather than merely soliciting feedback, the point is to develop constructive conversations about ways to improve. Welcoming employee ideas and providing avenues for them to contribute to problem-solving initiatives builds a strong business community and enables companies to benefit from the collective wealth of knowledge and brain power in their workforces.

As Forbes put it, every organization must determine how much transparency is right for its unique situation, but ignoring transparency completely is most likely a costly error.

(About the Author: David Bator is passionate about programs that move people. As Vice President of Client Strategy at TemboStatus he works with growing companies everyday and helps them bridge the gap between assessing employee engagement and addressing it with action. For the last 15 years David has worked with the leadership of companies large and small to build programs that leverage strategy and technology to deliver extraordinary value for employees, customers and partners.)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

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#TChat Preview: How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment

May 25, 2014/Archives /by TalentCulture Team + Guests

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, May 28, 2014. #TChat Radio starts at 6:30 pm ET (3:30 pm PT) and the convo continues on #TChat Twitter chat from 7-8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT).

Last week we talked about the inspire or retire leadership theorem, and this week we’re talking about how to visualize real-time talent alignment.

Employee turnover is a common challenge for organizations of all shapes and size and industries. It’s an overgrown and thorny path that leaders and HR teams walk bare foot daily, with no compass to guide them. This wild “talent cycle” can create poor climates and cultures where your people are forced to scramble and hire reactively each time an employee makes a move toward the door.

Focused on the people not the processes combined real-time talent alignment technology allow leaders to better visualize their human capital investment, while simultaneously engaging employees and driving performance.

Join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn more about visualizing real-time talent alignment with this week’s guests: Andre Lavoie, CEO and co-founder of ClearCompany; and Matt Norman, a leadership and sales consultant and a Dale Carnegie Training franchise president.

Sneak Peek: How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment

We spoke briefly with our guests, Andre Lavoie and Matt Norman, to learn more about real-time talent alignment. Check out our YouTube Channel for videos with other #TChat guests!

Kevin Wheeler: Moving From Transactions To Engagement – 4 Recruiting Trends

Afton Funk: From Short-Order Cook To Chef: Talent Alignment Gets You There

Abigail Tracy: Offer Your New Hires Training, Not Free Doughnuts

Meghan M. Biro: How To Succeed At Real-Time Talent Alignment

China Gorman: How Great Companies Attract Top Talent

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guests and the TalentCulture Community.

#TChat Events: How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment

#TChat Radio — Wed, May 28 — 6:30pmET / 3:30pmPT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman talk with our guests Andre Lavoie and Matt Norman!

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, May 28 — 7pmET / 4pmPT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guests will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: Why are organizations reactive vs. proactive when hiring and retaining talent? (Tweet this Question)

Q2: How can companies better align recruiting & onboarding to improve long-term performance? (Tweet this Question)

Q3: What role does learning and development play in real-time talent alignment? (Tweet this Question)

Q4: How can companies build and sustain a desirable, stable culture? (Tweet this Question)

Q5: How can business leaders promote a vision of continuous workforce performance? (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday.

To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

Do you have great content you want to share with us? Become a TalentCulture contributor!

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#TChat Recap: Inspire Or Retire Leadership Theorem

May 22, 2014/3 Comments/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

Inspire Or Retire Leadership Theorem

Leadership is one of my favorite topics to write about, mostly because; people are so passionate about this topic. Of course, it also relates to recruiting and retaining your most valued talent. And why wouldn’t people be interested in this? Leaders are at the center of every workplace, or at least they should be. As our good friend and #TChat guest this week, Thomas S. Narofsky, Founder and Chief Inspirational Officer for the Narofsky Consulting Group, pointed out, “Leadership is your business and you don’t get a free ride.” For those of you that understand this, take a brief moment to pat yourself on the back, but that’s not what became very clear tonight. What became clear is that leadership development must come from within first and then extend into every organization.

Simply put, if you want to grow leaders and inspire greatness, you need to create a seasoned leadership pipeline that inspires the next generation of leaders you’ll need for tomorrow. If you want to inspire leadership, then your vets have to be able to show compassion, provide mentorship, and guidance towards the leaders of tomorrow. As a leader, eventually, you must learn to pass the torch. If not in Olympic fashion, you must do it with the desire to focus on people and their development.

Thomas S. Narofsky knows that:

@TomBolt @KevinWGrossman people focused leadership development is best. Most people desire to be the best at what they do. Make it so #tchat

— Thomas S. Narofsky (@inspireorretire) May 21, 2014

Remember, leaders are the center of your workplace, because ideally, an engaged workforce is what surrounds them because they are people focused. Smart organizations know that growing leaders is more than just seeing their financial investments returned. Truly:

A1: Orgs. that develop leaders within not only engage employees by providing growth opportunities but create the leaders they need #TChat — Vocoli (@_Vocoli) May 21, 2014

And that’s what we call a win-win scenario. But the journey doesn’t just end there. The reason we develop leaders is because:

@CyndyTrivella @akwyz @KevinWGrossman each leader needs to grow so that everyone in the organizations sees the importance of a leader #tchat — Thomas S. Narofsky (@inspireorretire) May 21, 2014

If you fail to communicate why leaders are important, then how do you expect to set the pieces to the puzzle where they belong? Yes, leaders are important. They need to be developed. So you start training future leaders by:

A4) Teach them humility and effective listening. Teach them to be open to ideas that are in the best interest of everyone involved. #TChat

— Willis Williams (@Social_Chef) May 21, 2014

That last sentence sums it all up. You can’t expect your organization to grow and flourish if your leadership lacks the selflessness it needs to put ideas that are in the best interest of everyone ahead of their own, and perhaps, their ego. Remember, leadership needs to be nurtured and grown internally through your current leadership.

Want To See The #TChat Replay?

View the story ” The Inspire or Retire Leadership Theorem” on Storify

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

Thanks again to our guest Thomas Narofsky for teaching us about his inspire or retire leadership theorem. Click here to see the preview and related reading.

#TChat Events: Inspire Or Retire Leadership Theorem

#TChat Radio — Are you plugged in to #TChat radio? Did you know you can listen live to ANY of our shows ANY time?

Now you know. Click the box to head on over to our channel or listen to Inspire Or Retire Leadership Theorem.

Note To Bloggers: Did this week’s events prompt you to write about trends on leadership?

We welcome your thoughts. Post a link on Twitter (include #TChat or @TalentCulture), or insert a comment below, and we may feature it!

If you recap #TChat make sure to let us know so we can find you!

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Sign up for the newsletter to get the scoop on next week’s guest, topic and questions!

Save The Date: Wednesday, May 28!

Next week’s #TChat Show: How to Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment with guests Andre Lavoie and Matt Norman.

The TalentCulture conversation continues daily on #TChat Twitter, in our LinkedIn group, and on our new Google+ community. So join us anytime on your favorite social channels!

Developing The Next Generation Of Leaders

May 20, 2014/3 Comments/Archives /by Thomas Narofsky

Good Day! I’ll be the guest host this Wednesday, May 21, on the TalentCulture #TChat – show which includes #TChat Radio and #TChat Twitter Chat – Wednesdays from 6:30-8:00 pm EST. The radio show is from 6:30-7:00 pm EST and the Twitter chat is from 7pm-8pm EST. Before I host I would like to share some information with you about myself.

I am passionate about…

developing emerging, enduring, and experienced leaders and teaching them how to develop themselves using a disciplined and deliberate approach. All leadership begins from inside a person and must be developed and grown as they grow into emerging and enduring leaders. I believe that leadership principles are timeless and apply across all spectrums of life. I believe leadership begins inside of you. Leadership starts with a condition of the heart – the desire and passion to make a difference before it moves to the brain to implement a plan to make a difference. It is an inside-out process and is shaped by your values, character, choices, opportunities, experiences, and your worldview. Leadership is about you, the people you influence, and a belief that you can make a difference and have an impact.

Second, my next passion is for developing the next generation of leaders who will be the leaders in the military, in government, in business and globally. These leaders will lead in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous or VUCA world and must be prepared for leading in chaos.

What do I mean by a VUCA?

Volatile means that the speed, size, scale of change in the world today has a great impact on events around the globe almost instantaneously. An example is the rate and pace of stock market changes and the effect it has on personal and corporate wealth.
Uncertainty means that world events are unpredictable and this unpredictability makes it impossible to prepare for unknown world events. An example is the effects of Arab Spring and governmental changes in the last four years.
Complexity means that the chaotic nature of the world combined with the volatility and uncertainty of global events creates an environment of confusion and difficulty for today’s leaders.
Ambiguity means that there is a lack of clarity or transparency surrounding world events. It is hard to predict what threats are in the world if you do not know the who, what, or why things are happening.

We will need leaders who can meet and adapt to new challenges, build strategic partnerships, build and sustain human capital organizations, and have the courage to act and react to the challenges. In addition to these requirements, we need to continue to develop leaders who are flexible, adaptive and are globally and culturally aware. This next generation of leaders must understand how to build and maintain trust, keep their integrity, and continue to build their credibility by developing their character.

An authentic character is the outward expression of our purpose, values, and beliefs. Your character comprises your beliefs, motives, values, desires, behaviors, and principles that drive and shape your actions as a leader. Character authenticity is living on purpose, keeping true to your values and beliefs, and not compromising them at the altar of Society. Your character is tested in the crucible of life and is forged through adversity.

I believe authentic leaders…

inspire people to greatness. Inspiration is the ability to breathe life into someone or an organization. Inspiration is a positive influence – a positive reinforcement – we give our people. It ignites desire, ignites creativity, and ignites innovation in inspired people. Leadership is not what I do it is who I am. There is no escaping who I am. My leadership is the embodiment of my heart, mind, body, and soul. It is an amalgamation of my life’s purpose, my values, my ethics, my core beliefs, my life philosophy, and my worldview.

One of the topics we are going to discuss on the #TCHAT show is the Inspire or Retire Theorem.

Inspire Or Retire Theorem

The Inspire or Retire Theorem wraps up my F(X) Leadership framework and my theory of you are the key to your leadership. The function of (x) is you.

What If The Leaders In Your Organization

• Knew the organizational vision, goals, values and the impact their leadership had on the success of the organization
• Knew success as a leader included knowing themselves, their team and the organization
• Knew a leader must have high moral and ethical values and that character counts
• Knew leaders are responsible for their actions and their words
• Knew they needed to continuously develop, grow and reinvent themselves to meet the challenges of the future
• Understood their role in developing other leaders
• Understood character, courage, commitment and communication are key components of leadership
• Understood they are responsible for their leadership development
• Understood they are the key to their leadership

The Inspire or Retire Theorem answers all the above questions in a mathematical mnemonic that encapsulates my leadership responsibility to the people I lead and the organization I serve. It was designed as a visual representation for me to remember to always Inspire or Retire.

I look forward to sharing time with and discussing your views on leadership, leadership development, and developing the next generation of leaders.

(About the Author: Thomas S. Narofsky is the Founder and Chief Inspirational Officer for the Narofsky Consulting Group, a leadership development, team effectiveness, and executive coaching consultancy. He the developer of the F(X) Leadership Model, the Inspire or Retire Leadership Theorem, and author of F(X) Leadership Unleashed!, and soon to be released book, You are Unstoppable!.

He also served on the United States Air Force Enlisted Board of Directors which focused on professional development, training concepts and long-range strategies to provide continuous, career-long enlisted deliberate development by integrating education, training and experience to produce a skilled and adaptive work force. He has conducted worldwide professional and leadership development seminars with U.S, Korean, Japanese, Australian, British, Canadian, Belgian and German enlisted forces. His military decorations include Defense Superior Service Medal and the Bronze Star.

Thom is an adjunct professor at Bellevue University in the Arts and Sciences Department. He holds a Master of Arts in Leadership, a Master of Science in Information Technology Management and a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies.)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

Do you have great content you want to share with us? Become a TalentCulture

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#TChat Preview: Inspire Or Retire Leadership Theorem

May 18, 2014/Archives /by Meghan M. Biro

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, May 21, 2014. #TChat Radio starts at 6:30 pm ET (3:30 pm PT) and the convo continues on #TChat Twitter chat from 7-8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT).

Last week we talked about the talent-centric recruiting experience, and this week we’re talking about the inspire or retire leadership theorem.

Yes, that’s what we said. The first part of this theorem is a reminder that from the junior employee to senior management, leadership is everyone’s business. When organizations are in a VUCA environment (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity), they are usually flatter and everyone must lead.

You’ll learn more about the theorem soon, but until then, inspirational leaders encourage their team by example and allow their people to take the lead in accomplishing the organizational vision.

The most significant contribution we can make as leaders today is to leave a legacy of inspired leaders behind to take care of tomorrow. We can leverage our skills, talents, and experiences to transform our people into leaders.

Join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn more about the inspire or retire leadership theorem with this week’s guest: Thomas S. Narofsky, Founder and Chief Inspirational Officer for the Narofsky Consulting Group, a leadership development, team effectiveness, and executive coaching consultancy.

Sneak Peek: Inspire Or Retire Leadership Theorem

We spoke briefly with our guest Thomas Narofsky, to learn a little about the Inspire or Retire Leadership Theorem. Check out our YouTube Channel for videos with other #TChat guests!

#TChat Events: Inspire Or Retire Leadership Theorem

#TChat Radio — Wed, May 21 — 6:30pmET / 3:30pmPT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman talk with our guest Thomas Narofsky!

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, May 14 — 7pmET / 4pmPT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guest will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What are the current and best leadership development approaches and why do they work? (Tweet this Question)

Q2: Why is it important to teach leaders of all stages how to develop themselves? (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How can next-gen leaders be comfortable in a volatile and uncertain environment? (Tweet this Question)

Q4: How can we train new leaders to inspire future leaders? (Tweet this Question)

Q5: What technologies improve the delivery of inspiring leadership development? (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday.

To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

Do you have great content you want to share with us? Become a TalentCulture contributor!

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5 Ways To Simplify Your Hiring Process

May 13, 2014/Archives /by Maren Hogan

Hiring managers and recruiters often have something to say about the behavior and lack of professionalism of candidates.

But maybe it’s time to look in the mirror. Have you ever considered that your recruiting practices might be wasting people’s time, confusing applicants and driving away top candidates?

Leading organizations focus on all the touch-points with their customers, suppliers and, yes, candidates. You need to start caring more about your candidate’s overall experience and exceeding their expectations. Here’s how:

Offer Clear And Specific Job Descriptions

Deliberately vague-sounding job descriptions irritate candidates. They make it seems like you don’t know what you’re looking for, haven’t spent enough time to profile the job, or that you’ve hastily cut and paste from another job you filled. Poorly written job descriptions give a bad impression.

Great recruiters don’t take shortcuts. (Click here to tweet this thought.) Instead, use specific language. Sit down and write a list of tasks included in the job. Remember to explain what’s in it for them, as well; it’s not all about you. Applicants will self-screen if they don’t like what they see, which will save you time later.

One of worst things you can do is to go through the motions of advertising a job when an internal person has been chosen or the deal is already complete. Job seekers have enough stress without being exposed to ghost openings.

That doesn’t mean there’s never a time and place for an open-ended job posting, but tread carefully.

Make It Easy For Qualified Candidates To Apply

The trend is to require prospective candidates to apply online, usually through a Web portal. That’s great if it works. If this is how you receive applications, however, you should try it yourself, noting exactly how long it takes to upload a resume (and hope it doesn’t crash or hang). Any frustrations you feel will be felt even more by the applicant, and if it takes too long, he will walk away. Ask yourself: Is my application process too tedious?

Also make sure to confirm receipt of applications, as that’s not only polite but also necessary to show you have it on file. The candidate needs to know the application didn’t just fall into a black hole. This is the single most voiced complaint by candidates, so take it seriously.

Speed Up The End-To-End Process

Some hiring cycles take months on end. Look for bottlenecks where you can take time out of the process. Candidates have other opportunities, too, and you don’t want to get to selection time only to find the person you want has a better offer.

Be honest and upfront, letting candidates know about how long it will take from start to finish and how many interviews they’ll likely will have to endure. One way to limit the inconvenience, cut costs and speed up interviews is to use video or Skype, especially for out-of-towners.

Communicate… And Then Communicate Some More

Keep your candidates in the loop every step of the way. You can even call them when you have no real news, as applicants always appreciate knowing where they stand.

Where possible, use the candidate’s preferred method of communication. Don’t call them at work; instead, leave a message or text and ask them to call you back, not forgetting to add your contact details. (It happens.)

After an interview, give some feedback, even if to simply say goodbye. Email is fine, just keep it short and professional and address the candidate by name. No one wants a “Dear Sir or Madam” letter.

What candidates hate most is the dreaded silence. Tell them the next step and make sure you follow through as promised. Do what you say you will do.

Treat The Hiring Process As A Marketing Opportunity

Candidates can be customers and customers can be candidates. Give them open access to you, as it lets them feel like they are in control of the process. The goal is to leave your applicants with a warm feeling of your organization, even if they were ultimately not successful in their application.

Social media provides an open platform and is the first stop for disgruntled or poorly managed candidates. The last thing you want to see is your company being trashed on Twitter or Facebook for failing to meet expectations.

Do your best to give every person who wanders across your job advertisement an easy road. A good test is to ask a colleague — or, even better, your manager — to apply and see how long it takes.

Your hiring process should be simple enough to attract people who are not even looking. That’s when you’ll find the best candidates, which will make both them and you happy.

Originally Posted on Brazen Careerist on April 29, 2014.

(About the Author: Elaine Porteous is a freelance business writer with a specific interest in HR strategy and talent management. She writes for niche trade journals and creates content for corporate websites.)

(Editor’s Note: This post was adapted from Brazen Life, with permission. Brazen Life is a lifestyle and career blog for ambitious young professionals. Hosted by Brazen Careerist, it offers edgy and fun ideas for navigating the changing world of work. Be Brazen!)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

Do you have great content you want to share with us? Become a TalentCulture contributor!

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Posts

The Business Challenge

What is a Learning Culture?

The Social Learning Hurdle

Training Resources For Hybrid Work Settings

Supporting Learning Engagement in a Hybrid Work Environment

The Psychology of Teams

3 Ways to Bring Distributed Team Members Closer

1. Drive Ownership

2. Encourage Cross-Sharing and Learning

3. Organize Periodic Physical Meet-Ups

Do You Manage a Distributed Team? What’s Your Next Move?

1. Keep in touch regularly and systematically.

2. Educate your customers with valuable, FREE information.

3. Become a Resource.

4. Write a note of appreciation.

5. Respond to customers promptly when they contact your business.

6. Pay attention.

7. Act with integrity.

8. Maintain Quality.

9. Reward Customers.

10. Do Good.

Sometimes it is just another job.

An engaged employee isn’t necessarily a happy employee.

Employees won’t always like their jobs.

Authenticity Is An Inside Job That Starts With Self

Want To See The #TChat Replay?

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

#TChat Events: Authenticity Is An Inside Job That Starts With Authenticity

We Want To See You On TalentCulture. Become A Contributor Now!

Save The Date: Wednesday, June 25!

Raw Data Isn’t Enough

Surveys Must Be Followed By Action

Shaping Employee Culture

What does all of this have to do with your business?

The Power Of Workforce Culture And Continuous Mobility

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Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

#TChat Events: The Power Of Workforce Culture And Continuous Mobility

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Save The Date: Wednesday, June 18!

Create A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires

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Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

#TChat Events: Create A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires

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Save The Date: Wednesday, June 11!

These are:

My motivation?

It was a sense of belonging.

Sneak Peek: How To Have A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires

Related Reading:

#TChat Events: How To Have A Transformative Onboarding Experience For New Hires

How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment

Want To See The #TChat Replay?

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

#TChat Events: How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment

We Want To See You On TalentCulture. Become A Contributor Now!

Save The Date: Wednesday, June 4!

Step 1: Recruit Smarter

Step 2: Communicate Better

Step 3: Build Trust

Step 4: Get Rid Of Pointless Tasks

Step 5: Nurturing, Training And Growth

Transparency In The Workplace

Sharing More information

Sneak Peek: How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment

#TChat Events: How To Visualize Real-Time Talent Alignment

Want To See The #TChat Replay?

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

#TChat Events: Inspire Or Retire Leadership Theorem

We Want To See You On TalentCulture. Become A Contributor Now!

Save The Date: Wednesday, May 28!

I am passionate about…

What do I mean by a VUCA?

I believe authentic leaders…

Inspire Or Retire Theorem

What If The Leaders In Your Organization

Sneak Peek: Inspire Or Retire Leadership Theorem

Related Reading: