How Do You Attract the Best Talent? Five Companies Exemplify Recruiting Innovation

“We have seen the emergence of the Human Age, where talent is the new differentiator,” writes Jonas Prising, CEO of Manpower Group. Yet organizations around the world struggle to find the talent they need. This is especially problematic, because 75 million Baby Boomers will retire within the next 10 to 15 years. Between now and then, there will be a lot of jobs to fill, and if finding great talent is difficult now, organizations are going to have to up their recruiting game, or suffer the consequences of being understaffed.

Manpower Group surveyed more than 41,700 hiring managers in 42 countries in order to get a clear view of how many employers are having difficulty filling positions. They also assessed which jobs are the most difficult to fill and why. We’re going to look at the findings in their corresponding report, 10th Annual Talent Shortage Survey, and then take talk about five companies who are facing the talent shortage in inspiring and innovative ways.

The Facts About the Talent Shortage

How challenging is it to fill jobs?

In 2015, 38% of employers were having difficulty filling jobs, which is the highest number since 2007. That number is a global average, with 32% of employers reporting difficulty in the United States.

In 2015, 38% of employers were having difficulty filling jobs, which is the highest number since 2007. That number is a global average, with 32% of employers reporting difficulty in the United States.

Why is it difficult to fill jobs?

35% of employers surveyed in the 2015 Talent Shortage Survey reported that the top reason they have difficulty filling jobs is a lack of available applicants. 34% of respondents said they can’t fill positions because their talent pool has a lack of technical skills (hard skills). The other three of the top five reasons it’s difficult to fill positions is due to lack of experience (22%), lack of workplace competencies, or soft skills (17%), and encountering candidates looking for more compensation than is offered.

What jobs are the most difficult to fill?

For four years straight, skilled trade jobs are the most difficult to fill, especially chefs, bakers, butchers, mechanics, and electricians. Sales representatives, engineers, technicians, and drivers make up the remaining of the top five most difficult jobs to fill. Now we can see why a lack of technical skills contributes heavily to the lack of candidates—those skills are needed in four of the top five most difficult jobs to fill.

However, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. In October of 2015, Bloomberg reported a decline of college degrees and falling enrollment for the third year in a row. This may indicate resurgence in trade-school enrollment, creating a new generation of workers who have the hard skills companies need globally.

But until those numbers are official, what are employers doing about this talent gap? Unfortunately, not enough.

Employers are not doing enough to address talent shortages.

Despite their admitted challenges in filling positions, more than one in five employers are not pursuing any strategies to address their talent shortages. In fact, only one in ten is adopting recruitment strategies to access untapped talent pools.

When faced with talent shortages, hiring managers have the opportunity to be creative. With a little out-of-the-box thinking, they may be able to attract the candidates they want. Here are five excellent examples of companies using innovative hiring practices.

How Do You Attract the Best Talent? Five Companies Exemplify Recruiting Innovation

1. Go Big

FormaShape, a Canadian manufacturing company, placed a single billboard outside their plant that read, “Trespassers Will Be Hired!” They received 100’s of applications and great publicity.

2. Host an Open House

I Love Rewards Inc. (now Achievers), a global employee rewards and social recognition company based in San Francisco, decided to turn to self-selection as a strategy and hosted an open house. Rather than going through 1200 resumes, I Love Rewards invited all applicants to an open house. Candidates were narrowed down automatically, as those who were less serious about the job chose not to attend the event.

At the open house there were two distinct areas on two floors of the building. One was for mingling with current employees, and the other was set up as speed dating for quick five-minute interviews. This method helped see a potential candidate’s level of interest, communication skills and working knowledge.

3. Hit the Pavement

Quicken Loans, a home loans expert based in Detroit, MI, turned to their current employees to attract talent. They sent out current employees to local retail stores and restaurants to interact with workers and offer interviews to those who stood out. This was a big help in looking for candidates in unexpected places! Current employees often have the best understanding of the soft and hard skills needed to succeed at their company. This is also a great tactic when searching for a cultural fit.

4. Design an Activity

H-E-B Central Market, one of the largest independent food retailers in the nation, started in Austin, TX. Their innovative recruiting approach involved inviting candidates to a three-hour activity (which in itself is a screening activity). First, applicants sampled store products. This showed H-E-B the candidate’s willingness to try new things, and their general love of food, both representing the values of H-E-B.

Next, applicants created their own application with art supplies, a testament to their creative thinking, and a look at what they feel is important for their potential employers to know about them. The last activity involved role-playing activities to create product displays in teams. This final activity shows who is creative, who is a leader, who works well in teams, and who is or is not assertive. After this process, candidates are invited in for one-on-one interviews.

5. Send Surprises

Red 5 Studios, an online games developer headquartered in Cork, Ireland and Irvine, CA, did a bit of handpicking to find their talent. They searched for passive candidates (candidates not currently looking for a job) via social media research. They picked the top 100 they were interested in and reached out to them in a very creative way. Each candidate was sent a personalized iPod, with a loaded audio message from the CEO inviting them to consider working for the company. More than 90 candidates responded to the pitch.

Feeling inspired yet? As you can see, there are many ways to get the talent you need. Be willing to experiment. If you are in a leadership role, let hiring managers know they can be creative when recruiting and support their efforts. If you’re having difficulty attracting talent now, start experimenting as soon as possible. That way you can get the ideas worked out before the real talent shortage sets in, after Baby Boomers bid their last farewell.

Have you ever recruited or been recruited in a unique way? I’d love to hear about it.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Three Coaching Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

 

Anahita committed to coaching her employees two months ago and is already seeing positive results. Unfortunately, she’s struggling with one of her employees, Mathias. Despite her coaching, his engagement is still low, his productivity hasn’t improved, and his relationships with team members is lacking. Is she doing something wrong, or is he resistant to coaching? Let’s take a look at their last session. 

A Look Into a Coaching Session 

Frustrated With a Teammate

Last week Anahita and Mathias had a check-in meeting. When Anahita asked how things were going, Mathias immediately shared his frustrations about one of his team members, Davi. He explained that Davi interrupts people in meetings, rarely listens, doesn’t read the full email she’s replying to, and misses key points. 

Anahita wanted more details. She asked who Davi was interrupting and what she said. She was curious what kind of information Davi missed in emails and what else she missed at work. Anahita also asked Mathias how his other team members were reacting to Davi. After a thorough analysis of Davi, Anahita moved on to asking about Mathias’ goals. 

Not Meeting Goals

One of Mathias’ goals was to build trust with his own team. His plan was to have weekly, informal check-ins with his team members. These could even happen when passing in the hallway—the point being that he touch base with each person on a weekly basis. He was to ask them about their lives in an attempt to get to know them as human beings, which in turn would develop relationships and increase trust. And in these conversations, he would approach them with empathy. 

When Anahita asked Matthias if he had met this goal, he was hesitant to respond. He explained that he did meet with a few team members, and that the interactions were positive, but he didn’t get around to meeting with everyone yet. Anahita suggested he look more closely at his time management skills, in order to meet this goal. 

Feeling Stuck and Unmotivated

In the last part of their meeting, Mathias confided that he was feeling stuck and unmotivated. Anahita asked Mathias what’s getting in the way, what his problem was and then suggested how she moves forward herself when she feels unmotivated. She also asked how he planned to fix his morale issue. That’s when their time was up and Anahita rushed out the door to another meeting; Mathias headed back to his desk.  

______________________

Reviewing the scenario above, it becomes clear why Anahita hasn’t seen any positive results with Mathias. It’s not for lack of effort on her part; it’s just that she’s fallen into three very common pitfalls of coaching. Let’s take a look at what these pitfalls are, and how to overcome them.

Tips for Overcoming Three Common Coaching Pitfalls 

Tip 1: Coach the Person in the Room

Far too often, a coachee will talk about someone else in a coaching session. We saw this with Mathias as he discussed his team member Davi—that she doesn’t listen, interrupts, misses key points in emails, and more. It’s easy for a coach to fall into the trap of wanting to know more about the person ‘outside the room’ because the coach may think that knowing more about the person will help them address the problem with their coachee. 

The truth is that as a coach, you want to coach the person in front of you, not someone else outside the room. Why? A coachee can’t change anyone; they can only change their own behavior in response to a situation. So instead of focusing on the person ‘outside the room’, focus on the coachee and what she can do about the situation. In the case of Matthias, Anahita might have asked questions such as: “How do you want to respond next time you’re interrupted?” or “What would success look like for you at the next meeting?”

Your time together is valuable. You don’t want to spend it discussing another person whom you have no control over; instead, help the coachee grow and develop by discussing their response next time the situation occurs.

Tip 2: Acknowledge Success

It’s easy to minimize a coachee’s success, or only acknowledge success when the full goal has been achieved. Yet remember, what may be simple for a coach may be difficult for a coachee, so don’t apply your achievement standards to your coachee. Instead, every time your coachee moves forward toward the goal, help them see that progress with, “You took another step toward your goal,” or “You’re steadily moving toward achieving your goal.” In this case, Anahita could point out that Mathias did meet with some of his team, and that shows progress.

Be sure to keep the Progress Principal in mind. Teresa Amabile developed this principle based on research into nearly 12,000 daily diary entries from over 200 professionals working inside organizations. 

When comparing the research participants’ best and worst days, it showed that progress made by the individual or team is a common event that triggers a “best day”. Steps forward occurred on 76% of people’s best-mood days. The most common event triggering a “worst day” was a setback. 

With that in mind, the practice of recognizing even small wins is very important—because on the “best days”, employees report more interest and enjoyment in the work itself, and more positive and supportive relationships with their teams. They also report emotional effects such as feeling more joy, warmth, and pride.

Tip 3: Empathize

Time is precious and sometimes a coach will rush the conversation, to move to action and next steps. To a coachee, this can sound like non-stop questions, one firing right after the other, which can feel intimidating and overwhelming. While asking questions is important, it’s also important to empathize and let the coachee feel heard. 

For example, when Mathias said he felt stuck and couldn’t get motivated to do anything, Anahita responded with multiple questions. Her instinct to move him forward toward a solution is correct; and it would be more effective for her to show empathy. So rather than respond immediately with, “What’s getting in the way of you feeling motivated?” she could say, “Feeling stuck is no fun. What’s the impact on your overall morale?” or “Feeling stuck is challenging. How does that impact the current project?” The key here is to be open to what the coachee says, not drive your own agenda. 

As you can see, these coaching pitfalls are easy to stumble into. But with awareness, these mishaps can be avoided. In all interactions with your coachees, remember to focus on the person in the room, acknowledge their successes (no matter how small), and approach them with empathy. You’ll be well on your way to coaching success!

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

 

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The W.I.N. B.I.G. Coaching Formula

 

Asking powerful questions is a necessity for a successful coaching conversation.  However, asking someone a bunch of random questions does not necessarily mean that you are coaching them.  A coaching conversation has three distinct components:

1.    Determining whether or not the situation requires coaching by using the Success Equation.

2.    Asking questions to create a dialogue that builds awareness about the issues at hand

3.    Empowering the coachee toward action that will create more effective behaviors

There is a simple process to Build Awareness and Move to Action, which you will find in Brian Emerson and my book, A Manager’s Guide to Coaching. We call it the W.I.N. B.I.G. model because when you help an employee become aware of what’s going on and take action, you WIN BIG and they WIN BIG.  

There are six steps in the W.I.N. B.I.G. model.  Three of them Build Awareness and three Move to Action.  They are:

Build Awareness

·         W-onder About Root Cause

·         I-nvestigate Wants

·         N-ame Possible Solutions

Move to Action

·         B-uild a Plan

·         I-nsure Action

·         G-ive Affirmation

Creating a dialogue that progresses through these six steps will help you increase your employees’ effectiveness, make you a better manager, and allow everyone involved to WIN BIG.

Today we will talk about how and why to build awareness while coaching; in our next blog, we will talk about moving employees to action.

Build Awareness – W.I.N.

W-onder About Root Cause

When there is a problem at hand, most people want to jump in and immediately move to action. It’s easy to see that sales are decreasing, for instance, and assume that the sales team must be the problem.  However, 99% of the time, what you see is just a symptom, not the real problem. Your job as a manager is to step back and wonder about the root cause of the problems that arise.  Why are sales decreasing?  What else is happening in the organization?  How effective is your customer service? 

It is often difficult to see the benefit of stepping back to build awareness about the situation.  Yet, in the first step of coaching, Wonder About Root Cause, your job is to ask questions that will help your employee be curious about what’s really going on under the surface. 

This stage can sometimes be a challenge for busy, problem-solving managers.  Notice the first word of this stage: Wonder.  It’s not Fix, Control, Stop or any other action-hero type of word.  Coaches don’t, shouldn’t, and can’t have all the answers; the person in front of you has many more answers about themselves than you do.  If you always fix their problem yourself, then you’ll be known as a good fixer and a so-so manager at best.

Start off by getting really curious.  You know this employee can do good work, so what’s going on?  Take time to wonder, but don’t judge. Because it’s your job to help your employee get curious so they can Build Awareness. Ask questions in a manner that makes this fun, not scary. Some good questions for this stage of the process are:

·         How does that impact you?

·         If you were watching this on TV, what would you say was going on?

·         What’s the main obstacle getting in the way here?

·         What’s underneath all of this?

·         Which of your buttons are really getting pushed here?

Don’t confuse ‘Wonder About Root Cause’ with getting all of the nitty-gritty details and facts about an issue.  For example, if an employee comes to you frustrated about a conversation, she had with a team member, don’t ask for a recount of what happened. Instead, look for what the anger is really about—the root cause. In this case, you may find out your coachee has been working with someone who can’t meet deadlines, which interferes with her meeting deadlines, and therefore her ability to be successful in her role. In the case, the issue isn’t actually about the team member conversation at all.

On to stage two—Investigate Wants.

I-nvestigate Wants

As people, we usually get what we say we want; the problem is we usually aren’t clear on what we really want, so we end up with the wrong things.  Raff is miserable at his job so finds another one. In a few months he’s miserable at his new job. That’s because Raff was miserable in the first place because he had no one to challenge him and help him grow. If he had known what he actually wanted before taking another job, he’d have been much more likely to find a job he liked.

The goal of the second stage in W.I.N. B.I.G. is to help your employees investigate what they really want (Investigate Wants).  In the first stage, you create safety by asking open-ended wonder-type questions and get to the root cause of what is going on.  Next, it’s time to look at what the person wants, how they want to be seen as things move forward, and what they want things to look like on the other side.  This requires you to ask questions that open up possibilities and help the person paint a clear picture of what they want their world to look like.  Here are examples of questions that help the employee think bigger and look to the future:

·         How would you like people to describe you as you resolve this?

·         What would success look like?

·         If you could use a magic wand to re-create the scene, how would you want it to look?

It’s important here, more than anywhere else, not to tell the employee what you think she should want.  You have no way of knowing.  We are all really good at thinking we know what others want, but we don’t.  Be sure to give the person space and time to figure it out for herself.  She may even need a few minutes of silence to think it through.  Let her have that time without filling the empty space. If she feels stuck, just ask another open-ended question about her desired outcome.  The bottom line is: deep down, we all know what we want.  We just don’t always get a chance to voice it. 

On to stage three—Name Possible Solutions.

N-ame Possible Solutions

There is a definite reason why this stage of W.I.N. is called Name Possible Solutions and not Name the Solution.  Remember that you are still trying to Build Awareness, so the goal of this stage is to help the person become aware of the multitude of possible choices they have in the situation. Typically, if left to our own devices, we humans will go about implementing the same solutions that have worked for us in the past—even if there is a potentially more effective or efficient way of doing it. Your job is to get the employee to think big and outside the box, to explore all the possible options before settling on a specific strategy of action.

This is a tempting place for managers to jump in and solve the problem—to help the employee and maybe even save the day for them.  But remember, coaching is about letting the person come up with his or her own answers. 

Your goal here is to help the employee have fun and brainstorm.  A good way to do that is to ask questions like:

·         The 85-year-old you is looking back at this situation; what does she say to do?

·         What do you have to do to get where you want to go?

·         How would Bill Gates tell you to solve the problem?

·         What would it take to work this out?

A key here is to be sure to ask follow-up questions.  Do not settle with just one solution (even if you think it’s a great one).  Inspire your employee to think bigger and consider different options.  So, ask follow-up questions or statements such as:

·         What else could work?

·         That’s a great idea; what’s another?

·         Great! Let’s think of 5 more.

After you have generated lots of options together, you need to start weighing the impacts of the top ones. One of the biggest things you can do here is to help the person map back to what they said they wanted during Investigate Wants.  Sure, their solution may solve the problem, but does it really get them what they want?  When you have a few solutions on the table, ask questions like:

·         So which option gets you closest to what you want?

·         What would be the impact of your favorite solution?

·         What possibility is your favorite?  What would that get you?

Now that we’ve looked in detail at how to build awareness of the problem when coaching an employee, it’s time to talk about how to move them into action. Stay tuned for the next post for all the how’s and whys.

 

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

 

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