Employees Are People, Not Resources

“Employees are people, not resources. Resources we use up. I want to develop people, not use them up.”  David Samrick 1995 – Owner of Mill Steel Company

Introduction and Background

Narrator waving

Hi, I am Tom Stanfield. I thought it might be of value for you to understand my background before you started reading.

From 1965 to 1983 I worked for Checker Motors Corporation, the manufacturer of the Checker Cab and a parts manufacturer for GM. At Checker I held the roles of Payroll Auditor, Industrial Engineer, Materials Manager and Purchasing Director.

From 1983 to 1991 I worked at Kalamazoo Stamping & Die, a Ford parts manufacturer. At Kalamazoo Stamping I held the roles of Industrial Engineer, Purchasing Director and Operations Manager, responsible for a multi-shift, multi-plant organization.

From 1991 to 2008 I worked at Mill Steel Company as the Quality Systems Director and instituted the Quality Management System to comply with ISO9000 for this organization located in four cities and two countries. As responsibilities expanded my title was changed to People Development Director as additional duties included recruiting, hiring, training and career building/ succession planning for our employees.

In 2008 I retired from Mill Steel and since then I have been semi-retired and working as a Team Builder for various organizations. From 2013 to 2022 I was a part time consultant embedded in the Leadership Team of Mark-Maker Company in Grand Rapids; a tooling manufacturer for the Packaging Industries.

I have come to see employee’s careers as a flowing river; ever moving and ever changing. Today they are the sum total of all the bends and changes their “river” has taken them. If you would like to see my career in what I call the My Flowing River , click the link. We will discuss the concept later.

Imagine your own “flowing river; the twists and turns caused bt growth and decisions made by you and others. Everyone of your employees’ rivers have flowed into your organization, bringing all the skills they have acquired along the way.

Proving the Value of These Concepts

Concepts shown here came from my time at Mill Steel. Here are the high points of that journey.

  • 1995 union strike, poor employee relationships
  • 1996 changed to the Good to Great model
  • 1999-2008 name to the Top 10 Best Places to Work in West Michigan
  • By 2000 turnover dropped from historical average of 12% to under 2%
  • 2000 removed need for supervisors, inspectors, basic maintenance staff. Union employees took over these tasks and were paid extra above their union wages.
  • 2005, 2006, and 2008 named #1 Best Place to Work in West Michigan
  • 2008 received the Sloan Award for Workplace Flexibility (as a union shop)
  • 2008 was the most profitable year in company history to that point
  • 2000-2008 grew from $40M to $200M

I believe you will find it will work for your organization also.

Chapter 1 – The Paradigm Shift

Chapter 2 – What is People Development?

Chapter 3 – How People Development Works

Chapter 4 – Re-Recruiting Your Current Staff

Chapter 5 – Recruiting to fill Future Needs

Chapter 1 – The Paradigm Shift

 What is a Paradigm Shift?

As humans, we can only see the world around us through the “filter” or paradigm we have at the moment. That paradigm changes as we learn and grow. Your paradigm, or filter you see the world through, is the sum total of what you have learned and observed up to this moment and now believe is truth.

Think about a child as it grows. An infant believes what it can see is the entire universe. Soon the toddler knows when its mommy walks out of view, or out of their “world”, she will return. Their paradigm has changed to accept the universe is bigger than their vision. This growth, or shifts in paradigm, happens continually throughout the child’s development. The environment a child is raised in sets the basis for their belief systems. That is the paradigm they see their world through.

Here is an example of a paradigm shift-cup half full

Is this glass half empty or half full? If you look at it and really see it, the answer actually is BOTH. The real question, or paradigm, is what are you looking at; what is there or what is not there? This is also true with our employees. You will understand more as you read.

My Beginning

My first real job was at Checker Motors Corporation where the Checker Cab was manufactured. I started as a Payroll Auditor tracking the time spent by the union workers and the products they produced. They were all my friends.

A few years later Checker had a six-week strike when the union negotiations broke down. I had not worked in a union setting prior to Checker and had no experience with labor disputes. Like all the non-union staff, I was assigned to work in the production area for those six weeks to allow Checker to continue shipping parts to GM plants so they could avoid costly charge-backs for shutting down GM assembly lines. It seemed like a fun diversion to me at first until I recognized the hostility shown to us by my union “friends” on the picket line. They would kick our cars as we drove in and call us “scabs”. My paradigm was shaken.

As a young naïve man, I did not understand how these hard workers, my friends, had been changed into a group with mob mentality. It was only while writing this and reflecting back on that time that I have now come to realize my union friends must have wondered how I could have worked in their place and prolonging the time they spent without a normal paycheck. That was my first experience in management/ employee relations that began to shape my passion for what decades later I came to understand as People Development. This passion grew as I held other positions; Timestudy Engineer, Plant Manager, Quality Systems Director. I began to see the tremendous knowledge and the great value good employees bring to their company.

Our Greatest Resource

Three decades into my career I was part of a team that took a manufacturing union shop from a hostile union/ management relationship to a company that was able to eliminate theNarrator waving need for front line supervisors (that I learned to call babysitters), front line quality inspectors (more babysitters) and day-to-day preventive maintenance support. If you have the right employees, train them well and treat them like they matter, they do not need babysitters. The responsibilities previously handled by management employees were handled by union employees. They in turn were paid above their union contract wage for the extra work performed. We called it “pay for knowledge”. Employees could choose how much “extra” work they took on and they were paid extra for it. The change created a large cost savings and we shared it with those interested in “stepping up”.

That group of employees was the most effective team I have ever witnessed. The bottom line reason was they were allowed to be people, not extensions of machinery. They were allowed to try new things and determine their strengths. They were paid a bonus for areas that improved efficiency and eliminated waste. When we needed to add employees, they had the final say who we added to their team. If a new employee was not working out, the group let management know it was time for a change. It was the most amazing manufacturing setting I have ever been involved with.

Now after 50+ years of management experience, I find the statement “People are our greatest resource” interesting. Some managers simply say it because it sounds like a good managing philosophy; saying it makes them feel like a good leader. Others actually believe it but their day-to-day managing style doesn’t reflect it. They simply don’t understand the full benefit. Very few seem to understand how to manage their “greatest resource” and receive its greatest value. My intent is to share with you how managing your “greatest resource” looks through my “filter”.

Employees are People

A paradigm shift that happened to me a few years ago was recognizing people I just walk past in a store or on the mall have a real life. One of my favorite sayings now is, “Everybody has a story”. They are not TV characters crossing my “screen of life”. There is a reason that they are acting or dressing the way they do. Their paradigm of life has brought them to the place they are and is causing them to act the way they do. I don’t have to like it. I don’t have to agree with it. However, if I see them as real people and not characters from TV or a movie, I will be better equipped to deal with them, whatever the situation.Narrator waving

That lack of seeing employees as real people with lives outside of our business walls is what I feel is the missing element in “managing our greatest resource”. Today the title Talent Management is used to describe the process of managing this resource. Are we managing “talent” or “people”? Our employees have a “real life”. The “talent” they use in our organizations is only a part of them.

David Samrick, the Owner of Mill Steel Company, gave me the title of People Development Director. He said he didn’t like the title of Human Resource Director because “Resources are something we use up. I don’t want to use people up. I want to develop them”. That conversation was a “game-changer” for me. It changed how I think as a manager. I believe he was “spot on”.

You might ask how I know this concept works. Before I retired, each of the last ten years of my time there our company was named one of the ten best places to work in West Michigan by Michigan Business and Professional Association, an organization that measures how employees are treated in multiple categories. Management and employees were polled separately and an overall score was calculated; both groups having a 50% influence on the total score.

Three of the last four years we were named the Best of the Best; the number one place to work in West Michigan.  At the same time, we received a national award, the Sloan Award for Workplace Flexibility; the only Michigan manufacturing facility to do so that year. Remember this was a manufacturing, union environment. In that same time frame the company had some of its most profitable years in its history. Recognizing employees are people, with real lives and needs, helped us improve the bottom line.

Another paradigm shift that has happened to me is to recognize there is a parallelcropped-iceberg-poster3.jpg between what we see in our employees and what we see of an iceberg. There is more of your emplotee below “see” level than you can recognize at a glance.

The more that we understand what additional strengths they have below “see” level and let them use those strengths and more fully fit into the organization, the better their job satisfaction will be.

Tapping in to their passions and talents we are not currently letting them use will improve their value to the organization. Allowing their long-term goals and desires to fit into our needs will increase the possibility of longevity with the organization. We need to know them below “see” level.

Narrator wavingWith this background in mind, I would like to share with you a look at managing your greatest resource through my paradigm.

Chapter 2 – What is People Development?

People Development Management

For over a decade of my career I was the People Development Director of a manufacturing company in Michigan involved in the supply chain to automotive, office furniture, farm implement, etc. This was an organization that had four locations in two countries. I was part of the Leadership Team and because of that I was part of the team creating the organizational short term and long term direction. My job was to ensure the proper talent was available when needed by recruiting, hiring, training and developing the careers of all our employees at all locations; to do that I had to “know” each employee. That took time.

I needed to be in each location ensuring the managers and employees “understood” each other. We instituted a quarterly “Employee Continuous Improvement Assessment” that each employee received from their manager. It created an open one-on-one dialog that reviewed the employee’s performance for the previous 90 days, set their focus for the next 90 days and also allowed the employee to discuss future desires and opportunities. We will review this in-depth later.

The owner of our organization understood that people were his greatest resource and he invested in a position at the Leadership table for that very reason. Responsibilities that most Human Resources groups have, record keeping, payroll, insurance, etc., were actually part of our Accounting Department. I just dealt with people development and safety.

Managing Your Greatest Resource

I have come to these two questions; do organizations really believe people are their greatest resource? If they do believe it, do they support that resource the way they do their other resources?

Managing Facilities

Every organization I have ever been involved with had a “Facilities Director”, or someone with that responsibility, at the Leadership level involved in short term and long term facilities planning. People directly responsible to ensuring the proper physical resources, buildings, equipment, technology, etc., were available when needed, well maintained and capable to produce the needed product. This involves knowing the company’s strategic plan to ensure facilities matched the needs today and in the future.

Managing Inventory

Every organization that deals with inventory also has a “Supply Chain Director”, or someone with that responsibility, that is involved in short term and long term planning of purchasing the proper inventory at competitive pricing, ensuring the proper inventory is where it needs to be when it needs to be there, purchased at a price that allows profitability and in acceptable condition. This involves knowing the company’s strategic plan, interaction with the supply pipeline, establishing relationships with suppliers, creating long term contracts, etc.

Managing People

The above are two examples of organizations managing their major resources. They show the value of the resource by the effort and expense they apply to support their investment in these resources. Are you starting to understand my question? If people are the organization’s greatest resource, who is responsible for the support and investment of that resource? This is often given to the Human Resources Department as just one more “job on the plate” of the already very busy and usually under staffed department. Rarely is there a separate “People Development Director” that knows the strategic plan, the short and long term needs to support the strategic plan and is focused solely on the company’s greatest resource.

Do the people recruiting and hiring in your organization know where your organization wants to be in 5 to 10 years according to your strategic plan? Are they preparing current employees and hiring the right new people that will get you there? Do you have people responsible to ensure your current employees feel connected and are experiencing job and culture satisfaction?

If your employees really are your greatest resource, are you properly investing in that resource for your future? Would your employees tell you they are loyal to you and they feel valued? Have you ever asked them in a blind survey where you will get the “gut-level” truth?

A few years ago, a third party recruiting firm with over 600 offices worldwide, Express Employment Professionals, initiated a study by the Gallup Organization of large and small organizations across the country. The goal was to determine the post-recession employment climate. Here are some of their findings.

60% of employees plan to pursue new opportunities

83% of companies cite talent shortage as a concern

71% of employees don’t feel fully engaged

Engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave

80% of turnover is a result of hiring mistakes

57% of operating expenses are from salaries

Leadership is the number one reason employees leave

50% of owners feel they have a leadership gap

51% of owners find current employee skills inadequate

 This information confirms for me that the average organizations are not focused on theiNarrator wavingr “greatest resource”. To me it is very clear they are not if 71% of employees don’t feel fully engaged and yet 87% of engaged employees are less likely to leave, but 60% of employees plan to pursue new opportunities. We might talk about our “greatest resource” and we might actually believe they are our greatest resource, but collectively organizations are missing the boat.

People Development vs. Talent Management

The current term used often is Talent Management. Wikipedia defines Talent Management this way. “Talent Management refers to the anticipation of required human capital the organization needs at a given time and then setting a plan to meet those needs”. Did you get the “human capital” phrase? Capital is something you own and spend. This is the same problem we discussed before. It puts employees in a category like cattle. Something you own and use. Your employees are not “capital”, they are people. They are people with needs, desires, goals, plans and a life outside of your walls.

I define Talent Management, and suggest we call it People Development, as the continuous development of the organization’s greatest resource; its people. I can remember handing people my business card with the title of People Development Director. Almost every time I got a reaction. They would say, “That is an interesting title”. That led into many conversations. I could see the acceptance in their eyes. After all they were people too. They appreciated the thought that went into the title. People want to be developed, not used.

It is interesting to me that a society that understands individual development from the time of birth through the education system would lose sight of that concept as soon as people are employed. Do we believe this 20 something is now fully developed and all we need to do is manage the talent they have acquired? When you read that question I believe the answer is obviously no. Why then do we not think of the working environment as a continuation of the development of the overall person?

When you hire an engineer, you don’t just hire a person that has certain engineering skills and knowledge; you hire a whole person. They are single or married. They have children or not. They have certain causes they are passionate about. If you do a good job of determining culture fit in your interviewing process (Right People), they will fit well into your culture. They need a mentor. They need a manager that wants to help them grow and become all they can be (Right Seat). They want to work for a company where they feel valued and they can continually grow.

I hear people say today’s employee will change jobs every 3 to 5 years. My experience tells me that it’s not true in an organization focused on their people and their development. They may change positions within your company, but if they feel connected they probably won’t leave. I had three major employers in a 40-year span. I left the first one after 18 years because they still saw me as that “kid” they hired. I left the second employer because the owner was retiring and selling the business to a larger organization. I retired from the third. Most of my individual positions I held in those three companies lasted less than four years. My career just kept evolving (my flowing river) because I continually reached for the next opportunity. Your people are also growing and changing. Are you guiding their progress?

Management Commitment

A great People Development system can only work if the Leadership Team of your company believes in it and is willing to make the development of their staff a top priority. The reason for this is simple. Managers are responsible to determine how the employees working for them spend their resources of time and talent. The Leadership Team needs to believe that developing their “greatest resource” will have a positive bottom-line effect.

Think about this analogy describing commitment to the breakfast meal. Is your Leadership Farmer- chicken or pigTeam committed to developing their staff like the “chicken” (willing to show up and make an offering) or like the “pig” (willing to be all-in)? It is an interesting question. I have asked many people where they fit in this scenario. They usually want to say they are “all-in”, but their actions show otherwise. It is a hard thing to determine without a way to measure it. We will discuss that later.

Once the Leadership Team owns the concept it is easy to see how the development process can trickle down through the organization because it is a priority to Top Management. If you visualize the management structure of your organization as a pyramid, you can see how the influence from the top can reach all employees. I am not saying a mid-manager can’t focus on developing their staff, but in the pyramid example you can see how they can only affect a segment of the pyramid below them. Also, the priorities set by non-committed leaders above the mid-manager will reduce the mid-manager’s effectiveness in developing their staff.

Another concern is a mid-manager that doesn’t believe in developing their employees. They can create a “block” of the philosophy and hinder the growth of employees under them in the pyramid. I have seen many “kingdom builders” in my career; managers that rule with an iron hand and only think about themselves. Their greatest desire is to be seen as important. To them their people are only there to make them look good. If they have a great employee, they want to keep them in that spot so their area runs well. There is no thought toward the betterment of the employee or their job satisfaction.  The sad thing is the “blocked” employee will eventually become frustrated and leave the organization. So, holding them back has no value in the long run anyway.

Mid-Managers are a major key to your success. If they don’t see their role as a teacher and a guide, they will not be able to help each employee become all they can be. Too many times employees that are great at the task they performed are promoted to manage others in their area. They are great at tasks, but not necessarily managing people. These are two entirely different skill sets.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself-

Have you defined a good manager?

Do you have the right managers in place?

Do your mid-managers enable the “flow of talent” or do they “dam up” the flow?

Do you have managers on staff that you would personally not want to work for?

Have you given them the tools they need to succeed as managers?

How do you measure success for your managers? Remember if you don’t have a good measurement tool for any activity you are judging success by your feelings. Determine how to measure your managers’ success. It could be productivity, turn-over, absenteeism, employee surveys, etc. Just make sure every manager is measure in an equal way. Over the years, I have found two measuring tools that I believe are excellent and will give you great feedback.

The first tool is the “Leadership Levels” from “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. Each of your employees should fit somewhere on this list, even if they are not a leader. Part of this scale is leading yourself. I have found the levels do not necessarily match the average organization’s hierarchy. I know top leaders that are low on the scale because they were promoted for what they do or because who they are, not how they lead. Also, I know employees in lower levels of organizations that have Level 5 abilities. They are natural leaders. We need to develop them.

Level One Leader makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills, good work habits

Level Two Leader contributes individual capabilities to group objectives, works effectively in group settings

Level Three Leader is a competent manager, organizes people and resources effectively

Level Four Leader is an effective leader, committed to and in pursuit of a clear and compelling vision

Level Five Leader builds enduring greatness through a blend of humility and professional will

The second tool is the “Manager’s Measuring Stick” from “First, Break All the Rules” by Buckingham and Coffman. This is a great tool to use for feedback from your employees that work for each manager. It also serves as a great guide for managers to think about their interactivity with staff.

Do I know what is expected of me and how it’s measured?

Do I have the resources I need to do my work efficiently?

Do I have the opportunity every day to do what I do best?

In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing a good job?

Does my manager seem to care about me as a person?

Does my manager encourage my development?

Does the mission and purpose of the company make me feel my job is important?

Do my opinions count?

Are my co-workers committed to quality work?

Do I have a best friend at work?

In the last three months, has my manager talked to me about my progress?

In the last year, have I had opportunities to grow?

Measures like these, or others you may already use, are the best way to really know the organization’s “heartbeat”. A saying I believe in is, “If you don’t measure it you can’t improve it”. To many times Leadership Teams that only get verbal communication are sheltered from hearing all the truth.  Managers don’t want to give the leaders bad news, so they soften the message. Also, employees that feel disconnected don’t feel like they can share their concerns. Measuring employees’ opinions takes away all the emotion when it is done anonymously.

One of the road blocks that needs to be overcome is helping managers to learn to delegate. I have come to realize that giving away authority is one of the hardest things for a manager to do. The reason typically boils down to trust. If they don’t trust that the employee is going to do things correctly, they will never truly let go of that responsibility. The problem with hanging on to responsibilities is it stops opportunity for growth for both the manager and the employee.

So how do we build the trust necessary to let go? There is a very simple three step process that I find very effective in any training circumstance. First, “I do and you watch”. When you think you understand, then the second phase is “you do and I watch”. When I am confident you have mastered the responsibility, then the third step is release; “you take over the responsibility and I go on to other responsibilities”. Let the process take all the time it needs. Until that trust is authentic, neither the manager nor the employee can really move on.

Leadership Communication

Another key in this process is Leadership communication. Employees need good communication to stay focused. Can you imagine an organization where everyone is “rowing in the same direction” to accomplish your strategic goals? An organization where employees are not interested in the next recruiter’s call because they love what they do? I have recognized that most leaders do not understand how powerful their words are. Leaders typically see themselves as “just another employee”. However, it is human nature for employees to see their leaders as authority above them.

Can you imagine turn-over below 2% and the continuous interruption of training new people slowed to a trickle? Employees who receive good strategic communication are more likely to feel they have an effect on company goals and therefore feel connected and valued.

The things leaders say and do carry a lot of weight for their employees. If an employee feels valued by their leaders, they will naturally be more open and productive. If the employee feels like they are only a “part of the machine of the organization” they will be closed off and less productive. It is only natural to respond to your leader the way they treat you.

I have come to believe that “management gets the employees they deserve”. Remember the biggest reason people leave a job is the leadership they are under; not money. Good employees under bad management leave. Their skills will take them elsewhere. However, bad employees aren’t as mobile and seem to stay, leaving poor management with a weak work force.

We used three different leadership communication tools that we found to be very effective. We held monthly “employee appreciation luncheons”. It could be pizza, hamburgers on the grill or a Thanksgiving turkey dinner. The food doesn’t matter. It is just more casual when you are having a meal together. The purpose was to create the feel of “family”. During these lunches, all employees were updated on the “state of the business”. We held these lunches at every facility and on every shift.

The President or one of the VP’s would be the speaker. It was an open Q&A. The open atmosphere was well received. After a few months, the employees felt comfortable asking questions about the business, even if they were difficult questions during trying times. Not unlike a parent guiding a teen through “rough waters”, this open communication changed the fear of the “unknown” to the reality of what we were doing about the situation. Without information people tend to imagine very scary scenarios. With facts, the wonder goes away and you can plan, even if the plan affects the individual negatively.

The second method was what I called “fireside chats”. They took place in the employees’ working areas. A Leadership Team member would casually gather a group of six or eight employees in a given area and talk about whatever was on their minds. The smaller group created even deeper openness. I remember new employees’ reactions to this process. They would say to me, “The President sat down next to my desk and just started talking to me about my new role and my new peers. It surprised me that he really cared”. It is amazing what 15 minutes of a leader “listening” can do for a team.

The third method was taken from author Tom Peters’ philosophy of “management by wandering around”. I would walk around the facility I was in that day and make myself “available” to everyone. I watched for what I came to call the “smile-o-meter”. Every employee has their “normal happy look”.  When they didn’t, I made sure to stop and talk with them and try to determine what was bothering them. Employees got very comfortable when they could talk to a management person as a regular guy; not someone on a pedestal. Typically, the employee’s concern was from their “outside world”, but knowing someone cared helped them focus better on their job at hand.

Employees can lose their focus without continuous communication. If leaders are seen as unapproachable or “just too busy” you will lose the atmosphere that keeps employees connected and allows them to be all they can be. Once an employee has lost their trust in management, rebuilding trust again is difficult, if not impossible.

Let’s see how you rate your Team’s commitment to People DevelopmentNarrator waving using this scale.

5 Excellent, 4 Good, 3 Average, 2Poor, 1 None

Every member of our Management Team is committed to People Development

The person responsible for People Development is on the Leadership Team

Our Leadership Team does a good job of communicating employee growth

Every Mid-Manager is totally committed to developing their staff

Our Mid-Managers know their employees as a whole person

Chapter 3 – How Does People Development Work?

The Concept

Normally organizations fill open positions caused by growth or attrition by finding candidates, either internal or external, at the time the need arises. People Development works bottom up. It is a continuous process of allowing employees to grow in areas they are interested in throughout their career. It is discovering and nurturing the newly discovered strengths in current employees and preparing them for potential openings in the future. It is proactive, not reactive.

To me a good comparison of this concept is a game like chess. As a chess player, you have an overall strategy in mind. However, the moves of your opponent cause you to alter your moves to accomplish the same overall strategy. Reacting to your opponent’s moves (or business conditions) you continually move your pieces (or employees) into positions that allow the overall strategy (your long-term plan) to work. Your long-term business plan is your guiding force. However, current business conditions as well as employee desires and changes in life cause you to make different moves than you planned, but the business plan is still the guide.

Think of your employees as a “flowing river”; ever moving and ever changing, but staying within the “banks of the river”. Each employee learns new things continually. Think about your own career. The things that seemed overwhelming when you started are second nature now. The education you have received on and off the job have greatly increased your value to your organization.

The driving forces in your employees’ lives change as they go from single to married, as they raise children, when they become empty-nesters, etc. These changes also add to their growth. For example, a parent can use the same skills they have learned parenting as they become managers and guide others. Managing the finances of a household can relate to managing the bottom-line of a business. Learning about and paying for home maintenance enhances the care of business equipment. This list goes on and on.Narrator waving

The underlying point is that we hire and manage people; people with real lives. Yes, we purchase their talent, but we also get the rest of their skills and passions. If we see an Engineer only as an Engineer, we will miss the value of their other skill sets. For example, if you have an Engineer with great people skills, you may discover they will be happier and even more effective in your business in Technical Sales. If we are not open to the “flow of the river” we can miss great opportunities like this. The only way I know to create an environment that is ever changing is to create guidance systems around it. Like banks of a river, they allow the flow while containing it within its boundaries.

Every employee needs to understand how they fit into your organization’s future plans. People that don’t see themselves in the “flowing river” find themselves in a job, not a career. They need to see their opportunities in the future. They need to understand growth plans to feel secure. If you are considering different locations, you need to know which current employees would be interested in helping launch the new site. Vision casting is a major positive contributor to employee retention. People like to be part of a dynamic organization. We will discuss this in more detail when we discuss Re-Recruiting your current staff in Chapter 4.

Building a Development Road Map

I believe every organization needs a Development Road Map. In fact, you probably have it started. Your Organizational Chart should be used to build your Development Road Map. The problem is most Organizational Charts list positions, not the names of the people in those positions. Do you have Accountants or people working in your Accounting area? Do you have Engineers or men and women with Engineering skills and knowledge that also have other attributes? If we see our people as mono-talented we will never realize what the whole person can bring to our organization.

Look back 10 years. Has your Organizational Chart changed? What were your current leaders doing 10 years ago? Look forward 10 years. Do you believe your Organizational Chart will change? Will there be retirements, resignations or terminations? Will your employee roster change? Where will the additional people come from? What are your future leaders doing today? Do they even work for you at this time?

I challenge you to do this exercise. If you put your organization’s “face” on these thoughts, you will “see” much clearer. If the whole organization is too big for this exercise, pick a group to use as a sample. Look at your Organizational Chart. Take a few minutes and use it to create your Development Road Map by adding every employee on your staff in the position they are today. Make a list of the strengths needed in this position. If you have multiple employees performing the same function, make sure and create a box for each person. Now list each employee’s strengths and compare them to the strengths needed. Think about what they bring to your organization beyond the current role. See the whole person, not the title. What other areas of interest do they have?

With all the names on the Development Road Map I think you will see what I did. The talent in your organization is a “flowing river” not a “stagnant pool”. Your employees are ever learning and growing. They are not the same as they were a year ago, or a month ago; they have had additional experience. They have learned things on and off the job that makes them more valuable to you.

Now create a future Organizational Chart with a long view by matching it to your long-term business plan by adding the additional positions you will need and changes, like retirements, that will be happening. Put your current staff on the Chart. Leave an empty box where you will need to add additional staff. Compare the two Maps; today and the future. Look at the strengths your employees have. This will allow you to see the opportunities to guide employees with the right strengths toward the future needs and allow you to see the challenges in front of you in the next few years.

Now ask yourself the following questions. Are you preparing for the upcoming changes like retirements, etc. in the next few years? Do you have the type of staff that can take your organization where it wants to go? In the words of Jim Collins in “Good to Great” do you have the “right people on the bus”? If not, do you have the will to “help them find another bus”? Will you need additional “right people”? Are your current people in the “right seat”? Will they be capable of taking over a different seat in the future? How well you answer these questions will have a great impact on your organization’s future.

The “Plate” Exercise

Once you recognize the potential your people have in the flowing river, you can get into the detail of your employees day-to-day with a tool we called the “Plate Exercise”. We discovered a system to facilitate the movement of responsibilities. The question is what is on the “plate” (or list of job responsibilities) of each employee. The best approach is to have all employees in a given area, management and staff, write down what they do daily and weekly. Anything done monthly or less often can be addressed later.

Once each person has completed their list, have them label each item as either (A) only they can do this item, or (B) a few other people can also do this item or (C) anybody in this area can do this item. I have found that when middle to senior employees do this exercise they typically wonder why they are doing the C items.

Once the A, B, C list has been created have them number each item either (1) this must be done or (2) this should be done or (3) this could be done. Once the job duties have been listed A1 through C3 it is easy for the area manager to then rearrange the job duties to the appropriate person with the right knowledge and strength. This process usually allows the managers and higher qualified staff to free up time for higher value-added responsibilities. We have found that the bottom level tasks are a good place to bring interns into your system. You will get the least complicated tasks completed for less cost and allow your seasoned employees to take on new challenges. We will address the intern possibility in more detail later in Chapter 5.

Compiling these lists together into one departmental task list is an easy way to establish levels of knowledge that are similar to the levels in the educational system. First there is entry level or basic knowledge. The second level is core information, like your organizations products and abilities. After level one and two have been completed, the information needed to accomplish specific tasks can be learned. As employees’ knowledge increase they are capable of taking on higher value-added responsibilities.

These lists allow the manager to set up training opportunities that assist in employees’ growth and allow the employees to become more valuable to the organization. It also aids the manager in proactively preparing for the natural changes in the work force. If all tasks have a trained back-up in place, a sudden change (illness, termination, etc.) in the work force is much easier to deal with.

Coaching

While preparing staff to learn and grow, we discovered an interesting phenomenon that I call “coaching those that do not know where they want to go”.  One of the things I’ve enjoyed most in life is coaching people to find their goal when they don’t even know what that goal is yet. This has happened as a father, as a coach for sports teams, as a business manager and as a mentor. The common thread is recognizing that everyone has an interest in the things they are naturally gifted in. The funny thing is they do not normally recognize their gifting. To them it’s just “normal”. The things people do in their free time will often lead you to answer what their natural passion is.

For example, a person that is gifted with a great singing voice can’t understand why others can’t stay on key. It is so natural to them that they believe it is natural to everyone. Often when you tell a person that they are gifted in an area they will say, “I am not gifted. Everyone can do that, can’t they?” It is their “normal”. Helping them recognize their gifting is not “normal” takes time. You can tell them, but that doesn’t mean they really believe you. They can even begin to see that others are not able to do what they can do as well as they can, but their first reaction is to assume that person is flawed, not that they are gifted. They have to discover their gifting for themselves. All you can do is be there to point it out when a “teachable moment” happens. When they “see it” for themselves it is a great paradigm shift. To me it is an awesome moment.

To accomplish this coaching I have found that we can’t be in a hurry. It is their time table. We can’t determine what their goal is. We have to help them “open their eyes” and let them find it themselves. We have to know them deeply. They have to trust us. Trust that we only have their best interest in mind. Trust that we won’t push them into our agenda. That we will let them find their way.

Coaching someone that is finding their own way is interesting. You must learn to “listen”. Most people confuse listening with hearing. Listening takes concentration. It takes knowing what the person is actually trying to communicate to you. Hearing understands what they are saying through your “filter”. Listening understands what they are saying through their “filter”. That takes really “knowing” the other person.

Listening happens in one of five levels-

  1. Ignoring
  2. Pretending
  3. Selective Listening
  4. Attentive Listening
  5. Empathetic Listening

Ignoring is obviously not listening. The person ignoring has no interest in what the speaker is saying.

Pretending to listen is less obvious. The hearer is actually distracted by something else, but is acting like they are listening. A classic example is the scene where a husband is at breakfast reading the morning news and his wife is talking while he is reading. He might make comments to her like, “Yes dear” or “That’s interesting dear”, but he really has no idea what she said.

Selective listening is listening for what you want to hear. The goal of a selective listener is to hear what they want and ignore the rest. It is self-focused listening.

Attentive listening is wanting to hear what the speaker is saying, but only focusing on what words the speaker is using. Individual’s definition of words can differ. You may miss the actual meaning by only hearing the words.

Empathetic listening focuses not only on words, but also body language and emotion. The hearer is listening with the intent to understand what the speaker is communicating. It isNarrator waving listening with your ears, your eyes and your heart. It is listening for feeling, meaning and behavior. We cannot truly communicate with others if we aren’t empathetic listeners.

Once you have learned to listen empathetically to the other person, it is then possible to coach them to a destination that neither of you know at the present moment. It will become clearer and clearer as time goes on. As their passions become clear you can then look at the Development Road Map to determine where they might fit into the future. This experience is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The picture becomes clearer the more the pieces go in to place.

Focus on Strengths

To help people reach their goals, we need to focus on the employees’ strengths not their weaknesses. Having been around recruiting and interviewing for years, I know there are two questions that are often asked by interviewers; “What are your strengths?” and “What are your weaknesses?” I always wonder why interviewers ask candidates about their weaknesses. We never hire people for their weaknesses. Do we think candidates will ever tell us their true weakness? Human nature is to down play our weaknesses or even deny the fact that they exist, not even admitting them to ourselves. When interviewing, we should be looking for the candidate’s strengths. We want an employee in a position that can use their strengths to accomplish what needs to be done to help the organization be the best it can be.

If you focus on strengths, you get better and better. If you focus on a weakness, the best you will ever get is mediocre. Think about something you cannot do very well. For example, I am a pathetic artist. I can’t even draw good “stick people”. Should I focus on trying to be a better artist or should I focus on People Development? To me the answer is obvious.

When building a team, we need to determine and use strengths from the top down. If the CEO is great at Sales and Marketing but weak at Operations, he should have a strong COO to support him in that position. That logic should continue all the way down the Organizational Chart. If there is a glaring weakness in the organization, either shift the work around so employees are using their strengths or find someone new with that strength. Don’t waste your time and effort trying to make a poor artist into a mediocre artist. Let employees do what they do well and you will see morale grow and absenteeism and turnover reduced.

Generations in the Work Place

For the first time in history we have people from five generations in the work force today. It is not uncommon to have Baby-Boomers working alongside employees in their early twenties. You probably have people that started working before cell phones and computers were even invented working next to people that have never known a world without cell phones and computers. You might have people that do not like to text working with people that use texting as their major form of communication. We need to be sensitive to all the generations. If you have the “right people on the bus” you have them there for a good reason. Help them learn to communicate. Creating opportunities for projects with multiple generational teams allow them to learn the differences and understand each other while solving current issues. Don’t allow them to only work with their generational peers. Help your managers “see” the differences in the generations as valuable, not something they have to put up with. The diversity will be a great win for your organization if you embrace it.

Let’s see how you rate your Team’s implementation of the People Development concept byNarrator waving using this scale.

5 Excellent, 4 Good, 3 Average, 2Poor, 1 None

Does your organization recognize your people are a flowing river of talent?

Does your Organizational Chart with all employees’ names included?

Do you know you have the right people on your “bus”?

Are your employees’ in the right seat to use their strengths and passions?

Do you have a long term projected Development Road Map?

Chapter 4 – Re-Recruiting Your Current Staff

What is Re-Recruiting?

This is a term that I have come to love. It gives a name we can recognize to an often-forgotten group of people; our current staff. There is a parallel between the recruiting process followed by employment and the dating process followed by marriage. It seems once the wooing is over, the company (or the husband) turns their attention to the next priority. Remember the survey said 71% of employees feel disconnected. If an employee feels ignored or disconnected they are more likely to look for other opportunities.

Think about your current staff? Do you know if any of them are looking around for opportunities outside of your company? Do you have a way to measure employee satisfaction? Do you know the issues that cause people to leave your organization? Do you do exit interviews when an employee leaves? Do you believe the lines of communication are open enough that your employees will talk to your management team about their concerns before they start looking for another job?

We created company Norms and Values to help keep people focused and also to give them a standard to point to when they felt we were getting off track. From our Norms and Values, we created an Employee Satisfaction Survey that was responded to anonymously. The only identifier we asked for was which of our four locations the employee was from. That helped us understand if there was a different perception from one location to another. The most important part of the process was admitting when we were getting off track and allowing the employee to feel comfortable saying so. When everybody knows the company’s focus and desired direction, we can help each other stay focused on the goal.

Knowing Your People

Knowing your employees is a major part of re-recruiting. By knowing, I don’t mean knowing their name and their position in the company. I mean knowing them as a person. Knowing what is important to them, knowing their long-term goals, knowing about their family, knowing their strengths and allowing them to use their strengths for the organization, knowing where they want to fit into the organization and knowing what they are passionate about outside of work and supporting them in that cause if possible.

When you know your people at that level they will be connected. It is natural to want to be a part of something, especially if that something brings you satisfaction. John Wooden, the famous UCLA basketball coach, said, “If people are working together for a common cause they can’t help but become friends”. As Jim Collins said in Good to Great, “Get the right people on the bus and then get them in the right seat”. If you have employees that are passionate about what you do and are using their strengths to help accomplish your organization’s goals, you will have connected employees.

Managing is like Parenting

I have discovered another parallel; it’s between managing and parenting. After 40+ years of managing people and also being a father of four, grandfather of nine and a great-grandfather of 6, I have recognized that there are common skills in managing and parenting. There is one over-riding truth. For the best results, both must be done intentionally. Guiding people to be the best they can be in any area of life takes work. It cannot be done without study and understanding.

Everything in life is learned in stages. It doesn’t matter if it is a life skill like walking or a vocational skill like designing a website. It takes many building blocks to accomplish both. Also, we never actually finish the learning process. The fastest runner in the world is always striving to understand how to set the next record. As soon as a web designer creates their best website ever, new technology comes along and challenges them to new heights of learning.

The knowledge needed in guiding your people to be the best they can be requires understanding your employee well enough to know “how” to get them there. There are a few key managing components that need to be individualized for each employee. They are their learning style, how they are motivated, what type of discipline is effective for them and the speed they learn.

Each employee has their own learning style. There have been many books written on learning styles. If you aren’t aware of learning styles, find a good book and read about it. For example, I am a hands-on learner. It is difficult for me to learn how to do something from just reading about it. I need to touch it and feel it. The problem for the manager is it is natural to want to teach in their own natural style, but unless your employee has the same learning style as you, your efforts will fall short of what is possible if you don’t take into account their learning style.

Each employee is motivated differently. Some people are motivated by reward. Some people are motivated by recognition. Some need public praise where others need private recognition. This can be determined by meaningful conversations with your employee. They can tell you what feels right to them over time if they are comfortable being that open with you.

Each respond to different types of discipline. Some need a stern conversation while others will change their ways with an unapproving glance. Some people are natural rebels and need a firm hand to guide them. Others are natural pleasers and want to do whatever you want so they can make you happy.

Each learner has a different learning “timetable”. Also, the same student will have different timetables for different situations. You cannot expect everyone to learn at the same pace. We learned this homeschooling our daughter. By second grade she was reading at a Junior High level. However, it took her longer to understand mathematical concepts and she stayed closer to normal grade level. I believe we are looking for depth of knowledge, not speed. If we want someone to understand a task so well that they can take responsibility for it, does it really matter if it takes a few extra weeks to totally understand the process?

Every employee needs to know where they fit into the company’s plans for the future.Narrator waving I have come to call that “Career Pathing”.  Think back to the future development road map. The beginning of finding the right employee for your next opening starts in the long-term goal discussion in the Employee Continuous Improvement Assessment that will be discussed in a minute. We need to know where employees want to fit into the future plans of the organization.

I am not saying every employee needs to be “upward focused”. I have witnessed employees that are very happy to continually get better and better at what they currently are doing. They have no desire to change positions. They also may have no desire to become the manager of their area. They are content. Just make sure they aren’t forgotten. As a parent, I realize it is possible to not give attention to the compliant child. It seems our attention is always drawn to problems. Don’t forget to spend time with your excellent but stationary employees.

Each manager must “know” the individual employee. If you try to handle everyone in the same manner you will not get the best results out of them. You need to know your employee and their style. Each manager must release control at the right intervals. If it is your teenager driving out the driveway alone in your car the first time or if it is giving total responsibility for a project at work to your employee, it is natural to feel apprehensive. Have faith in your teaching. They will survive.

Each manager must let the employee take their own natural path in the learning experience if we hope to help them be the best they can be in any arena. Understanding the different styles and how to communicate with each style is the key to being a good manager. The effort in acquiring this knowledge will be rewarded in the employee’s results. Watching someone take new responsibility and succeed is the most rewarding thing I have ever experienced as a manager and a father.

Re-Recruiting is less expensive than Recruiting

One thing I am sure of is Re-Recruiting current employees is less expensive than Recruiting new employees. Have you ever calculated the cost for recruiting new employees? Too many times the costs are buried in your system. Do you know the cost of the things not being done while your staff is placing ads, reviewing dozens of resumes, interviewing multiple candidates at multiple interviewing levels and then making the offer of employment? Once all that is completed you must get the employee through the on-boarding process, help them fit into the organization’s culture and train them on their new duties. Another over looked cost is the cost of new employee mistakes. People say the cost of the whole process of recruiting through training is 50% to 150% of the positions annual wage. Whatever your cost is, Re-Recruiting is less expensive.

Internal Internships

Internal Internships are an interesting concept to help employees find other areas of interest. They are treated like a normal internship except with current staff. It allows your current staff to determine if there is a “better fit”. Try making them available as a reward to excellent employees.

To engage in an internal internship program, you first need a plan that shows your current employees they have options within the organization. Make sure the process is described well enough for everyone to understand its value to them. Don’t let it be an escape hatch for poor performers. Treat it like a reward for productive employees.

An internal internship can be done for a short term, a few months or longer. Short term could be vacation coverage. A week in a different position might help an employee decide if the position would be a better fit for them in the future when openings occur. A little longer internship might be covering for a medical leave; maternity leave, etc. A longer internship could be a “trial” for an upcoming opening. No matter what the longevity, both you and your employee will know if that position might be a good fit for them when an opening comes.

The employee needs the assurance that if this internship doesn’t work out they can still return to their previous position. They cannot be afraid of losing their position if the internship doesn’t work out. To make this work there needs to be planning and coverage in both the positions.

Continuous Improvement Assessment

We recognized that traditional yearly employee assessment had two problems. First, it is a rare occasion when a manager is actually reviewing more than the last 90 to 120 days. Time before that feels like ancient history. Second, because financial advancements are traditionally tied to this annual review, the review is more about money than a guidance of employee growth.

We created a Continuous Improvement Assessment which became a great tool to enhance communication between an employee and their manager. It also works well in ensuring the manager informs upper management on the progress and goals of each employee. This in turn allows upper management to help champion the continuous growth of each employee.

We listed our Norms & Values and then rated each employee in their understanding and implementation of each value. They were rated above average, average or below average. We expected employees to understand the value at their level of the business. An average rating was the norm. Any below average ratings became part of their improvement plan.

Here are a few of our categories we measured:

          Values and Ethics

          Vision and Purpose

          Strategic Insight

          Customer Focus

          Teamwork

          Communication

          Innovation

The Continuous Improvement Assessment was a formal communication between employee and manager every 90 days. We found that time span to be more relevant. Also, removing the conversation about wages from the quarterly review helped keep the focus on the more important topic, employee growth and future direction. The form used is not important, but the focus is. We broke the conversation into three sections. First was related to their progress in the team. We asked ourselves questions like the following.

How is the employee doing compared to our company Norms and Values?

How well do they communicate with peers, managers and others in the company?

Do they understand the company’s vision and how it is affected by their work?

The second section was focused on the employee’s performance and growth. We reviewed the last 90 days and the goals established for that period. What items were successfully completed? If not completed, what stopped them for being completed? We discussed what we should do to remove any road blocks. If they had a major success or breakthrough in that time period, we celebrated it. Then we looked forward to the next 90 days. What issues would the employee like to address? Also, what issues would the manager like the employee to address? Together they agreed to a 90-day plan of improvement.

The third focus was long term goals and dreams. Where would the employee like to be in 5 or 10 years from now? What possibilities does the manager see in that time frame? What will it take to reach these dreams? If training, education or experience is needed, how and when do we get it done? That quarterly conversation was a key to keeping the “river flowing” and helping the employees understand their future possibilities.

Employee Innovation

Another key to keeping employees connected is allowing innovation. Employee Innovation drives Employee Continuous Improvement to a new level. I have witnessed amazing efficiency gains by allowing employees to challenge the “normal”. We had an Engineering student working as an intern in the area where raw material was matched with the customers’ order requests. There were four employees in the area when the intern challenged the material matching process that had been used for years. He asked if he could attempt to do in an Excel Macro what was currently being done by hand. We allowed him to work on it in his spare time. The Macro worked so well our computer programming staff worked with the intern to create programming in our computer system main frame. After we made the change-over our material application staff was able to accomplish their tasks in about half the previous time. We paid $10 per hour to save thousands of dollars per month. It would never have happened if we hadn’t allowed the creativity to flow.

Another example happened as the internet became a useful business tool. We had left over material from our manufacturing process that was scrapped at about 10% of its original purchased price. An employee asked if they could try to sell the left-over stock on the internet, which was a thought very foreign to most of us back then. We let them try, assuming they would not get any response. To our surprise, we were able to increase the value from 10% of cost to 30 – 40%. Thousands of dollars a month were realized because we allowed an employee to try something new.

When people see their manager and top executives interested in their future and growth a great bond is formed. I have witnessed employees that started as interns become managers in the company; even reaching as high as the President. Even employees that eventually had to leave the company for personal reasons found it difficult to say good-bye. I have had multiple employees cry when they told me they were leaving. They were deeply attached emotionally, but life was separating us. That is employee loyalty.

Succession Planning

People Development is Succession Planning. We usually use the phrase Succession Planning in context with top management. I would challenge you to think of it throughout your organization. Anytime an employee moves in the organization you need to replace them. Would it not be better if it was planned rather than dealt with in a reactionary mode? If we use a Development Road Map for the entire organization, we will be doing succession planning in an organized, proactive way. Management and staff will have a sense of comfort knowing that when the next employee change comes there is a contingency plan in place to cover it.

Workplace Flexibility

Where practical, “Workplace Flexibility” is a huge tool in the re-recruiting process. Ask yourself if the starting time for any employee should be chiseled in stone or can you be flexible? What if an employee’s child has a school performance during working hours? Will it bring your organization to its knees if they leave early today and come in early tomorrow to make up for it? Your employees have a “real life”. If you allow them to ebb and flow with the reality of life, still accomplishing everything you need them to do, you will find a “perk” that costs you nothing and yet brings rewards in improved loyalty; something you cannot put a dollar value on.

The “Face” of the Organization

Employees’ attitudes in the workplace set a positive or negative tone. I watched a greatPrincess, friendly, proactive webinar with a former Theme Park Human Resources Executive talking about setting the tone of the atmosphere. They talked to all their new employees about being the “face” of the organization. They used the example of visitors interacting with the Princess in their park. The Princess obviously is a costumed employee. However, visitors need to see the same caring, loving, safe-to-approach Princess they have seen in the cartoons. It is imperative for customer satisfaction that the Princess never has a bad day, no matter how the employee feels.princess-mean-reactive

It is easy to see the relation to the workplace. If an employee is seen as rude and unapproachable by other employees, the open communication we need fails and our processes break down. I have used this word picture while talking to employees about this issue. It becomes a “safe” way to ask someone to check their attitude by asking if “The Princess is having a bad day”.

Let’s see how you rate your Team’s commitment to Re-RecruitingNarrator waving using this scale.

5 Excellent, 4 Good, 3 Average, 2Poor, 1 None

How well does your management team understand the need for Re-Recruiting?

Do your managers understand guiding employees with a different learning style?

Do your managers know each employee’s strengths and passions?

Do you have a system that helps guide employees to their greatest potential?

Are you comfortable you know your employee loyalty level?

Chapter 5 – Recruiting to Fill Future Needs

What is a Resume?

In the recruiting and interviewing process, why is a resume considered to be so important? Can you possibly understand if a candidate would be a great fit for your organization and for the position you are trying to fill from their resume? Most resumes are not written solely by the candidate. They have been “coached” what to write and how to say what they say. Even the presentation is typically not their creation alone. So, I ask again, how can this piece of paper be considered so important?

As a recruiter for more than two decades, I have come to this conclusion. A candidate is more than a resume. You say to me that is obvious. Well I ask you then how do you determine what candidates you will call in for an interview? Most recruiters will say the candidates with the best resumes.

A candidate’s “real resume” is their “life story”; who they are when no one is looking. What they can do with the talents and abilities they have been given. What they are passionate about. What they have learned through hard work. What they have learned from study; both academically and the study of life. We hire the whole person, not a summary overview of their education and the jobs they have performed.

The “Great Sea” of Talent

There is a “Great Sea” of candidates out there. There are thousands of people looking for work. There are also thousands of people wishing to change jobs. How do you find the “one” you are looking for?

There are multiple contributories to the Great Sea. Area High Schools, Community Colleges, Trade Schools and Universities graduate thousands of students every year. All these people enter into the Great Sea. The Great Sea is ever changing. All these people have talent.  They are seeking a place to use their talent and build the life of their dreams. There are also unemployed people seeking employment. Some have been displaced by factors out of their control. Others have been terminated by their former employer. Also in the Great Sea are candidates that are currently working, but for various reasons want to change employers. Some are from this local area. Others desire to move into this area. All these people are in the Great Sea at the same time, but the faces are always changing.

We have choices of how to find candidates in the Great Sea. They fall into three general categories. The first choice is to search on our own. The second is to partner with a guide like a school guidance counselor, a university career services representative, teachers and professors, alumni and employee references for people they know in the Great Sea. The third is to use a third-party recruiter for pre-qualified candidates. Which method you choose is usually determined by your staffing in the area of recruiting.

Recruiting Alone

Searching alone is the most time consuming, but has the fewest number of dollars spent beyond staff salary. However, if you calculate the time staff spend in the process and not doing their normal activities, it may be a bigger cost than you think. Also, some of the people seeking employment can only be found by paying for the right to search an on-line resume bank. Depending on your volume of hires, these costs can be prohibitive. There are many sizes of organizations recruiting in the Great Sea; large and small, seasoned searchers and novices. Which one you are can affect your visibility to the potential candidates.

Recruiting with a Guide

Searching with a guide is the middle road of cost and staff effort. Having someone lead you to the type of candidates you are looking for saves a lot of time and gets you away from a lot of the competition. I have spent a lot of time with this method. I found local educational sources to have an endless source of new talent to choose from. I call this arrangement Cooperative Collaborations. Cooperative Collaborations are mutually beneficial partnerships between organizations and educational sources. Under each of the five examples below of collaboration you will see how everyone – organization, academia and student – comes out a winner.

Internships or Co-ops

How the organization wins:

An internship or co-op is a great way to reduce the cost of entry level functions. It also becomes a four-month interview for potential full time employment allowing more in-depth knowledge of the potential employee than the traditional two or three hours of interviewing gives.

How the university wins:

Internships are a great extension of the education system. When students are placed in internships that enhance curriculum, the experience they receive allows them to move from the theory of the text book to “real world” experience.

How the student wins:

Internships help students determine if the career they envision matches the reality of the job. They also allow students to narrow down the type of organization they would want to work for full time.

Practice Interviews

Some career service groups hold practice interviews on campus for their students.

How the organization wins:

Practice interviews are a great way to increase an organization’s branding by getting your name and culture in front of students. The organization can also observe the student in a more relaxed setting and get a look at new talent before the rest of the business community does. I have hired many interns from a practice interview.

How the university wins:

Practice interviews allow business community feedback on the interviewing and resume writing skills taught by the university. Methods can then be honed to better serve students.

How the student wins:

The value of practice interviews is twofold. First, they allow students to sharpen their interviewing skills in a low pressure setting. Second, they allow the possibility of turning practice interviews into real interviews; sometimes helping students land internships before their peers.

Internship Workshops

Workshops are offered by some career services groups to help students prepare for resume writing, interviewing and career fair interaction with organizations. Some groups invite recruiters from local organizations to be part of a Q&A panel.

How the organization wins:

Workshops are another great opportunity for company branding, allowing recruiters a few minutes to discuss their internship programs and organization’s culture. At the end of the workshop, interested students can approach you to hear about current opportunities.

How the university wins:

As with practice interviews, workshops allow business community feedback to the university on the guidance they have given students. The corporate recruiter’s input to students enhances and backs up what the students have been hearing from the university.

How the student wins:

Workshops allow students to interact with the type of people who will soon be interviewing them. They can get suggestions, ask questions and see the differing approaches of various recruiters. They also offer students the opportunity for one-on-one conversations following the workshop.

Organization Open House

Some organizations have found value in holding open houses for local students. These are usually held after normal working hours to allow better interaction between employees and students.

How the organization wins:

An open house is a focused, unique show-and-tell for an organization. Combine discussion, Q&A and tours with pizza, pop and cookies and everyone is sure to have a positive experience. Allowing employees the opportunity to talk about their contributions to the organization with the students is a great morale builder.

How the university wins:

Open houses allow two types of partnership. First, career services can partner with the company in campus advertising, giving tangible evidence of their value to students. Second, individual professors can partner with a company to hold a smaller, more directly focused open house. For example, allowing a finance class or engineering class to see the business up close.

How student wins:

Open houses let students see a business culture and discuss job responsibilities in a low-pressure environment. If interested, they can turn the experience into an interview.

Class Projects: Large/ Small Group, Individual

Projects can range from a few weeks to a whole semester. They can have only a few students or the entire class. Size and longevity of the projects are determined by the scope.

How the organization wins:

Class projects are a great way for an organization to accomplish tasks that their employees are too busy to complete. They can be marketing surveys, financial studies, alternative energy studies or major projects like creating a new device for the production floor. The list of possibilities is endless, the cost can’t be beat and it’s also another great way to find future talent.

How the university wins:

Class projects give the “real world”, hands-on experience that will truly enhance text book learning. Professors can work closely with a company of choice to bring their subject to life.

How student wins:

Class projects give students valuable hands-on experience. Interacting with the company gives them insight into their field and helps them continue focusing in on their career choice. They also have a chance to impress a potential future employer.

Cooperative collaborations are a great value to all involved. They will improve the organizations bottom line, enhance education and help students to experience the world they will soon be working in. Everyone comes out a winner.

Using Third Party Recruiters

Using third party recruiters is the least time consuming for staff. The cost can vary by type of position and the third-party recruiter used.

The professional third-party recruiter can find candidates you would never find. They are called “passive candidates”. These are people not publicly seeking a new job, but the right offer at the right time brings them “out of the woodwork”. When you talk to candidates from third party recruiters, and have created an agreement with the recruiter for candidate pre-screening, they have already been pre-screened to whatever level you agreed on prior to the recruiter starting their search. They can do culture matching, skills testing, background checks, drug tests, etc. ensuring that you only talk to candidates that match your requirements. Your interviewing time per position filled will be greatly reduced. They will hand you three or four pre-qualified, hand selected candidates. All you need to do is pick the best of the best.

Finding Candidates

Determining the best method for finding candidates has a lot to do with your organizational preferences. However, no matter which method you decide to use, there are a few things you need to do to get the best results. Determine the different types of talent your organization will be looking for in the future before you select a method. Not every type of candidate can be found through all of the methods. You need to have enough sources to cover all your needs, but not so many sources that you are insignificant to the sources. Form a relationship with contacts from your chosen sources. Become an asset to your source. Create a win-win relationship. Understand what they need to be successful. If you help someone be successful they will want to do business with you and in turn you will be more successful.

Using your chosen method

Begin reaching out for candidates in the Great Sea with the method you have chosen. It is important to be visible to potential candidates. Determine where they will be looking and be there. Different types of candidates are in different places. You typically won’t find an Accountant and a Maintenance Journeyman in the same place. Entry level candidates are not found where C level executives will be. Remember they are people first, and then candidates. Get in their shoes. Where would they be; physically and on-line?

Before you start interviewing, understand what you are looking for. One of the biggest problems in the interviewing process is being drawn to a “good interviewer”. Remember when you see and talk to a candidate in an interview they are showing you the best they can be. No one ever comes “ugly” to an interview. You need to determine what makes a good culture match for your team. You need to understand what specific skills will be needed for the position you are attempting to fill. You need to know what other traits and skills would be valuable for future promotion in your company.

Finding candidates that match your requirements is not complicated if you take the time to build a list of needs and wants. A need is a must have. Without it you have a show-stopper. Without it the candidate cannot even be considered for this position. A want on the other hand is not a show-stopper. It is a trait or skill that would enhance the value of the candidate. I would use the want list as a measurement of all the candidates that possess all the needs. The more wants the candidate has the better candidate they are.

The Interview

To me the question is how I make sure I am spending my recruiting and interviewing efforts on candidates that have the highest likelihood of making a great impact on the company. How do I “see” beyond the resume and into the candidate without spending hours interviewing dozens of candidates? How do I find a candidate that will be more than an adequate employee? How do I find someone that will be passionate about the job; someone that will bring great value to the company?

I have found that the answer to these questions is a pre-interviewing questionnaire that allows the candidate to tell you their preferences in responsibility, career focus, work style preferences, work environment preferences, etc. Does the candidate seek leadership or wish to avoid it? Are they more “people focused” or “task focused”? Do they want to work in a group or do they prefer to work alone? Answers to questions like this give you a picture of what makes up the whole person. When I find candidates that have preferences that match the company and the needs of the position as well as the education and work experience that are required, I know I will be able to give the hiring manager multiple candidates that would all be a good fit for the position.

A pre-interviewing questionnaire is critical and yet does not have to be complicated. Make sure anyone you interview is capable of all the needs prior to spending your time in an interview. We created a website solely for candidate application, but you can probably determine what you need to by emailing essay questions to the potential candidate. If you believe from their answers they possess the needs, the questionnaire becomes a great interviewing tool to allow you, or the hiring manager, to probe into their answers in more depth. You can do the same with your wants list. Pre-interviewing information is invaluable. The reason the pre-interviewing step is critical is it will eliminate the temptation to hire the candidate that can say the right things, but does not actually possess the traits needed. If you deal with facts first, and then talk to the candidate, I have found you are much happier after the candidate becomes an employee.

The absolute best interviewing system I have ever found is a well-planned internship program. After all an internship is a four-month (or longer) interview. If you recognize employment is a relationship, consider this. The normal interviewing process is typically a series of two to four interviews lasting no more than an hour. As stated the internship is four months. The goal of both processes is to end up with a long-term employee. When I compare the two it seems to me traditional interviewing is like getting married on a blind date. You spend three or four hours with someone and then decide to ask them to spend the rest of their life working with you. An internship on the other hand is like a courtship. You spend months with a person; good days and bad. By the end, you know how well they fit your organization and what skills they bring. The intern also knows if this is a good opportunity for them.

Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships are making a comeback. In this employment market where it is more and more difficult to find candidates with the skill sets you need to fill positions, I see organizations slowly adapting to the old way; teach someone with the right attitude the skills you need them to have in your particular environment. In generations past it was normal for someone to learn a trade from an experienced person. If your dad was a blacksmith you learned the trade from him. If you grew up on a farm you most likely became a farmer. It was basically the only way to learn the skills needed.

Somewhere along the line organizations began relying more and more on our educational system to teach the basic skills needed to fill our positions. High Schools had typing classes, shop classes and various other hands-on skill building classes. Secondary education built on those basic skills expanding students’ knowledge of computers, running manufacturing equipment or other needed skills.

However, as technology grew and organizations began using very specific equipment like certain computer programs or equipment built specifically to do what the individual company needed done, etc., it became more and more difficult for the education system to produce graduates with the specific needed skills.

Organizations were limping along filling positions until the 2009 recession and the need for new help slowed. Most organizations went into survival mode. They were not focused on planning for the future. Many top-skilled, higher paid employees were “down-sized” to save money. At the same time the education world eliminated many “non-essential” classes, like shop classes, to save money.

Then came the recovery, slow at first, but it has continually put pressure on the employment market. Organizations were still seeking candidates with very specific skills; like someone that has used a specific CAD program or has run a certain brand name CNC. The talent void was born.

We have now reached a turning point. Because candidates are so hard to find, companies are going back to the old tried and true method of teaching new or junior employees what they need to know with seasoned employees as their mentors; apprenticeships. It was a great idea a hundred years ago, and it is making a big come back today. I for one am a big fan of “building your own” experts. They don’t have to “unlearn” bad habits. They will do it the way you teach them. They won’t say things like, “but at my last job we did it like this”.

Apprenticeships will only work well if you first create a plan to get an employee from novice to expert. In most cases, we are talking about years of investment. You should create multiple levels or mile-makers with estimated times to reach each level to ensure correct progress is being made. If planned correctly the mentor can slowly release assignments to the apprentice. As they release the less complicated parts of their position the cost to do that work goes down. The mentor can work on greater value-added duties bringing a higher return on your investment at their pay level.

Done well this does not have to be a cost burden. Organizations can reap the rewards of the investment quickly and still accomplish the need for training future experts. Creating and following a plan is the key. Using classroom or on-line educational programs in conjunction with hands-on mentoring will allow controlled growth for the trainees. I see this current dilemma as an opportunity to learn from a successful teaching method from decades ago; apprenticeships.

Why Would They Work for You?Narrator waving

To me the entire concept of recruiting new employees boils down to one question. Why would the candidate choose to work for you and not someone else? I believe this is a key question you need to answer. Every organization I know is struggling to find qualified help. I hear people say, “There just aren’t any Engineers left in West Michigan” or “All the Tool & Die Journeymen have left the trade during the recession”. The fact is there are thousands of Engineers and Tool & Die Journeymen working in West Michigan. The real question is why aren’t they working for you?

As business people who are focused on recruiting, we have to recognize there has been a paradigm shift. We have gone from a “buyer’s market” to a “seller’s market”. For decades organizations have been able to hire all the qualified help they needed. The organization is the “buyer of talent”. It was a buyer’s market for decades. The candidate is the seller. They are “selling” their knowledge and abilities. Previously there were plenty of candidates. The tide has turned.

This paradigm shift has been building for years. People want to blame something; blame the recession, blame academia, blame the new generation, blame the parents of the new generation, blame Wall Street. Personally, I believe playing the blame game is futile. We will never agree and if we did, finding something to blame doesn’t solve the problem. Experts are saying that we will be short thousands of qualified candidates for employment in the coming decade. That takes me back to the original question, why would the qualified people of our area work for you? I believe you must answer this question to survive.

Smaller organizations say, “I can’t compete with the big organizations. They take all the best people.” Then I ask you how do the “Mom and Pop” restaurants and grocery stores make it. The answer is they do something that their clientele likes better than the “bigs”. Think about why you go to your favorite small restaurant or shop at the grocery store on the corner. You may see a connection.

Why do you work where you do? Why have your long-term employees stayed with your organization? Why do they choose to work for you and not someone else? What part of their employment package keeps them with you? What do you do beyond salary and benefits that draws people to your organization?

Employment packages are more than financial. Freedom to learn and grow, flexible hours, ability to make a difference, time for family needs (like a father/daughter tea party at school at 10:00) are all part of the employment experience. Each employee’s needs are different and change as the employee’s life changes from single to newlywed; from raising kids to empty nester caring for aging parents. Can you offer packages that make working for you “easy”? Allow your employee to be a whole person, not just a cog in a wheel. Work-life balance is an effective recruiting tool.

Our organizations’ recruiters need to recognize the paradigm shift. This is a seller’s market. The well qualified candidate has many other opportunities. They can “sell” their qualifications to others. They don’t need to wait for our decision because we are too busy to decide. The Recruiter needs to know what they can offer that makes their organization special. They need to understand and believe the message they are giving the candidate; the reasons why they should choose to work for you. Certainly, they need to do all they do to ensure they find candidates that fit your position, but don’t lose sight of the fact the candidates have other options. Completing the process quickly is a key.

Never Stop Recruiting

Because organizations usually wait until their need for additional help is extreme before they add staff, I believe the organization should never stop recruiting. Staying visible to your pipeline of potential candidates is critical. Career Fairs are a great way to stay visible. A few afternoons a year spent at Career Fairs helps keep your name in public view. Occasionally you will find an interesting potential candidate that you can bring in to interview, but the purpose is to stay visible.

Keeping in contact with good candidates is important. We substantially cut the time it took to hire a new employee. The time from when a manager first told me they needed additional help to the time the new employee started was reduced from an original average of eight weeks to an average of two weeks after our pool of candidates was maintained. My record time was two days! I was told on a Thursday we were bringing a testing operation to our Grand Rapids facility from our Detroit facility on the following Monday. I had already “pre-interviewed” two Lab Techs that I thought they would like. I set up an interview for them on a Friday morning and told them to wear their jeans because if the manager liked them they would go straight into training. The Lab Manager interviewed them Friday morning and liked them so much he hired them on the spot, trained them Friday afternoon and Saturday and they were in place working on Monday. Our management team was “blown away”. It was awesome!

On-Boarding

The next step, On-Boarding, is just as critical. Some organizations lose sight of the fact that this new employee is typically totally overwhelmed. They don’t even know where the bathroom is! They also need to know where to get needed supplies for their job or what the organization’s “normal” is. I believe the best solution to that concern is a “buddy” system. We found that if we matched new people with someone like them and let that buddy help them find their way the first few weeks by introducing them to people they will need to know, taking them to lunch to get to know them, etc. the whole on-boarding process went much smoother.

Once that new person has settled in, they had a progress review with their supervisor weekly the first month and then semi-monthly until they naturally fell into the 90-day Employee Continuous Improvement cycle. The easiest way I found to measure their training progress is to use the job description in the progress review with the supervisor and determine where their understanding is on each line item from 0 to 100%. When all line items reach 100% they are trained. By the end of that first cycle the employee was very comfortable in their new setting and the process of determining their career path had begun.

Let’s see how you rate your Team’s commitment to Recruiting the right people byNarrator waving using this scale.

5 Excellent, 4 Good, 3 Average, 2Poor, 1 None

Has you determined which of the three types of recruiting is best for you?

What level of visibility does your company have in the Great Sea of candidates?

Do you know the traits and skills needed for your different positions?

How well do you use pre-interviewing questionnaires?

Do you have a Internship Program that brings you great potential employees?

Where Do We Go From Here?

Review all your section scores. How did you do? Can you see areas that you can possiblyNarrator waving work on to improve? A good place to start would be the lowest scoring section.

Wherever you decide to start improving your process, keep in mind you are working with people. People naturally resist change. They need you to help them believe what you believe. Start in an area of your organization that you think you will have quick success. You may have just one or two managers that believe their people are their greatest resources. When you start making progress in that area others will want to get in the game with you. I found building a system that builds into people to be the most rewarding thing I have ever done.

If you build into your people, your Greatest Resource, I believe you will find amazing results. Imagine an organization of people all using their natural, God-given talents and strengths to accomplish a common goal. Imagine bottom-line improvement beyond current expectations. You can do it. I have seen it happen.