What Everybody Ought to Know about Job Matching

The career hunt is a careful balance between finding a job that appeals to you and one that also suits your abilities. If you have trained for a career in one field, it can be a tough sell to apply for a position in another. Besides matching what you like with what you can do, job matching is about making sure the whole picture fits together cohesively.

Recently, a first-year corporate lawyer went on a very lengthy public rant about how his job was soul-crushing. His complaints register more like an existential crisis than someone discussing a new career. After years of education and racking up student loans in law school, he had found himself in a career he hated. Job matching is a more complicated process than fitting abilities to an open position.

Some of this occurs during the interview process. Applicants can discover how well they might fit with company culture, but even this knowledge might not be enough to guarantee long term success.

Companies concerned about reducing turnover will want to take a thorough look at job matching. Accurate job matching involves taking the right steps prior to employment and also continuing to nurture the employee once hired.

Employee retention can begin long before someone accepts a position at your company. Potential candidates should first seek out internships. These can be the best place to start if you want to learn more about your future career path. Even if you think you are studying something you enjoy, you will not be able to accurately gauge your success in the career until you gain some real world experience. The young attorney began his rant with the realization that “you just don’t appreciate how boring it actually is” until it becomes your job. Taking internships could give others a glimpse of office life before they embark down his dangerous path.

While internships traditionally do not have the same responsibilities as full-time positions, they are about more than just learning how much you will like a role. Internships also help match employees with specific companies. Maybe the young attorney would be happier at a different law firm. Company culture plays an important role in how well an employee will get along at a job.

From a hiring manager’s standpoint, writing an accurate job description would also help prevent some of the young attorney’s troubles. He complains that his law school education did not accurately prepare him for the tasks at his new job. Instead of using what he learned, he wastes time doing “whatever meaningless task” he’s been assigned for the day. Providing more specific daily tasks descriptions could have helped this attorney to know most of the projects at his new job would be what he considered “meaningless.”

During the hiring process, assessments such as the ProfileXT® can evaluate an employee’s behavior and attitude relative to the needs of a particular job. Once hired, they can also help managers understand how to deal with the employee and keep boredom at bay. An employee fit to the right job will feel worthy and useful.
To speed up the adjustment process for a new hire, it’s important to offer employee training. The attorney complains, “And you still have no idea how to use the computer system, so it takes you forever to do anything.” Even though skills training may seem irrelevant to the purpose of the job, it can be essential for successful work. Take the time to ensure your employees are comfortable with technology and other basic office procedures. Even the best employees could get frustrated and give up when slowed down by a technology issue. You want office procedures to be second nature so your employees are free to focus on more important work.
As a manager, you should stay in touch with your employees. Keeping the lines of communication open will help them feel comfortable enough to share their frustrations with you. Instead of posting a lengthy rant online, they will be able to tell you which parts of their jobs are not going well. There could be a serious problem if the feeling of boredom resonates throughout the company. “I know people who had literally nothing to do, literally nothing. They were just sitting at their desks,” the attorney gripes. Employees might openly grumble amongst themselves, but you want them to feel equally as comfortable coming to you. You are the one with the power to diversify their workload and keep them productive. Before an employee starts complaining, “there’s only so many times you can organize your paperclips,” this could be a good opportunity to delegate tasks.

Finally, it’s important for everyone to understand that even a dream job might have its slow days. Boredom does not absolutely mean a job is the wrong fit. Look for consistency when job matching. If the overall picture is one where an employee’s aptitude suits the job’s needs along with a high level of enjoyment, it is likely a good fit. Job matching is a process that steps beyond complaints and evaluates the fixable problems from pre-hire through current employment.

Published on Worplace 101 Blog by Sally Ann Moyer on Thu, Dec 20, 2012

Holiday Job Hunting

By DENNIS NISH

Wall Street Journal  December 2, 2012

It was the end of the year and Diana Tigani needed to fill several jobs for three new offices that were opening in South Florida. At any other time, the area director for Regus—a company based in Luxembourg that provides virtual offices for home-based businesses—might have received more than 50 résumés from online job ads. Ms. Tigani had only 12 résumés by mid-November. So she tapped her network for leads and found a strong candidate that she ended up screening over the phone on Thanksgiving eve.

"Some people do take time off during the holidays. We're a growing company that's always looking for people. When we need to hire somebody for a new center opening in the first quarter, it's still business as usual for us," says Ms. Tigani, who ended up hiring the candidate two weeks later.

For full article, click here

If you are interested in finding out what jobs would be the ideal fit for your background, aptitude, interests and personality, contact Parsley Performance Solutions re: Pathway Planner assessment.   You will discover great insights into yourself and get guidance on the top job positions that are suited to you with links to further research from the U.S. Department of Labor's O*Net.

The 3-Part Equation for Developing Managers

Hiring good managers is a difficult process. Managers are the key link between executives and employees so they need to be versatile. They must also be able to balance strategic planning skills with operational skills. But finding the right manager is only part of your work. You are also responsible for developing your managers. Good managers are talented but they are not perfect. An organization grows and develops over time and your managers must grow with it. Developing your managers is a necessity.

Developing managers is a unique task because it involves a hybrid approach. Managers need sharp leadership skills and solid communication skills for day-to-day interactions. Finding the best way to develop your management team can seem overwhelming but a good starting point can be summarized using a simple equation:

Leadership development + Engaging managers + Collaborative environment= Managerial development 

Leadership skills are a critical part of managerial development. A survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) named developing leaders the second most pressing problem facing HR over the next 10 years. Forbes contributor Meghan M. Biro said that the “best employees are leaders,” in her article covering the SHRM study. Managers should be your top employees and you want to invest in developing and sharpening their leadership skills. Biro advised executives and HR professionals in charge of leadership development to avoid making leadership an “advanced training in PowerPoint.” Leadership development should immerse your managers in in a leadership environment. This can be accomplished through a leadership development program.

Next, add in engagement. Developing managers involves empowering them by engaging them. Starbucks offers a great model for this style of empowerment (Read More: 4 Tips for Increasing Employee Engagement from Starbucks). Starbucks sees each of its store managers as mini-CEO’s who run their own businesses. The company allows store managers the freedom to give each store its own vibe. This does not mean, however, that the stores function as entities completely separate from the Starbucks mission. At Starbucks Leadership Lab conference, Starbucks executives help store managers understand how their work fits into the overall company mission. The key takeaway from Starbucks is the company’s perfect balance between micro-management and a completely hands-off approach. The sweet spot in the middle is how you engage your managers through empowering them. Managers must feel empowered enough to make decisions without checking in every five minutes. They also need to understand how their work fits into the bigger picture.

The last factor to add into the equation is a collaborative environment. Collaboration does not come naturally. It is human nature to want your idea to prevail. This human tendency leads to arguments if managers do not know how to control it. Teach your managers how to compromise and encourage openness instead of hostility when there are disagreements. Collaboration is a natural outgrowth of compromise. Charalambos A. Vlachoutsicos, a former manager and current economics professor at Athens University in Greece, discovered this method early in his career. He stopped trying to get a warehouse manager to agree with him over stock out issues and used a bonus system to get him to get on board with a plan to decrease the number of stock outs. A “do what I say because I am in charge” management style is ineffective. The key to collaboration is understanding. Help your managers understand that they are not always right. Help them understand that they will have to compromise.

Developing managers involves a wide range of training. The investment is steep, but the payoff of a manager who leads, stays engaged and collaborates is huge.

Posted on Workplace 101 Blog

4 Tips for Increasing Employee Engagement from Starbucks

Effective customer service starts from within an organization. Successful companies see their employees as more than just workers but also brand ambassadors. A company's efforts to boost employee engagement should translate into effective and strong customer service.

Starbucks cares so much about boosting customer service from within that they spent $35 million to send 9,600 store managers to their Leadership Lab conference and exhibition. The 400,000-square-foot facility developed over a three-week-long process that included the installation of 21 projection screens and 5,000 live coffee plants. The goal was “to mobilize [Starbucks] employees to be brand evangelists.”
We can use Starbucks’ methods in developing their Leadership Lab to see how team building can lead to better customer service.

1. Treat each store like a small businessStarbucks views their managers as global employees who “essentially run $1 million+ small businesses.” They recognize the local niche of each store but also look for ways to make company culture cohesive, even across diverse markets. This means finding ways to connect over 18,000 stores worldwide without losing touch with each store’s individual problems. At the Leadership Lab, managers shared problems they were facing in their individual stores but they also connected with each other over stories of customer shoe types.
Universal themes, such as customers shoe choices, had different expressions in various stores. These methods help build a unified brand that retains the individual character of each store. Starbucks employees can connect on what makes the brand unique while also keeping each store unique.

2. Make employees feel like part of the larger missionCEO Howard Schultz knows that the Starbucks brand is nothing without its baristas. He focused the Leadership Lab on giving employees “reasons to believe in their work and that they’re part of a larger mission.” An employee with a connection to the work of the company will then operate for its good just like a personal matter. Making the work of the company applicable to each employee’s work inspires a commitment that can’t be bought. For Starbucks, this included giving employees an opportunity to learn more about bean harvesting by raking real coffee beans.
Starbucks sells the concept of the brand to their employees first to equip them in selling to customers. This ensures they have a personal investment in the company’s development. Story telling helps make store experiences more personal. Valence O’Neil, Starbucks’ VP of global communications, told Fast Company making the coffeeshop experience part of an inspirational journey means “partners can walk away not only understanding and informed, but feeling it.” When your employees believe in your company on a personal level, they will want to pursue its success out of self-interest.

3. Be creative with training sessionsDistinctive to the exhibition of Starbucks’ Leadership Lab is that it “feels more like a Starbucks theme park” than a conference center. Its 20 exhibits uses a two-hour theatrical experience to engage attendees. The production was “like being immersed in a Starbucks commercial.” Making training fun gives employees a reason to care. Creative experiences help the training to stick long after the production ends.
Other companies have also used immersion experiences and unique methods to boost employee engagement during training. General Mills offers a leadership course that combines meditation, yoga and dialogue. General Electric spends about $1 billion annually on programs at their corporate university.
The Leadership Lab combined leadership training with a trade show in a way that fit Starbucks’ corporate culture. Part of the power of effective storytelling is in fitting the training to the brand. Not all companies are alike so their training should also vary.

4. Develop a mission statement that mattersThe final exhibit in the Leadership Lab experience gave employees a chance to reflect on the mission statement of Starbucks:  “To inspire and nurture the human spirit—one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” Starbucks invoked the power of its mission statement to turn around struggling sales figures a few years ago.

Starbucks invested $30 million in a similar exhibit in 2008 that focused solely on the mission statement. After that conference, Starbucks turned shares that “had lost 42% of their value the year before” into 11 consecutive quarters of record earnings, revenue or both. The mission statement became more than just a clever-sounding phrase. It transformed into a call to action that employees could implement in their stores.
A deeper understanding of the brand helped Starbucks employees engage with their company. Running a small business within a global brand gives managers feelings of autonomy without disconnectedness. Effective employee engagement means that employees transition from workers who clock in everyday to brand ambassadors who incorporate the company's mission into their daily work.

Posted on Workplace 101 Blog

Case study: Communication, small perks kept our best people on board

The recession that began in 2007 was the worst economic downturn our country has seen since the Great Depression. Family-owned business Humtown Products was hit on all sides. The company saw its industry’s profits as a whole drop 65 percent. The company’s customers were going out of business left and right. Humtown was forced to lay off the majority of its workforce and went from 200 employees to 20 employees in two months.

“[It was like] hitting an iceberg,” said Mark Lamoncha, CEO of Humtown, “taking on water and sinking.”
Humtown Products got its start in 1959. Mark’s father, Russell Lamoncha, started the business out of frustration while working for an employer who Russell felt had poor labor practices. The company began as a pattern shop for machine parts. Mark and his brother Criss both began working in the family business at age 12. In 1977, the company began producing sand cores and molds that foundries use when casting parts in metal. Today, Humtown Products calls a 44,000 square-foot plant in Columbiana, Ohio, home. The company still specializes in producing patterns and sand molds.

Mark believes in human capital as a catalyst for company success. He sees himself as the coach of a team and views the workplace as a sporting event. After the economic downturn, Lamoncha was hungry for ideas about how to turn the company around. Lamoncha got the idea for paying his employees based on performance through careful studies of incentive plans at other companies. He liked the idea but saw that other companies were not implementing the program consistently. “They were good, but they came once a year. We needed instant gratification,” he said.

Lamoncha got to work creating a “Real Time Pay Rate” system. The result of his work was a computer system that shows employees how much they make each hour based on how much they produce. If an employee produces 10 parts per hour, he or she makes $10 per hour. If an employee produces 20 parts per hour, he or she makes $20 per hour. It is simple but has proven to be effective. As a result of the program, teams show a consistent interest in finding ways to increase their productivity.

Lamoncha wanted to couple his pay rate system with a method for determining job-fit. He met a Profiles International business partner in 2001 who introduced him to Profiles’ assessments. He decided to implement the ProfileXT® and Profiles Performance Indicator™.  Every candidate for a job at Humtown must take the ProfileXT®. The company values the assessment for its ability to create patterns that help identify possible successful employees. Lamoncha uses the assessment scores to determine which candidates to bring in for interviews. The Profiles Performance Indicator™ has been useful in helping Lamoncha coach employees and build effective teams.

“The Profile made an enormous difference in our efficiency by helping us find the right people for the job,” Lamoncha said. The combination of Lamoncha’s pay rate system and Profiles International’s assessments has been astounding. The employee production rate has increased more than 300 percent. Increased productivity allowed Lamoncha to lower prices more than 70 percent and still maintain the same profit margin. Lamoncha provides Humtown employees with paid health insurance and long-term disability insurance. Despite his generous benefits, insurance costs are only 1.46 percent of the cost of goods sold thanks to the increased productivity of Humtown employees. Job-seekers flock to Humtown because of the company’s reputation as a generous employer.

Lamoncha’s pay incentives and Profiles International’s assessments were just what Humtown needed to get the company back on track. The success of the company since the changes is a testament to the importance of hiring the right people and giving them the motivation to work hard.

Originally posted on Workplace 101 Blog

The World’s Worst Advice for Keeping Employees Happy at Work

Sometimes it feels like robots rule the world. If a computer can do it, a computer will do it. Companies have downsized with the help of technology and some jobs are now all but obsolete. So what happens to the humans who remain? Some jobs can never be replaced. Does our technologically advanced society demand that humans working with machines become like robots too? The world’s worst advice for staying happy at work might encourage you to give up on your humanity and follow the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mentality.

Effective managers know that it’s important to get humanity back into business. When it comes to boosting employee attitudes and encouraging employee motivation, here are three blunders they know to avoid:

1. Treating your employees like robots
Impersonal leadership is a dangerous game. Keeping a cold distance from your employees can actually make them feel like “hostages at work,” according to an HBR blog on leadership. People need a secure base for comfort and energy. If you want to boost employee motivation, ease their anxieties. Effective managers don’t have to become paternalistic caregivers, but they should work to develop attachments at work.
Every enterprise or organization will likely face some levels of unexpected stress. You want to be able to work together as a team with your employees when that time comes. Build relationships now to keep employee attitudes high even when their environment becomes hostile or difficult. Your employees should be able to trust you. If you want them to have faith in your leadership capabilities, they need to have faith in you.

2. Never asking for help or relinquishing power
It’s natural to want to assume the role of the fearless leader. As someone in a position of authority, you might be afraid to fail. However, tucking your pride away can help your employees feel more valuable. According to a TribeHR Blog, “desperation is the perfect time to recognize how much you value your employees’ skills and contributions.” It is in these weak moments that your team can come together to build an even better company. Boost morale and employee attitudes by thanking your employees for their contributions. When they see that they are important to the success of your organization, they will be more eager to help out in the future.
Being generous with power also helps build employee trust. It shows that you care about what your staff is doing or not doing. Sharing power also mean sharing the responsibility for dealing with the consequences, according to a Fast Company article by Erika Andersen. This is not a path for lazy managers. You will have to communicate more with your employees by providing continuous feedback. However, the payoff is huge. “Generous leadership makes people feel capable, included, and motivated to succeed,” Andersen wrote. Effective managers want to empower their employees.

3. Trying to catch people screwing up
Are you the boss who always notices when something goes wrong? Forgetting your employees’ daily successes can create a hostile work environment. Instead of relentless fault-finding missions, celebrate small acts of kindness. An HBR Blog on catching people doing things right argues that kindness and compassion are what reminds us to be human in the midst of our technology-driven world. Providing employees with constructive feedback and praising their small successes can go a long way in keeping people happy at work. For example, TD Bank stays human-centered by rewarding employees with stickers every time a manager or officer catches them living up to the company’s principles of great services. As the card fills with stickers, employees become eligible for prizes.

Looking for the positive can help keep humanity in your workplace. Robots don’t care about feelings or attitudes. Your employees are not robots. You must remember to treat them like humans if you want to build strong relationships for successful team efforts.

Posted by Sally Ann Moyer on Workplace 101

5 Ways to Retain Gen Y Workers

August 29, 2012   

Dan Schawbel, Millennial Branding,

 

Retaining young workers is one of the biggest challenges many companies face. Several research reports over the past five years have concluded that Gen Y workers leave their jobs after two years. According to a new CareerBuilder study, 77 percent of workers are either actively searching for a new job or are open to a new opportunity. This number jumps to 81 percent for millennials and is lowered to 70 percent for baby boomers. Additionally, job seekers consult about 15 resources for each job including career sites and Facebook. Why is Gen Y worth your time? They will comprise 36 percent of the workplace by 2014, 40 percent by 2020 and 75 percent by 2025. They bring fresh skills, are the most diverse generation and always connected, and thrive in a team environment.   

Here are five ways to retain your Gen Y employees:  Click here for full article.

Case study: Communication, small perks kept our best people on board

Posted August 21, 2012 By Dan Wisniewski 

Periodically, we like to share the success stories of companies dealing with HR issues. This case study comes courtesy of Paul Graziani, CEO of Analytical Graphics in Exton, PA.

Click here for full article

Can an employee actually get indefinite FMLA leave?

August 17, 2012
By Dan Wisniewsi

A staffer runs out of FMLA leave but hands in a doctor’s note saying she’ll be out indefinitely with a back injury. Her company fires her, and she sues, claiming FMLA interference and refusal to accommodate a disability. Who wins? Read the dramatized version of this real-life case and see if you can determine the outcome.
“Lynn, remind me why we let go of Julia Stanley,” VP Carl Nicholas asked HR Manager Lynn Rondo. “Because now she’s suing us.”
“That’s outrageous,” Lynn said. She motioned for Carl to close her office door. “After she used up her twelve weeks of FMLA leave, she gave us a doctor’s note saying she’d be out of work until further notice because of her severe back pain.”
“We couldn’t just keep her position open forever,” Lynn said. “We needed a permanent replacement.”

Did she cause undue hardship?

Click here for full article

Solving the CSI of Applebee's High Manager Turnover

Hiring should never be as complicated as crime scene investigating. So when the largest owner of an Applebee's franchise reduced management turnover and saved $345,000, the HR director was pleased to see another sudden benefit: simplicity.

“It’s not CSI – it’s ABC,” says Frank Romano about the ProfileXT®. 

Romano is the Executive Director of HR at Concord Hospitality in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The company, which operates 50 restaurants and similar properties across the Midwest, has a stated mission to be the destination of choice for all guests.  While the business as a whole was successful, one location was facing serious issues. Despite their best efforts, turnover among managers was becoming increasingly higher and stuck at 41.1%, a figure that is 20% higher than the industry average.

This one issue in turn resulted in a ripple effect, increasing turnover among hourly staff and eventually affecting service and sales.  An experienced HR executive, Romano knew he needed an assessment tool to help better analyze future candidates for the available jobs.   The fast-paced culture of the restaurant business is not for everyone; it can be a very high-stress position with managers often dealing with thousands of customers and complaints each week. Therefore, Romano needed to identify certain types of people for the manager positions.

It may be obvious that managers of restaurants must have particular qualities; however, finding out if a candidate truly possesses them is the tricky part. A person can look and seem like a good fit on paper, but in reality lack these critical qualities. Concord’s approach to using assessments in order to manage their turnover rates have yielded some staggering results to date:

• Estimated savings of $345,000
• 687% ROI at the end of 2010
• 5.1% reduction in turnover in year one
• 5.6% reduction in turnover in year two
• 2011 turnover reached 31.9%
• $1,480,000 reduction in hourly associate turnover costs

“None of our other systems for manager hiring, training, and retention changed over this time frame,” says Romano. “The only change was switching to Profiles, which has given us greater feedback to better determine the success potential of candidates. I believe it has caused us to hire managers that fit the casual dining restaurant industry standard.”

Finally, Romano relates that the assessments provided leaders at the hospitality organization with an “A ha!” moment. “We found that we were able to tailor the assessments to our company’s top performers. We know who they are; once we identify them, we then look at reasons they are top performers and put that into the assessment. So you are matching up to top performers if you are going to be a general manager with us. It’s a great way to hone in on success by using the assessment. That is very exciting.” 

Learn just how your business can benefit from utilizing the ProfileXT or one of the many proven and validated assessments by contacting Parsley Performance Solutions, Strategic Business Partner of Profiles International at (813) 440-2054 or email Info@ParsleyPerformance.com