Top 5 Employer Concerns of 2010

A recent CareerBuilder survey of 2,700 employers uncovered employers' top five concerns:

• Providing competitive compensation (34%)
• Maintaining productivity levels (33%)
• Retaining top talent (31%)
• Worker Burnout (30%)
• Providing employees with opportunities to move up in the organization (25%)

To keep employees happy, employers plan to:

• Offer more flexible work arrangements (28%)
• Provide more training (21%)
• Promise future benefits, like raises or promotions (18%)
• Performance based-incentives (16%)
• Provide higher title without a salary increase (7%)

What Worries You the Most About Interviews?

A job interview, while considered one of the most useful tools for evaluating potential employees, is a stressful experience for anyone. Whether considered a behavioral, stress or technical interview, they are "stressful". Below are the statistics from a February 10, 2010 poll (507 votes) titled "What Worries You The Most About Interviews?"


· 15% Being nervous
· 4% What to wear
· 10% They won’t like me
· 63% Answering questions well
· 5% Arriving on time / getting lost

Employee Performance Reviews

Employee performance reviews (or appraisals) have several purposes. For the employee, they often determine raises, promotions, and sometimes whether they get to keep their job. For the manager, a proper performance review will assist in developing the employee and improving employee and company performance.

According to the article, "How to Do an Employee Appraisal," the goal of an appraisal should be to "increase communication, establish clear expectations, reinforce good performance, improve unsatisfactory performance, and foster a spirit of cooperation and teamwork."

The use of an employee performance review will allow an organization to outline the specific standards that an employee is expected to accomplish. These standards should be measurable, understandable and achievable. The employee should have goals and objectives outlined with an established timeframe for completion. Depending on the role of the employee, the goals should address the quality of their work, the quantity (how much work the employee is expected to produce or services expected) and timeliness. Effective and timely feedback addressing the employee’s performance is an essential component of a successful program.

For a performance review to be effective, reviews should be held throughout the year, not just once a year. As a manager, you should have frequent, regular conversations with your employee, encouraging frequent feedback in the form of informal evaluations. There should be no surprises during the performance review for the employee. Remember - If the employee doesn’t receive feedback to know that the performance or behavior needs to be corrected, then to the employee, such performance or behavior is acceptable.

As a manager, you should continually monitor the employee’s performance throughout the year. Document all successes and failures (compliments and complaints) of the employee over the course of the appraisal period. Maintain a file containing pertinent data that you have gathered. This data will jog your memory when developing the review and assist you in avoiding some of the more common rater errors such as Recency Bias. This data allows you to ensure that specific examples can be provided to the employee during the appraisal and the employee receives a full “picture” of their performance over the appraisal period.

Remember to focus on the employee’s work performance, not on personal interactions you’ve had with the employee. Do not confuse poor performance with differing opinions. Taking your personality out of the performance review process allows you to assess your employee's skills fairly. Additionally, encourage the employee to participate in establishing the performance review process for their position. In allowing employees to participate in this manner the employee gains a better understanding of his/her role and how the role contributes to the success of the organization. Employees can participate in a number of ways, one of which is allowing them to write or define critical elements of their performance review.

Use the same measurement standards and criteria for all employees who have the same job descriptions. Do not evaluate an employee in areas that go beyond his/her job description.

Follow up on each performance review. Provide the employee with training and development opportunities. Assist the employee in strengthening his/her job-related skills. Assign special assignments to provide the employee with an opportunity to learn as well as to broaden his/her understanding of the organization.

If you have an ongoing performance review process, use the employee’s last review as a benchmark standard for the next review. If you are a new supervisor and you don’t have six months of observation time with the employee, ask the former supervisor for help in the assessment. If unavailable, ask for feedback from other supervisors who may have interacted with the employee or who may have observed the employee’s work.

You can't motivate employees! Motivation is a choice. But, the performance review process can assist with either motivating or de-motivating the employee.


My on-going thanks to Mrs. Emily McGowan for providing proof-reading services on this blog.

Resume Cover Letters

There’s a lot of discussion out there among recruiters and HR professionals alike regarding the use of resume cover letters. Are they, or aren’t they, of any value? The field appears to be split on that particular decision. Let’s discuss some pros and cons.

Pros

• The cover letter will be the first thing the recruiter sees.
• You can indicate what position you are applying for (this is invaluable as the recruiter won’t have to read your resume in an effort to ascertain the position you are applying for) .
• When written properly, it can be used as a way to “seduce” the recruiter into reading the resume.
• It will give the recruiter insight into your strengths, your communication skills, your individual writing skills.
• It will give you an opportunity to provide examples why you FIT the role, and where you have experience relevant to the role.

Cons

• With the age of on-line recruiting and systems that use an ATS to scan resumes, most on-line systems don’t scan cover letters at all or forward them with the resume.
• Hiring managers receive hundreds of unsolicited resumes a week. Oftentimes they will scan the resumes – totally disregarding the cover letter.

In closing, this is a highly debatable topic between recruiters. Most will tell you cover letters are absolutely necessary, but there are some who will openly admit that they always look at your resume first. If you submit a cover letter, take the time to tailor the letter to the position you are applying for. This will show that you have taken the time to research the company and the role.

Good Luck!

My on-going thanks to Mrs. Emily McGowan for providing proof-reading services on this blog.

Blogs to Come!

Several suggestions for the blog have been thrown at me recently. With that being said I will be addressing two issues:

• Resume Cover Letters: Pros & Cons
• Sexual Harassment: Separate discussions for the Employee and the Employer.

Stay warm people.

Interview Process Failure: Company A

I recently had the pleasure of experiencing and observing the interview process of one of the largest used car dealerships in the U.S. Company A, as I will refer to them, is recognized within the automotive industry for both its culture and the value it places on its employees. As other car dealerships have suffered financially in this unstable economy, Company A has experienced continued growth. Continued growth means recruiting talented personnel.

While Company A’s ongoing goal is to ensure that their practices and company culture remain consistent from one location to another, I feel that their interview process needs a new model. I watched employee candidates, 4 of them, walk away with bewildered looks on their faces upon completion of their interviews.

Company A’s interview process appears to be in two parts. The first deals with what Company A terms the “assessment”. However, the assessment doesn’t deal with job related skills or qualifications. The assessment deals with whether the applicant has ever been convicted of any crime and / or ever engaged in criminal activity (from age 18 on). The completion of the assessment is mandatory for employment and failure to provide complete or truthful responses are grounds for rejecting the application. (Before 1998, FCRA prohibited criminal record investigations from going back more than seven years unless the applicant would earn over $75,000 annually. While the 1998 amendment removed this time limitation, typically criminal record checks are limited to the past seven years.)

As I move on with this blog please note that Company A has no formal Human Resources Department on site. The hiring function is handled by the administrative assistant who initially greets you and sets you up for the assessment.

Post the completion of the assessment, two company representatives meet with the candidate to review the assessment responses. They introduce themselves by their first names only and don’t provide any indication as to their respective roles within Company A. Obviously this is confusing to the candidate. After the first representative reviews the assessment responses, with the other representative acting as a witness, the candidate is asked to sign off on the hard copy. Taking into consideration the rise in employment-related lawsuits under the theory of “negligent hiring” the need for such “assessment” by the employer is necessary. However, Company A and its representatives could handle it with a bit more professionalism and sensitivity.

The candidate is also asked to authorize a pre-employment background check including criminal background check, employment verification, social security verification, driving record, etc. Again, highly sensitive information handed off to who-knows-who with little regard for the candidate’s privacy concerns.

The candidate then meets with a third representative who again provides a first name only and no indication of his role within the company. This representative reviews the job position that the applicant is applying for, asks the candidate a single interview question, and the interview is over.

What happened? Was this the interview? One question does not an interview make. To be effective the interviewer must focus the interview on obtaining information about the applicants’ ability to perform the job. In order to do this, it is important that the interviewer know beforehand the specific requirements of the job for which the applicant has applied.

If the purpose of this initial meeting was to obtain the background information on the candidate only, then the candidate should be advised of such prior to the meeting.

In closing, there were several confused applicants that walked out of Company A’s building that day. It is with great sincerity that I hope Company A takes constructive criticism regarding its interview process well.

(I wrote this post approximately 5 days ago. Today I spoke with a business colleague who has a very close relative that experienced the same interview process at Company A.)

So You Didn't Get The Job - Don't Beat Yourself Up!

You applied for a job you felt you were reasonably qualified for. You made it through the phone screen and an initial face-to-face meeting. You dressed for the interview, researched the company, stressed over the behavioral interview, answered their questions to the best of your knowledge, and asked (you thought) the right questions in return.

After all of this you didn’t get the job. But neither did the 498 other individuals that also applied for the position.

But your question is “Why?”

If you are lucky enough to get an answer to the “why” it is probably the standard response that the company is moving forward with another candidate that is a better fit.

You have the right qualifications, training, experience, education, potential – why aren’t you the right “fit”? Unfortunately sometimes the right “fit” is something other than having the right qualifications for the position. But you won’t hear those comments from the employer!

Have you ever had that interview where you didn’t feel a connection with the interviewer? Sometimes the final decision comes down to whether or not the interviewer “liked” you. Perhaps you are an excellent candidate and in the recruiters mind “a threat to my position”. Hey, it happens! Perhaps you are “too qualified” and the employer feels that once the economy turns around you will head to greener pastures. The employer will lose any equity they have in you. Remember, there are always two agendas to an interview. Your agenda and the agenda of the company.

The job market has changed and there’s a lot of competition out there. Find the job that you want and that’s a good fit for your talents. Stay positive. It will happen!

How HR Fails in Recruiting

“The government is telling us that the economic stimulus is working and the recession is over.” Explain that to the numerous unemployed professionals here in Houston. Well, whether you believe that the recession is over or not, let’s talk about the recruiting process from the applicants standpoint.

Recruiters (and HR Departments) are overwhelmed by applicants. For every open position there are numerous qualified applicants. I repeat, qualified. Using either traditional or non-traditional avenues the applicant has found a position that they feel they are a fit for. And it’s yours. The applicant submits his/her application for the job, oftentimes an online lengthy process taking a great deal of patience.

Now what? Numerous individuals have submitted applications, resumes, references for that one, single, lonely position.

If the applicant is lucky they receive a phone screen from your recruiter or the HR representative. They walk the applicant through a series of “canned” questions in an effort to separate one high potential from the other of dozen applicants in their stack of potential employees. At the conclusion of the phone call the recruiter indicates that they’ll get back with the applicant by a specific date to set up a face-to-face interview. So the applicant waits. And waits. And still waits. What happened?

Notwithstanding the fact that recruiters may be swamped and rushed by the company they represent to develop the “shortlist” - what happened to common courtesy? On the candidates end, this lack of follow-up creates a poor impression of the organization.

Lets be civilized – polite. Have a communication policy. If you want your company to have a positive reputation in the community, take a moment out of your day to close out the interview process with the applicant. So they didn’t make your shortlist. While they may be disappointed - they will be appreciative of the closure.