In their latest book, “The Differentiated Workforce: Transforming Talent into Strategic Impact”, Huselid, Becker, and Beatty continue to promote differentiation as the key to successfully managing the workforce. In particular, they suggest that managers and HR pros identify truly strategic roles in their businesses and then focus on managing the variability in employee performance (A, B, and C players).
Identifying strategic roles might be a challenge for many companies that have traditionally tended to label senior jobs as such and instituted differentiated pay, development opportunities, and working conditions. Standard perks to underline the importance of those strategic roles have included assigned parking spaces, training retreats, and enclosed office spaces (or at least “wooden” floors as opposed to linoleum).
It goes to show that companies have also been successful in differentiating between front line and back office employees. After all, the lack of a direct link to business strategy and focus on servicing “internal customers” has created many opportunities for underinvestment in Traditional HR, Admin, IT, and Finance. For example:
• Physical isolation from the revenue departments. Did you ever need to walk through a dark corridor or turn your hips to make your way between cabinets to reach the HR or IT department?
• Second-hand equipment and furnishings. Did you ever see back office staff sitting at their old desks and on their old chairs even after the Company’s move to a new office whereby everyone else received new stuff?
• Unsophisticated and uninspiring interior design. The grand lobbies and waiting areas abound and at the same time 2m by 2m cubicles for sales professionals have defined “what’s normal” in corporations worldwide. But, did you ever leave behind the brightly painted walls in the front office area and step into the grey painted world of the back office?
While no changes are to expect for back office (sorry if I am too pessimistic here), front line should be reshaped by the new kind of differentiation. Companies should differentiate between positions based on their strategic significance while recognizing that an entry-level, customer-facing position may be more strategic than the obvious C-suite jobs. I am looking forward to more progressive HR departments' that not only intend to create a workforce that competitors cannot easily copy but also guide this process forward.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Improving Recruitment Work
For recruiting the "best" talent, good is never good enough. Continuous improvement is mandatory to outsmart the competition. There are several key points to evaluate and redesign for greater in-house recruitment results. These include:
Industry Knowledge – If the recruiter fails to name the company’s competitors, is unable to describe the service offerings inside and out, or misunderstands competency models, then their performance will suffer. To close this sort of gap, the recruiter must, for example, research the industry, browse the company’s website, review all marketing collaterals, and talk to colleagues just about everything concerning the Company.
Recruitment Channel Management - Recruitment channel management entails tracking, analyzing, and forecasting application and candidate flows from all internal & external recruitment channels. It helps the HR department to evaluate channels, allocate their recruitment budget, and make more informed decisions. Therefore, recruiters should collect data on how candidates find out about open positions and look for correlations between the channels used and performance of new hires.
Candidate Sourcing – In-house recruiters tend to prefer and rely on screening over sourcing. After all, being reactive is much easier than being proactive. Nonetheless, recruiters need to overcome their barrier to cold calling and ask every candidate for a candidate referral.
Interview Skills – Hiring managers and even recruiters are often untrained to perform meaningful job interviews and as a result are frequently anxious about making a poor and expensive hiring mistake. During the interview, interviewers should try to get to know the person instead of just verifying information on the CV. Importantly, an interview is the recruiter’s chance to voice their major concerns and have them addressed by the candidate. In a talent short market, recruiters must unequivocally identify candidates that will deliver stellar performance and not ones that look good on paper. Thus, instead of looking for reasons to reject the candidate, try to find reasons why the candidate could be a good hire.
Candidate Assessment/Evaluation – More often than not, hiring managers and recruiters settle down for intuitive hiring decisions based on "gut" feeling and employment history. Surprisingly as well, references are not checked regularly in China and therefore may lead to hiring candidates for positions (or even higher) that s/he has already been fired at. Furthermore, a recruiter's reliance on the candidate's experience and having done it before can be ill-advised since it does not necessarily mean that the candidate knows how to do it right.
Report Design and Analysis – Since statutory reporting does not apply to soft HR, report design and analysis has been quite a sluggish and underdeveloped art. To start, HR pros need to determine:
• Which metrics help them the most to guide execution of the business strategy,
• Which parameters can be constituted as key performance indicators,
• Which items can ensure high quality of the recruitment process, and
• Which points will demonstrate the strengths of the company as an employer in the talent market.
Examples worth considering include:
• Percentage of candidates considered high performers after 3 months.
• Number of cold calls made, how many CVs were secured, and how many interviews were held per week.
• Diversity as a measure of candidate quality.
• Percentage of candidates that come from key competitors.
Company Culture Promotion – Company culture promotion starts by posting a recruitment advertisement and for hired candidates it never stops. In China, trying to learn about the company culture in an interview setting is sometimes just impossible. The recruiter may not be able to deliver a meaningful introduction about the company's services, clients, mission, and values either. It is vital then to take the time to prepare the recruiter fully and check their work and progress regularly to “keep them on their toes".
Team Work – The greatest inefficiency of the recruitment function is the lack of team work and closed down communication. What happens is that a recruiter keeps searching for a candidate even though the position has been either put on hold, cancelled, or a suitable candidate was already identified by the hiring manager but the recruiter was never informed (even though the HR Manager was). This sort of process is embarrassing, confusing, and highly inefficient. Making sure that everyone is abreast of the latest is the prerequisite for HR to look competent.
Industry Knowledge – If the recruiter fails to name the company’s competitors, is unable to describe the service offerings inside and out, or misunderstands competency models, then their performance will suffer. To close this sort of gap, the recruiter must, for example, research the industry, browse the company’s website, review all marketing collaterals, and talk to colleagues just about everything concerning the Company.
Recruitment Channel Management - Recruitment channel management entails tracking, analyzing, and forecasting application and candidate flows from all internal & external recruitment channels. It helps the HR department to evaluate channels, allocate their recruitment budget, and make more informed decisions. Therefore, recruiters should collect data on how candidates find out about open positions and look for correlations between the channels used and performance of new hires.
Candidate Sourcing – In-house recruiters tend to prefer and rely on screening over sourcing. After all, being reactive is much easier than being proactive. Nonetheless, recruiters need to overcome their barrier to cold calling and ask every candidate for a candidate referral.
Interview Skills – Hiring managers and even recruiters are often untrained to perform meaningful job interviews and as a result are frequently anxious about making a poor and expensive hiring mistake. During the interview, interviewers should try to get to know the person instead of just verifying information on the CV. Importantly, an interview is the recruiter’s chance to voice their major concerns and have them addressed by the candidate. In a talent short market, recruiters must unequivocally identify candidates that will deliver stellar performance and not ones that look good on paper. Thus, instead of looking for reasons to reject the candidate, try to find reasons why the candidate could be a good hire.
Candidate Assessment/Evaluation – More often than not, hiring managers and recruiters settle down for intuitive hiring decisions based on "gut" feeling and employment history. Surprisingly as well, references are not checked regularly in China and therefore may lead to hiring candidates for positions (or even higher) that s/he has already been fired at. Furthermore, a recruiter's reliance on the candidate's experience and having done it before can be ill-advised since it does not necessarily mean that the candidate knows how to do it right.
Report Design and Analysis – Since statutory reporting does not apply to soft HR, report design and analysis has been quite a sluggish and underdeveloped art. To start, HR pros need to determine:
• Which metrics help them the most to guide execution of the business strategy,
• Which parameters can be constituted as key performance indicators,
• Which items can ensure high quality of the recruitment process, and
• Which points will demonstrate the strengths of the company as an employer in the talent market.
Examples worth considering include:
• Percentage of candidates considered high performers after 3 months.
• Number of cold calls made, how many CVs were secured, and how many interviews were held per week.
• Diversity as a measure of candidate quality.
• Percentage of candidates that come from key competitors.
Company Culture Promotion – Company culture promotion starts by posting a recruitment advertisement and for hired candidates it never stops. In China, trying to learn about the company culture in an interview setting is sometimes just impossible. The recruiter may not be able to deliver a meaningful introduction about the company's services, clients, mission, and values either. It is vital then to take the time to prepare the recruiter fully and check their work and progress regularly to “keep them on their toes".
Team Work – The greatest inefficiency of the recruitment function is the lack of team work and closed down communication. What happens is that a recruiter keeps searching for a candidate even though the position has been either put on hold, cancelled, or a suitable candidate was already identified by the hiring manager but the recruiter was never informed (even though the HR Manager was). This sort of process is embarrassing, confusing, and highly inefficient. Making sure that everyone is abreast of the latest is the prerequisite for HR to look competent.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Creative Tactical HR
In his book, “Disruption Brought Order”, Jean-Marie Dru (2007, pp. 44-45) suggests that talent is not enough when thirty second commercials are made. Advertising people need to perfect their techniques by immersing themselves into cinema culture and constantly watching advertising commercials and movies. Also, Patricia Smith (1998, "Instructional Design", p. 4) argues that instructional designers become more creative in their work by voraciously consuming examples of instructional materials.
So, creators must acquire deep knowledge in order to be "creative". The more they study, read, and build up their knowledge, the more they can create something new. The argument is that you can not think outside the box unless you have seen a lot of boxes! Thus, creativity is a function of knowledge. And the best ideas are often the simplest.
For HR pros, all of this means that they need to study best practices and be on the lookout for original HR practices, HR function approaches, and benefits.
A few simple HR examples in practice in China include:
• The Innovation Company: New staff is introduced with an A4 profile page (pictures and 10 things about the newbie) placed in places where people take a short break such as pantries and washrooms.
• Saatchi & Saatchi: Pictures of staff are displayed in the lobby area.
• JWT: A fruit platter is given to staff after lunch everyday to refresh them.
• DDB: A theatrical "What's on Today" sign with the names of new employees welcomes newbies on their onboarding day at the Company's entrance.
Lastly, a few ideas that are not in practice include:
• Offer education leave.
• Convert untaken sick leave into planned annual leave.
• Provide medical insurance for parents, spouses, and children.
• Give employees a choice of perks and benefits, i.e. for every item you offer have at least two choices.
• Design a gratuity scheme (extra cash upon completion of the contract so as to ensure a stability of the team).
• Sponsor a “Guest Book” in the waiting area for Job Candidates to share their impressions, expectations, and thoughts.
• In Shanghai or Beijing, provide free accommodations for staff living far away from the Company to reduce long daily commutes in these enormous cities.
Do you have any more examples and ideas? Please feel free to share.
So, creators must acquire deep knowledge in order to be "creative". The more they study, read, and build up their knowledge, the more they can create something new. The argument is that you can not think outside the box unless you have seen a lot of boxes! Thus, creativity is a function of knowledge. And the best ideas are often the simplest.
For HR pros, all of this means that they need to study best practices and be on the lookout for original HR practices, HR function approaches, and benefits.
A few simple HR examples in practice in China include:
• The Innovation Company: New staff is introduced with an A4 profile page (pictures and 10 things about the newbie) placed in places where people take a short break such as pantries and washrooms.
• Saatchi & Saatchi: Pictures of staff are displayed in the lobby area.
• JWT: A fruit platter is given to staff after lunch everyday to refresh them.
• DDB: A theatrical "What's on Today" sign with the names of new employees welcomes newbies on their onboarding day at the Company's entrance.
Lastly, a few ideas that are not in practice include:
• Offer education leave.
• Convert untaken sick leave into planned annual leave.
• Provide medical insurance for parents, spouses, and children.
• Give employees a choice of perks and benefits, i.e. for every item you offer have at least two choices.
• Design a gratuity scheme (extra cash upon completion of the contract so as to ensure a stability of the team).
• Sponsor a “Guest Book” in the waiting area for Job Candidates to share their impressions, expectations, and thoughts.
• In Shanghai or Beijing, provide free accommodations for staff living far away from the Company to reduce long daily commutes in these enormous cities.
Do you have any more examples and ideas? Please feel free to share.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Newbies in an Advertising Agency
Interview in Guang Gao Ren, June 2009
1. What selection processes do you have in place?
Each week, we receive around 100 CVs from 8 recruitment channels. About 20% of all applicants successfully pass the first screening. We screen out "job hoppers" with 4 or more jobs within the last three years.
A well-written, engaging, and creatively formatted CV in English always attracts our attention. It proves a candidate’s attention to detail, standards of excellence, self-promotion skills, organizational and preparation proficiency, and writing ability.
Shortlisted candidates are then invited to participate in our rigorous selection process that involves 3 interviews, a practical assignment, and a psychometric assessment that allows us to determine in what way the candidate can complement the existing team.
The interview portion is an opportunity for the candidates to talk about their background, previous successes, and ambitions. We ask relevant behavioral questions to explore each person’s personality, motivations, and natural talents. We are highly interested in candidates that are able to hold a conversation and maintain the interviewers’ attention, demonstrate creativity and curiosity with a questioning mind, and have a passionate and team oriented approach to work and life. We also pay close attention to whether the candidate has prepared diligently for this interview; what and how much they know about us, what sort of questions they have asked and prepared, etc.
For the practical assignment, we typically give each candidate a mock client brief and ask them to come back a week later to present their ideas to a team.
For positions in the Creative Department, we always review carefully the portfolios of the candidate's creative works collected over time.
2. What are your selection criteria for Newbies with no advertising experience?
We define "creativity" very broadly and believe that true creative talent comes from an inquisitive and critical mind, a passion for life, broad life and work experience, and a natural ability for connecting different ideas together. We welcome "out-of-the-box" thinkers and doers from various fields of expertise and career paths such as architects, designers, engineers, project managers, and more.
We are on the lookout for open-minded and ambitious talent with high integrity. We strongly prefer people with high English proficiency and transferable skills and aptitudes (e.g. time management skills, communication skills, organizational skills, teamwork spirit, initiative, etc.). Successful candidates also demonstrate a “can-do” spirit, an internal confidence rooted in a track record of past achievements, a positive attitude, commitment towards continuous learning, a strong work ethic, and a client orientation.
In addition to ensuring cultural fit, we base our hiring decisions on specific job and Agency-related criteria. As an example, for TBWA\, our Advertising and Strategy division that deals with large-scale project and retainer clients, we prefer talent who likes to cultivate a long-term relationship with one single client. However, in Agency.com, our Digital Marketing division that works on short-term projects, we need people who enjoy variety, are at ease with maintaining multiple client relationships, and thrive on exposure to various brands and individuals.
For these reasons, self-awareness is another important element for candidate’s to have in order to help both of us make better decisions.
3. What must Newbies learn at the beginning of their work in an Advertising Agency?
People interested in this industry should strongly consider joining an Advertisement Agency relatively early in their career life. It usually takes many years of on-the-job training and client exposure for one to get acquainted with the advertising craft and to later become an expert.
Newcomers to the industry need to quickly grasp an understanding of our Agency's processes, internal project management principles, and establish strong relationships with colleagues and clients. They also should become comfortable with our matrix structure, multidisciplinary nature of our projects, and working in large teams. The capability to adapt to and thrive in our fast paced, demanding, and sometimes ambiguous environment is also essential.
During the first few months at work, Newbies should concentrate on enhancing their professional skills (e.g. account management, design, research, etc.), learn to manage time, resource, and projects challenges effectively and efficiently, demonstrate high quality standards over and over again, and strive to understand the "essence" of the brands that they are working on.
All Newbies at TBWA\Group\China are required to learn and understand our language, our cultural glue, and our planning methodology - Disruption; and then be able to apply it to their work and way of working.
4. What kind of training do you provide to Newbies?
Training and development are strong pillars of our culture. All new hires at our Agency join our Orientation Program which aims to equip them with knowledge of all Agencies, Departments, and policies and procedures. During this program, new hires can also obtain a good grasp of our organizational history, mission, and values while meeting others. In addition, Line Managers are responsible for introducing newcomers to their team, reviewing our Agency manuals, going over performance expectation, and giving a briefing for the initial job assignment.
During the first three months, Newbies are trained on-the-job in all facets of daily project work; they may also attend all in-house training sessions and have access to our local and global training decks and self-study tools. After they successfully pass their probationary period, they become eligible for training programs organized together with TBWA\Asia Pacific and the Omnicom Group. For example, the Tiger Academy is our two-year training program geared to nurture leadership skills of our stars in the Account Service Department.
Last but not least, our multi-cultural and multi-national DNA provides employees a continuous flow of opportunities to enrich themselves creatively and intellectually and work with people from a wide range of cultural, educational, and geographic backgrounds.
1. What selection processes do you have in place?
Each week, we receive around 100 CVs from 8 recruitment channels. About 20% of all applicants successfully pass the first screening. We screen out "job hoppers" with 4 or more jobs within the last three years.
A well-written, engaging, and creatively formatted CV in English always attracts our attention. It proves a candidate’s attention to detail, standards of excellence, self-promotion skills, organizational and preparation proficiency, and writing ability.
Shortlisted candidates are then invited to participate in our rigorous selection process that involves 3 interviews, a practical assignment, and a psychometric assessment that allows us to determine in what way the candidate can complement the existing team.
The interview portion is an opportunity for the candidates to talk about their background, previous successes, and ambitions. We ask relevant behavioral questions to explore each person’s personality, motivations, and natural talents. We are highly interested in candidates that are able to hold a conversation and maintain the interviewers’ attention, demonstrate creativity and curiosity with a questioning mind, and have a passionate and team oriented approach to work and life. We also pay close attention to whether the candidate has prepared diligently for this interview; what and how much they know about us, what sort of questions they have asked and prepared, etc.
For the practical assignment, we typically give each candidate a mock client brief and ask them to come back a week later to present their ideas to a team.
For positions in the Creative Department, we always review carefully the portfolios of the candidate's creative works collected over time.
2. What are your selection criteria for Newbies with no advertising experience?
We define "creativity" very broadly and believe that true creative talent comes from an inquisitive and critical mind, a passion for life, broad life and work experience, and a natural ability for connecting different ideas together. We welcome "out-of-the-box" thinkers and doers from various fields of expertise and career paths such as architects, designers, engineers, project managers, and more.
We are on the lookout for open-minded and ambitious talent with high integrity. We strongly prefer people with high English proficiency and transferable skills and aptitudes (e.g. time management skills, communication skills, organizational skills, teamwork spirit, initiative, etc.). Successful candidates also demonstrate a “can-do” spirit, an internal confidence rooted in a track record of past achievements, a positive attitude, commitment towards continuous learning, a strong work ethic, and a client orientation.
In addition to ensuring cultural fit, we base our hiring decisions on specific job and Agency-related criteria. As an example, for TBWA\, our Advertising and Strategy division that deals with large-scale project and retainer clients, we prefer talent who likes to cultivate a long-term relationship with one single client. However, in Agency.com, our Digital Marketing division that works on short-term projects, we need people who enjoy variety, are at ease with maintaining multiple client relationships, and thrive on exposure to various brands and individuals.
For these reasons, self-awareness is another important element for candidate’s to have in order to help both of us make better decisions.
3. What must Newbies learn at the beginning of their work in an Advertising Agency?
People interested in this industry should strongly consider joining an Advertisement Agency relatively early in their career life. It usually takes many years of on-the-job training and client exposure for one to get acquainted with the advertising craft and to later become an expert.
Newcomers to the industry need to quickly grasp an understanding of our Agency's processes, internal project management principles, and establish strong relationships with colleagues and clients. They also should become comfortable with our matrix structure, multidisciplinary nature of our projects, and working in large teams. The capability to adapt to and thrive in our fast paced, demanding, and sometimes ambiguous environment is also essential.
During the first few months at work, Newbies should concentrate on enhancing their professional skills (e.g. account management, design, research, etc.), learn to manage time, resource, and projects challenges effectively and efficiently, demonstrate high quality standards over and over again, and strive to understand the "essence" of the brands that they are working on.
All Newbies at TBWA\Group\China are required to learn and understand our language, our cultural glue, and our planning methodology - Disruption; and then be able to apply it to their work and way of working.
4. What kind of training do you provide to Newbies?
Training and development are strong pillars of our culture. All new hires at our Agency join our Orientation Program which aims to equip them with knowledge of all Agencies, Departments, and policies and procedures. During this program, new hires can also obtain a good grasp of our organizational history, mission, and values while meeting others. In addition, Line Managers are responsible for introducing newcomers to their team, reviewing our Agency manuals, going over performance expectation, and giving a briefing for the initial job assignment.
During the first three months, Newbies are trained on-the-job in all facets of daily project work; they may also attend all in-house training sessions and have access to our local and global training decks and self-study tools. After they successfully pass their probationary period, they become eligible for training programs organized together with TBWA\Asia Pacific and the Omnicom Group. For example, the Tiger Academy is our two-year training program geared to nurture leadership skills of our stars in the Account Service Department.
Last but not least, our multi-cultural and multi-national DNA provides employees a continuous flow of opportunities to enrich themselves creatively and intellectually and work with people from a wide range of cultural, educational, and geographic backgrounds.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
HR Dilemmas
A high performance culture is sought after but promotions for key positions regularly arise because of politics instead of contributions.
Teamwork is encouraged and expected but the company operates in an individual-centric manner.
The company prioritizes promoting from within but there has been no succession planning with corresponding leadership and develop programs.
The company strives to minimize recruitment fees to search firms but does not develop adequate in-house recruitment capabilities.
The CEO pledges to provide 30-40 training hours annually per employee but the CFO institutes stringent guidelines to greatly minimize training expenditures.
HR staff is expected to shift from an operational expert to human capital partner but has not received additional training to learn new skills necessary to succeed in these new roles, i.e. translating customer expectations into employees’ behavior, executive coaching, data analysis, etc.
The company states "who we are" in all marketing collaterals but is unable to cascade this knowledge to all management levels; hence employees provide a lot of different answers as to what the corporate culture is.
The organization encourages staff to provide constant feedback but does not support application of tools (e.g. organizational climate surveys) to capture feedback systematically.
People are expected to think and act on-the-spot but there is a strong autocratic decision making process that does not empower people to take charge.
The company complains about the lack of talent but perceives any initiatives to enlarge the talent pool as too costly.
The organization recognizes Human Capital Management as highly essential and at the center of it all but places the HR team in some odd corner of the office with minimal visibility.
The HR Director is under every increasing pressure to demonstrate quick manpower results but does not have the authority to reward/penalize managers who exhibit exceptional/pathetic people management skills.
The HR Director must champion change and push forward the "people's" agenda but is too often one of the last to know about major changes and problems and is not kept "in the loop" until when all hell breaks loose.
Teamwork is encouraged and expected but the company operates in an individual-centric manner.
The company prioritizes promoting from within but there has been no succession planning with corresponding leadership and develop programs.
The company strives to minimize recruitment fees to search firms but does not develop adequate in-house recruitment capabilities.
The CEO pledges to provide 30-40 training hours annually per employee but the CFO institutes stringent guidelines to greatly minimize training expenditures.
HR staff is expected to shift from an operational expert to human capital partner but has not received additional training to learn new skills necessary to succeed in these new roles, i.e. translating customer expectations into employees’ behavior, executive coaching, data analysis, etc.
The company states "who we are" in all marketing collaterals but is unable to cascade this knowledge to all management levels; hence employees provide a lot of different answers as to what the corporate culture is.
The organization encourages staff to provide constant feedback but does not support application of tools (e.g. organizational climate surveys) to capture feedback systematically.
People are expected to think and act on-the-spot but there is a strong autocratic decision making process that does not empower people to take charge.
The company complains about the lack of talent but perceives any initiatives to enlarge the talent pool as too costly.
The organization recognizes Human Capital Management as highly essential and at the center of it all but places the HR team in some odd corner of the office with minimal visibility.
The HR Director is under every increasing pressure to demonstrate quick manpower results but does not have the authority to reward/penalize managers who exhibit exceptional/pathetic people management skills.
The HR Director must champion change and push forward the "people's" agenda but is too often one of the last to know about major changes and problems and is not kept "in the loop" until when all hell breaks loose.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
How do you know that your HR Head knows your business?
During one of the recent HR forums, it became apparent that “knowing the business” has become a chief mantra of HR Heads in China. It is one of the prerequisites for getting a "seat on the board" and being recognized as a Business Partner by business managers.
So, what does it mean for the HR Head to “know the business”? Well, it means that he/she can answer the following questions:
• Who are three of our competitors and what are their competitive advantages?
• Who are the five major buyers in the markets that we serve?
• Which customers represent 80 percent of our revenues and profits?
• Whom do the customers perceive as "best" in our industry?
• Why do our target customers buy from us? What are their buying criteria?
• What are our future customers' needs and expectations?
• How do we ensure that our target customers have a positive customer experience?
• What do we do to build connectivity or intimacy with our target customers?
• Can you describe the culture of our organization?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of our organization?
• What are the economic, social, political, and technological influences that affect our industry?
• What future risks is our organization facing?
• What are the opportunities for the organization?
• What is the financial performance of our company and how has this changed over the past three years?
• Can you read a profit and loss statement?
Even if the HR Head can answer all of these key questions, it is still very important for them to apply this knowledge to their HR strategy and programs and to ensure proper execution with their HR team.
So, what does it mean for the HR Head to “know the business”? Well, it means that he/she can answer the following questions:
• Who are three of our competitors and what are their competitive advantages?
• Who are the five major buyers in the markets that we serve?
• Which customers represent 80 percent of our revenues and profits?
• Whom do the customers perceive as "best" in our industry?
• Why do our target customers buy from us? What are their buying criteria?
• What are our future customers' needs and expectations?
• How do we ensure that our target customers have a positive customer experience?
• What do we do to build connectivity or intimacy with our target customers?
• Can you describe the culture of our organization?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of our organization?
• What are the economic, social, political, and technological influences that affect our industry?
• What future risks is our organization facing?
• What are the opportunities for the organization?
• What is the financial performance of our company and how has this changed over the past three years?
• Can you read a profit and loss statement?
Even if the HR Head can answer all of these key questions, it is still very important for them to apply this knowledge to their HR strategy and programs and to ensure proper execution with their HR team.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Recruitment Strategy and Execution
In-house recruiters in China aspire to do more and more strategic work while their individual execution is far from desirable. However, only a properly executed recruitment strategy will ensure a pipeline of high-quality Candidates and availability of helpful data for the HR team to increase operational efficiency and effectiveness of the department’s resource allocation.
Thus, recruiters must realize that in order for them to contribute to strategic decision making and an assessment of the recruitment strategy, they must start excelling at the execution role. To guide in-house recruiters on a path to success, ask them to incorporate the following activities in their daily work:
• Using established protocols in conducting recruitment.
• Observing all recruitment procedures rigorously.
• Assuring consistent collection of information.
• Maintaining cold call logs.
• Gathering and documenting all referral forms regardless of outcome.
After all, without sufficient and up-to-date information, strategic questions such as the ones listed below cannot be answered satisfactorily:
• Are we reaching the right talent?
• Are we in the right place?
• Is the right message being delivered?
• Are we delivering the message in the right manner?
Any strategy without proper execution is meaningless. In the same light, execution without a strategy is a mess.
Thus, recruiters must realize that in order for them to contribute to strategic decision making and an assessment of the recruitment strategy, they must start excelling at the execution role. To guide in-house recruiters on a path to success, ask them to incorporate the following activities in their daily work:
• Using established protocols in conducting recruitment.
• Observing all recruitment procedures rigorously.
• Assuring consistent collection of information.
• Maintaining cold call logs.
• Gathering and documenting all referral forms regardless of outcome.
After all, without sufficient and up-to-date information, strategic questions such as the ones listed below cannot be answered satisfactorily:
• Are we reaching the right talent?
• Are we in the right place?
• Is the right message being delivered?
• Are we delivering the message in the right manner?
Any strategy without proper execution is meaningless. In the same light, execution without a strategy is a mess.
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