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In many positions and occupations, job performance is soft skill dependent. Companies use assessment tests, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Mayer, Salovey, Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, so they can get an idea of what soft skills employees possess. These skills are often intangible and, therefore, not easily taught.
They tend to be more a function of personality characteristics. Some examples of soft skills include: responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, integrity and honesty. Examples of interpersonal soft skills include: participates as a member of the team, teaches others, serves customers, exercises leadership, negotiates, works with cultural diversity.
Hard and soft knowledge are both important in the working world but employees who lack the ability to manage their lives, take responsibility for their own success, and follow through on commitments need to learn soft skills along with the hard skills required for a job so they understand how all aspects of their lives connect. Soft skills provide a way to get the highest return on investment when considering human capital. They can build great people. Few individuals are fired because they lack technical knowledge.
Most are fired because of a deficit in soft skill knowledge. Ultimately, what we know is not nearly as important as what we do with what we know, and how well we do it. Some organizations will attempt to train soft skills but training is a use it or lose it proposition. While a participant may be motivated and excited after returning from a program, preexisting thought patterns can work against implementation. Many trainers will admit that follow up is necessary for retention. The transfer of training includes both generalizations of training on-the-job and maintenance of learned material. For this to occur, abilities must be learned and retained through practical experience and repetition.
The work environment, including cultural climate, management and peer support, and performance opportunity, is vital to this achievement. Coaching is a tool that can help arrive at transfer of knowledge by recalling the lessons learned, reinforcing their importance, and motivating the client to move forward, despite obstacles or roadblocks. It is suggested that peer coaching, group coaching, or manager to employee coaching take place as follow-up. These techniques will make soft skill retention possible.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Avoid the Pain of Hiring the Wrong People - Three Common Expensive Recruitment Mistakes
Hiring the wrong person is costly, has a negative effect on your business and is far more common that it needs to be. In these times of tightening business and competition from developing countries, to bring someone onto the payroll is a decision that should be totally thought through. Even in this day of sophisticated HR processes and personal profilors many disastrous decisions are made, decisions that are difficult and expensive to undo. What is it that leads intelligent, reasoning managers into the trap time and time again? Let's look at three of the errors frequently committed during the recruitment process:
· Do not interview for a position without clarity as to what the vacant position really is and what is expected of the successful candidate
This is a very common problem when a vacancy in an existing workforce arises. Often a manager will become intent on filling a gap without considering if a gap actually exists or if so, is the same type of person needed as has just left. Changes in business practices, product lines or profitability may have altered the landscape to such a degree that a different solution is required. Write a clear and realistic description of the activities of the role, the output criteria (what the person will be measured on) and the pay scale. Do not undermine or adjust these when discussing the position with any candidates.
A large element of employee satisfaction and productivity comes from a sense of achievement, which can only exist if all parties understand the parameters of the role. Typically, particularly in a tight labour market, a hiring manager starts to "sell" the benefits of the job to the candidate, glossing over the tough bits, rather than spelling out clearly what is what. Nothing sets up a candidate for dissatisfaction more than the vague promise of all sorts of sweet juicy extras (international travel, promotions, sponsored university degree etc), that change the focus of the employee from day one and detract from the real job in hand. If these are part of a defined future path, ensure that they are tied to a time-frame and performance criteria.
An internationally recognised staff survey has revealed frequent winners of the best employer category, as judged by their own staff are telephone call centre companies. Why? Because they have a recruitment process that clearly articulates what the candidate is signing up for, take it or leave it. By starting off on this foot, employee performance can be managed and just as importantly, achievements can be recognised and rewarded.
· Do not become taken in by impressive resumes, references and qualifications
It is a known fact that people apply some degree of poetic license to their resume. This can range from a little self delusion to outrageous interpretations of past achievements. Likewise, references provided are more often than not friends, ex colleagues or possibly current employers looking to exit gracefully from their own recruitment mistake.
Candidates who do their homework will be able to answer all of the technical and theoretical questions about the role such as "What would you do if a certain scenario took place?" or "How does a certain relevant technology work?" What helps to separate the genuinely qualified candidate from the one who has spent the past day swotting up however is the methodology of Behavioural Based Interviewing.
BBI probes the candidate to recount their experience. It is amazing how many candidates can flawlessly answer the question "What would you do in a certain circumstance?" but cannot convincingly respond to "Tell me about a time that you experienced a certain circumstance". If they do provide an account of that experience then follow up questions would be" what did you do?" or "how did it work out?" and so forth. Very soon it becomes clear from the answers, the body language and the attitude of the candidate whether or not they are potential for consideration. Build up templates of BBI questions and use them during the interviews.
· Do not allow pure technical ability to override poor attitude
This is a malaise that is not limited to, but particularly infects technology companies. Many unit managers in technology companies have risen through the ranks from engineer to principle engineer and then into management. This more often results in the loss of a good engineer than the gain of a good manager. One area where these managers can cause problems is in recruiting for their engineering departments.
When hiring into an engineering role, the manager will be critical of the technical ability of the candidate almost to the exclusion of all other factors. There is a tendency toward highly qualified (and thus expensive) applicants, even if the role is fairly basic and would suit a developing junior. What results is a dysfunctional assembly of technical experts, intent on out engineering each other. As perfectionists, they tend to be unwilling to release a product until they are satisfied, leading to time and cost overruns.
The fallout from this can be serious and reach into other parts of the organisation. The inequality of pay scales and benefits (yes people do talk about their packages), creates unrest in other teams. A lack of alignment to business goals and customer requirements is expensive and not good for future prospects. The decline in team working and collaboration erodes productivity and having to deal with poor attitude is a huge drain on management resource.
It is amazing how someone with sound but not spectacular technical ability, who has a great attitude, can tackle complex challenges and produce outputs to a required quality, in a more cost effective and timely manner than a collection of experts. What is more, they are fun to work with and it is easy and satisfying to reward and recognise their efforts.
Key to the three pointers above is preparation.
· Clearly understand the need for and parameters of the role before advertising and document this for all participants, interviewers and interviewees. · Build your BBI question templates based on the role requirements. · Brief everybody in the recruitment team and agree hiring principles.
· Do not interview for a position without clarity as to what the vacant position really is and what is expected of the successful candidate
This is a very common problem when a vacancy in an existing workforce arises. Often a manager will become intent on filling a gap without considering if a gap actually exists or if so, is the same type of person needed as has just left. Changes in business practices, product lines or profitability may have altered the landscape to such a degree that a different solution is required. Write a clear and realistic description of the activities of the role, the output criteria (what the person will be measured on) and the pay scale. Do not undermine or adjust these when discussing the position with any candidates.
A large element of employee satisfaction and productivity comes from a sense of achievement, which can only exist if all parties understand the parameters of the role. Typically, particularly in a tight labour market, a hiring manager starts to "sell" the benefits of the job to the candidate, glossing over the tough bits, rather than spelling out clearly what is what. Nothing sets up a candidate for dissatisfaction more than the vague promise of all sorts of sweet juicy extras (international travel, promotions, sponsored university degree etc), that change the focus of the employee from day one and detract from the real job in hand. If these are part of a defined future path, ensure that they are tied to a time-frame and performance criteria.
An internationally recognised staff survey has revealed frequent winners of the best employer category, as judged by their own staff are telephone call centre companies. Why? Because they have a recruitment process that clearly articulates what the candidate is signing up for, take it or leave it. By starting off on this foot, employee performance can be managed and just as importantly, achievements can be recognised and rewarded.
· Do not become taken in by impressive resumes, references and qualifications
It is a known fact that people apply some degree of poetic license to their resume. This can range from a little self delusion to outrageous interpretations of past achievements. Likewise, references provided are more often than not friends, ex colleagues or possibly current employers looking to exit gracefully from their own recruitment mistake.
Candidates who do their homework will be able to answer all of the technical and theoretical questions about the role such as "What would you do if a certain scenario took place?" or "How does a certain relevant technology work?" What helps to separate the genuinely qualified candidate from the one who has spent the past day swotting up however is the methodology of Behavioural Based Interviewing.
BBI probes the candidate to recount their experience. It is amazing how many candidates can flawlessly answer the question "What would you do in a certain circumstance?" but cannot convincingly respond to "Tell me about a time that you experienced a certain circumstance". If they do provide an account of that experience then follow up questions would be" what did you do?" or "how did it work out?" and so forth. Very soon it becomes clear from the answers, the body language and the attitude of the candidate whether or not they are potential for consideration. Build up templates of BBI questions and use them during the interviews.
· Do not allow pure technical ability to override poor attitude
This is a malaise that is not limited to, but particularly infects technology companies. Many unit managers in technology companies have risen through the ranks from engineer to principle engineer and then into management. This more often results in the loss of a good engineer than the gain of a good manager. One area where these managers can cause problems is in recruiting for their engineering departments.
When hiring into an engineering role, the manager will be critical of the technical ability of the candidate almost to the exclusion of all other factors. There is a tendency toward highly qualified (and thus expensive) applicants, even if the role is fairly basic and would suit a developing junior. What results is a dysfunctional assembly of technical experts, intent on out engineering each other. As perfectionists, they tend to be unwilling to release a product until they are satisfied, leading to time and cost overruns.
The fallout from this can be serious and reach into other parts of the organisation. The inequality of pay scales and benefits (yes people do talk about their packages), creates unrest in other teams. A lack of alignment to business goals and customer requirements is expensive and not good for future prospects. The decline in team working and collaboration erodes productivity and having to deal with poor attitude is a huge drain on management resource.
It is amazing how someone with sound but not spectacular technical ability, who has a great attitude, can tackle complex challenges and produce outputs to a required quality, in a more cost effective and timely manner than a collection of experts. What is more, they are fun to work with and it is easy and satisfying to reward and recognise their efforts.
Key to the three pointers above is preparation.
· Clearly understand the need for and parameters of the role before advertising and document this for all participants, interviewers and interviewees. · Build your BBI question templates based on the role requirements. · Brief everybody in the recruitment team and agree hiring principles.
Could You Increase Sales During This Economic Crisis?
It's scary right now. Some of our oldest and most trusted financial institutions have collapsed. Big businesses, the ones who are suppose to be bullet proof are closing, or getting gobbled up by competitors. Your best prospects have slammed their wallets shut. Quite honestly their scared and they don't want to spend a dime that isn't absolutely necessary.
Plus rather than being a passing problem this crisis could linger 3, 5, even ten years. When a similar economic downturn hit Japan it took the country 14 years to recover. Do you have the cash reserves to wait this out for 14 years? Who does?
At a time like this you don't want to stick your head in the sand and just hope it will all go away. That's the worst thing you could do. Ignoring the problem virtually guarantees you and your family will be numbered among the casualties that fall out of this crisis.
But you're not a victim you're a victor. So you have to do whatever it takes to make sure you have the one thing that will get you through this economic crisis. MONEY.
Yep, no surprise money is the one thing that will insulate you. The challenge is figuring out how to get that money when no one wants to stick their neck out and buy anything. That's where you have a huge advantage over your big competitors.
You have the ability to prepare to succeed where others will fail. You know it's tough out there and it isn't going to get better any time soon. So you have to make what you have to offer indispensable to your prospects.
Right now people don't want to spend money on anything they don't perceive as an absolute necessity. The key to your success the key to getting the money that will get you through this is creating the perception of absolute need. This is easier than you may think no matter what you're selling.
Did you know lipstick sales flourished during the World Wars? Yep, millions of tubes of lipstick were sold during a time of stress and duress. Now who can't live without something like lipstick?
How could you sell lipstick when people barely had money to eat? When you had to collect coupons to buy staples, how could you sell lipstick? Lipstick marketers created the perception that a woman just couldn't exist without lipstick, and it was that perception that drove their sales at a time when people simply didn't have money to throw around.
Would you like to learn more about how to increase your sales? Get your free download here... http://increasesalescoach.com/sales-marketing-strategy.html
Plus rather than being a passing problem this crisis could linger 3, 5, even ten years. When a similar economic downturn hit Japan it took the country 14 years to recover. Do you have the cash reserves to wait this out for 14 years? Who does?
At a time like this you don't want to stick your head in the sand and just hope it will all go away. That's the worst thing you could do. Ignoring the problem virtually guarantees you and your family will be numbered among the casualties that fall out of this crisis.
But you're not a victim you're a victor. So you have to do whatever it takes to make sure you have the one thing that will get you through this economic crisis. MONEY.
Yep, no surprise money is the one thing that will insulate you. The challenge is figuring out how to get that money when no one wants to stick their neck out and buy anything. That's where you have a huge advantage over your big competitors.
You have the ability to prepare to succeed where others will fail. You know it's tough out there and it isn't going to get better any time soon. So you have to make what you have to offer indispensable to your prospects.
Right now people don't want to spend money on anything they don't perceive as an absolute necessity. The key to your success the key to getting the money that will get you through this is creating the perception of absolute need. This is easier than you may think no matter what you're selling.
Did you know lipstick sales flourished during the World Wars? Yep, millions of tubes of lipstick were sold during a time of stress and duress. Now who can't live without something like lipstick?
How could you sell lipstick when people barely had money to eat? When you had to collect coupons to buy staples, how could you sell lipstick? Lipstick marketers created the perception that a woman just couldn't exist without lipstick, and it was that perception that drove their sales at a time when people simply didn't have money to throw around.
Would you like to learn more about how to increase your sales? Get your free download here... http://increasesalescoach.com/sales-marketing-strategy.html
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