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Expectation versus Reality – Deliver on your promises, consistently

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Companies who are serious about their talent need to deliver on their promises consistently.  When a candidate goes to your careers website, it’s the first step they take in their research of your company. They are looking for information, drivers, and attractors that make your company a more intriguing proposition than others.  Let’s say they decide to apply and they’re invited in for the interview. 

From the moment they arrive at your office they are gauging if the company they saw online is reflective of what they see in reality.  As you go further down the path of hiring someone, expectations continue to develop based on the information you portray to the candidate. 

If the recruiter or hiring manager driving the interview process makes statements such as:  “We have a strong work/life balance at our company” or “We believe in learning and development”, or “We have an open door policy in which management is readily acceptable,” then the organization better be prepared to deliver on those statements consistently.

Take the Gen X group and the Millenials.  Both of these groups are getting a lot of focus from companies right now to ensure they fill talent gaps as boomers reach retirement.  From our research, one of the key areas of attraction for both of these groups is learning and development.  Another dynamic of these groups is a lack of long-term company loyalty.  If your company states a strong position on learning and development online during the interview process and on-boarding, and then you don’t deliver on that promise; then these groups will leave quickly.

Some best practices to address this are:

  • Make sure that the messages you state on your website, during the interview process, and beyond are consistent and truthful. 
  • Ask the employees what they think about their experience on a frequent basis through focus groups or employee satisfaction surveys. 
  • Use realistic job previews on the careers website.
  • Make sure the candidate has a chance to see the work environment and talk with prospective peers as part of the interview process
  • Train recruiters and hiring managers on interview practices 

By following some of these steps and others you’ll experience higher retention rates and employee loyalty as the key results!  Contact me with any questions or to discuss how we have worked with clients to bridge this gap.

Posted in Bradley Savoy, Candidate Pipeline, Elite Recruiters, Employer Brand, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Talent Aquisition, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Most Important Service Level Agreement

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Of the 1000 recruiters who have participated in our Elite Recruiter self assessment benchmark study, they rate themselves a 3.29 on the skill:

  • Sets Service Level Agreements with Hiring Managers to define roles/responsibilities and control the hiring process

Having talked to countless hiring managers, I am not surprised at this response. 

One of their biggest frustrations is not knowing what is going on with a particular search. They post a position, talk to their recruiter, and then . . . wait for candidates to come their way.

I thought I would share a post we published that received a ton of positive attention and discussion!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

The Most Important Service Level Agreement

While many recruitment organizations have created Service Level Agreements that define the recruitment/hiring process and each parties’ (hiring manager and recruiter) responsibilities (NOTE- if you want a Best Practice example SLA document – please email us), many do not define and establish a “time to first submittal” SLA. This SLA is (what I believe to be the most important) the one we can control the most.

We call this SLA: Requisition Received to “First Submittal.”…. to read more please follow this link

Posted in David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Training, Sourcing, Talent Aquisition, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Initial Results of our ‘Elite Recruiter’ Competency/Skills — Self Assessment

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

The response to our ‘Elite Recruiter’ Self Assessment has been great!  To date, over 600 folks have participated! 

If you have not participated yet, please do (see below).  Our goal is to have 2500 recruiters participate by July of this year! 

Some initial interesting findings ……

Recruiter Competencies:

High self-assessment rating (4.0 of 5.0):

  • Interpersonal Skills (4.21): Treats others with respect and dignity.  Promotes a productive culture by valuing individuals and their contributions.

We are not surprised; I think most recruiters feel they have good interpersonal skills. :o ) 

Areas for improvement (3.5 or below):

  • Customer/Client Focus (3.49): Maintains unwavering focus on delighting the customer/client.
  • Leveraging Networks (3.44): Draws upon a wide range of professional and/or business relationships for help and support in achieving individual and organizational goals.
  • Staffing Lifecycle Management (3.24): Plans and successfully executes a recruiting, selection and hiring process that results in top talent for the organization.

These numbers are consistent to many of our clients’ Voice of the Customer surveys.  The clients (hiring managers, key stakeholders, etc.) still see these as areas of improvement as well, particularly Customer/Client Focus and Staffing Lifecycle Management.

Recruiter Skills:

High self-assessment rating (4.0 of 5.0):

  • Build relationships with peers, hiring managers and executives (4.09)
  • Remain upbeat, positive and energetic about opportunities with your organization(4.18)

Again, we are not surprised at these results. I think most recruiters believe they can build relationships and are upbeat, positive and energetic.  In a 360 evaluation, do others believe the same? :o )

Areas for improvement (3.5 or below):

  • Posses the ability to create a compelling value proposition statement(s) to engage and recruit passive, top talent for critical-to-fill positions (3.38)
  • Use technology to manage data, candidate relationships, etc. (3.33)
  • Set Service Level Agreements with Hiring Managers to define roles/responsibilities and control the hiring process. (3.29)
  • Provide timely constructive feedback to candidates not selected for hire after interview. (3.29) 

These numbers are again consistent with many of our clients’ Voice of the Customer survey results.  All four of these areas are critical to the success of a recruiter, BUT . . . often not areas that recruiters (or teams) focus on for improvement.  Too often, the focus is on ‘finding the passive candidate’ or lately – social networking and/or SEO – - rather than tactical skills that are critical to customer satisfaction!  I’m not saying these other areas don’t deserve our attention (passive candidates, Social media, etc.) but – - sometimes I believe we lose the forest through the trees and lose sight of what the customer wants! 

 If you are interested in the complete results of the self assessment surveys to date, you must:

  1. Participate in the assessment!
  2. Email us at info@leanhumancapital.com.  In the subject line put:  Please send ‘Elite Recruiter’ results!

If you want your team to participate and have us tabulate your team’s results, please email us at info@leanhumancapital.com!

Have a Perfect Day!

 

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Healthcare

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Financial Services

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Retail

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Technology

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Third Party

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Manufacturing/Engineering

Competency/Skills of an Elite Recruiter – Other

Posted in Changing Role of the Recruiter, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Training, Strategic Business Partner, Talent Aquisition, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The “Elite” Employer Brand

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

A couple of weeks ago I teed up this concept of an employer brand .  Here are some key areas to consider when measuring your employer brand.

First, you must measure it.  You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and you can’t improve what you can’t measure.  If an organization wants to maintain and consistently improve on the performance of its employer brand it must have a meaningful analytical philosophy that seeks to apply a quantitative and objective view to its brand.  Without this, there can be no analysis and comparison for improvement. 

Source effectiveness – The lifecycle of your employer brand begins with the first contact, which is typically an organization’s careers web site and subsequent sourcing stage.  At this stage an organization should measure the effectiveness of the methods they have relied upon to attract candidates.  This can allow the organization to view the most effective sources of attraction and consistently return to those sources based on the ROI achieved.  We capture this in our current benchmarking study and what we find is people may be measuring it but they’re not taking action.   If they see overspending in a certain area, they don’t adjust their spend in time and often wait until the year has passed. What should take place is that there should be an immediate shifting of the spend to the most effective sources as quickly as possible.

The recruiting process – This is a series of measurements at each stage in the life-cycle of the candidate’s experience during the entire recruiting process.  The recruiting process is one of the most critical aspects in making the decision to join an organization, and often the most overlooked.  An organization should measure the effectiveness of every single step a candidate attains in the recruiting process.  Each touch point the candidate makes with your organization should be considered beginning with the online application, assessment, interviews, the offer, and orientation.  If there is a negative impression that occurs during the initial online application stage of the recruiting process, then there may be a dramatic decrease in the candidate pool.  In the initial discussion with a candidate, another negative impression may cause a candidate to withdraw from the process, and tell others about their negative experiences.  Negative impressions at any stage of the recruiting process can dramatically reduce the candidate pool, and may provide fuel to create a significant gap for an organization that must meet their hiring needs. 

Recruiter Effectiveness – In our elite recruiter benchmarking study  we’re taking a groundbreaking look at the competencies and skills of elite recruiters.  What we’ve found is that effective recruiters engage candidates with the promise of the brand experience (EVP) and continually deliver on the promise.  The elite recruiters even check in with their hires to make sure promises are being kept, and the expectations delivered when someone was hired match the reality of their experience. 

Fit – How a candidate perceives their fit within your organization, the culture, and the position you are offering are critical elements in the messaging of your employer brand.  Organizations should measure the effectiveness of the messaging in all elements of the employment brand through various media channels.  These channels could be print or interactive media marketing and can also extend to the communication with the candidates recruited and interviewed by your company.  Analyze the effectiveness of the messaging communicated about the culture within your company to improve the long term impact that fit can have on the attraction of your needed talent.

So the key takeaways here are that the brand is pervasive, and all encompassing across someone’s life-cycle of experiences with your company.  It must be measured through the sourcing, recruiting process, and fit of a candidate and then through the employee with your company.  Finally, you as the recruiter, play a critical role in the portrayal of the brand promise, and should act as an ambassador to ensure its delivered!

Posted in Bradley Savoy, Changing Role of the Recruiter, Elite Recruiters, Employer Brand, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Training, Talent Aquisition, Time Management, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Measuring Your Employer Brand

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

I can only go a few days without having an insatiable craving for Starbucks or Caribou Coffee.  Sure I can make coffee at home, but it’s just never seems as good.  In addition, there’s the great atmosphere when I enter the coffee shop. The wonderful, helpful staff that remembers my name when they greet me. 

And to top it all off – - for only four dollars – - I walk away with beautiful drink in a cup with cool logo and colors!  

Okay I may be taking that a little too far, but as a consumer I have that passionate and long standing relationship with these brands.  These consumer brands conjure up indelible images that resonate and remain with me.  These are brands I will consistently use and recommend to others based on my experience and the feelings I get from patronizing their organizations.

So how do you define an employer brand?

Quality candidates – - whether they say so or not – - are looking for the same experience with an organization’s employer brand as a consumer would.  The messages, images, and feelings presented shape the candidate experience they will receive. The “feeling” they get as they move through the recruitment process will not only be pivotal in their employment decision but in their recommendation of your organization to others!

Simply put, an employer brand is a long-standing relationship cycle of experiences between the employee and employer. 

Your employer brand should resonate like a consumer brand with a distinct difference in the messaging.  The messaging should be tailored to the future employee, and should be understood by all stakeholders – both current or future employees, and even customers.  Having an effective employment brand means providing an enticing proposition for one to seek the opportunities at an organization.  It begins at the sourcing stage and carries through the entire life cycle of the recruiting process, and continues throughout an employee’s tenure with the organization.

While most employers understand the value of an effective employer brand, they struggle with how to measure its’ effectiveness to ensure that their branding efforts are achieving the necessary ROI. 

Some brief questions to ponder for next week’s post:

  • How do you measure your Employer Brand?
  • How do you know if you have an effective Employer Brand? 
  • Do you have a gauge on how your sources tie into your employer brand?
  • How are you measuring your customers’ recruiting experience?
  • Do you have a sense of why people join, stay, or leave your company?

In my next post we’ll begin to discuss these questions in more detail.  Also look for us at ERE San Diego where we’ll be talking about this during our session.

Posted in Bradley Savoy, Changing Role of the Recruiter, Elite Recruiters, Employer Brand, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Boot Camp, Recruiter Sales, Talent Aquisition | No Comments »

Good To Elite

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

For those folks that know us, we are passionate about the pursuit of being “Elite” recruiters.  Over the years, we have written about it on numerous occasions. 

 Some posts that have received chatter include:

Success Attributes of World-Class Recruiters

The Changing Role of the Recruiter

On March 10th, we will be facilitating a webinar with ERE entitled “Going from Good to Elite – Becoming an Elite Recruiter”.  In preparation for this event, I have been collaborating with colleagues in the industry discussing this topic and getting their opinions on: 

  • Skills/competencies of Elite Recruiters
  • What Elite Recruiters do that average recruiters don’t.
  • How to go from average or good to elite.

If you have thoughts/opinions on this topic, I would love your input. Just drop me a note (email)! 

Over the last year we have been working on a competency/skill model for recruiters.

If you are interested in taking a self-assessment, just click on the links below!

Recruiter Skills Assessment

Staffing Competency Assessment

I hope you all can join us for the webinar on the 10th! 

Just as important, I would love your input on this topic!

Posted in Changing Role of the Recruiter, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Training, Talent Aquisition, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Are you recruiting ‘Passive’ Candidates as if they were ‘Active’?

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

I had a recent conversation with a very frustrated hiring executive: The conversation resurfaced some ‘best practices’ around recruiting quality talent.

He was frustrated with the current recruitment efforts on critical to fill positions in his department. While they had gone through great lengths to deploy a sourcing strategy to drive quality, passive talent into the recruitment process, the vast majority of candidates they were interested in were “bailing” out of the process.

Pondering the situation, I asked a few simple questions to try and identify the root cause of the defects (for those that sat in on our 7-Deadly Sins webinar – - you know what I am talking about :o )).

  1. How are you engaging candidates into the process?
  2. How quickly are you engaging candidates into the process?
  3. Who are they meeting with on their first visit?
  4. Where are they meeting?  
  5. Does the candidate fully understand the next steps after their first meeting?

 The answers I received from the recruiter/hiring manager might not surprise you:

  1. “Well we have them go through the normal process.  If they are interested, we ask them to go online to register in our system”.
  2. “Once they hit the system, the recruiter is calling them within 24 hours – - hopefully – - to do a pre-screen with them.”
  3. “We like to have them come into the office and meet with the recruiter first – - then meet with the hiring manager.  Ideally, we like to get a slate of candidates to come in and interview all the same day/afternoon.  It is much more convenient for the hiring managers.”
  4. “Ideally – the office. It makes it easier for us.”
  5. “We let them know that we are interviewing several candidates and will have feedback within 3-5 business days.”

I think you know were I am going with this!

So after listening to his answers, I reflected and responded:

“So your managers are requesting the recruitment team to find the highest quality (often passive) talent possible but . . . you want the passive candidates to engage on your TERMS?

  • Fill out paperwork before I will talk to you
  • Come to my office
  • Sit in lobby with other candidates
  • Wait for a response

I don’t know about you folks, but if the University of Alabama used these technique to ‘recruit’ the most talented football players – - I bet they would not have won the national title last year!

While I don’t want to make light of this situation, I find this dilemma within hundreds of companies throughout the country.  Simply put:

They are trying to recruit quality, ‘Passive’ candidates with their ‘Active’ candidate process.

Organizations that excel in recruiting top talent, take a holistically different approach to the passive candidate recruitment efforts.

Some Best Practices

1.     How are you engaging candidates into the process?

Once the recruiter makes contact with a top prospect and does a preliminary pre-qualification (hopefully on the same call), they immediately seek to set up a “cup of coffee” meeting with a dynamic hiring manager.  No initial paper work. We can take care of that later. No resume? No problem, lets just meet and have an exploratory conversation.

2.     How quickly are you engaging candidates into the process?

Immediately (as outlined above)! I have worked with hiring managers that literally say – - if you get a top notch person on the phone, I will meet anywhere, anytime.

3.     Who are they meeting with on their first visit?

While I am not saying they shouldn’t meet with a recruiter on the first visit, the quicker you get them connected with a dynamic hiring manager the better.  From experience, it is much easier to engage a talented professional to have a “confidential, exploratory discussion over a cup of coffee” if for nothing else – - to network VERSUS – getting them to come for an interview with a recruiter!  

4.     Where are they meeting?

When you are not looking for a job, the last thing you would want is people to THINK you are looking.  Coming to a competitors office for a visit – - in this day and age of LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. – - is very risky at best.  And to ask them to sit in the lobby with other “candidates” is disrespectful in my book.

5. Does the candidate fully understand the next steps after the first meeting?

If you meet someone and like them, you should recruit that person. What is wrong with showing your excitement for taking the next steps – ask them their availability to meet with a key executive – - BEFORE you leave that first meeting?  I am not implying an offer? I am just showing sincere excitement about moving forward and keeping the positive momentum during our courtship!

These are simple best practices I have seen successfully deployed by organizations that don’t fall into the trap of trying to recruit quality, ‘Passive’ candidates with their ‘Active’ candidate process.

If you find yourself in this dilemma, please share this with your hiring managers :o )

Posted in Bradley Savoy, Candidate types, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Boot Camp, Recruiter Top Gun, Recruiter Training, Sourcing, Talent Aquisition, Time Management, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Ensuring Staffing Process Excellence

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

By Bradley Savoy

This week I had the pleasure of presenting to our local SHRM chapter on Staffing Process Excellence. Here are some of the highlights:

I know what you’re thinking, “We’re hiring fewer people this year”, or “Our hiring’s flat, so why bother with a Staffing Process Excellence exercise?”

Whether you’re hiring 5 people or 10,000 (yes – there are still companies that are hiring that many people), it’s the beginning of someone’s tenure with your company, and it acts as an extension of your brand.

A Staffing Process that’s excellent will enable you to utilize Voice Of the Customer (VOC) data to define and deliver an error-free fulfillment process that will deliver world-class customer satisfaction, improved retention, and even quality of hire.

The simple steps in Staffing Process Excellence are:

  1. Gain Executive Buy-In.  With every process improvement initiative you need the executives’ buy-in.  Typically the best way to do this is to align the project to a business initiative.  Are you trying to trim costs, improve customer satisfaction, or reduce attrition.  All of these can be addressed with an improved staffing process.
  2. Gather the Voice Of the Customer data.   Begin by using surveys, focus groups, or other channels to tap into the perspective of those that work through your process each day.  Hiring managers, candidates, recruiters, and others that are involved, should be consulted on how the process should look.  Find out what opportunities exist to streamline the process from their perspectives.
  3. Gather Process CTQ’s (Critical to Quality).   These are aspects that are critical to meeting and exceeding customer expectations.  These will also typically come as part of your exercise to gather the VOC information from your stakeholders.
  4. Align the process.  By now you have the needs of the customer (VOC) and you’ve gathered those aspects of the process that are critical to them (CTQ).  Now you have to align the two, making sure the wants of the customer and the critical needs can be met.  Exec or Org.  Initiatives??
  5. Define the staffing process.    At some companies this is a detailed chart of the staffing life cycle; for others it’s a simple list of bullet points.  While best-in-class is a clearly articulated and defined process, even bullet points on a Word document are a start.  The end goal is that with the input from customers you can now define the world-class process – and the best part is no one can say “Hey you didn’t ask me!” because each of the customer segments gave their input.
  6. Educate, Implement, and Continuously Measure the new process.  You’ve put all of this effort into your new process; now make sure it “sticks!”  Don’t just email the new process out to everyone; instead, leverage executive buy in to have a big kickoff.  Executive announcements, internal staff meetings, and even e-mails can have more power jointly coming from line execs and HR/recruiting.

You’re also going to need to educate each of the stakeholders on the new process, and then of course continually measure the results.  Consistent surveys, focus groups, etc with the “customers” of the process will ensure long-term adherence.

If you have questions on staffing process excellence, or you’d like to discuss an audit of your staffing process, contact me

Posted in Bradley Savoy, Changing Role of the Recruiter, David, David Szary, Deadly Sins of Waste in Recruiting, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Sales, Recruiter Training, Strategic Business Partner, Talent Aquisition, Uncategorized | No Comments »

“Seven Deadly Sins of Waste” in Recruiting – Preview

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

I found an excellent report on Lean (Toyota production Systems – TPS) by Wharton and the Boston Consulting Group called, “Rethinking Lean: Beyond the Shop Floor.”

It provides excellent examples of how you can apply the principles of waste elimination and process efficiency within service organizations (including healthcare and financial service industries). 

As I read the report, it became evident why implementing the principles of waste elimination, worker involvement and continuous improvement within the recruitment/hiring process can be so successful.  

While the principles of waste elimination, worker involvement and CI haven’t changed much since TPS was created 50 years ago the results are very impressive.

In January, we will discuss eliminating the “seven deadly sins of waste” in the recruitment process.

If you are interested in how we use the principles of lean, materials release planning, and supply chain optimization to answer the age old question, “What is the acceptable number of requisitions per recruiter?” check out our published white paper on the subject.

I hope you have a great “pre-holiday” week!

Some snippets that I found particularly interesting from the report are outlined below:

  • “Do you understand your customer segments?” Can you serve the most valued customer more effectively?
  • Companies should always begin their lean efforts by asking, “What are you trying to achieve?” “It doesn’t begin with a rule. And it’s not about isolating one piece of the business and deciding its fate.  It’s about rethinking every business process.” “It’s not about cost cutting across the board,” he says. “It’s about judicious investing. It’s not about starving. It’s about building muscle, trimming fat.”
  • Many companies struggle to align lead times, inventory and other data to financial measures, even with performance metrics in place.  This is probably because they are not measuring the right things. Instead of coming to a better understanding of your organization and how to improve it, “Many die a death of a thousand metrics.”
  • “When people think about lean, they often associate it with reducing the workforce,” Faber says, “But the cost is not in the line labor; it’s in the overhead.”
  • A key part of Lean involves looking at the business differently. You need to have metrics on moving applicants through the staffing supply chain. That requires sourcers, recruiters, coordinators, HR business partners, and hiring managers engage in a collective dialogue around ensuring efficiency.
  • In manufacturing no one sees how things get made. They probably don’t care. But in staffing/hiring – customers see the process and it is extremely personal.  So if your service doesn’t track customer dissatisfaction you might never know what people thing about your organization.
  • Lean initiatives begin with identifying and standardizing a process. “Try to think of your business as repetitive. Once you have that identified – think of how long someone stays in that process, the waste being created, the dissatisfaction occurring, and the impact of that person staying in that process. Next, measure performance.
  • TPS is a way of life. A continuous improvement process that never stops. TPS wasn’t implemented just once. Its constant improvement, constant innovation and constant elimination of extra steps. The most important principle is that this is not a four-month project. You will see benefits, but you must do it continually.
  • Key principles of lean ask the following questions, “What is important? What matters to the customer? What delivers value?”
  • Lean is not new or rocket science. It’s like your diet. You know what to eat and how much to eat but old habits are hard to break. That is why behavior modification, measurement, accountability, training is so important.
  • “Lean works best as a balanced top-down and bottom-up effort.” Christian Terwiesch, a Wharton professor, remembers trying to talk with hospitals about lean initiatives several years ago. “They thought I was evil. They said ‘We’re doctors. We help people.’ Now these same institutions have chief medical officers saying, ‘We want to run this place like Toyota!’”

Posted in Bradley Savoy, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Lean Human Capital, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Training, Strategic Business Partner, Talent Aquisition, Time Management, Transactional Recruiter, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Best Practices in Moving to a Management by Fact Culture

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

McKinsey recently released results of a study of practices of 230 companies across the globe.

The firm’s primary goal was simple – what makes companies perform well?  For the sake of this post, I’ll hone in on one key point:

“Executives, in their search for ways to make organizations function more successfully, frequently adopt simplistic solutions.   A new analysis of more than 230 global businesses shows that combinations of carefully selected actions can be far more effective than one-dimensional interventions.”

McKinsey makes an interesting point here.  In some cases adopting the simple – or easy – solution is not always the best approach.  Unfortunately in many instances the decisions are made through a high degree of subjectivity and then tempered with a small depth of objective criteria (data).

Over the last 20 years, management concepts such as the balanced scorecard, process management, key performance indicators (KPI’s) and strategy deployment have prompted many executives to revisit their measurement systems.   Practices such as Management by Objective (MBO) and Management by Fact (MBF) have become increasingly popular. 

Successful companies strive to combine real world management experience with the objectivity of data.  This is not to negate the subjective experience of a tenured executive, but to aid in their arsenal of decision making tools. 

As a result, many companies are adopting objective based measurement systems.   These systems ensure objective data measurement is added to uncover the missing elements, or facts, needed to make key decisions.

So if you’re aiming to launch a new measurement system to shift your culture to one of Management by Fact, here are my top three best practices to consider:

  1. Tie your measurement criteria to the goals of the business.   Each business unit or department of your company must provide input related to their specific business goals, and the needs of their customers.  During this exercise the synergies of various departments will come to light.  For example, customer loyalty could exist across multiple departments, and the overall company strategy.  If that is the case, customer loyalty then becomes a key indicator of performance across the various departmental stakeholders.  In this example, an overarching measurement criterion may be customer retention or customer satisfaction. 
  2. Ensure adoption and accountability at the right levels.  Those parties responsible for this new way of thinking must have the knowledge and authority to manage the performance of new processes.  Establishment of a core team of metrics and process owners representing critical functions of the organization is critical to ensure the mind shift is successful. 
  3. Communication is key.  Development of a comprehensive communication strategy is critical to ensure broad understanding and acceptance.  All employees need to understand the importance of the new philosophy and their roles within this process.  Care should be taken to ensure that each employee is able to answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”  Each employee needs a clear understanding of how they, as an individual, can impact key metrics.  Creating communication aids such as learning maps and utilizing executives to act as personal communication channels can increase acceptance of the strategies as the goals of the organization are achieved.

If you’d like to lean more and see a great example of utilizing the Management by Fact approach, check out David’s article on why requisitions per recruiter is not a great method for resource planning.

Companies will achieve success by ensuring that the management measurement solutions they create tie to core business objectives and are accepted, adopted, and communicated effectively by all stakeholders of the process.

Posted in Bradley Savoy, Changing Role of the Recruiter, David, David Szary, Elite Recruiters, Just-In-Time hiring, LEAN recruitment, Recruiter, Recruiter Academy, Recruiter Top Gun, Recruiter Training, Recruiting Buzz, Relationship Recruiter, Strategic Business Partner, Talent Aquisition, Time Management, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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