Archive for Change Management
Achieving organizational alignment is a strategic HR activity that can deliver significant benefits to an organization. Alignment is more than ideal state. It is imperative to ensure the organization is successful in getting all employees to move into the same direction, to achieve the vision of the organization.
Alignment is one of the power words in an organizational change consultant’s toolkit. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t use or refer to alignment.
Some years ago, I was a HR Director for a large manufacturing company and we had just completed a large acquisition, working through a strategic integration process, when I used the “alignment” word in my first integration workshop with the executive team. The MD reacted impolitely, and did not want to spend much time discussing alignment. Like many “consultants”, I decided to draw a picture of a triangle showing lack of alignment compared with perfect alignment on the whiteboard in the boardroom. However, he still felt there were more important business issues to discuss.
As result of the MD’s negative reaction, I decided to move onto other integration issues. First, one executive picked up on the issue of alignment, then another. It became very quickly obvious after a few hours, that the executive team needed to discuss and agree on how to achieve organizational alignment, as the company had two of everything – two cultures, two computer systems, two marketing strategies etc.
Creating organizational alignment is a process consisting of achieving alignment in two domains – alignment of values (how we work together) and alignment of goals (what we are trying to achieve).
Too often there is confusion and blurring of these concepts.
Goal Alignment
Staying with the graphic, goal alignment is clearly demarcating and defining the purpose (mission) and strategic goals of the organization. It is about framing the context, ensuring all employees clearly understand the strategic goals and initiatives within the organization.
This is dealing with the left-brain, and companies usually can get this right, with significant involvement and communication. In many ways, it is classical Management-by-Objectives, albeit with appropriate consultation and involvement of employees.
Alignment of Values
Values alignment is the process of understanding how we work together, and changing the way we understand and interpret the values of the organization. As a right-brain activity, we need to explore the emotions and non-rational processes that have an impact on our behavior and actions.
A great way of improving alignment is to identify firstly those things that we are doing right. If you can’t identify those, or only have a small number of items in this group, the challenge of alignment will be an almighty task.
Most companies tend to jump straight into the next group, which are those things we should stop doing, that are clearly inconsistent with the company’s agreed values. Usually, there is a high level of consistency in those things that are frustrating and holding the company back.
Lastly, there will be some things the company should be doing, but have not yet fully understood the need or sufficiently taken the time to understand the benefits. Usually, newcomers or outsiders are better at identifying and describing potential opportunities.
Achieving Alignment
Executives need to spend more time identifying and analyzing the misalignments in the business. By identifying these obstacles, managers can start the process of dismantling the blockages that prevent staff from achieving alignment.
Some of these blockages are lack of commitment – lacklustre leadership; poor communication – often confusing or inconsistent; insufficient involvement and participation by affected staff – not being consulted and engaged; and inadequate recognition – not taking time to reinforce and celebrate the successes.
Rather than using a static model to describe alignment, I would like to share with you an example from nature. In this video, we can observe the true alignment of starlings on Ot Moor, close to Oxford, United Kingdom.
We see an inspiring and incredible display of thousands and thousands of starlets. It shows how birds become part of groups, then larger flocks, until they merge and become part of a cohesive collective, truly aligned and all moving in the right direction.
Now just imagine if all the employees in your organization can do this, day after day.
It’s time to change your recruitment ads to be “gender smart”
Posted by: | CommentsMany organisations in Australia, particularly listed companies, are focusing on gender equity at board and executive levels. A gender balanced organisation is not just an outcome by achieving gender ratios, as there is also a need for a process to develop a more strategic approach.
Recent research by Roy Morgan Research highlighted specific gender differences for buyers of packaged alcohol. Female buyers are placing more importance on the service of staff, whereas male buyers are more influenced by lower prices.
The business implications are clear – females value service and males look for signs that advertise cheap beer.
In the world of recruitment, there is also a shift required to more gender smart recruitment advertising.
Changing your ads
Job advertisements on job boards would typically provide a brief paragraph with information about the company, followed by some description of the role, as well as some of the responsibilities attached to the vacant position. Some clues or filters would then be provided in terms of competencies that applicants should have, in order to be considered.
Despite the great advances we have made in technology, all that has happened today is that the same ads that used to be published in newspapers are now being replicated on job boards. As result, we have seen a massive increase in quantity, but quality has in fact deteriorated. Often ads would include some basic errors, and sometimes some grave ones.
Why Should I Apply?
These job ads are usually doing a reasonable job of providing limited information about the job, but usually fail to encourage the job seeker, particularly the passive job seeker that may just glance at an ad, that the recruiting company is offering a real career.
Often in job ads there is a discrepancy between what recruiting companies say and what they have done. This perception difference between external perception and internal reality is the driver for employer branding initiatives.
Lack of awareness
There is still a major lack of understanding or awareness of how job advertisements are demonstrating that the organisation was attractive to women and in what way. Recruiters would expect applicants to access the company’s web site, but not be thinking about how the organisation appears to women, when the board and executive team photo’s clearly highlights the lack of senior women leaders.
As an aside, there is ample opportunity with hyper links, to facilitate and influence this search process by directing prospective applicants to relevant information on the company’s web site.
Adapting the recruitment process
Gender balanced organisations have adapted their recruitment approach to include those themes that are the most likely to be of strong interest to women, focusing on flexibility, the culture, collaboration, and opportunities for development.
There needs to be an alignment and consistency of what the recruiting company is saying and what it is doing. Progressive organisations will always ensure that there is a person that applicants can talk to and discuss the role and potential opportunities in more detail, rather than directing applicants through the applicant tracking system, without any conversation.
Perhaps an example will better illustrate my point. Real estate agents have been very effective with advertising houses, using pictures and being able to tell a story. Now I am not suggesting that recruiters should apply the same creative license, but one thing real estate agents are doing well is to convince buyers that they are selling a home, not just a house.
This was really well illustrated by the popular Australian movie – The Castle. In this movie, the Kerrigan family is threatened by the compulsory acquisition of their family home, which is not just a house, but in their eyes – their castle filled with memories that can’t be replaced.
Telling a story
Writing a good job ad takes time, particularly we make the transition. Working with a HR team recently, we devoted half a day to finalise the ad for a role that was really difficult to fill. Every job advertisement should tell a story. It takes more than just a picture of a female.
Rather than using words such as challenge, drive, determination and results it may be more effective to use language such as opportunities, engage, contribution, partnership, team, relationships and outcomes. This is not about being politically correct, but to be more aware of the subtle messages we communicate to applicants.
A recent ad used some very effective descriptions:
- Make you feel like coming home
- Comfortable with relationship management
- Using your charms to influence outcomes
- Flair for effective leadership
Language is very powerful and unconscious bias may impact negatively on our ability to attract talented staff, particularly if a company is trying to attract and encourage more females to apply for certain roles. Gender smart organisations are aligning their HR systems and processes to achieve a better balance in talent management.
If you have any ideas or suggestions please share your views.
Using the HR Budget Process to Make the HR Function More Strategic
Posted by: | CommentsSoon, all across many companies in many countries, HR Directors will be completing the dreaded annual budget process. On such critical occasions, the experienced HR Director, as they look across the boardroom table, meeting the CEO and the CFO, typically will be mentally prepared for the sacrificial budget cuts that are customary.
Fundamentally, the HR budget is a great opportunity to reposition and reinforce the HR function as a strategic partner, by embracing the budget process to gain strong credibility from the executive team. A few months ago, I was coaching a HR Manager struggling to move into more strategic HR. When it emerged that she had no HR budget, one of the first action steps was developing a proper HR budget.
Early in my career, I was fortunate by being appointed as head of support services for a division, which included managing two accountants, HR staff and other support functions. Though I didn’t fully realise it at the time, I gained a strong understanding of the value of good annual budgeting. These lessons were reinforced through rigorous monthly variance analysis (anything over $1,000 or 10%) and reporting process, where I had to meet with all the department managers and present the division’s financials to the leadership team. Not only did I learn a lot about the business, but it also gave me great budgeting skills for more senior HR roles that followed.
HR Initiatives are projects
In one of his books in the early nineties, Tom Peters strongly recommended for organisations to adopt a project approach. He suggested that it was a much better way for companies to get things done, by changing into a results-based mind set. In fact, he went as far as defining project management as a premier skill for future managers.
It is critical for HR to define as many processes as specific projects, be it the 360-feedback review; the annual pay review; the development of a new leadership program; or a new coaching program. As a practising consultant, it is very helpful to understand the broad budget for a project, as it is difficult to design and develop a Rolls Royce HR project with a Toyota budget.
Clearly, by using business strategy to identify the people drivers and HR initiatives that will support delivery of the strategy, is the best starting point for developing your HR budget.
Develop a partnership with the CFO
Many line managers rely on an accountant to provide them with financial support, including budgeting and monthly reporting. HR should also have an accountant that supports the HR function. In addition, the HR Director should develop a close partnership with the CFO, to ensure there is a close working relationship. In most companies, other than capital-intensive industries, employee costs make up the majority of fixed costs. I always invited the CFO to join me when I reviewed annual pay increases with the CEO, and in reciprocal fashion I was invited to attend budget presentations, which gave me a great overview of the business, but more importantly, an opportunity to ensure that all HR initiatives are clearly aligned with business strategies.
Encourage team ownership
I am a strong believer and supporter that every HR team member should own some line items in the HR budget. For the HR Administrator, it could be stationary budget, or coordinating travel and accommodation. Specific budget sign-off authority helps the team to review the budget on a monthly basis, by reporting on variances, as well being involved in budgeting and approving all expenditure for their specific costing codes. It also develops their financial and business skills.
Encourage clarity on people costs
It is tempting to exclude some people related expenses and leave it up to individual line managers to include in their departmental budgets. Some companies have very different approaches. I won’t try to get into the benefits or disadvantages of different ways of including or excluding costs, as often it is viewed more as a control issue, rather than a clear understanding of achieving better visibility and coordination. Still, I think it is inconsistent for a company to adopt a strong employer branding philosophy, only then to leave it up to individual managers to decide how much they would budget for recruitment advertising, at the risk of using inappropriate advertising for certain roles. My personal view is that all recruitment costs should reside with the HR function, as it is primary function of HR to ensure the organisation attracts the right people into the business. Get that right and many of the other people issues become secondary.
Be courageous and absorb the real people costs
Again, the CFO and the CEO would benefit from visibility of understand the total investment for staff development in a coordinated learning budget, for example. Some years ago I witnessed a number of managers simply excluding various approved corporate programs, due to repeated budget cuts. The inconsistency that resulted was a major concern for the national service provider, as well as those managers that wanted to retain the program but succumbed to their budget review cuts. A much better solution was for these company wide costs to be absorbed by the HR Department, despite concerns about ownership and control.
Provide value to the business
One of the companies I worked for, a contracting business, had an internal invoicing system, which meant all HR costs had to be recharged to a business unit. Every interview I did, every assessment I conducted, every reference check I completed, was charged to the hiring manager’s budget, subject to proper sign-off and acceptance. This was a great way to learn how to provide real value to internal customers. As a consultant, you will quickly discover that real customers only pay when they believe they have received real value. HR should often reflect on whether the business would really be willing to pay good money for some of their services. If not, those are the first services that should be reviewed during a budget exercise.
After saving a company $3 million a year in WorkCover premiums, through a best practice injury management program, I negotiated some people investments with the CEO in other areas. The credibility of the HR function is significantly improved when you can demonstrate real savings and value.
Embrace the budget process
If you are ready to review your budget process, to build closer relationships with the CFO, to define as many HR initiatives and services as projects – if you are keen to adopt a more effective commercial budget process and to deliver real value to the business – then you are ready to take a seat at the executive table as a respected contributor.
Building HR Credibility by Avoiding HR Speak
Posted by: | CommentsThe issue of HR speak is a real challenge, as it significantly impacts on the credibility of the HR function. It has become endemic to find a maelstrom of confusing terminology that does little to improve the practice of people management, and much to mystify managers and confuse employees, as well as damaging the credibility of HR.
Unfortunately, the by-product of too many consultants (speaking as a practicing consultant) is the temptation to develop a new definition or approach, just to differentiate, but adding another layer of complexity. Really good consultants don’t need to expound confusing terminology.
Perception of the HR function
A number of years ago, the Production Manager stormed into my office with the accusation – “Why are you HR people all the same?” I refrained from any defensive retaliation and asked him to elaborate. He explained that he was concerned that we were changing the performance review format. “What was wrong with the old one?” There was a decision by Head Office to change the format, and clearly the communication should have been better. After our discussion, I gained an enduring lesson for the future. Ensure that line managers can see the value of what you are doing in HR. Ideally, involve them in the process as much as you can. The best mid-year review process I ever developed was done in conjunction with a line manager and the HR team.
Recent Research
Recent research by Macquarie University suggests that the majority (sixty percent) of line managers actually believe and think that the HR function limits their ability to achieve business goals. This is a shocking state of affairs! As a manager told me recently, HR only tells me what I can’t do, yet what I need is some options on what I can do. The result is that HR is often seen as administrative compliance function, rather than as a strategic function.
HR still needs to build their credibility. There is a significant dichotomy in the perceptions of line managers and HR managers – which only really crystallized for me personally, when I was a line manager for three years, having to manage two divisions with 500 customers, as well as dealing with all the Finance and HR issues.
Lost in translation
Many HR Managers operate in the dark, so like the person looking for their lost keys under a lamppost, not because they lost it there, but because the light is better, we concentrate on peripheral issues that are flawed in design and susceptible to rejection.
Perhaps a good example will better illustrate my point. All organisations should have position descriptions, as role design and the allocation of responsibilities are at the heart of the organisational structure. During my involvement with various companies, I have discovered a long list of possible names, for essentially, the same document. Some of these descriptions include: Position Success Profile, Role Competency Profile, Job Description, Role Expectation Profile. I am sure readers could add to the list.
Admittedly, there has been a shift away from traditional job descriptions to a more blended approach of defining the role outputs and the required competencies, but the question remains – do we really need so many different descriptions for the same thing?
There is an almost unlimited level of creativity in creating new job titles, undoubtedly the fall-out from our confused approach to standard HR practices. Another example is the different descriptions for the HR function. We have all seen the shift from Personnel to HR, but from there it has become open season – Human Capital; People, Learning and Performance; Organisation Development; People and Culture – the combinations are confusing both internally and externally.
Effective ways to build credibility
The role of HR has never been more challenging, as we enter into this new era where HR is seen as a true business partner. It is only by clarifying and validating the role of HR, that we can also identify and measure the contribution of the HR function.
HR should discourage and refrain from the temptation to change terminology for the sake of terminology, especially in terms of employee communication and discussions with managers. Flavour of the month only stimulates inconsistency.
As a consultant, my first priority is to fully understand the needs and challenges of my clients, before I can provide them with sound advice. Only by first understanding, and then by meeting the core needs of the business and line managers, can HR create and establish a solid foundation to build on.
Let me use a final example. When you order a main course in a restaurant, you are more likely to order a tempting dessert if you were satisfied with your main meal. There is a real risk that HR may be too focused on added value projects, which are more challenging, and satisfying, rather than first delivering on the real needs of the business.
HR can and should deliver value across the business. There is much work still to do.
Social Media and HR – Building Employee Engagement
Posted by: | CommentsSocial Media has become an integral part of the way we live and work. It is hard to imagine that it is only twenty years since the Internet was created. According to Nielsen research, social network traffic grew by 43% from June 2009 to June 2010. Social network activity now dwarfs online games, email and search as the number one activity. Every single day more people are also now turning to their social networks, as the preferred way to find jobs.
Managers need to realise that social media is much more than Facebook or LinkedIn. There is also a level of skepticism and confusion about the value of social media. A communications manager recently told me that she was one of the first people to get a Twitter account, after attending a conference in New York. Currently she still has no active account, and perhaps due to her confusing initial experience, is now a social media skeptic.
The astronomical growth of social media has created new ways for companies and candidates to connect online. In the late seventies, the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, was written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie used Hynek’s scale of three types of encounters: sightings; observations of UFO’s; and human observation of animate beings.
Similarly, the involvement of Human Resources with the phenomena of Social Media can best be described and summarized at three distinct levels or types of encounters: compliance; sourcing; and engagement.
Level 1 –Compliance
Legal firms are frequently running workshops, as a number of employers are still working on an effective social media policy. Companies are struggling with dealing with how social networking sites may impact on their workplace, as well as trying to understand the laws and other factors that may impact their approach to social networking.
From a compliance perspective, companies may be concerned about the distractions of social media at work, and the consequences of privacy, bullying, and harassment issues that can follow.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia recently released their Social Media Policy, only to experience a massive backswing from employees and unions reacting angrily.
Companies need to design a policy framework on social networking sites, which also require education of employees on how to use social media sites in a meaningful way.
Level 2 – Sourcing
A recent survey (The Jobvite Survey: Job Seeker Nation 2010) highlighted that proactive career managers (defined as currently employed and open to a new job but are not actively seeking one) have a very social profile: Facebook (67%), Twitter (28%) and LinkedIn (28%). They are well connected with 52% having more than 50 contacts on Facebook.
Younger professionals are using the benefits of technology to build their networks faster, by generating more referrals online, as compared to previous generations that are still preferring more traditional methods.
Companies, such as Microsoft, have developed effective recruitment strategies to ensure they manage their online and offline presence to remain an employer of choice. This includes creating a supporting environment for recruits and utilising employee networks to reach those candidates that are not active job seekers.
Increasingly, Australian companies, such as Fosters (@FostersCareers), are building strong talent management teams, adept at using LinkedIn and other social media tools to attract top talent, inviting potential employees to learn more about a career with their business. Recruiters are often online for a period, with “Ask and Expert” segment, to answer any questions that applicants may have.
Level 3 – Engagement
Social networking sites can be great tools for attraction, recruitment, communication, connection and engagement. Social media has also created new business opportunities – a recent internet survey confirmed that 68% of users found LinkedIn the most valuable tool.
Internal social groups can be connected and engaged through the effective use of social media. Social media is a critical part of communication and collaboration technologies that can help to make people more productive. Clearly there is an opportunity for employees to share ideas, replacing the old style suggestion boxes with a more interactive process, which is being used by many forums to collect views from users.
An example is Salesforce.com which is using a Twitter-like product and calling the employees that are using it the “Chatterati”. These employees are getting their jobs done by using these tools, which creates value for the organization.
VicRoads are using Yammer, an internal “twitter” bringing together all of a company’s employees inside a private and secure enterprise social network. According to Judith Pettitt, Executive Director People Services and Internal Communications, more than 20% of their 3,000 employees are engaged in providing valuable shared knowledge on various business topics. It has been especially helpful in organisational problem solving and in ‘seeding’ ideas.
VicRoads has also supported a recent blog project where all staff were able to make improvement suggestions on line, comment on others suggestions and get feedback from the Corporate Leadership Team on implementing the proposals .Using contemporary communication tools makes such a difference to the immediate needs of staff to share their knowledge and effectively engage with each other.
Embracing the future
Companies need to embrace social media with the same vigour that the internet and websites are today an intrinsic part of the communication within a company. Often it is about making a start. The HR department is the custodian of employee communication. By developing social media strategically, the HR department can apply social media tools in an integrated way where they have real meaning.
Managers often feel a lack of control, particularly when a major change process is taking place. Rather than trying to control the process with zealous compliance, leaders need to embrace social media and encourage employees to use it meaningfully to improve engagement.
Companies are responding to the growing interest and investment in social media applications, to support the attraction and retention of talent. A few companies are taking a leadership position as visionaries by embedding social media as an integral part of their employee engagement strategy.
How To Increase Employee Engagement by 50%
Posted by: | CommentsGood people management is not difficult. However, research confirms that the large majority of employees are disengaged and increasingly cynical about the commitment of their employer to provide a great place to work. According to recent research conducted by employee engagement consultants Infogroup, Australia is placed seventh globally in terms of employee engagement, narrowly behind the United States and Germany. The research surveyed the views of 9,300 employees across the globe.
Some years ago I worked for a large manufacturing company, with the typical entry points where all staff had to clock in for their next shift. As is usual, staff would change into their work clothes and store their personal belongings in their locker. One of the production managers would often remark that it was such a shame that staff are leaving their initiative locked away as well, as they change into human robots, going through another boring twelve hour shift.
There are five highly effective strategies that can be adopted by any manager to significantly increase employee engagement by more than fifty percent. This article provides a brief overview on each of these strategies.
Role Clarity
Most employees go to work to do their best, though somehow it seems as if employers are making it as difficult as possible for an employee to do their job well. It all starts with having a clear job description of what is expected from them. Every manager has their specific expectations and standards, which needs to be shared with every new employee, or whenever there are any substantial changes. Employees are not mind readers and managers need to discuss and explore with employees what is expected of them. The key here is to focus on outputs or outcomes, not tasks or activities, as employees will become more engaged if they understand what is required, but have the opportunity to decide the best way to achieve the desired outcome.
Agreed Goals
Most jobs incorporate a long list of requirements. Some of these actions include daily actions, others weekly or monthly outputs, and others may be more project based or one-off assignments. Having a clear and agreed list goals is a very powerful way to hold employees accountable, provided they have been involved in developing the list of goals, which also makes it easier to get agreement. Too often, managers confuse KPIs or target measurements with goals that encapsulate the key priorities for the business, creating a strong alignment and making it more meaningful for the employee to see how they contribute to the business.
Regular Feedback
We all enjoy feedback, hearing that we are on track and doing a good job. Feedback should always be timely and regular, rather than creating a list which is only discussed every quarter or annually. Most managers dread giving feedback as they are used to a very formal process, rather than using role clarity and agreed goals as signposts that guide the feedback process, taking away the risk of becoming a very subjective discussion.
Learning Plan
Personal growth is often top of the list of motivators, reinforcing how all employees, and in particular Gen Y employees highly value any investment by their manager and the company to develop their skills and make them more employable. Having a highly developed structure of the role and how the employee is performing ensures that any training and development is of mutual benefit.
Career Discussion
No employee wants to be in a dead-end job, without any prospects of career progression. Once the employee has proved their performance and competence in their current role, it is essential to discuss how the learning plan is assisting the employee to be appointed into their next role, where role clarity kick-start the next cycle, in a virtuous cycle of employee engagement. The opportunity to rotate staff into other roles often creates new enthusiasm and also adds fresh skills, providing the employee with new career opportunities.
Increasing employee engagement is a major HR strategy for most organisations, and critical to make the employer a preferred employer of choice. If manager can nurture, develop and recognise the talents of employees, employees will be highly engaged and more likely to be retained. By using these five strategies, companies have been able to significantly increase their levels of employee engagement, by more than fifty percent, through better people management.
Why are you wasting your time with reference checking?
Posted by: | CommentsThe poor cousin of the recruitment process is the obligatory reference check. Too often it is nothing more than a perfunctory procedure to conclude an exhausting number of interviews.
Most reference checks are the outcome of a telephone conversation, as most recruiters will attach little weight to any written references. Many companies have policies prohibiting managers from providing written references, in light of potential litigation. Often the risks of providing references are overstated, resulting in limited information being provided, due to concerns about negligent referral or defamation. Privacy laws govern the contacting of referees and keeping of information. Though recruiters adopt a code of professional practice, the risk of hiring managers using their informal network to get anecdotal half-truths remains problematic.
A reference check is not a fishing expedition or idle gossip, but a structured and important part of the hiring process. Research has indicated that reference checks have about half the validity of structured interviews.
The declining value of reference checking is because it is badly done, rather than being of little value. The big challenge for recruiters is to develop a new and better way of conducting reference checks with a higher validity so that they can be more useful.
A Strategic Approach to Reference Checking
There are three very deliberate and strategic actions that recruiters can adopt to achieve significantly better results from reference checking. Having successfully implemented this approach in a number of companies, have also resulted in better retention of top talent.
(a) 360 Reference Checking
Extrapolating the benefits from 360 feedback systems, recruiters need to adopt a wider and more comprehensive approach by including:
Executives (one over one); Direct Manager; Peers; Direct reports; Clients and customers.
It is not sufficient to conduct only a minimum of two reference checks, which seems to be the general practice in many companies.
(b) Competence based Reference Checking
Often companies neglect the opportunity to assess competencies throughout the recruitment process. An ideal process would include screening, interviews, testing and reference checking– often the first and last are omitted or not performed as well.
Even during psychometric assessment there is often insufficient linkage to the specific position description and identified role competencies.
By clearly defining key competencies and developing structured reference checking techniques, a continuum of competence can be identified and validated throughout the recruitment process.
(c) Integrated Reference Checking
By consolidating the richer feedback of a wider group, information can be interpreted and validated. It is important to keep in mind that some referees may have worked with the candidate at different companies, which may add a different dimension in terms of performance results. Behavioural comments should however be consistent.
Requests for reference checking to be partly handled by an external recruiter and partly by the HR Manager or hiring manager should be strongly resisted. It is imperative that one person conducts all reference checks, otherwise the validity of the reference check will be variable.
Taking Action
In summary, companies can significantly influence the factors that determine the validity of reference checks. Recruiters can make a real contribution by improving the existing referencing checking process. There is no need for a non-rational fear that the reference checking process will capsize the recruitment just before landing the appointment.
Not only should reference checking assist to identify the competent but corrupt individual, but it actually reinforces the suitability and employability of good candidates, by providing a more complete process.
Reference checking is an important step in the recruitment process and needs to be elevated to equal status to other stages. The consequence of this for candidates will be to take much more time in discussing their career objectives and recruitment activities with their referees.
A well-prepared referee who has some understanding of the role that the candidate is being considered for will provide more useful and pertinent information during a more strategic reference check, making reference checking a more valuable recruitment activity.
Job Search Secrets
Posted by: | CommentsAs an expert in job search, I have published a free eBook on Job Search Secrets
I have also published a number of useful and interesting articles. These articles have been specifically written for the WorkLifeGroup, a career website that helps and empowers job seekers to take charge of their own career and to get a better job!
Please find below a number of links to get highly relevant articles to help any job seeker with their job search.
Finding a job in a difficult job market
Understand your personal strengths
Know your destination and find your next role
When it is time to make a career change – five reasons to move on to your next role
These articles have been written to provide practical advice to anyone looking to make a career change and searching for a new job.
Know your destination and find your next role
Posted by: | CommentsYou need a clear picture of your ideal next role, which you need to be able to describe succinctly to your networking contacts and recruiters.
The Origin of Interviews
Posted by: | CommentsIn my free eBook Job Search Secrets, I refer to job hunting is similar to hunting for a leopard (to photograph – they are such amazing animals).
The following video is a great example of interviewing and well worth watching.
Happy job hunting!
