The People Group

Author: Kevin Kennemer

  • We Do Not Hire Unemployed Candidates

    We Do Not Hire Unemployed Candidates

    We don’t hire unemployed candidates. Have you heard recruiters espouse this hiring policy?

    This idea is based on the premise only low performers are laid-off or fired. This can be a misguided recruiting philosophy.

    When companies are acquired, entire departments or divisions can be eliminated. Would it be accurate to presume all of these people are low performers?

    Mergers can displace workers and cause unemployment.

    Sometimes the best performers can be laid-off because they are not afraid to rock the boat.

    There are employees who keep to themselves and don’t make waves so they don’t stand out or take risks. Are they the best in talent?

    If your company follows the policy of not recruiting unemployed people, reconsider this misguided philosophy. You could be missing some great talent.

    (By the way, the following states have laws against this policy: New Jersey and Oregon. The District of Columbia and New York City also have laws preventing the discrimination against unemployed workers. It could also be said the policy has a disproportionately negative impact on protected applicants — both race and age.)

    What are your thoughts on the do-not-hire-the-unemployed policy?

  • If You’re Not Young You’re Too Old

    If You’re Not Young You’re Too Old

    That’s what workers over 50 are made to think. The workplace values Millennials over experienced workers.

    Ageism is an unspoken yet real workplace issue.

    Twenty percent of workers in the U.S. is 55 or older. Sixty-four percent claim they have experienced age discrimination in the workplace. Fifty-eight percent believe age discrimination begins in their 50s. (AARP)

    They are slow to adopt new technology. They can’t multitask. They can’t hustle and get things done. These are discriminatory misperceptions.

    There was a time when experience was valued. Younger workers were told they didn’t have enough experience. Now workers over 50 are too experienced. Recruiters recommend they shorten their work history and delete graduation dates on their resume.

    Of course, older workers are not told overtly, “you are too old for this position.” It is subtle. And it is extremely difficult to prove. But it is happening.

    Ageism works both ways. We shouldn’t discriminate against younger workers either. The deciding factor should be who is the most qualified and the right fit for the job.

    This is also a universal issue. Ageism impacts all people groups, regardless of race or heritage. All of us are getting older.

    Some organizations don’t even try to hide ageist employment practices. They boast their organization is youthful.

    Visit organizational career websites. View photos on company marketing materials. Which people group is highlighted? Mostly young, good looking people.

  • Live and Work with Perspective

    Live and Work with Perspective

    We all need perspective in our lives before we start our work day.  Perspective helps us understand how important daily issues really are in the whole scheme of life.  The issues and life events around us scream for our attention each day. Natural disasters, vehicle accidents, serious health conditions are all deliverers of perspective.

    Considering the multitude of unusual world events happening today, do you think the project you are working on right now is the most important priority in life? Is work more important than spending time with your family? Is delivering that report to your boss crucial to living a fulfilling life?  These are all easy answers when you possess perspective.

    I will be the first to admit I have not conquered living with perspective 24/7, yet it is still important to allow this quality much more room in our life.

    Work is important in the context of perspective.

    Company leaders who create great workplaces based on trust and respect understand perspective.  Flexibility is perspective. Calmness is perspective. Listening, not talking, provides perspective. Giving is perspective.

    Live and work with perspective.

  • A Question of Control

    A Question of Control

    The level of control a company wields over an employee has often been a concern of mine.  When an employee receives a paycheck for work performed, should they be expected to give up a certain amount of their God-given freedoms?

    I have found great companies provide an abundance of freedom.  On the other hand, companies that are barely surviving typically squeeze the very life out of their employees until they burn out.

    Greatness boils down to a question of control. How much control should an employer exert over an employee? Leaders who can inspire and motivate rather than direct and control are better equipped to build great companies with a positive work environment, along with competition-crushing financial results.

    A strong management presence stifles innovation, creativity and productivity.  These companies just don’t last.

    Maybe we don’t need managers. Give someone a supervisor title and they will direct, manage and control.  Unfortunately, certain individuals desire, even lust, for control over others.

    Replace control with freedom so you can experience innovation, creativity and productivity.

  • Eleven Steps to Create a Magnetic Field for Talent

    Eleven Steps to Create a Magnetic Field for Talent

    How do you create a magnetic field for talent? Here are a few tips that might help:

    #1 Sincerity: Show sincere care and concern for your employees. Ask them about their families and how they are doing.  Learn the names of their spouse, significant other and/or children. Show a desire to hear what is going on in their lives.  You can build a solid working relationship with your employees as long as you are sincere.

    #2 Commitment: Be committed to your team and back them up when they need help. If someone makes a mistake, help them to learn from the experience rather than using discipline.  Make sure they know you have their back if something goes wrong.

    #3 Professional Behavior: Adopt and model professional behavior. Treat people with dignity, trust and respect, especially during difficult days or projects.

    #4 Trust: Show by your daily actions that your employees can trust you.  Do what you say. Don’t prolong decision-making. Allow your people to find their own innovative ways to make things better.  And don’t micromanage; resist this nasty, team-busting temptation. Trust is a delicate and very important trait of a good leader.  It take time to gain trust, but only seconds to lose it.

    #5 Share Information: Openly share information with your people.  Keep them informed of what is going on in the company.  Withholding information and frequently conducting closed-door meetings creates speculation and suspicion.

    #6 Be Accessible: If your employees need you, make time for them regardless of how busy you might be.

    #7 Show Appreciation: It is human nature to desire recognition and praise for a job well done.  Celebrate accomplishments.  Providing food is usually a good idea too.

    #8 Coach: Transform your management model from “boss” to “coach.”  Provide input and immediate feedback. Your job is not to reprimand but to motivate and help build a team atmosphere.

    #9 Family: Work to provide a sense of family. People want to feel they  belong to a team that is making an impact. This environmental factor will create a magnetic field that holds onto your people and attracts and retains the best and brightest talent.

    #10 Flexibility: Focus on results rather than time spent in a cubicle or monitoring what time they arrive or leave the office, or how long an employee is at lunch.  Instead of focusing on face time, focus on their ability to get work done.  Have high expectations and expect results while being flexible. Most people have responsibilities outside of work and are doing their best to balance work and life.  Good employees find a way to get it all done, and on time.  Poor performers cannot survive in a flexible environment that is focused on results.

    #11 Fun: Great leaders include fun in the mix. Make work fun when and wherever possible. Teams who laugh together stay together.

    Note: Some steps are based on research by the Great Place to Work Institute.

  • How Candidate Experience Impacts Hiring

    How Candidate Experience Impacts Hiring

    Guest Blog by Kevin McCrann

    Every single candidate can be an ambassador or a critic of your company. It’s important to ensure a positive impression and candidate experience, regardless of the offer.

    In a recent CareerBuilder survey, 56% of candidates said they think less of a company if they have a bad experience with the company’s HR technology and 38% of companies have lost a candidate due to a negative background check experience.

    How can you improve your candidate’s experience? We outline 3 suggestions: Test your Processes, Know the Standard, and Use the Best.

    Test Your Process

    Your recruitment process reflects on your business. Everything from the way the job description is written and where it is posted, to how and when you reach out to applicants, to how you manage necessary recruitment steps like background checks.

    You can expect that the best candidates will be interviewing at other companies and will have high standards about what they expect in an application process.

    Have you tested what your interview process looks like for candidates? Specifically the aspects that are out of your control, like the background check experience? According to that CareerBuilder survey released in August “less than half of HR managers who conduct background checks (44 percent) have tested their background check experience themselves.” The survey goes on to note that when the process is tested, about 14% (1 in 6) rate the experience negatively.

    An obvious way to test your background check experience is to run through it yourself or have a colleague test it. This can be a good start, but might not give you honest feedback since your perception, as an employee in HR at the company, will be different than the typical candidates.

    In addition to internal testing, we recommend asking actual candidates their opinion. Once the recruitment process is finished, randomly select a few people that have made it into your selection process. Workforce magazine suggests bucketing your survey candidates into 3 categories: those that interviewed but were not offered a position, those that were offered and accepted a position, and those that were offered and declined a position. Workforce also has sample surveys that you can use to gauge your candidate’s entire recruitment experience.

    Candidate experience is an important metric when determining the effectiveness of your recruitment process. It’s important to test all the parts of your process including the background check experience.

    Know the Standard

    According to the CareerBuilder survey, poorly conducted background checks are one of the most common reasons for an employer to lose a candidate that has already accepted the job offer. In fact they state that 21% of employers have lost a candidate, who had already accepted the job offer, because the background screening process took too long.

    All things being equal, a completed background check should be returned within 1-3 days. There are a couple of caveats that go along with this turnaround time, including the type of report that is requested, but your background check company should be able to explain them.

    If you know the standards for the different aspects of your recruitment process it is easier to improve them. Remember, an average is just as close to the top as it is to the bottom. You should be constantly striving for above average.

    Use the Best

    The largest factor in a candidate’s experience is the interactions with any third party company’s they need to cooperate with. Any time you need to outsource a section of your interview process to another company it is worth it to do your research and use the best. Not all companies, especially background check companies, are equal and as with most things, you get what you pay for.

    If you are looking for a professional background check company specifically, read this first: The 6 Questions You Need to Ask When Choosing a Professional Background Check Company.

    Conclusion

    The candidate experience is crucial to finding and obtaining the top talent. If you can test your processes, know the standards to compare against, and use the best partners, you can improve your candidates experience and become the company people want to work for.

  • Five Recommendations to Build a Better-Than-Advertised Company Culture

    Five Recommendations to Build a Better-Than-Advertised Company Culture

    Author and speaker Steve Furtick says the reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel. Many of us have experienced the struggle between social media hype and the realities of life.

    There are friends on Facebook, for example, who I unfollow because they routinely post boastful statuses complete with photographs of their latest luxurious family vacation. Their lives may be exceedingly wonderful, or it could be super fluff.

    Similarly, to compensate for a poor company culture, a public relations and human resource department may work around-the-clock to convince the outside world otherwise. Their social networks are merely a means to overcompensate for bad organizational behavior.

    When you try to convince the public your culture is perfect, it serves to further harm your internal reputation. The conflicting message damages the company’s ability to engage and retain employees. We want to be like other companies who broadcast organizational perfection. Our competitor’s employee experience is better than ours, we think. We begin to question whether we are as good as our competition down the digital street.

    As an organizational leader, endeavor to make your behind-the-scenes culture better than your competitor’s highlight reel. Don’t worry about your external image more than your internal one. Repair your internal image and your external image will advertise itself.

    Becoming an award-winning great place to work is more than creating a beautiful video, modern office space and a social networking package to attract talent. A truly great workplace is about building an authentic company culture that is better than advertised.

    Consider these five recommendations to build a better-than-advertised company culture:

    #1 – Find Your Soul

    Award-winning great workplaces are in touch with their souls. An organization’s soul is more than the mission, vision or values statement. The soul is the reason for being; the organization’s essence. Soul is the why. Find, define and communicate that essence, and your employees will learn how to do what needs to be done. Employees of great workplaces understand the reason – the why – for their organization’s existence.

    #2 – Live Your Values

    Whether at work or home, leaders and employees should live your organization’s values. That’s one good reason to hire for culture fit; people whose values are in sync with the company will not be required to lead bifurcated lives. When leaders and employees live these values at work and home, your company culture will be truly special.

    #3 – Release Brand Ambassadors

    Allow employees to tell your excellent story. When they are sold on the company’s true identity and enjoy working for you, they will enthusiastically broadcast your message. Your employees (and applicants) will become brand ambassadors. When employees are treated like customers, they will provide first-class treatment to customers.

    #4 – Listen to Online Comments

    Don’t dismiss what people say online about your company. Just as customer comments are crucial to business success, employee and applicant feedback is as much, or more, important. Analyze and gracefully respond to the good and bad things said on social networks. Dismiss their words at your peril. Bad comments can be put to good use and make you better.

    #5 – Pursue Awards for the Right Reasons

    Becoming a great place to work is not a marketing strategy. Employees will see right through those motives. Seek a great place to work award because you have built a special workplace. Go through the best workplace process because you have a good workplace and want to become better. Don’t seek an award because it’s just another trophy that will look good on your website or annual report.

    Article originally posted on Best Employee Surveys Blog.

  • The Rumor Mill at Work

    The Rumor Mill at Work

    If you are a business leader working to create a great workplace built on trust and respect, the typical company grapevine and rumor mill can work against your best efforts.  The people who tend to run these unofficial underground communication systems may not always be healthy for your organization.  These messages can work against your great workplace strategy.  In other words, the water cooler can be a toxic meeting place.

    Not everyone will join the great workplace movement with your leadership team, even though they are proven to be the most financially successful, innovative, creative and long-term successful organizations.  Not everyone wants to play nice.  And there are those who prefer to create turmoil and misery in the workplace.  Toxic employees and managers can feed the unofficial communication pipeline with questionable information merely to stir up controversy.

    According to grapevine experts, the majority of water cooler talk doesn’t really happen at the water cooler any more.  Employee chatter, rumors, gossip and grapevine banter transpires at company kitchens, breakrooms and social media.  Although a certain amount of communication through the grapevine is to be expected – and can be utilized as a positive tool by leadership – the vine can cross the line and hurt innocent people inside or outside your organization.

    When leaders work to create a great work environment, it is a good idea to squelch rumors fairly quickly to prevent people from getting hurt.  Observing the grapevine participants allows leaders to determine who may or may not be a good cultural fit.

    In companies where there is little communication coming down from the top, grapevine traffic will increase to counterbalance the information void.  The problem occurs when the information being distributed through the vine is purely speculative, untrue or aimed at individuals that could be devastating.  Leaders need to be careful not to be held hostage by the gatekeepers, gossips, rumormongers and snitches that can overrun a company if they are not properly dealt with, according to Paul Falcone, a human resource executive and best-selling author of several human resource books.  He defines the different types of grapevine participants, as follows:

    • Gossips: These folks typically initiate unfounded rumors.  They obtain power from having the “scoop.”
    • Rumormongers: Perpetuate rumors even if they are completely untrue, lack a foundation in truth or could damage the reputation of a coworker.
    • Snitches: This role is fairly self-explanatory.  Snitches derive their power from sharing juicy information that is usually hurtful to others.  Playing the role of a tattletale is just plain wrong.

    When someone volunteers a juicy piece of information while you make your morning or afternoon run to the break room, do you choose to participate, even if the information could be hurtful or degrading to a fellow employee? It is best to live by higher standards and refuse to listen to or perpetuate company gossip.  Creating a great workplace requires a certain amount of discipline.

    Image Credit: A.V. Club

  • When Good People Do Nothing

    When Good People Do Nothing

    Does your company allow bullying to occur in your workplace?

    If so, does your company also promote themselves as a responsible corporate citizen, espouse social responsibility, healthy living, nutrition and exercise, and charitable giving? If you answered yes to both these questions, welcome to Corporate America’s Hall of Contradictions.

    Let’s talk about one of those big, nasty, dirty secrets hanging in Corporate America: workplace bullies and the adverse health affects levied on their targets.  Left alone, workplace bullies cause a rolling tide of unjustified terminations, needless resignations, disrupted careers, tormented families, plus excessive and needless medical expenses on their unsuspecting targets.

    With limited support, denials and misunderstandings by coworkers and family members, feelings of embarrassment, suicide is sometimes the  eventual self-prescription for targets looking for escape from these ruthless corporate terrorists. Does this sound like corporate social responsibility?

    Workplace Bullying Defined

    The Workplace Bullying Institute’s definition of workplace bullying is “repeated, health-harming, mistreatment of one or more persons by one or more perpetrators that takes one or more of the following forms:

    • verbal abuse,
    • offensive conduct/behaviors (including nonverbal) which are threatening, humiliating, or intimidating,
    • work interference – sabotage – which prevents work from getting done.”

    Workplace bullying is much more than simple incivility. It goes way beyond rudeness.  The problem is that bullies are quite clever in their attacks.  With limited or no training to deal with ruthless workplace bullies, the executive team rarely comes to the aid of the target.

    edmund burke

    When Human Resources is Not Humane

    Think your human resources department will help?  Think again. Human resource professionals have largely sided with workplace bullies because they lack the fortitude to stand up against tyrants who typically carry political clout inside the organization. Most human resource professionals are more interested in career preservation than upholding a positive and humane corporate culture.  Without a CEO who demands zero tolerance for bullies, the inmates soon take control over the prison, if you know what I mean.

    The Health Effects

    As a result, the continued abuse leads to health-harming treatment.  According to the 2017 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey, 40% of targeted individuals suffer stress-related health problems, which include:

    • Hypertension, strokes and heart attacks
    • Neurotransmitter disruption, hippocampus shrinkage
    • Immunological impairment; more frequent infections of greater severity
    • Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
    • Debilitating anxiety, panic disorders
    • Clinical depression
    • Post-traumatic Stress Disorder from deliberate human-inflicted abuse
    • Lost ability to be left alone to do the once-loved job

    The Career Affects

    According to the 2017 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey, the future is not very bright for the targets of bullying.  In most cases, the clever corporate terrorist wins, as depicted below:

    • 71% of employer reactions are harmful to targets
    • 60% of coworker reactions are harmful to targets
    • To stop it, 65% of targets lose their original jobs

    Take a Stand

    If you have a coworker currently encountering a workplace bully, assemble as many employees and managers as possible to calmly and respectfully fight back.  Faced with numbers, a bully will typically back down because deep down they are weak and frightened.  Silence, fear and a culture where employees do not come to the aid of their coworkers is an environment that allows this corporate terrorism to thrive.

    If you have a friend or family member who is currently encountering a workplace bully, listen to them and become their advocate.  Encourage them to seek professional help from a qualified counselor who has dealt with workplace bullying cases. At some point a decision will need to be made whether a job change should be made and the target will likely need your objective opinion and guidance during a tumultuous time.

  • 5 Ways to be Productive without Looking Busy

    5 Ways to be Productive without Looking Busy

    Many employees fear they need to always look busy, even if they are taking a short break or silently thinking through a work issue.

    Workers feel the pressure to look busy even if they are faking it. This pressure to look busy is not the answer to corporate performance.

    The corporate world tries to create mindless employees who simply follow rules and the status-quo. Looking busy is better than innovating their way to the top.

    That’s why companies like Google, SAS and Zappos are extremely successful; employees are allowed to enjoy life while they work and do not fear losing their jobs.

    Here are five possible examples where employees could be developing the next business break-through, yet don’t look busy, according to our outdated cubicle-dwelling mindset.

    #1

    A marketing manager of a small manufacturing firm is drinking coffee at the local Starbucks and writes a marketing plan outline on a napkin. The company later goes international and is wildly successful, thanks to quiet time at Starbucks.

    #2

    The purchasing agent of a paper mill is trying to save costs and takes time to go eat lunch at a park and watch birds finding worms, building nests and small children playing with their parents nearby. He develops a simple solution while in the midst of nature.  His picnic inspired idea proves to be successful and saves the company millions of dollars.

    #3

    In the middle of a weekday afternoon, the human resource director takes two fellow employees to a documentary movie about the new world of work.  They are watching the documentary, eating popcorn and drinking Coca-cola.  Doesn’t look like work. But the outing turned into a serious planning session on preparing the company for the workforce of the future.

    #4

    A CEO instructs two rival vice presidents who run separate divisions that are always clashing and causing destructive turf wars to join professional climbers on a Friday afternoon. Their assignment? Help each other scale down from the top of a forty-five story building with ropes and other climbing equipment. Suddenly, a sincere trust develops between these once rivaling executives when they safely make it to the ground.  Did that look like normal work?

    #5

    The CEO of a large corporation learns how to smoke ribs and chicken and regularly helps serve over one-thousand employees during afternoon picnics.  He chats and laughs with employees as they get their food and as he mingles among the crowd.  Was this traditional work? No, but it led to an exponential increase in productivity, teamwork and problem-solving.

    Sometimes not working is productive and working is not productive.  We all know that trying to look busy is not working.  Live your life and work your work.