“Challenge Consulting have added considerable value to Energetics for our long term needs”
Most employers understand that the most important asset a company has is its people. In fact, a recent study by Indiana University found that 10% of productivity comes from the top 1% of employees and 26% of output derives from the top 5%.
This means attracting and keeping top talent is imperative if you want to achieve top results.
But if you’re an SME, you’re probably wondering what you can do to secure top talent before the Fortune 500’s stake their claim.
The short answer is to work on your employer brand.
An employer’s brand is what communicates to potential employees what it’s like to work for your company. It shows your value proposition as an employer and what makes your company a great place to work. Companies that have clearly defined employer brands can attract up to 3.5 times more applicants per job listing than similar companies in the same sector.
When creating an employer brand, you need to start by identifying who your target employees are. Are you looking for candidates with years of experience? Or, are you trying to attract ambitious graduates? In each case, how you brand yourself is going to be different.
For example, a recent Accenture study revealed that millennials prefer to work in companies that have a creative and fun culture and that provide ample opportunities for career advancement, both of which were considered more important than salary.
More experienced candidates, who have been in the workforce for a number of years, are more likely to have family responsibilities, and according to a recent survey by Seek, are looking for job security, work-life balance, and salary, rather than a fun culture.
Many SME’s are already good at providing what top talent is looking for; it’s just a matter of getting the message out there. So, once you decide what type of employee is the best fit for your organisation, you need a branding strategy that appeals to this target group.
A great place to start is your company’s website. Besides being a great place to position yourself as a thought leader in your field, you can also use it to broadcast your employer brand message clearly, particularly in your ‘About Us’ and ‘Work for Us’ pages. Social media also provides great opportunities. Make sure your current employees are regularly posting on your LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter profiles, as they are the best brand ambassadors you have.
As long as you are consistent with your brand messaging, and make sure the wording in your job listings matches your overall brand message, you should find that you are attracting high quality candidates. And this is great news for your bottom line.
I asked a millennial a straightforward question: ‘Have you ever had a performance review?’ ‘Yes, and it sucked’, he replied.
He’s a motivated, engaged worker who routinely exceeds his monthly targets, so I’m sure it wasn’t his rating he was unhappy with; it was the process. We know it needs to change; after all, the workplace has changed profoundly in the last decade. We make decisions more collaboratively, we work in global teams, our work is more data-driven and information overload is a constant stressor.
This young person described his ideal alternative to a performance review to me and it boiled down to three things:
And while these are all really important to him, he doesn’t want them to be onerous or too time-consuming; not for him, his manger or the people in HR.
I participated in a webinar hosted by Halogen Software, in which presenters Evelyn Watts and Hawley Kane outlined five alternatives to the annual review. I’m sure my millennial mate, as well as any of the other three or four generations in the workplace, will find an alternative that suits their workplace and their people.
It’s important. Watts and Kane reported that when organisations began to focus on coaching and feedback in their ongoing performance management they reported:
So here are the five alternatives that Watts and Kane of Halogen Software suggest.
Frequent revision and updating of goals leads to better business outcomes. It’s common for executive teams to review their goals as often as five times a year; employees are unlikely to do the same.
Step one is to align individual goals with strategic goals; and step two is to set concrete goals with a target and a measurement. It is then critical to keep on track and stay engaged, which is accomplished by regular and specific feedback and discussion. As Halogen is a software company, it has clever computer-based ways to manage these processes and keep them front of mind.
In the contemporary workplace, especially for millennials, the reality is that 18 to 24 months in a job is normal. In this time, employer and employee want to get the most from each other. Holding development discussions that challenge everybody is the manager’s challenge. The process should be honest and open, with the manager acting as coach, not boss.
It is still important that the process be formal and that a solid development plan results from it. Halogen’s career development plan asks, ‘Where do you want to be in two years?’ The manager is then challenged to identify appropriate development plans to help the team member reach their career goals. They must keep the conversation going, periodically asking, ‘how are we doing?’ and at the end of the year asking, ‘did we get there?’ before creating the next plan.
One of the things my millennial mentioned in describing how his reviews sucked was that although his manager felt she had the full picture of his achievements, he didn’t believe that she did, as he did some of his best work on a project in another team, some of whom were in another city. Well-conducted 360 degree reviews overcome this as workers are far more accepting of performance feedback when it comes from multiple sources. Halogen reports more accurate, credible and reliable performance appraisal ratings, improved performance and higher functioning teams as well.
These are their guidelines
Teaching people how to give and receive feedback is important for this approach to be successful, and feedback should flow up as well as down the company hierarchy.
Reviewing the success of a project and the people working on it aligns better with the way many companies work now. This method is not limited to the employee-manger relationship and is flexible in that it can launch any time and team leaders can manage their own project teams and set project goals and measurements. Project reviews should incorporate continuous feedback to work most effectively, say Watts and Kane.
Watts and Kane refer to frequent, regular one-on-one conversations as the ‘Holy Grail’ of performance management. They link coaching and feedback to goals, development, rewards and ultimately career progression. Because they are so important, we will look at these in detail in our next post about performance reviews.
Progress, not perfection
In the webinar’s question time a participant said that they presently had no performance reviews, and asked how to get started. Training people to understand the benefits, linking goals (the what) and competencies (the how) and changing the mindset of managers all formed part of the answer, but what really resonated was Watts and Kane’s assertion that you can start tomorrow with these five methods.
We know the performance review has to change, and we can take small steps, aiming for progress rather than perfection. Work is changing so fast that we can’t afford not to – improving conventional approaches is not going to cut it and the annual review is becoming less effective at driving performance every year.
By Alison Hill
You may be coming towards the end of your studies, or planning resource use in your organisation for 2016. Whether you’re entering the workforce, managing young employees or thinking about a career change, it’s time to think about career choices.
Making a career decision is hard. We all hope for a satisfying job that pays well, makes us feel valued and takes us to the next step, but none of us is 100% sure how to do that. It doesn’t help that the world of work is changing faster than ever, and nobody really knows how it will look even five years from now.
Occupations that have been secure in the past are disappearing due to technological change and outsourcing. Forbes magazine predicts the disappearance of farmers, the postal service, data entry, fast-food cooks and loan interviewers and clerks, to name a few. We’re told the future is in medical and health services (especially aged care) and software development. We’re told that the future belongs to the millennial generation, but that they are lazy, narcissistic and entitled. What do we do?
Both those looking to start a career and those managing the new generation of employees can benefit greatly from entering into a mentoring relationship around career choice. Let’s look at how.
Starting out on your career?
Whether you are in a full-time paid position, working as an intern or volunteering, find somebody in your workplace who will act as your mentor. Some workplaces have formal mentoring relationships set up. If not, find somebody who is willing to give you advice and be interested in your professional and personal growth.
Here’s some advice from a 23-year-old sales professional: Find a position in a growing organisation where leaders are striving to improve themselves and their people. Managers should excel at providing honest, critical feedback. Crave this feedback – it’s what makes you grow.
Remember, too, that you can give back. Whether it’s sharing your millennial world view with a Gen X or Baby Boomer manager or simply showing them how to work an app or use social media effectively, you bring value to the mentoring relationship.
Managing those starting out?
If you are managing those starting their careers, you are privileged to have the opportunity to cultivate future leaders. For companies to thrive, the next generation of employees must succeed, and you can help them. Offer to guide and develop a new employee. Give them plenty of feedback and stay connected. The millennial generation have grown up in a connected world and they genuinely want to know what you think, and for you to listen to and respect their views too. Accept that you will not be their one and only mentor, or their guru – they have a few. You are also entitled to expect something in return, and a motivated new employee will be pleased to contribute to your goals and take on some of your burdensome tasks.
The same 23-year-old would tell you that they aim to be surrounded with people smarter and wiser than themselves – in everything they do. ‘Discussing ideas with really smart, wise people is the quickest way to get smarter and wiser yourself. You’ll learn skills that aren’t taught in traditional education. If you don’t come across people like this in your daily routine, use the internet to find articles and videos from such people.’
So whatever stage you are at in your career, consider a mentoring arrangement. It will benefit you in surprising ways no matter which side of the arrangement you are on.
Has your career benefited from being in a mentoring arrangement? Tell us about it in the comments below.
