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people Archives - SourceMatch

Nov 16
1
recruiting quotes

10 Recruiting Quotes that your Business Needs to be Aligned with

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Here are the top 10 recruiting quotes that inspired us in the day-to-day operations and decision-making processes. We hope you find them useful, whether you are a recruiter or a hiring manager.

1. “People are not assets – they are highly valuable human resources that determine your competitive advantage. ” SourceMatch

Human resources can be the biggest differentiator for businesses in the marketplace, and hence should be a priority. Why? Products, decisions, strategies, brand, values, are all created and managed by people.

With all the challenges of today’s economy, businesses need the right people to address them, to innovate, and push the company forward. By doing that, businesses can develop a significant competitive advantage.

2. “Sourcing and finding people is very important. You can’t recruit, message, or network with someone you haven’t found.” Glen Cathey

As the workforce becomes broader and more diversified, recruiters need to cast a wider net and need sharper tools to find the needle in the haystack. We have to go outside of general recruiting channels that are flooded with very active candidates, and focus on the passive candidates. Most of them are not looking to change jobs and are successful in their current role.

3. “A recruiting company should be viewed as a business partner, someone who is critical to the success of the business.” Mathew Caldwell

You need two hands if you want to clap! The recruiting process should be viewed as a partnership where you get to know each other, you focus on everybody benefiting from it, and create long-term relationships. When that happens, a recruiting partner will boost your ability to reach the best talent faster and will make any cost associated with it easily justifiable.

4. “Trust your recruiters to be your digital warriors. Don’t second guess them.” Celinda Appleby

Recruiters, first of all, listen to your needs. You have to share the context of the role, the job description, the organization’s vision, values, and objectives. That will help them have a holistic view of the candidate that could be a perfect match. Achieving that at the forefront of the recruiting process will set it up for success, and clarify expectations.

5. “The more seriously you take your growth, the more seriously your people will take you.” John Maxwell

Employees are motivated by leaders, and if leaders see beyond the title and job description, so will the employees. If your employees understand your vision, the big picture, and know their part, they will be willing and capable of contributing exponentially to the company’s goals.

6. “Hire for passion and intensity; there is training for everything else.” Nolan Bushnell

What do you need to know about your future employees? Skills and experience are important but should only come second to their attitude. That’s what you need to consider first in the hiring process.
For instance, when you review their resume, it’s quite easy to follow tangible outcomes, results, and facts. However, what matters is “HOW” they worked towards those results. Was it because of their dedication to client satisfaction? Was it because of their positive attitude despite challenges in the process? Was it because they proactively thought of potential drawbacks? Answers to questions like these will show you the true attitude of the person beyond the resume, and help you understand whether you need to hire them or not.

7. “Accept the fact that AI will change our work, but look at it as an enabler of your work and the future of talent acquisition.” Przemek Berendt

According to a Deloitte Bersin report, companies that use AI, predictive data analytics and other technology tools are more successful than those who don’t. However, AI needs to be a tool that complements our own abilities. In talent acquisition, AI is especially helpful in making sense of large volumes of applications, effective usage of time in reviewing the required skills and clarity of one’s experience in their resume. Naturally, there are still parts of the recruiting process which are inherently still most effective when handled by human resources. For instance, the interviewing process will allow the recruiter to get to know a candidate based on their nonverbal communication, which is estimated to account for up to 93% of all communication.

8. “Understanding what “best talent” looks like is a journey into your organizational culture.” SourceMatch

Think this way: there are great candidates out there. But hiring someone that matches your job description isn’t enough. What does “best” mean to you and to your organizational culture? They’ll need to align with your vision, mission, and values, to ensure that they are going in the same direction as the company. Otherwise, those new employees won’t be able to contribute to the company’s momentum for growth. This is why your vision, mission, and values determine what “best” means, how it’s measured and appreciated.

9. “Interviews don’t need to be stressful, neither for recruiter or candidate, but rather a pleasant incursion into one’s experience, personality, abilities, and potential.” SourceMatch

Beautiful isn’t it? Or at least it should be! Hiring managers are responsible for creating the right experience for candidates being interviewed. They will influence the candidate’s’ openness to be transparent and fair about their responses but also create the right setting for a two-way street. We are used to thinking that candidates show up at interviews just for the job, but the truth is that it’s the perfect time for companies to have a positive impression on them too.

10. “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” Red Adair

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the price of a bad hire is at least 30 percent of the employee’s first-year earnings. It’s easy to dismiss a candidate based on salary alone and the true cost of a bad hire is only visible after a few months. Not paying attention in the first place can lead to a mismatch of expectations, bruised personalities, useless conflicts, financial and sometimes motivation loss. So think well and evaluate what’s the trade-off between candidate salary levels, expertise, abilities, and especially attitude.

Reach out to us to learn more.

Nov 05
3

What is the Greatest Challenge in Talent Acquisition?

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Starting with the recruiter, the hiring manager, and any other decision makers in an organization, the greatest challenge in Talent Acquisition is related to people. Specifically, maintaining a clear understanding of why you are hiring and a human approach to the whole organizational brand, market presence efforts, and recruiting process.

Not doing that, will lead both organizations and candidates to a mere transactional interaction that a) attracts the wrong candidates and b) gives the organization the wrong idea about the recruiting process’ quality.

So how do companies lose grip on what really matters in searching and hiring for talent?

1. Focus on speed and KPIs only – it’s easy to look at numbers and say – we are doing good, but that’s just one side of performance in talent acquisition. A healthy process includes assessing behavioral traits and the candidate’s behavior in certain situations, assessment of skills in terms of real-life examples and situations (and correlated outcomes) when these were acquired or exhibited, and an evaluation of the basic values that are required to have a good cultural fit.  Ultimately, the validation of all of these after 3, 6 or 12 months is what improves talent acquisition. You want to check in on how well you have been selecting candidates, and whether your expectations, observations, and predictions have materialized. Things such as dedication, initiative, and cultural adjustment take time to prove. Pay extra attention to how new hires (last 9 months) react to pressure, high risk or failure.

2.  Superficial screening based on skills only – while skills are an important part in figuring out whether a candidate is a good fit for the organization, it’s insufficient. A candidate’s personality, resulting behavior, potential, expectations, ambitions and motivators, the capability to add value through different perspectives, etc., are all important. In essence, evaluating a candidate is more than mere math. Of course, it’s very useful to quantify all of the above through various assessments scores and different interviewers, but not at the expense of a complete understanding of who the candidate is and what they can bring to your organization.

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
– Benjamin Franklin

Some new hires might not have a lot to show for in terms of previous quantifiable results and performance. They bring all of their positive attitudes, determination, curiosity, and resilience to the table. When all interview conclusions and assessment scores indicate a high-potential candidate, despite the lack of experience, be straightforward with candidates about your concern. Let them know that you recognize their value, but that results are an essential part of long term success and fit in the organization.

3. The influx of data, easiness of access to dozens of resumes databases, and growth, by any means, are some other causes of poorly structured talent acquisition. Talent acquisition, beyond recruitment, is meant to create a clear representation in the market of who the organization is, and who it’s trying to attract. In other words, the organization’s brand and what a successful candidate looks like. Failing to paint the right picture in both these areas can significantly affect retention and performance.

If that’s the case you might think all companies might be prone to bad hiring decisions. You would be right! Organizations who intentionally pursue excellence in the recruiting process will attract the best talent in the labor market. It’s the only way to stand out in the crowd of poor talent acquisition practices.

It all needs to start with planning the recruitment process end to end.

  • When an opening is created – understand how it will fit the overall organization, departments or team it’s part of; how it contributes to a company’s or project’s goals; is it meant to be a long term position, and if so what career advancement will it offer; based on past experience with similar positions, there are factors that lead to success or the opposite way – know these before you look for people, etc.
  • How does the job description describe the requirements, complexity, and opportunity of the position? Do you have a clear description of the organizational environment with advantages as well as limitations (i.e. startup vs corporate)? Include factors you know will help new hires succeed. Some may not find themselves in the Job description, and if you’ve done your homework putting well it together, that’s exactly what you want.
  • Do you provide candidates reaching the interview stage an even deeper understanding of the company’s vision, mission and goals? Candidates (future employees for some) like to have clarity as to what they’re getting themselves in. Anything else and you are pursuing a transactional approach to recruiting. When you have clarity about the growth objectives of the company and can portray it clearly, candidates won’t have to wonder what’s their role in the “greater scheme of things”

“To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.”
– Oscar Wilde

  • Be human about it all – treat people with dignity and respect. Every single time. The more you do it, the more natural it will be. That implies the golden rule doing to others as you would expect others to do toward you. If you expect some kind of feedback after an interview, so do your candidates. Do you care to improve how well you control your emotions and anxiety when interviewing? So do they. Include genuine advice to help them for their next interview. If you are hiring someone while making a concession regarding the requirements, you have to be transparent about it so they know what is it that led to your decision.

 

Don’t take shortcuts. Shortcuts become huge further in the recruiting process. Anytime your talent acquisition team takes shortcuts, the organization ends up with a mismatch between people, jobs, and growth potential. That can cost your organization up to 2.5 times annual salaries for each poorly made new hire.

 

Oct 17
7
workplace

Common Causes of Inefficiency at the Workplace

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There are books written about the subject, but we will only touch on 8 causes that we believe have the most negative impact on workplace efficiency:

Poor fit between the person, the position and the organization.

It’s no secret that companies make poor hiring decisions all the time. As an employer, you owe it to your employees to be transparent. Talk to them about how they feel about their job, how well they think they’re doing, and even be ready to work out a transition plan into a different position. It might be their strength aren’t aligned with their current role. There’s no reason why they or the organization should continue to pretend all is well.

A disconnect between cause and effect, work and outcome.

We tend to “give work” to our teams and expect them to understand the effect it will have on the organization down the line. However, when we tie outcome to work/input, it helps people understand the value of their work in the final product or service and give them a sense of urgency and importance. It can easily be explained by asking one simple question: “what would happen to the product/service if you stopped doing what you’re doing?”

Lack of clarity regarding how responsibility is assigned

Have you ever had to complain about something over to customer support and were passed on to the next “representative” for a solution, or told that “it’s out of our hands?” That’s what lack of clarity regarding responsibility looks like. In an organization where people have no idea who is responsible for what, or even worse, know they are responsible but they will pass it on anyhow, inefficiency reins!
Responsibility needs to be assigned to people in the organization to the extent of roles – i.e. if someone is responsible to deliver a service and misses a deadline, then that’s their responsibility entirely. If they miss it twice, then it’s the manager’s responsibility. If the manager doesn’t feel compelled to address the issue, neither will their report.
Assign responsibility and hold people accountable for the quality of their work!

Nepotism – it doesn’t matter how well I do if I’m not among the preferred

Unfortunately, there are still businesses that are run through nepotism. That is gross favoritism towards people who are close to a decision maker, someone of influence or importance in the company. It’s one of the common causes of inefficiency because people all of a sudden compare their work, results, and reward to the ones of those being favored.
Any organization that doesn’t quantify and award effort according to clear criteria will suffer from inefficiency at the workplace.

Absence of feedback

There’s a direct connection between inefficiency and lack (or poor) of feedback. The unwritten rule is that what is encouraged is repeated. Managers who say anything about how well or poorly someone on their team is doing are in fact encouraging similar results. Constructive feedback requires clarity through facts and willingness to make someone (as well as yourself) feel uncomfortable. If it’s provided within the mind-frame of genuine care for the growth, and professional development of people, it can improve their performance and engagement too!

Deficiency in communication

Perhaps the most widespread of the causes of workplace inefficiency is a lack or poor quality in communication. It will affect people’s capacity to quantify how well they are doing, understanding of whether their efforts have any impact, and to act in due time to have any positive impact. It also causes frustration with the people a company needs to care about most (disclosure: not nepotism!) – those who want to work, be in time, have good results and want their job to be rewarding.

Time management

Of course, we all have 24h, and regardless of how we manage it, that doesn’t change. Leaders and especially managers have the responsibility of setting the importance and priority of projects, tasks, etc. (see the Eisenhower Matrix). Efficiency comes down to achieving your objectives with the least amount of time. The better the time management, the more efficient we are, and the more engaged we are.

Wasteful processes

We all follow steps and procedures as they are laid out in our organization’s processes. These are tremendous tools that used in the right order and provided enough attention will create the desired outcomes. However, when processes are the result of operational inertia, they can have a highly detrimental effect on an organization’s efficiency. Worst case scenarios include bottlenecks, redundancy, and misalignment. In other words, inefficiency.

All of these have deep roots in leadership but ultimately can be traced back to an organization’s mission, culture, and values. If the only purpose of a business is to create profit, then one must integrate into that equation the means to sustain and increase efficiency in the workplace!