Workplace of Choice

• Consider changing the language and/or process, even a simple play-on-words can change the meaning of the "merit" process. Migrating to a "Salary Review Process", whereby the company reviews each employee's salary relative to the external marketplace will ensure that multiple factors go into determining what the salary action is: market value, individual performance and what the company can afford to spend.          

• Spend your money wisely:

o Focus on your key performers: Who is critical to retain?

o New hires and recent college grads: Is their compensation keeping up with the market?

o Average performers: If they're meeting "average expectations" they may not necessarily need a salary increase if they're keeping pace with the market

o Needs improvement: Take the time to work with those employees that need to improve their work. Document a Performance Improvement Plan to help them get back on track.

• What if you can't afford to do merit? Be honest with employees, tell them about current business conditions and don't forget to educate them on their "total compensation". Even if the Company can't afford merit, the value of their compensation and benefits is still meaningful. Consider doing a Total Compensation Statement to educate them on what you do offer (employee benefits, technology, training and development, etc.)

What is your Company planning to do for 2010 Merit Planning? 

The Myers Briggs Type Inventory, DISC, Emotional Competence Inventory ( ECI ), Predictive Index ( PI ), and 360 Degree Feedback instruments are well-validated and have been used for years to gauge " the best fit ". Today, managers can use literally hundreds of other evaluation methods to test everything from personality to mechanical/technical abilities and aptitudes to organizational culture alignment, to name a few.  Best of all, many of these tests can be taken online, in a secure environment, that eases the process for candidates and employees and streamlines the procedure for employers.  Cost-to-administer is also dramatically less, too.

Now that you're excited at the prospect of more objective decisions, start at the beginning. First, be sure to enlist top management's support before you invest too much effort - without it, your venture is sure to fail.

Then determine precisely what questions you expect an assessment tool to answer and what role the results will play - how much weight they will be given. Next, consider the universe of possible instruments and how to determine which one best suits your need. Check the one you selected to be sure it's been validated for the purpose you have in mind; using an un-validated test is worse than not using one at all.  Finally, communicate to all stakeholders the decision to use an evaluation test in the recruiting process, and put in place procedures for its use.

With a plan in hand, you can now take the next step towards less subjective and more data-driven recruiting decisions.  Everyone will benefit, and HR's credibility as a business discipline will be enhanced.   

The President (and we’re not talking about Obama), or other C-level management figures, cannot be everywhere, which means they may have limited face time with employees.  The President can be an intimidating figure, the one who bears the weight of the entire company on his or her shoulders and is seen by most employees only when there is an all staff event. 

In times of economic stress, companies of all sizes know the importance of communication from the top down to ensure employee satisfaction and confidence in the company’s missions.  Often, communication will break down somewhere in the hierarchical process, similar to that of a game of “telephone” in which one message can be repeated differently over the course of several explanations.  Misinformation is heard and then repeated, making for a confused, nervous and often angry group of employees.  Although management encourages employees to ask questions so that information can be corrected or confirmed, more often than not, employees are just too intimidated to raise their hands. 

A wonderful ice breaker for any member of management is to host a lunch.  Simply getting a group of employees together once a month to have solid face time with the President, or other executives, can do wonders for the communication process.  Employees will realize that the President is a normal person too by eating lunch and talking with coworkers about their day.  Provide a themed meal and create a quiz or game show format to go along with it to help break the ice and encourage people to talk. Think about giving out small prizes, but most of all have fun!  The goal is to get employees comfortable with management so that they feel they have a right to speak up with questions and comments.  In turn, management may learn a few things about the people who work for the company and by hearing their concerns and ideas, can relate directly to them.

Remember the days of rushing to meet print deadlines in order to place an employment ad in the Sunday newspaper?  Then Job Boards took over about a decade ago, but now Social and Business Networking sites are all the buzz. With the advent of new technology there are always pro’s and con’s.  While these sites do have a place in recruitment, it’s up to you and your company to determine how to best utilize them.  Here are some of our thoughts and experiences.

Using LinkedIn is a valuable recruitment tool.  It is easy to navigate and provides the ability to post ads, view member profiles, search by keywords, participate in Q & A’s, and reach out to people that you are interested in pursuing for a position.  LinkedIn is exclusively a business networking site and its reputation has grown as a credible and professional site. When we receive an “inmail” or an invitation to become connected to someone: we know we are not receiving spam.  Although we have not yet filled a position exclusively as a result of LinkedIn,we have certainly developed candidates and gotten the word out about searches we are working on.

We are in experimental mode with Twitter right now.  As retained recruiters, we represent client companies and need to be respectful of their branding and philosophy of how they would like to be portrayed.  One client is currently tweeting twice a week about the job openings we are working on for them.  So far no bites, but what can’t be measured is how many of those folks are re-tweeting the message to followers of theirs.  The potential is very far reaching but is very time consuming.

Facebook is the most controversial social media site when using it for business purposes.  Here you are most likely to be mixing personal with professional.  One credible way to use Facebook as a recruitment tool is to include a link on your business facebook page that brings the viewers (your fans) directly to the career section of your company web site.  Then in one quick click they can view your job openings.  Facebook does provide you with the ability to post jobs at no cost but this is not being utilized by many of the recruiters we know.  Of course the biggest Facebook hazard is learning something about a potential employee or current employee that you are embarrassed to know or worse could jeopardize their standing in the recruiting process or company.

The bottom line for recruiters is that these technological advances make our job easier.  We are able to identify qualified candidates more quickly than ever and weed out those that don’t fill the bill.  But, as with all new tools, we need to rely on our own good judgment in order to represent our employers and clients in the most professional manner.

Please tell us about your recruiting experience using social media networking sites.