I blogged a little about this topic and my plans on it before, but I found some other good resources,and did some more thinking. Apologies if you read the previous post and find this one to be much the same. Hopefully you at least find the info to be useful. Pre-Employment Assessments are a big thing in the world of HR at the moment. There's a very helpful article from ere.net that gives some good guidelines on how to use these types of programs and ensure success.
One of my goals for my current organization is to implement a pre-hire assessment program. Our present hiring system is out of date, relying upon frontline managers with little training to perform basic interviews. We invest a fair amount of time and money on training, and have a moderately high turnover rate, so anything that increases retention is a plus. Our frontline managers are likely going to continue to have the deciding voice in the hiring process, so step one was to try to add to their abilities to make these kinds of decisions.
To that end, I developed a recruitment and selection manual, and will implement it along with some training sessions to get our managers better prepared for the hiring process. The recruitment and selection manual focuses on the hiring process in very general terms, covering topics such as red flags on resumes, where to look for viable candidates, and how to conduct structured interviews. It also contains guidelines on labour law and discrimination, and is intended as a desk reference for our managers.
I don't know yet whether I will actually be able to implement a pre-hire assessment, but I have outlined a plan to do so.
The pre-hire assessment, ideally, would come before the interview process. All applicants would be directed to the company website, and invited to complete these assessments as a part of their application. Once completed, those scoring above our set limits would be encouraged to forward their resumes on to the appropriate person and proceed from there.
However, our very first step before implementing any kind of assessment has to be to determine what kind of traits we are looking for. Validity is tremendously important in this process; we need to know what we want, and we need to know it will work.
This is where we get back to my undergraduate days in anthropology. Time to study. First of all, we will identify a list of high performers, and a list of average performers. We won't bother with the low performers. Then, we study the high performers, in order to try and determine just what it is that they do differently from the average ones. This will involve shadowing high performers to observe them, and interviewing them to see what they think makes their performance superior. We will also study the average performers, and generate a list of differences based on what we find.
Next, we will generate a survey based on our findings, and it will be sent out to the company as a whole. We won't be able to shadow every single high and average performer company-wide, but we can certainly get everyone to fill out a survey based on our preliminary results, and the results of that can be used to generate a list of traits and behaviours unique to our high performers.
Once we have that list, we're going to separate out behaviours and traits that are teachable from those that are personality-based. This will then be used to further develop our new employee training program. It gives us a basis to ensure that every new employee has some training in how to be a better performer. Those results that are personality-based will be used as a basis for the type of assessments that we use.
The biggest trick will be separating correlation and causation, and that's going to take time and data. It presents a real challenge, but the good news is, I can piggyback on other people's research, because there's lots of it out there. Hopefully once I have some data to gather, I can really dig into it and find something interesting.
I would love to say what kind of assessment I would use, and certainly I have my own ideas of what makes a high performer do better on the job. However, the point of studying the matter is to ensure valid results. We are not our competitors; copying the pre-hire assessments that they use will not necessarily give us the results that we're looking for, and so it is critical that we establish our own profiles first. The point is to get a good ROI, and we need valid results that are genuinely predictive of success first.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
The Entitlement Generation
I just re-read my previous post, and it isn't quite as whiny as I was afraid it would be. It's interesting, reading all the articles out there (and there are quite a few) that deal with the issues surrouding Gen Y and the workplace. As a Gen Y, I can tell you that, depending what you're reading, it's not hard to come away from it feeling pretty embarassed of your generation! And some of it is pretty hard to argue with. As a generation, indeed, we are pretty entitled. Not all of us, obviously, but I do know a lot of people who strike me as pretty, well, spoiled. I have an aquaintance who, I think, represents the "average" Gen Y (inasmuch as there is such a thing) pretty well. He has a BA in Political Science, and he graduated almost two years ago with it. He doesn't live at home, but he did get an inheritance from his grandpa's passing that he's used to pay his bills since graduation. His intention is to start a communications business, and he has gone as far as registering the company name and starting a website. Now, he has a job working for a big box retailer. He needed money, and they were hiring. Like so many of us, he graduated at a time when jobs were scarce, and has found himself working a job that pays very little and doesn't utilize that hard-won BA at all. So, when he says he's underemployed, he means it, and he's probably right. On the other hand, the business that he has started is pretty much on hold, because he's finding it difficult to do much work when he has one paying job already.
He finds himself a bit trapped, because he can't quit the job he does have- he needs the money, such as it is, and he feels like he can't find anything he really is qualified for. A common complaint about Gen Y is entitlement- is it really that unreasonable to feel that you should be able to find something better with your BA that you sweated for than your friend who dropped out of high school? But, and it's a big one, just because you feel like you should be able to find something better doesn't mean you don't have to work hard to get there. You want your communications business up and running? Well, then, you'd better be working for it. Start writing- blog. Write book reviews for the newspaper, or just online. Go to your chamber of commerce and volunteer to do some write-ups on locally significant things. Build a portfolio. And guess what? You're going to have to do these things while you work your other job. Or, two years down the road, you'll still be working the same crappy job for the same crappy money, and you'll find yourself no further ahead, because something better isn't just going to magically show up because you deserve it. You get what you work for. And yeah, it'd be nice to go home after work and not have anything else to do but relax and do laundry, but it isn't going to happen. Not if you want something better.
There's a reason I blog, there's a reason I'm on twitter and there's a reason I have my own business cards. None of that is because I'm such an HR nerd, (is there such a thing? Probably,)although I do find HR to be a fascinating field, but because I'm trying to build my reputation, skills and knowledge in order to get the kind of job and the kind of career that I want. It takes time, it takes effort, and you have to be willing to put in the time at the bottom.
Gen Y are not typically known for being willing to put in time at the bottom, but I'd bet that's shifting, if only because the entitlement generation has been facing a crappy job market. Most of the Gen Ys that I know would be quite happy at this point to be able to break into their field at all- bottom or otherwise. I know teachers who work at fast food joints, trying to get onto TOC lists so they can sub once in a while because they know a fulltime position is at least five years away if they can get on the list at all. I know guys with History degrees working minimum wage jobs until they can afford to go back to school again, and I know a lot of folks who live with their parents because they can't afford to move out and still pay off their student loans.
That said, there are always things you can do to make yourself more employable. You may not get paid for them, and they may cut into your free time, but there are always things you can do. So quit whining and get to it!
He finds himself a bit trapped, because he can't quit the job he does have- he needs the money, such as it is, and he feels like he can't find anything he really is qualified for. A common complaint about Gen Y is entitlement- is it really that unreasonable to feel that you should be able to find something better with your BA that you sweated for than your friend who dropped out of high school? But, and it's a big one, just because you feel like you should be able to find something better doesn't mean you don't have to work hard to get there. You want your communications business up and running? Well, then, you'd better be working for it. Start writing- blog. Write book reviews for the newspaper, or just online. Go to your chamber of commerce and volunteer to do some write-ups on locally significant things. Build a portfolio. And guess what? You're going to have to do these things while you work your other job. Or, two years down the road, you'll still be working the same crappy job for the same crappy money, and you'll find yourself no further ahead, because something better isn't just going to magically show up because you deserve it. You get what you work for. And yeah, it'd be nice to go home after work and not have anything else to do but relax and do laundry, but it isn't going to happen. Not if you want something better.
There's a reason I blog, there's a reason I'm on twitter and there's a reason I have my own business cards. None of that is because I'm such an HR nerd, (is there such a thing? Probably,)although I do find HR to be a fascinating field, but because I'm trying to build my reputation, skills and knowledge in order to get the kind of job and the kind of career that I want. It takes time, it takes effort, and you have to be willing to put in the time at the bottom.
Gen Y are not typically known for being willing to put in time at the bottom, but I'd bet that's shifting, if only because the entitlement generation has been facing a crappy job market. Most of the Gen Ys that I know would be quite happy at this point to be able to break into their field at all- bottom or otherwise. I know teachers who work at fast food joints, trying to get onto TOC lists so they can sub once in a while because they know a fulltime position is at least five years away if they can get on the list at all. I know guys with History degrees working minimum wage jobs until they can afford to go back to school again, and I know a lot of folks who live with their parents because they can't afford to move out and still pay off their student loans.
That said, there are always things you can do to make yourself more employable. You may not get paid for them, and they may cut into your free time, but there are always things you can do. So quit whining and get to it!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Problem With Experience
Alright, so I realize that some of this may come across as entitled Gen Y whining, since I am fully aware of the perception that we come out of the gate wanting to be VP's by 30. But I have a problem with job listings requiring a minimum experience level of, say, 5 years. It's just so arbitrary! Your job really couldn't be done sucessfully with 4 years experience? And doesn't it really matter what you're experienced in?
Truthfully, a high potential job candidate should learn the skills you need faster than someone of average potential. So, you may be eliminating highly qualified candidates who might just knock your socks off, simply because they learned the skills you needed faster than Joe Schmoe who took five years to do it.
I entirely understand why hiring managers do this. They are trying to discourage woefully unqualified candidates from applying for these positions, and that's a necessary thing. I'm also not trying to say that I personally should qualify for every single one of these positions- but it's certainly not uncommon for me to come across a job listing and think, yeah, this job is an awesome match for my skills! Policy development? Check! Flexible and creative? Check! Developing recruitment and retention strategies? Check! Working well with all levels of management? Check! Generating executive buy-in? Check! Primary HR person for the company? Totally! 5 years experience in an HR capacity... Nope.
Now, maybe there is a specific reason that five years' experience is required. But if everything described in your job listing fits me to a tee, (and I can back it up with references from senior management, it ain't just my opinion) and your company culture sounds like a place I'd love to be, I'm going to apply anyway. And then I'm probably going to hit your ATS system and get eliminated because I don't have enough years of experience. That drives me nuts.
If this post comes across as whiny, I'm sorry. That's really not my intention. I might be a bit frustrated, but most of that stems from the fact that my particular career path has been a bit... unusual. If I had gotten a HR job off the bat, even one doing scheduling tasks for frontline employees or something, my resume would work a little better for some of these applications. On the other hand, if I hadn't started with a company without an HR department, I would be highly unlikely to have achieved the kinds of things that I have, and the experience that I have is very important to me. I love HR, and I know I have a lot to offer. I know I've got a ton of potential, and I'm itching to get out there and let it loose. That said, I don't feel entitled. I know it's my job to prove to you that I have what it takes, and that you don't owe me a thing.
Now I just have to make it to Calgary, and start doing my networking thing. Cause that's just how it is, folks.
Truthfully, a high potential job candidate should learn the skills you need faster than someone of average potential. So, you may be eliminating highly qualified candidates who might just knock your socks off, simply because they learned the skills you needed faster than Joe Schmoe who took five years to do it.
I entirely understand why hiring managers do this. They are trying to discourage woefully unqualified candidates from applying for these positions, and that's a necessary thing. I'm also not trying to say that I personally should qualify for every single one of these positions- but it's certainly not uncommon for me to come across a job listing and think, yeah, this job is an awesome match for my skills! Policy development? Check! Flexible and creative? Check! Developing recruitment and retention strategies? Check! Working well with all levels of management? Check! Generating executive buy-in? Check! Primary HR person for the company? Totally! 5 years experience in an HR capacity... Nope.
Now, maybe there is a specific reason that five years' experience is required. But if everything described in your job listing fits me to a tee, (and I can back it up with references from senior management, it ain't just my opinion) and your company culture sounds like a place I'd love to be, I'm going to apply anyway. And then I'm probably going to hit your ATS system and get eliminated because I don't have enough years of experience. That drives me nuts.
If this post comes across as whiny, I'm sorry. That's really not my intention. I might be a bit frustrated, but most of that stems from the fact that my particular career path has been a bit... unusual. If I had gotten a HR job off the bat, even one doing scheduling tasks for frontline employees or something, my resume would work a little better for some of these applications. On the other hand, if I hadn't started with a company without an HR department, I would be highly unlikely to have achieved the kinds of things that I have, and the experience that I have is very important to me. I love HR, and I know I have a lot to offer. I know I've got a ton of potential, and I'm itching to get out there and let it loose. That said, I don't feel entitled. I know it's my job to prove to you that I have what it takes, and that you don't owe me a thing.
Now I just have to make it to Calgary, and start doing my networking thing. Cause that's just how it is, folks.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The Problem with ATS Systems
ATS, or applicant tracking systems, are becoming ever-more common. I'm sure any of the job hunters among us have run into these systems at least once, and probably more often than that. These systems are used as an automated way of tracking and sorting the hundreds of resumes that tend to be recieved for any job listing these days. They are designed to simplify the hiring manager's job, because the task of sorting through hundreds of resumes to sort out the exactly perfect one is incredibly time-consuming, and there is often simply not enough time to actually do it all. So, set up the computer to do it for you. Set a minimum level for education and years of experience, and the computer can filter out the dross for you, leaving you a much smaller pile of qualified candidates. These types of systems vary from quite simple to quite complex, but don't expect them to go away any time soon. On the surface of it, they are a practical way to filter through the incredible numbers of unqualified candidates who apply to your online job postings.
Any hiring manager will tell you that these systems aren't perfect. The computer can't truly think for you, and so it is likely going to include some resumes for candidates who don't really have the right kind of experience, and exclude others who do. The more specific you make your filtering, the more possibly-qualified candidates you are going to miss- but in today's job market, where there are so many applicants for every position, this may be a necessary evil.
For any of you in the job-hunting category (and I'm falling more and more into that category myself), I would never advise that you stop applying to online job listings. After all, your resume might make it through their ATS system, and land you an interview. But it is a common truism floating around the interwebs that most jobs are found through networking efforts rather than through job listings. After all, if I were the hiring manager, and I knew that someone I know and (presumably) trust thought they knew someone else who would be a good fit for the job, that would automatically make that one particular resume stand out in my mind. And a goodly percentage of the job hunt process is won if you can make your resume in particular stand out to the person doing the hiring. At the very least, it's one hell of a good way to land an interview, which is really what most of us want. Just that chance to shine, and show 'em what you've got!
Again, there's nothing wrong with ATS systems. They are most probably a necessary evil for most job listings. I personally am a bit inclined against them, because my own resume doesn't tend to do so well going through that grinder. After all, my job title is "associate", same as my 21 year old coworker from the office down the way who makes $10.50 an hour selling eyeglasses. That may be where I started, but it isn't where I am now. Don't get me wrong, the value she brings to the company is immense; after all, we exist because of eyeglass sales, making her primary function arguably the most important one in the entire company. However, I don't want to sell eyeglasses. I want to work in HR. I have experience working in an HR capacity, I have trained staff, interviewed and hired, developed policies ranging from interviewing and selection processes to social media policies, to discipline and termination. But if your ATS system is looking for "3-5 years experience in a human resources capacity" it may overlook me, depending how its filtration system is set up.
So for me, it's all about the networking. I suggest you all give it a try sometime.
Any hiring manager will tell you that these systems aren't perfect. The computer can't truly think for you, and so it is likely going to include some resumes for candidates who don't really have the right kind of experience, and exclude others who do. The more specific you make your filtering, the more possibly-qualified candidates you are going to miss- but in today's job market, where there are so many applicants for every position, this may be a necessary evil.
For any of you in the job-hunting category (and I'm falling more and more into that category myself), I would never advise that you stop applying to online job listings. After all, your resume might make it through their ATS system, and land you an interview. But it is a common truism floating around the interwebs that most jobs are found through networking efforts rather than through job listings. After all, if I were the hiring manager, and I knew that someone I know and (presumably) trust thought they knew someone else who would be a good fit for the job, that would automatically make that one particular resume stand out in my mind. And a goodly percentage of the job hunt process is won if you can make your resume in particular stand out to the person doing the hiring. At the very least, it's one hell of a good way to land an interview, which is really what most of us want. Just that chance to shine, and show 'em what you've got!
Again, there's nothing wrong with ATS systems. They are most probably a necessary evil for most job listings. I personally am a bit inclined against them, because my own resume doesn't tend to do so well going through that grinder. After all, my job title is "associate", same as my 21 year old coworker from the office down the way who makes $10.50 an hour selling eyeglasses. That may be where I started, but it isn't where I am now. Don't get me wrong, the value she brings to the company is immense; after all, we exist because of eyeglass sales, making her primary function arguably the most important one in the entire company. However, I don't want to sell eyeglasses. I want to work in HR. I have experience working in an HR capacity, I have trained staff, interviewed and hired, developed policies ranging from interviewing and selection processes to social media policies, to discipline and termination. But if your ATS system is looking for "3-5 years experience in a human resources capacity" it may overlook me, depending how its filtration system is set up.
So for me, it's all about the networking. I suggest you all give it a try sometime.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
It's Official!
Well, the job hunt has finally begun. Over the past couple of days, I started applying for HR jobs in Calgary. I'm not honestly sure what my chances are of finding something right away off a job board, but I certainly won't get anything if I don't apply, and I did see a couple of very interesting possibilities.
If possible, it would be super wonderful to line something up job-wise before we move, so that I can just step right into a job when we get there. I am prepared to fly out ahead and leave my poor hubby to pack us up if need be. He'd be packing, I'd be (hopefully) interviewing or starting work, and of course, looking for a place to live. We are fortunate enough to have friends there who have kindly agreed to let one or both of us crash with them until we find something of our own.
I'm getting my personal branding stuff ready- networking cards and thank you notes, resume, website, twitter feed, and of course, blog, and am presently just waiting for my mentor to come back from holidays so I can let him know what's up. Seems like my leaving merits a phone conversation rather than a quick email, don't you think?
I have mixed feelings about all this. Hubby is from Alberta, and of course, we spent six years in Calgary all through school, so we're both familiar with the city, have friends there, etc. And I am, of course, excited about some of the opportunities that I see there- Calgary in general has a much faster pace to it than Victoria does, and I'm hoping for something to give me more of a challenge than I've had lately. But I will miss this company, and I will miss the relationships and the culture here. My mentor has been fabulous to me, and even gently suggested that I might want to look elsewhere for a suitable challenge because he thinks I have outgrown what they can offer me. It's been a rewarding experience. Now, onto the challenge of the future!
I look forward to whatever the future holds for me. I hope it will be wonderful.
If possible, it would be super wonderful to line something up job-wise before we move, so that I can just step right into a job when we get there. I am prepared to fly out ahead and leave my poor hubby to pack us up if need be. He'd be packing, I'd be (hopefully) interviewing or starting work, and of course, looking for a place to live. We are fortunate enough to have friends there who have kindly agreed to let one or both of us crash with them until we find something of our own.
I'm getting my personal branding stuff ready- networking cards and thank you notes, resume, website, twitter feed, and of course, blog, and am presently just waiting for my mentor to come back from holidays so I can let him know what's up. Seems like my leaving merits a phone conversation rather than a quick email, don't you think?
I have mixed feelings about all this. Hubby is from Alberta, and of course, we spent six years in Calgary all through school, so we're both familiar with the city, have friends there, etc. And I am, of course, excited about some of the opportunities that I see there- Calgary in general has a much faster pace to it than Victoria does, and I'm hoping for something to give me more of a challenge than I've had lately. But I will miss this company, and I will miss the relationships and the culture here. My mentor has been fabulous to me, and even gently suggested that I might want to look elsewhere for a suitable challenge because he thinks I have outgrown what they can offer me. It's been a rewarding experience. Now, onto the challenge of the future!
I look forward to whatever the future holds for me. I hope it will be wonderful.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Pre-Hire Assessments
Before I leave my current position, I am trying to finish a proposal for a five-year plan designed to reduce turnover and increase the bottom line by $1 million per year. It's unlikely I will have the opportunity to see how it turns out, and I won't be able to do everything that I had originally planned to oversee. Consequently, I'm having to flesh out my proposal with operational details, specifying particular people to oversee various aspects of it, what qualifications different positions might require, etc. It's fascinating, and I'm really enjoying the work, but boy, I wish I knew I'd be able to see it through!
Basically, the proposal suggests implementing a new training system and a pre-hire assessment. It should be a one-two punch that really allows us to recruit smarter and train better. There are some tremendous companies out there that produce really wonderful pre-hire assessments, however, it is not financially or culturally appropriate for us to look at one of these, so we will be developing our own. Understandably, this comes along with its own hurdles and pitfalls, because we need to ensure we have the data to back up our hiring choices as appropriate.
This project is one of the first times that my BA in Anthropology has come in really handy. My experience with data gathering and statistical analysis and my research background means I can come up with some valid data gathering techniques, and I know better than to assume the outcome.
Essentially, we need more high performers. I have a benchmark sales number x annual salary calculation, and what amounts to a customer satisfaction/errors index to use to identify my high performers. The same calculation will be used to identify my average performers, and they will be used essentially as a control group, and for comparison purposes. We are going to ignore the low performers; they should be gone anyway, as they cost us money.
Once we have our group identified, I will be personally interviewing a number of them. The purpose of the interview is to identify some areas to look at that generate higher performance and better sales numbers. I will personally interview as many high performers as it is feasible, and based on their answers, we will generate some characteristics that the high performers themselves think differentiates their performance from that of others. Average performers will be interviewed similarly. Ideally, I would love to interview everyone, but as a company that is geographically spread over most of the company, this is impractical. So the answers of the interviewed group will be used to generate a survey to be administered to all employees.
At this point, the survey cannot be anonymous, because we need to be able to identify the answers of high performers as compared to those of average performers, so employees will be identified by their employee number and no further information. This is intended to minimize decision-making based on pre-concieved notions about race, gender, or any other protected category that might be identifiable by name. We will also need to reassure staff that the survey will have no impact on their performance appraisals, etc. in order to try and encourage honesty.
This isn't a perfect system; not everyone will be honest, for one thing, and for another, we are necessarily operating under the assumption that our high performers can identify what it is that they do differently from everyone else. But it should give us some interesting data to work with.
I'm going to leave things at that for now; so that this blog post doesn't turn into a novel.
Basically, the proposal suggests implementing a new training system and a pre-hire assessment. It should be a one-two punch that really allows us to recruit smarter and train better. There are some tremendous companies out there that produce really wonderful pre-hire assessments, however, it is not financially or culturally appropriate for us to look at one of these, so we will be developing our own. Understandably, this comes along with its own hurdles and pitfalls, because we need to ensure we have the data to back up our hiring choices as appropriate.
This project is one of the first times that my BA in Anthropology has come in really handy. My experience with data gathering and statistical analysis and my research background means I can come up with some valid data gathering techniques, and I know better than to assume the outcome.
Essentially, we need more high performers. I have a benchmark sales number x annual salary calculation, and what amounts to a customer satisfaction/errors index to use to identify my high performers. The same calculation will be used to identify my average performers, and they will be used essentially as a control group, and for comparison purposes. We are going to ignore the low performers; they should be gone anyway, as they cost us money.
Once we have our group identified, I will be personally interviewing a number of them. The purpose of the interview is to identify some areas to look at that generate higher performance and better sales numbers. I will personally interview as many high performers as it is feasible, and based on their answers, we will generate some characteristics that the high performers themselves think differentiates their performance from that of others. Average performers will be interviewed similarly. Ideally, I would love to interview everyone, but as a company that is geographically spread over most of the company, this is impractical. So the answers of the interviewed group will be used to generate a survey to be administered to all employees.
At this point, the survey cannot be anonymous, because we need to be able to identify the answers of high performers as compared to those of average performers, so employees will be identified by their employee number and no further information. This is intended to minimize decision-making based on pre-concieved notions about race, gender, or any other protected category that might be identifiable by name. We will also need to reassure staff that the survey will have no impact on their performance appraisals, etc. in order to try and encourage honesty.
This isn't a perfect system; not everyone will be honest, for one thing, and for another, we are necessarily operating under the assumption that our high performers can identify what it is that they do differently from everyone else. But it should give us some interesting data to work with.
I'm going to leave things at that for now; so that this blog post doesn't turn into a novel.
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