PEOPLE - In the New World Order of Remote Work

by Robin Mottern, in collaboration with John Boutwell

This is the fourth article, in our series, of addressing the NEW WORLD ORDER OF REMOTE WORK and your Job Descriptions.

We address the subject of PEOPLE in this article. The direction we take may feel a bit unconventional.

People are the lifeblood of any organization. If you don’t have the people, the right people, for the roles in your organization, then, even the most impressive job descriptions don’t really matter. The “people part” of the job description puzzle is the most complicated. When analyzing the “people” section of a job description, and really, people in general, we feel like there’s four categories to consider :

 Personality, Interests, Behaviors, and Learning Styles.

We could never completely cover all of these categories in one article.  Each category deserves its own VOLUME of information. 

Since we can’t do that, we will focus on Measurement of People, in this article. Peter Drucker, often times referred to as “the father of management”, is famous for the following statement:

“You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” 

Here’s how that applies to people. Have you ever hired your dream employee, only to realize, after they are already on the job, that this is not the employee you expected? As a matter of fact, the employee doesn’t even resemble the person you thought you hired. Been there? We’re sure you have.  

 Because, if you don’t measure them, you won’t manage them.

Just for reference, we’re providing the last section,(see below), of the framework on how to create a great job description. It’s not exhaustive and we haven’t addressed every single facet.  

How do we measure people? Talent assessments, that’s how.

Like them? Love them? Haven’t met them yet? 

Talent assessments help debunk human capital challenges in the workplace. I don’t say this nonchalantly. I’m a “show me/prove it” kind of person, so I understand your skepticism.

You may be missing out on using talent assessments to their full capacity.  We all know that unemployment is extremely high, at the moment. We are in the midst of a global pandemic and we are experiencing Covid Unemployment.

No matter what caused it, here we are. The US national unemployment rate is presently at 6.3%. 

Better than a year ago, but still almost double of what it was before the pandemic, where we’d reached our lowest unemployment in almost 50 years.  In 2019 we had a very shallow applicant pool, and we now have more candidates than open positions.

 So many more. 

 Here's a scary piece of data for you: On average, each corporate job offer attracts 250 resumes. Of those candidates, 4 to 6 will get called for an interview, and only one will get the job. (Glassdoor)

  An applicant pool consists of all the applicants who are applying for a position or job. The size of an applicant pool can vary depending on the job description, the amount of experience required, the intensiveness of the application process, the competitiveness of the compensation offered, and the avenues through which the job is advertised to potential candidates.

Presently, the US is experiencing what is referred to as an 'employer’s job market". This means that employers are having more challenges than typical with finding the right employees, just because of the sheer volume of applicants.

In an employer’s job market, job seekers flock to any and every job. The applicant needs a job now…STAT!  During an employer’s job market, you may have an unending flow of applicants. The danger though is that just as soon as the job market opens up with the creation of new jobs, that’s how quickly you will experience turnover of those you just hired. If they’ve taken the job just because they need a job, they will soon be leaving you to do what they really want to do; to what they love and what they excel in doing. What’s the answer? How is this so-called “employer’s market” even a good thing? How can you know you  won’t lose the employees you just hired and trained? Even though we can never fully predict the future, this is the time, if you are not already, to start using talent assessments.  

Frankly, you should be using talent assessments, now, more than any other time in the past. Assessments are the way you can measure, so you can manage.

Here Are 5 Reasons Why

1.   Competition for Top Candidates is Still  Fierce – Pandemic or not!

You need to fill the position…. yesterday. You can’t wait any longer! Because it’s an employer’s market, your first inclination is to grab the most qualified applicants you can get….as quickly as you can, before another employer grabs them. 

And right now, there’s SO MANY of them.

This certainly can feel like a competition. Although this tactic may seem sensible at first, let’s examine this a bit closer. It’s as important, as ever, that the employees you decide to hire in an employer’s job market are the right fit for the positions available. Otherwise, count on losing them. It’s tempting to hire someone who is overqualified, but those employees are likely to be bored and will need to be promoted quickly. How do you know what else the employee is capable of doing? On the flip side, if you hire those who are under qualified, how do you know what type and how much training you will need to provide to ensure the employee will be successful in the job?

Using assessments that are designed for the workplace, can and will improve the likelihood that you will hire the right employees. Talent assessments will help you confirm that you have the best job candidates and will give you information you need for writing your Job Descriptions, onboarding and training new employees. Make sure that you integrate valid and reliable talent/workplace assessment(s) into your selection process. An appropriate workplace assessment will give you the information you need to assist you in understanding as much as possible about each new employee. 

As one of my colleagues would say, “you really want to make sure you do everything you can to avoid the stinkers.” 

BTW, the “stinkers” won’t leave on their own.  When you integrate an assessment into the selection process, you will have the information, that you can’t get anywhere else, to get these new employees on a path for success, or trained ASAP. And you will avoid the “stinkers.”

2.    Assessments Save You Money

Good recruiters are awfully expensive. A good recruiter brings a lot of value to the table, but if you don’t have the budget, then what?  I had a client tell me just last month they are paying on average of $10K for each employee placed in their organization, by their contracted recruiting firm.  YIKES! If recruiter's fees aren’t in your budget, there are alternatives. Post your open positions on LinkedIn and/or your choice of Job Boards. You can integrate the assessment you’ve chosen into your Applicant Tracking System (if you don’t have an Applicant Tracking System, that’s another conversation.) Consider evaluating your selection process. It certainly can’t hurt! Most of these options will be less expensive than recruiter’s fees in an employee’s market, especially when your budget can’t accommodate the extra expense. A good talent assessment will give you strong ROI in a relatively short period. 

Think about the last hiring mistake you made. How much time, money, and effort, did that one mistake cost you?

When you avoid hiring the wrong person for the job, you just recouped your investment, likely, many times over. It’s important that you dollarize and share, with your leaders, how much time and money you saved that can be attributed to using assessments. This will ensure that assessments become a permanent step in your selection process.

 3. Focus On Your Incumbents 

You know...those existing employees that sometime get overlooked or neglected. There are lots of reasons to carve out time for incumbents. A few of those are:

Promotion – Promoting employees is beneficial for the employee being promoted, and for the employer and other employees in the organization, alike. Promoting employees boosts morale and strengthens engagement. 

Strong levels of engagement increase productivity, which improves the probability that the organization will accomplish its goals.

 In addition, those who are not being promoted yet, observe others being recognized for their hard work and accomplishments. They get to see, for themselves, what may be possible for them.

 High potential pipeline and Succession Planning -  Does your organization have a strong leadership pipeline? Let’s start by defining high potential. Most organizations believe a 'high potential' is a person who has the ability to advance up the ranks.

Bersin by Deloitte disagrees and describes a high potential employee as

“ one who has the potential, ability, and aspiration to hold successive leadership positions in an organization”.

 A study by Right Management found that only 13% of senior executives believe their organizations have ample leadership pipelines. The right talent assessment will help you establish the best criteria for your high potential program. “Successful succession planning depends on retaining high potential talent and developing those employees, so they are prepared to fill key roles.” Once these individuals have been identified, it’s the organizations job to develop them. It’s vital that you begin this development process as quickly as you can, otherwise, your high potentials will find a home elsewhere. Engaging in their development quickly will keep them engaged and motivated.      

 Career Pathing - Career pathing is the process of mapping career path scenarios within an organization. This provides employees with transparency into vertical, lateral, and cross-functional career moves that align to their skills, education, and interests. Career-pathing does intersect with succession planning, however, not all employees who have a clear career path are also high potentials.

Aligning and Developing Teams – This can be extra tricky. Alignment has become a trendy subject, and even trendier verbiage. Alignment is much more than just being part of a team. 

Alignment is active ownership on the part of the team members, not simply the absence of disagreement. 

The first step is to make sure the teams are aligned before the development begins. A good talent assessment will likely provide information to help you deploy well balanced teams. Consider hiring a professional coach to assist with this. The second step is to communicate the top priorities identified from the alignment process with the entire team. The third step…Execute!

 4. Align Leadership  

A few months back, I met with the Leadership Team of a growing organization. The team was incredibly dysfunctional, but they couldn’t recognize the lack of cohesion, because they were right in the middle of the dysfunction. True success, of any organization starts with Leadership Alignment, an overarching set of guiding principles. 

It’s essential that 'Leadership' is able to view the organization void of “rose colored glasses”, void of bias. Objectivity enables organizations to identify the present state of the organization, as well as the future vision. 

The near future; not five or ten years into the future, but in six months, one year, and three years. You'll clarify what you need to have in place to make this vision reality. We know that alignment always starts with people. Do you have all the right people in leadership? What are the gaps? Strategy or process doesn't happen without people. This is where good talent assessment(s) will assist you in ways you’d never imagine.

5. Create Your Ideal Culture            

 Organizational culture is defined as the underlying beliefs, assumptions, values, and ways of interacting that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization. 

What is that environment? Is it as you’d like it to be? Forbes reports that changing an organization’s culture is one of the most difficult challenges we will ever face in business.

Here’s why: an organization’s culture comprises an interlocking set of goals, roles, processes, values, communications practices, attitudes, and assumptions.   This all fits together, for various reasons, and reinforces this ecosystem. 

"That’s why ‘single fix’ changes, such as Lean, Agile, Scrum, knowledge management, or some other new process, may appear to make progress for a while, but eventually the interlocking elements of the organization's culture take over and the change is inexorably drawn back into the existing organizational culture." 

True ‘culture change’ is an enormous undertaking. Bring in the experts for help. Culture change begins with leadership tools that include a well-designed Strategic Plan, which should include talent assessments.  

 What does this information about talent assessments have to do with Job Descriptions? Everything. That's all.  Assessing who’s successful in the roles in your organization and also who’s not successful is what can bring your job descriptions to life. You will be able to articulate much more accurately what top performance looks like. You can then integrate this real People data directly into the Job Descriptions. 

Remember: Measure, then Manage.

The New ‘Remote’ Work Order is complicated, which can make the PEOPLE part of the job description puzzle difficult to navigate. 

Just a reminder, the People piece of our job description framework is above.    We hope you will use it to assist you in re-thinking and revising your job descriptions. 

If you have questions or need immediate collaboration, contact:

Robin Mottern*BrainSmart EI -254-495-4901 *[email protected]   

 John Boutwell*Boutwell & Vance – 931-607-9881*[email protected]

Welcome to the New Work Order!

See you again next week for a wrap-up of our Job Description framework .

Robin & John