​A few days ago, I came across a very interesting Q&A with Cathy Fraser, CHRO of Mayo Clinic. The exclusive interview, which centred on “The Employee as a Consumer”, really resonated with me and so I wanted to share my thoughts on why businesses should ensure they are treating employees in a similar way to their consumers.

The first step companies need to take, is to look at how much time and what resources are put into creating client preference. The world of retail, for example, constantly competes for consumer time and attention, more often than not with identical products and services. Millions each year is spent on customer engagement, advertising and research. Now consider how much is invested into attracting, engaging and retaining the right employees…

Whatever the industry, one rule always stands:

Staff members are the most influential factor when it comes to delivering a strong and positive customer experience.

Therefore, it is imperative that businesses stop to consider how they might ensure they are offering their employees a strong and positive experience in the workplace. At every step of the recruitment process and employment, a staff member should understand their importance and role in delivering the brand.

Let’s take it back a step, and consider why employees are more like consumers, so we can better understand the necessary change to company HR.

1. A shift in attitude to work and needs: it’s becoming increasingly common for consumers to associate themselves with a particular brand. Apple springs to mind, where buyers will have an iPhone, Apple watch, Mac and iPad because they believe in the brand and wouldn’t dare buy from Samsung. Employees are very similar in that they don’t just want a job, but also a vocation that aligns with their organisational beliefs, even if it might mean being paid less.
2. An increase in growing an employment portfolio: it’s now rare for a staff member to be with one company for their whole life. Instead, employees are constantly thinking ahead to building a strong CV for future positions. This aligns with the housing market where buyers consider location and the potential value of the property if they decide to sell in the future.
3. Individual brand preferences: following on from point two, an employee will always consider how working for a particular company will look on their CV, for when the time comes to move on. Just like many people wear certain brands of clothing or like to drive a particular make of car as a status symbol, they see particular company logos on their CV as a way of portraying their personal brand.
4. Minimal obstacles to switching jobs: LinkedIn has changed the game when it comes to recruiting. Employees and potential employers can find each other mush more easily through “social recruiting”. Employees who may be happy in their current role could see an advertised job while casually scrolling through a website and decide to apply on a whim.
5. Skills shortage: we have seen an increase in skills shortage in recent years and it has made companies more aggressive with poaching staff. Companies who are on the ball are willing to invest in talent to grow their business. They know who they want and they make it happen.

Keeping the above in mind, companies need to question how they are engaging with the needs of their employees and what changes they have to make to attract and retain the right kind of staff members.

1. Target recruitment to those who are fundamentally motivated by what the company does: once talent has been identified, segmentation should occur to ensure that potential employees share the values and common purpose to drive the business forward.
2. See employees as individuals: no one likes to be mass marketed to. It’s the quickest way for a business to be ignored by potential customers. Employees are no different and so companies should take genuine interest in each of their staff members to refrain from using a “one size fits all” approach to HR and their wellbeing.
3. Ensure strategies impact employees daily: staff bonuses, initiatives and targets should be measured over the short term. Employees will lose focus sooner if they have to work to quarterly or annual goals. It is important for companies to consider how many major initiatives in the last few years have really provided value to their employees.
4. Measure employee satisfaction: just like businesses measure consumer fulfilment in their products or service, employee satisfaction should also be measured. When internal contentment is measured, strengths in staff experience can be celebrated whilst also prioritising which areas may need to be improved.
5. Managers are employees too: businesses often promote staff members to a managerial position when they may not yet have the skill set or experience. They are often left to manage a team but then are rarely included in developing strategies to enact with the employees. Companies should look to managers at the early stage of the recruitment/employee satisfaction process, as they often have a better idea of what team members want or need to positively change the organisation.

Businesses never stop evolving, and although much research has been done on how to approach consumers through sales and marketing, we now need to listen and understand employees to the same effect. As consumers, we only pay attention to messages that are individually relevant to us – does your company approach capture the attention of your employees?

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As I am sure we are all aware, a key role of HR is to monitor employee performance with the aim of maximising a company’s efficiency and profitability. In fact, according to a recent PwC HR Survey, 97% of businesses use a formal performance management program. That being said, HR departments themselves should also understand the need to have their own effectiveness monitored for exactly the same reasons.
 
Of course, it can be difficult for companies to tangibly measure the effectiveness of its HR, especially as the department deals with so many areas of the business. Consultancy, payroll, holidays, sick pay, auditing – there is a vast array of everyday aspects of a business which are controlled by HR, making it really tough to monitor. In addition, with the role of HR continually adapting and updating due to new technologies and workplace demands, measuring HR performance is becoming increasingly more taxing. The reality is, when it comes to measuring HR success, companies don’t know what to look for.

While it would perhaps be too time consuming, costly and unrealistic to analyse and evaluate all aspects of HR, here are a few areas to focus on to see how your department is getting on and where it needs to up its game:

Employee Retention
 
Without doubt one of the biggest measures of HR success is employee retention. Retention rates go to show that hiring techniques are working effectively and HR is helping to find the right fit for the organisation. They also go a long way to indicating employee engagement and happiness in the workforce – after all, the happier the employee the less likely they are to jump ship. What’s more? Employee retention is easy to calculate and can be done regularly, even on a quarterly basis, without the need for too much manpower.
 
As job-hopping becomes more and more common, particularly amongst millennials, the hallmark of a good, strong company might just be how well it holds on to its current talent.
 
Promotion
 
Again, a crucial role of HR is both training and developing staff and providing them with transparent career paths. Therefore, a high number of annual internal promotions would suggest strong employee development within a company and prove that HR’s role in training and mentoring is helping staff climb up the career ladder. Granted, promotion is not solely down to specific staff training programmes but there is no doubt it is an indicator of overall internal company development that is, at least partly, influenced by HR initiatives.
 
Employee Satisfaction
 
While promotions and employee retention are relatively easy to calculate, employee satisfaction can be a little trickier. One of the most effective ways of measuring the happiness of your workforce is by offering your staff a satisfaction survey. Surveys that can be done in private tend to glean the most reliable results, as employees are not put under immediate, face-to-face pressure to respond.
 
As HR is responsible for day-to-day operations in an organisation – managing everything from payroll to mediation to disciplinary action - employee satisfaction is a good measure of the effectiveness of a company’s HR department. The age old saying, a happy worker is a productive worker, is certainly true and HR plays a big role in ensuring this is the case.  Listen to your employees, ask them what they think, and ensure that line managers understand the need for constant feedback from staff – it’s the only way to really know if a company is on the right track internally.
 
Company Culture

As I have highlighted in recent blogs, HR is playing a vital role in creating a strong company culture in business. Companies that exude a strong company culture highlighting values of fairness and equality tend to see improvements in talent acquisition and retention. HR is essential when it comes to promoting this company culture and ensuring that all employees are on the same page.
 
Company culture, however, can be even harder to evaluate than employee satisfaction.  Holding values such as openness and transparency high within a business, promoting diversity initiatives, ensuring there are no gender pay gaps - these are all measures companies should be taking to harness a strong company culture. Clearly therefore, increases in employee retention and acquisition are good indicators that a business has a strong company culture that HR is effectively promoting.
 
While they may be costly or time consuming, measuring and analysing successes and failures in HR, or any department for that matter, are always worthwhile tasks. The trick is to ensure that the business elements which are being measured and built upon will ultimately add value to the overall strategic aims of the business. After all, we can’t improve on what we don’t know.
 
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The skills shortage is an issue that worries both employers and employees. In fact, just last year research suggested that chief executives were more concerned about the skills shortage in 2016 than at any point in previous recent years. Undoubtedly the shortage of skilled workers, especially in the IT and technology industry, is having a negative knock-on effect for many organisations as more and more companies look to digitise their business processes. Equally, prospective employees are becoming less sure about what skills they need to bring to the table in order to be of most value to a company.

So, what measures can employers take when talent supply isn’t meeting the demand for skilled workers? Here are a few ways to help companies stay afloat while navigating their way through the current skills shortage:

1. Training and Mentoring

One effective way to tackle the skills shortage is to offer training and mentoring programmes internally for current employees. Companies may find that rather than having to hire new workers, an employee in your business who has been given training and development may be well, or even better, suited to a vacant position.

Offering IT and software courses for employees, for example, is a very effective way for companies to streamline their processes and reduce the need to hire externally. Internal staff development can negate the need for costly and time-consuming hiring processes.

2. Look Abroad

As an employer, it’s always important to broaden your horizons when it comes to hiring. Irish employers should look for top talent across the EU and take advantage of the freedom of movement and work for all EU citizens. The geographic distance between employer and prospective employee shouldn’t put a company off hiring foreign talent – the process can be easily conducted over social media, email and/or video call. Finally, many employees may be attracted by the idea of working abroad and can bring different perspectives and knowledge bases to your company.

3. Outsource
 
When a company needs a specific job done quickly and effectively, often outsourcing can be the best option. Outsourcing talent allows for a relatively speedy on boarding process and if you do it right, the contractors should already have all of the necessary skills for the task at hand. While it is not advised in all situations, outsourcing can be vital for a company to quickly increase its manpower, again without going through the expensive, lengthy and often difficult hiring process.

4. Don’t ignore Millennials
 
Let’s face it, there can be a stigma when it comes to millennials. They don’t get out of bed in the morning, they are too distracted by their smartphones, they need constant gratification – these are all examples of stereotypes that give millennials a bad reputation. However, it is crucially important that employers don’t overlook the talent and ability of millennials in the workplace, especially when it comes to tech and IT. Ignoring one demographic of workers because of unfounded stereotypes would be very wrong. I say take advantage of the skills of the youth – you may find they bring more to your company than you expected.

5. Outreach 
 
With a huge skills shortage and the war for talent raging on, reaching out and communicating with prospective employees has never been more important. Luckily, with social media it’s becoming more and more simple to keep in touch with top talent. That’s not to say companies should be constantly on the lookout to poach employees, but keeping in the loop and up-to-date with the best in the industry might just pay dividends in the long run.
 
6. Remain Optimistic
 
Finally, just like recessions, skills shortages come and go. While times may be tough at the moment, keeping a cool head, making the most of your current employees and keeping a keen eye out for new ways to attract talent are sure fire ways to help a company through the current skills shortage. As an employer, remember that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel – and make sure your staff can see it too.
 
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3 Ways to Ensure Talent Retention in the Tech Industry

In the past few years Ireland has solidified itself as a global hub for technology giants. With Google, Facebook and Microsoft just some of the big names in the tech industry to establish offices here, it is no wonder Ireland has almost 140,000 people working in the high tech sector already.

There is therefore no doubting the need to attract more and more tech talent to meet the employment demands of the plethora of international tech companies now in Ireland. Add to that the possibility of an influx of workers coming to Ireland in the wake of Brexit, and Irish employers need to understand how to manage and maintain an increase in tech talent.

Attracting tech talent is only the starting point. It’s getting your tech employees to stay that is the real challenge. There is little more frustrating to a company than having to say goodbye to its best tech workers.

So, here are three tips to help your organisation hold on to your best tech employees:

1. Find the Right Fit

It may sound like a no-brainer, but taking the time during the hiring process to find an employee that is the right fit for your company will pay dividends. An employee who clearly understands their role and shares the values of a company is less likely to want to jump ship.
 
To get this right, it is important for employers to be very clear on job descriptions for applicants. Employers should include as much information about a new position as possible and make sure you have a clear company ethos – employees need to know what they are signing up for! Getting a solid fit at this stage will undoubtedly improve the retention rate of your tech staff. As the CIO of Ascential, Sean Harley put it, “if you hire well, the best talent pool is the one you already have.”

2. Communicate, Engage and Support

While hiring gets tech talent through the door, continuous communication, engagement and support will help retain your tech workers. ‘Talking to techies’ may have a reputation for being a daunting task, but it is an essential part of a successful workplace. Do not make your tech staff feel like they are on the periphery of the team – this is likely to push them away.

The tech industry, according to a recent Fortune 500 study, has the highest turnover of any other industry. Supporting your tech staff, through including them in high-level meetings or offering flexible working hours for example, is one of the best ways to make sure they don’t think the grass is greener elsewhere.
 
3. Provide Learning Curves

While financial incentives or an increase in pay may seem like a logical way to retain staff, it should not be considered a silver bullet. Often tech workers appreciate being challenged and allowed to innovate. Don’t be afraid to up-skill tech employees. Trust in the people you have to perform new tasks rather than always harping back to the lengthy and costly hiring process. You should find this will stimulate the mind of a tech worker much more while increasing their productivity and satisfaction. This is a two-pronged solution – tech employees will value opportunities to be more creative when given more demanding responsibilities and employers should see an increase in talent retention.

Let’s make no bones about it – the need for tech employees is on the rise across all industries. As more and more business turn towards digital, the challenge for employers is managing what may be an entirely new department in their organisation. One of the best ways to do this in general is through continuity. Continuity requires talent retention. The quicker tech staff are recognised as an integral part of your organisation, and treated as such, the more efficient and effective they will be. So, be diligent in your hiring, keep your tech talent happy and do your utmost to keep them on board - after all, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. 

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If you’ve got talented people in your business, it’s likely that they’ve already been approached by recruiters at some time or another. With the talent pool drying up, competitors are looking to woo and poach your best employees. Indeed, a survey by STEM recruiters, Harvey Nash, revealed that more than a third of technologists have been contacted by five to 14 recruiters in the past year alone.
 
The problem this causes is twofold. Firstly, you’re losing a valued member of your team, who will take with them ideas and knowledge of how your business operates, to a competitor. Secondly, you’re going to have to spend time – and money – sourcing a replacement and training them. All this is bad for business.
 
So how should you react when a competitor is trying to steal an employee? And what measures can you take to deter your staff from jumping ship?
 
Here are some things to consider if you find yourself in such a situation:
 
Is it Worth Enforcing Non-Competes?
Non-compete clauses are pretty standard in today’s employment contracts. Put simply, this involves an employee agreeing ‘not to enter into or start a similar profession or trade in competition’ against their employer. They are also referred to as restrictive covenants.

However, in a bid to encourage innovation and entrepreneurialism, Governments across the UK and Ireland are seeking to change these rules, and employers must put forward a strong case that demonstrates their case is reasonable and protects a legitimate interest.

Enforcing a non-compete is always costly and difficult to enforce and might even work against your business. Restricting an employee’s ability to develop their career and limiting their ability to make a living can breed resentment, which may impact on productivity and your brand’s image. What you could consider is making sure you have a robust confidentiality clause in your contract as well as restricting any ex-employees from contacting your customers or trying to poach your remaining staff for a period of time after they leave. These clauses are generally easier to enforce.
 
However, before launching straight into the legalities, it’s worth exploring other avenues first.
 
Be Proactive
Should you discover one of your best workers is thinking about leaving, it’s important to take positive action. Ignoring the problem, suggests you don’t care, and is a sure-fire way of pushing them out the door. Instead, sit down with the person, acknowledge their position, try to understand what has led to their wanting to leave, and see if it can be fixed.

While money is important, it is not usually the driving force behind an employee’s decision to leave. More often it comes down to feeling undervalued or under-challenged. If this is the case, perhaps involving such employees on new and innovative projects, or giving them greater responsibility for a specific task may be enough to coax them to stay.

Counter Offers Are Counterproductive
Following on from my second point, if an employee decides to leave for a job with better pay, making a counteroffer might seem like a sensible option. However, without understanding their underlying issues, you’re basically paying more money to keep an unhappy worker. It might act to bandage the problem for a while but, sooner or later, their dissatisfaction will start to show in their work.

Furthermore, if word gets out (and it always does) that one employee received a pay rise, then it can cause problems with the rest of the team. They may feel unappreciated for the work they do. The could demand a similar pay rise. They may decide to seek out pastures greener themselves.

Invest in Your Staff
Some years back Richard Branson famously said business should ‘train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.’ Many companies make the mistake of sending employees on costly courses and training programmes to further develop their skills, but fail to invest the time or effort to show them they matter to their organisation. When the employee moves on to a competitor, where they feel more valued, the employer is left feeling betrayed and offended.

Invest in your staff at a personal level. Take the time to understand how they feel about their jobs, what motivates them, what frustrates them, what you can do to support them in their role and keep them from leaving. Too often, employers wait until the exit interview – when it’s too late – to ask these questions.

From their feedback, you can develop bespoke retention plans, while reinforcing all the positive points that working for you offers them. Just be sure to act on the feedback, less it become another bureaucratic exercise.

Don’t take it Personally
No matter how good an employer you are and how big an effort you make to ensure the happiness and wellbeing of your staff, people are going to come and go. The most important thing is that you don’t take it personally and don’t overreact.

It may be a case that the employee just needs to try something new, or is keen for a change of scenery. Retaining a relationship with these people, even if they’ve been poached, can benefit you in the long run. They may become advocates for your brand, sharing their positive experiences of working with you. Better still, they may come to realise that the grass is not always greener on the other side and wish to come back to your company. Check out the article I wrote about Boomerang Employees here.

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Organisational culture and cultural fit have become hot terms in the past year. What was once considered a ‘wishy-washy’ element of HR is now recognised as a crucial part of attracting and retaining a company’s very best employees.

Business owners are waking up to the fact that skills aren’t everything; that hiring someone who perhaps lacks the experience of other candidate, but fits very well with the company’s culture, is very often the smarter decision. Remember, skills can be thought and experience gained, but a person’s core values and beliefs are practically impossible to change.

So why should you bother hiring based on cultural fit? Research has shown that employees who fit well with their organisation and colleagues tend to demonstrate superior job performance, express greater job satisfaction and stay with their employer’s longer. That means less time spent recruiting and training staff and more time making money for your business.

What is Cultural Fit?

Before we continue any further I think it’s important that I clarify just what I mean by cultural fit. In recent months, I’ve encountered a number of HR managers and business owners worried about focusing on cultural fit in the hiring process for fear that it might inadvertently lead to discrimination against candidates, promote group think and hamper diversity.

Let’s be clear, hiring for cultural fit does not mean seeking out clones or people you could see yourself sharing a couple of pints with on a Friday after work. The best recruiters and employers recognise that even when a candidate’s personality and interests differ from their own, they can still be a strong fit for the business.
Cultural fit is the likelihood that a candidate will mirror and adapt to the core beliefs, attitudes and collective behaviours of an organisation.

For example, someone who places a lot of emphasis on team work and working through problems together, will thrive if your business places a lot of emphasis on collaboration. While someone who prefers to work by themselves will struggle to adjust to the way your company operates.

Here are some simple measures you can take to help identify if a candidate is a good cultural fit for their organisation:

#1. Identify Your Company’s Culture
If you haven’t already done so, the first step you need to take is to identify your organisation’s own culture. Every organisation, whether it has just one employee or 5,000 staff, has a culture. Your culture is the set of beliefs and values that drive you and your employees to do what you do.

What three or four words/ expressions sum up your beliefs and values? Perhaps you’re client centric and putting the customer first is the basis for everything you do. Or maybe innovation is your top priority and you place creativity and innovation above all else.

Your mission statement and company vision can help define what it is you stand for but it’s also worth asking staff and getting their input to ensure everyone is on the same page. Aligning your culture with your values deserves its own blog entirely.

#2. Use Personality Tests
Personality tests go beyond traditional IQ tests to give employers an insight into a candidate’s emotional qualities, and how they adapt to and behave in certain situation. There are many personality tests for companies to choose from, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the Hogan Assessment, all of which use very different and in depth approaches to assess a candidate’s personality.

Personality tests typically measure five personality dimensions in an applicant: extroversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. So if you’re looking for an outgoing leader, with an ability to make balanced decisions under pressure, then you might want to take a closer look at your candidates’ personality test results.

I previously wrote a blog on the Advantages and Disadvantages of Employee Personality Tests, which provides a lot more information on the topic.

#3. Mix Up Your Questioning
We all know interviewees prepare for interviews by rehearsing answers to the questions they know we’ll ask. Quite often these are geared to what they think the interviewer will want to hear, sapping all sense of authenticity and personality from the response.

Think outside the box when it comes to the questions you ask. Taking candidates off the expected script will help glean information about them that they otherwise might not have shared, allowing you to better understand their core values and beliefs and how they match up to your organisation’s.
Among my favourite culture focused questions to ask in an interview are:

• What was your first job and what did you learn from the experience? 
  

We don’t necessarily care what job they had. What we’re interested in is the values and ethic they took from it.

• If this were your company, give me three words to describe the kind of culture it would have?

What we’re looking for here is how similar the interviewee’s responses are to the company’s culture. It also provides an opportunity to dig deeper into the candidate’s core values.

• Tell me about the best manager/ supervisor you ever had. What did you like most about them? What did you dislike?

This question gives us an understanding of the kind of environment they like to work in and how they like to be managed. For example, if they describe someone who was very supportive and continually monitored their work, then a company where autonomy and initiative is prized is likely to be a bad fit.

#4. Involve Your Employees
Whether you’re the owner, CEO, HR manager or recruiter, it’s unlikely that your new employee is going to be working directly with you as much as they will with other members of your staff. For this reason, it’s especially important that the candidate gets along with their future colleagues.
 
A tour around the office will give the candidate a chance to see first-hand how your business works and the dynamic of the business. More importantly, it will allow you to see how they interact with your employees.

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