Tag: Hiring Myths

Not everyone needs to be a top performer

Human Resources, Managing Others, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?
Not everyone needs to be a top performer. We need some ‘steady Eddies’ or we’ll spend all our time trying to satisfy everyone’s career expectations.

Don’t confuse performance with pressure to offer promotion opportunities.

Many people who are at the absolute top of their class want nothing more than to be left alone to do what they do best, day in and day out. Top performers are top performers because they love what they do, and they do it exceptionally well.

All too often we convince ourselves that it’s okay to have a normal performance curve where 70% of the workforce is just ‘average’. We too easily accept the notion that average is okay and doesn’t hurt our practice.

Wrong.
The truth is average is awful.  Average in most organizations represents an opportunity cost of 23% or more of payroll – money that gets paid out with zero return.

In most organizations, and eye care practices are likely no different, 23% of payroll represents a substantial sum of money that if used elsewhere in the business could materially improve the practice.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer.

That’s the Fit First philosophy.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.
Save yourself time and money.

This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Investing in Employee Satisfaction Makes Good Business Sense

Human Resources, Leadership, Managing Others

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Fact or Fiction? Investing in employee satisfaction makes good business sense.
Sounds reasonable, right?

Many organizations believe that satisfied employees are profitable employees, so they invest heavily in things they think will show appreciation – elaborate cafeterias, games rooms, group outings, on-site concierge services, and other generous perks. That’s pretty sweet, for the employees.

These companies will spend exceptional amounts of money continuously surveying “employee satisfaction” and then ponder over the results to discover new ways to enhance it.

But, Where’s the Proof?
Surprise: The truth is, there is no documented relationship between employee satisfaction and business performance. A happy workforce is not necessarily a more productive one.

The factor that is a predictor of performance and productivity, and it is in fact the most reliable predictor, is something called engagement.

Engagement is all about how focused and committed your people are to hitting and exceeding your shared objectives.  e.g. How much sweat, effort, and creativity they are willing to put in of their own free will.

The best part is that engagement doesn’t cost you, the practice owner, much. But you must set the stage for it by paying attention to the leading indicators of fit.

The formula is simple in theory.  Find employees that fit the job, fit the practice values and fit and other members of the team, and, you will have a committed and engaged staff that is more productive and profitable for your practice.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer.

That’s the Fit First philosophy.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.
Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Low turnover is a good sign we’re doing things well. Why rock the boat?

Human Resources, Managing Others, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction? Low turnover is a good sign we’re doing things well. Why rock the boat?

Low turnover can seem like an employer’s dream, but is it hurting your business in the long run?

The important question here is – how many people are we keeping?
The far more valuable question is – what is the quality of the people we are keeping?

All too often, organizations, including professional practices, find themselves in a rut where people aren’t leaving because they are comfortable. And they are comfortable because their job is easy, standards are lax, and mediocre performance is tolerated.

Comfortable employees can choke a business.

If you raise your standards, you will scare off those who crave comfort and attract better performers who share those same higher standards.

The Wrong Kind of Turnover
If you maintain the status-quo, you may well have turnover, but not of the right kind. Those leaving may well be the ones that thrive on a challenge and take price in being on a high performing team.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer.

That’s the Fit First philosophy.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.
Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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The Best Way to Gain an Advantage is to Hire the Competitors Best Performer

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?
The best way to gain an advantage over my competition if to hire away their top performer.
Their loss = my gain (or so the thinking goes!).

Bad idea.

True, high performers share a set of characteristics and core attitude, but much of their performance is tied up in other factors that are external to them.

The factors can be summarized into four primary categories:

  • Fit with the manager/practice owner
  • Fit with the critical aspects of the role
  • Fit with the people around them, and
  • Fit with the practice culture and systems.

Most often, poaching talent results in three losers – you, your competitor, and the fallen star.

The fact that they are a consistently top performer in another practice,  even in a similar role, is not a guarantee they will achieve the same results in your company.

A far more effective strategy is to identify people who have the capacity (and Skills) to do well in the reality you present.

When you find candidates who are at their best in the management climate you offer, who are drawing from their natural strengths and talents in the role you offer, who engage easily and productively with the rest of the team and your customers, and who are proud to contribute to the organization … you have a winning combination.

And it might not be the person you think it is.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer.

That’s the Fit First philosophy.

FICTION: More often than not, hiring away the competitor’s star performer results in a three-way loss: For you, the competitor and the individual.  It will also not ingratiate you in your professional community, and eventually you may need each other.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.
Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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There’s no point in investing time in Millennials and Gen Z employees.

Human Resources, Leadership, Managing Others, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?  – There’s no point in investing time in Millennials and Gen Z employees. They are too disruptive, demanding and won’t stay for more than a year anyway.

Sure, the workforce has changed over the last 30 years, but the answer is not to find more people your age to staff your business.

The challenge is to help managers figure out how to create a workforce that harnesses the energies and talents of employees, including younger ones, and converts those energies into profits.

Contrary to popular belief, the young people entering the workforce are generally not flighty and do not want to skip from job to job every year or two.

In fact, research continues to show that, just like the rest of us, the younger workforce wants nothing better than to find an employer where they can do meaningful work, see the value of their contribution, learn, and grow.

That said – the younger generations do have less tolerance for bullshit and are not likely to put down roots with an organization that treats them as less valued employees because of their age.

There’s no point in investing time in Millennials and Gen Z employees – FICTION

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer. Even the young ones!

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.  Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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To really know a candidate, you need to rely on a good set of behavioral interview questions.

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?  – To really know a candidate, you need to rely on a good set of behavioural interview questions. Past behavior is, after all, the best predictor of future performance.

Not really. The concept of asking behavioural questions was a tremendous innovation that improved the value of interviews almost immediately… a few decades ago.

Candidates are now acutely aware of this approach and are well prepared for these questions. Add to the fact that candidates have a natural tendency to answer questions from the perspective of what the interviewer wants to hear.

The best way to truly understand how a potential employee is going to behave in the real corporate setting is to ask a completely different kind of question – what we refer to as a tertiary-level question.

The objective is to ask questions that go beneath behaviour and have the candidate tell you stories about what worked for them and didn’t as it relates to other people, jobs and situations. This approach allows you to gain insight into their core – the attitudes, beliefs and values that drive them.

These are the things that will predict the behaviours that are exhibited when nobody is looking, and that will give you a clear and reliable indication of how the candidate will fit in your business, in the job, and with co-workers and clients.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer.

That’s the Fit First philosophy.

To really know a candidate, you need to rely on a good set of behavioural interview questions. Past behavior is, after all, the best predictor of future performance.  FICTION  – Mostly!  

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.  Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Fact or Fiction? We need to offer top pay and benefits to attract and keep top performers.

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?  – We need to offer top pay and benefits to attract and keep top performers.

Maybe, but research and experience show that pay and benefits are among the weakest ties to an employer.

There’s no question that you need to offer an attractive package, but if these things are generally aligned with industry standards, other factors become much more important in attracting and retaining star employees.

The Four Fits
The factors that attract the right candidates and keep them focused and productive are what researchers refer to as the four critical aspects of fit.

Fit with manager is the most important – it’s crucial. The others are fit with the job, fit with the team, and fit with the company.

It’s surprisingly easy to filter people into a conversation with you based on these aspects of fit, and yet remarkably few organizations have figured out how to do it reliably. There are reliable and proven tools to do so (and intuition is generally unreliable.)

It’s Fiction. You don’t need to offer top pay and benefits to attract and keep top performers. Align your offer with the industry standards and hire (and retain) for FIT!

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer.

That’s the Fit First philosophy.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.  Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Fact or Fiction? First impressions are everything. A candidate needs to impress me in the first five minutes.

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?  – First impressions are everything. A candidate needs to impress me in the first five minutes.

Fact: Sure, impressions are important, and statistics do show that most managers decide at an unconscious level whether they want to hire a candidate in the first three minutes of the interview!

The rest of the time together is essentially an opportunity to gather information to support whatever decision was already made.

You are Good, but…
Really good managers are aware of this and work hard to counteract it. One important way they do this is to understand their ultimate objective.

They want a top performer, not a top candidate. The difference is critical. Top candidates may have a great résumé, show up on time, look the part and have a great handshake. All these cosmetic factors have no bearing on how long they will stay with your company or how well they will work out.

  • Top performers share a very distinctive set of attributes and attitudes
  • They learn fast
  • They take responsibility
  • They build solid relationships
  • They think differently, act differently, and fit differently in your practice.

Flagging these things can’t be done by résumé or even interview alone. Fortunately their are proven techniques that improve your odds and give employers and hiring managers a deeper look into the true character of the candidate.  You might not be using these techniques but the smartest of your competitors are.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any practice is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer.

First impressions are everything!! – definitely Fiction.

That’s the Fit First philosophy.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.  Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Fact or Fiction? Finding the right person is a numbers game.

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?  – Finding the right person is a numbers game. To improve the odds, the posting needs to be broadcast using big recruitment boards, niche boards and other offline media like papers and publications.

Fact: At any given time only about 20% of the workforce has an up-to-date résumé and are actively looking for work. These are likely not the top performers you are looking to attract.

Quality versus Quantity:
There is a huge difference between quantity and quality of candidates, and as Mies van der Rohe says, less is more.

The best job candidates are usually not actively looking for work. They don’t hang out on the job boards, but 60% of people who are not actively looking and don’t have an up-to-date résumé to whip out in a moment’s notice may not be in love with their current job.

Often the résumé is a barrier to finding the right talent for your business. Making it only one piece of the puzzle and focusing on finding the right fit, candidate quantity may decrease, but quality, like cream, will rise to the top.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer.

The Verdict:
Finding the right person IS a numbers game! And that number is ONE.

Objectively vetted and matched to fit the role and your practice, one new star employee is all that really matters. Having a handful of candidates or a hundred, in the final analysis, doesn’t really help if you don’t hire for fit.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.  Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Fact or Fiction? A solid résumé and a personalized cover letter define the perfect candidate.

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?  – A solid résumé and a personalized cover letter define the perfect candidate.

Most assuredly FICTION!

In today’s world, most candidates don’t even write their own résumés … and then factor in the embellishments or even sometimes, unfortunately, outright falsifications.

In fact, it’s hard to believe that we are still accepting these documents as the primary admission ticket into any credible organizations’ hiring pipeline. Astute interviewers will be able to recognize an applicant’s overreach, but even professional recruiters are often fooled.

The glitzy slick resume and expertly crafted resume might well make it through your selection filters, but by then, you have already wasted valuable time and energy, and perhaps even overlooked a true superstar for your team.

FACT:  There’s no real correlation between what’s in the résumé and how well people will perform or how long they will stay in your practice.  None. Nada.

In fact, relying on just a résumé to find your next superstar associate gives you about the same odds as buying a lottery ticket.

The difference is that hiring the wrong candidate will cost you a whole lot more than a $1 Powerball. It costs time and money and causes a great deal of aggravation. In fact, a bad or toxic hire will have an infectious impact on your practice – and not a good way, potentially even leading to some of your true stars to leave your practice.

All hiring managers, whether it be the practice owner or a trusted manager, need to  use the résumé as only one piece of the puzzle and screen for things that are actual predictors of retention and productivity.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer. The good news is that there are better ways.  Many of Canada’s leading eye care employers deploy sophisticated algorithms in their screening process to stack the odds in favour of getting that star candidate.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.  Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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