Hiring for Success - How to hire and retain top performers
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•58 views
This document provides tips for hiring and retaining top performers. It discusses focusing recruitment efforts on an applicant's motivation or "why", which is a better indicator of future performance than skills which can be taught. Interview questions should determine core values and passion to find people who believe in the company's purpose. Retaining employees relies on building relationships, engaging culture and regular "stay" conversations to ensure top talent remains invested in the organization.
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (19)
Similar to Hiring for Success - How to hire and retain top performers
Similar to Hiring for Success - How to hire and retain top performers (20)
More from BeverageTradeNetwork.com
More from BeverageTradeNetwork.com (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Hiring for Success - How to hire and retain top performers
- 1. Hiring for Success How to Hire and Retain Top Performers Bill Sciambi
- 2. Bill Sciambi Drewmar Consulting - PresidentSpeaker Pic
- 3. Retaining good people is a positive investment Focus on the next hire Your company’s future depends on it!
- 4. “If you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money, but if they believe what you believe, they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.” Simon Sinek
- 8. “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. If you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe.” Simon Sinek
- 9. What do you want for yourself, family and career? Wealth, fame and recognition are results, not reasons Big aspirations often mean people are motivated Motivation is the outward expression of why people work
- 10. Then ask “Why” Why do you want to work for my company? What's your purpose? What's your cause? What's your belief?
- 11. Examples of why: “I like the feeling when I close a big sale.” “I enjoy competing to be the best salesperson on the team.” “I look forward breaking my own record every month.” “I take pride in coaching my team to success.” “I love it when the monthly financials balance to the penny.”
- 12. Values Assessment Values – a person's principles or standards of behavior; their judgment of what is important in life Jung Typology Test Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Predictive Index
- 13. Interviewing for “Why” Motivation is the outward expression of why people work. Define what they believe in and why they are passionate. Define core values and then compare to that standard. Hire people who believe what you believe.
- 14. How Talent, Motivation and Skill combine to make a great hire and a top performer
- 15. Talent and motivation reflect who you are, not what you know. What you know changes over time and with training; who you are, doesn’t.
- 16. How Talent, Motivation and Skill combine to make a great hire and a top performer Talent is natural aptitude Motivation is a combination of attitude and passion Skill is the only component which can be taught after the hire
- 17. If talent and skill are the engine and guidance system of a rocket… …motivation is the rocket fuel and will have an absolute impact on the height or level to which the employee will rise.
- 18. Motivation-Based Interviewing - MBI Carol Quinn (CAR) Challenge, Action, Results based questions Gives you insight into the person’s motivations
- 19. Example of “CAR” Question What challenges did you find in your business? What did you do to surmount them? What were the results?
- 20. “Top Performers are ordinary employees who are able to achieve extraordinary results” Carol Quinn The best predictor of future job performance and achievement is an applicant’s attitude
- 21. Attitude How effectively, or ineffectively, a person responds to obstacles or difficult challenges.
- 22. Retaining Your Most Valuable Asset People stay when they believe what you believe and they are invested in your culture “If your employees can't define your organization's identity -- and what's distinctive about it -- they are likely to head for the exit. This means culture needs to be a part of any retention strategy.” Nate Dvorak and Ryan Pendell - Gallup
- 23. Retaining Your Most Valuable Asset Build relationships with everyone in your organization “People leave managers, not companies.” Peter Drucker Hold “Skip Level” meetings Engage in “Stay” conversations
- 24. Build a culture around high performance Listen to your highest performers Connect with what top performers value most Engage with top performers for "stay conversations" Pay them what they’re worth
- 25. A Failure of Management Firing an employee, especially a sales person, is a failure of management. It is your duty to direct and coach employees to success. If one of your children was failing in school, what would you do?
- 28. Media Partners
Editor's Notes
- Good morning, my name is Bill Sciambi and I’m President of Drewmar Consulting. I’ve spent thirty years in wholesale distribution doing what you do. Now I help other companies outperform their competition. Today, I’m going to focus on one tiny aspect of running your business – how to hire and retain top performers.
- SECTION ONE SLIDE1 Let’s all agree that retaining good salespeople is a positive investment in your company? So you need to make sure you’ve made the right choice in the first place. Too often, managers rush through this process in order to fill a position which is, no doubt, causing them to work overtime or losing them sales revenue. They’re freaked out, right, because they’ve got an open sales territory or a vacant operations chair. SLIDE2 Well, if you think you’re busy now and can’t take the time to research and interview the best possible candidate, then just add up the time you’re going to waste over the next two years trying to fix the problems a bad decision may create. SLIDE3 Take a deep breath and focus on the next hire as if your company’s future depended on it – because it does! SLIDE
- If you don’t remember anything else about this presentation, remember this: An employee’s commitment to their job is determined by why they want to work for you. Firemen don’t choose their career for a paycheck. Their motivation always runs deeper than that. They are committed to their jobs because they believe in their mission to serve and protect. For you, then, the goal is not just to hire people who need a job; it's to hire people who believe what you believe. SLIDE1 If you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money, but if they believe what you believe, they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.” Simon Sinek, who I just quoted here, tells the following story that illustrates this idea brilliantly: SLIDE
- You’ve probably never heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley, but around the turn of the last century, he was the most widely known of the many people around the country, including the Wright brothers, trying to conquer powered, manned flight. He was on the board of the Smithsonian Institution, held a chair at Harvard University and knew all of the great scientific minds of the day. In 1903, after some success testing “model” planes, the War department and the Smithsonian gave Langley $70,000 to develop a piloted airplane. That was a colossal sum in 1903! He hired the best engineers and designers he could find and paid them well. The country was itching for a breakthrough in aviation. He was followed closely by the New York Times, and everyone around the country was rooting for his success. By our current standards, you would think he had all of the ingredients – access to capital, the best people and a willing market. SLIDE
- At the same, the Wright brothers, were pursuing the same goal, yet, they had none of the things we often consider to be the recipe for success. They had no financial sponsor. They paid for their interest in aviation with profits from their bicycle shop. No one who worked for them had a college degree, including Orville or Wilbur. And pretty much no one outside of Dayton Ohio knew who they were. The difference between Langley and the Wright brothers, and I’m quoting Sinek here, is that “Orville and Wilbur were driven by a cause, by a purpose, by a belief. They believed that if they could figure out this flying machine, it would change the course of the world. Samuel Pierpont Langley was different. He wanted to be rich, and he wanted to be famous. He was in pursuit of a result.” The people who worked for the Wright brothers believed in their dream and worked for them with their “blood and sweat and tears”. Langley’s people were all hired professionals who worked for a paycheck. SLIDE
- The Wright brothers eventually succeeded in taking off on December 17, 1903. Once Langley found out he had been beaten by the Wright brothers, what do you think he did? He gave up his efforts on powered flight. He could have worked on improving the design or building on the Wright brother’s success, but he didn’t. “He wasn't first, he didn't get rich, he didn't get famous, so he quit.” And here is where Sinek unwraps the story to get to the heart of matter: SLIDE
- “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. If you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe.” So, how does this story relate to our hiring process? If you want to make a successful hire, talk about your values and look for people who believe what you believe. SLIDE
- SECTION TWO When I interview people, it helps to go from the more general to the more specific. Most people can tell you what they want in life. Far fewer can describe why they do what they do. Why is a difficult question for most people to answer and it often helps to begin an interview by asking SLIDE1 what they want for themselves, their families and their career. By asking the question this way, I’m really asking what motivates them. SLIDE2 It’s OK to have ambitious personal and professional goals and to aspire to great wealth, fame and recognition, but those are the results of hard work, not the reason people work. It’s relevant to note that if a persons personal and professional goals support each other – in other words what you want for yourself, family and your career match up - then they’re likely to be successful hires. SLIDE3 So, if they give answers like, “I want a vacation house down the shore.” Or “I want to have four kids and a house with a big yard.”, that just tells me they have big aspirations and are likely to be motivated to work towards those goals. Notice, I used the word “motivation”, twice. Where does motivation fit in and how do we define it? I define it this way. SLIDE4 Motivation is the outward expression of why people work. We’ll talk more about what constitutes motivation in more detail in a few minutes. SLIDE
- After asking what they want in life and career, you need to ask why they do what they do. SLIDE1 So, the second question I ask prospective hires is, “why do you want to work for my company?” The right answer is not for money, or fame, or prestige – remember, those are all results. The why question goes to the heart of what makes people get up in the morning. By "why," I mean: SLIDE2 What's your purpose? SLIDE3 What's your cause? SLIDE4 What's your belief? This is the path to finding out what prospective hires believe and if it lines up with your company’s values. SLIDE
- Here are some examples of what you might hear when you ask why people do what they do. SLIDE1 “I like the feeling when I close a big sale.” SLIDE2 “I enjoy competing to be the best salesperson on the team.” SLIDE3 “I look forward breaking my own record every month.” SLIDE4 “I take pride in coaching my team to success.” SLIDE5 “I love it when the monthly financials balance out to the penny.” What you’re really searching for here, is their “values”, right? SLIDE
- So how can you identify a person’s values? How will you know if you’re making a good choice? SLIDE1 Understanding people’s values – a person's principles or standards of behavior, their judgment of what is important in life – is just another way of establishing why people do what they do. You can’t figure out someone’s values in one meeting – it usually takes several interviews. Nevertheless, it is a significant predictor of an applicant’s compatibility with your organization. You should already know the core values of your company. Comparing a candidate’s values to your standard, is a critical step in the hiring process. There are several “values assessment” tests available online which can identify a candidate’s core values to give you another data point in deciding whom to hire. SLIDE2 Tests like the Jung Typology Test, Myers-Briggs Indicator and the Predictive Index are just a few available tests and can be used as one tool in evaluating a candidate. You should always use your own interviews as the primary basis for hiring anyone, but the results of these kinds of tests, rather than tell you who to hire, may send up a red flag indicating who NOT to hire. SLIDE
- Let me recap what we just covered and try to tie it together for you here: SLIDE1 Remember earlier, we said that “Motivation is the outward expression of why people work.” SLIDE2 By finding out what motivates people, you are asking them to define what they believe in and why they are passionate about it. SLIDE3 It’s not enough that they have the qualifications for the job. It is important that you define the core values of your company and then compare a candidate to that standard. SLIDE4 Remember Simon Sinek’s advice: The objective is not just to hire people who need a job; it's to hire people who believe what you believe, whose values are your values. SLIDE
- SECTION THREE What is the first thing you look at when hiring a new employee? A resume, right? It contains all of that prospective employee’s work experience. “Wow, did you see that resume? What a great resume. Did you see all of the places he’s worked?” All well and good, but a resume doesn’t tell you a thing about the key traits which combine to make a great hire. SLIDE1 All top performing employees share these 3 key traits: 1) Talent, 2) Motivation and 3) Skill. You notice, I don’t mention a resume. It actually comes after skill in importance. SLIDE
- So, I want you to look at this picture and tell me, what does this little girl’s face say to you? What does her expression alone tell you? (Solicit the audience) She’s confident She looks energized She has a smart look about her She looks motivated Do you agree? Would you hire her? To work a lemonade stand, maybe? We got all of this information from a picture! Do you know why? SLIDE1 Because Talent and Motivation reflect who you are, not what you know. What do we know about this young girl’s education or skill level? Nothing really. We can only tell by looking at her that she probably has a fourth or fifth grade education. But that’s not as important, SLIDE2 because what you know changes over time and with training. Who you are doesn’t. And that’s a very important takeaway. SLIDE
- OK, so how do Talent, Motivation and Skill combine to make a great hire? SLIDE1 Great salesmanship is a talent, it comes naturally, and is not easily taught. Finding talented sales people is extremely important, but it is not the only thing. Talent is wasted on someone who lacks the motivation to use it. So what is motivation? SLIDE2 Motivation is a combination of attitude and passion. Attitude is how a person views life – glass half full, no obstacle too big, etc. Passion is how eager are they to grab a hold of life and devour it. Motivation cannot be taught. Let me say that again, motivation cannot be taught. I hear managers talk about how to motivate their people. You can’t motivate other people. You can incentivize them, encourage them, coach them, but motivation always comes from inside. It can be learned, sometimes, even later in life, but it is always self-learned. And while motivation comes from within, it is generated by external factors. The most common ways adults become more motivated is by some life-changing event which forces them to re-examine themselves. It could be a near-death experience, the loss of a loved one, a failure in one’s career or personal life, or often a tour of duty in the military will do it. SLIDE3 Skill is the only component which can be taught after the hire. SLIDE
- Think of it this way, SLIDE1 if talent and skill are the engine and guidance system of a rocket, SLIDE2 motivation is the rocket fuel and will have an absolute impact on the height to which the rocket, or in our case, employee, will rise. SLIDE
- SECTION FOUR Let’s take a look at an interview technique called Motivation Based Interviewing SLIDE1 In 2011, Carol Quinn wrote a great book called, Motivation-Based Interviewing (MBI). It is a widely-used interviewing technique that is simple, and highly effective for hiring Top Performers. MBI training teaches interviewers how to assess a candidate's talent, skill and motivation. SLIDE2 It largely relies on what we call (CAR) Challenge, Action, Results based questions which gives the interviewer insight into the person’s motivations and how they use their attitude and passion to get results. SLIDE3 For instance, you might want to find out how an applicant performed when challenged by a problem in their last job, to understand how they might perform in their new position. Ask them to tell a story, describing a specific challenge, what action they took and what results were achieved. SLIDE
- So what do CAR questions look like? Here’s an example. SLIDE1 you might ask what challenges they found in the territory, SLIDE2 what did you do to surmount them SLIDE3 and what were the results. This line of questioning gives you insight into how the person’s attitude and passion drive their motivation. SLIDE
- SECTION FIVE So we mentioned top performers. What is a top performer? SLIDE1 Recruiting expert Carol Quinn defines, “Top Performers as ordinary employees who are able to achieve extraordinary results.” As we said earlier, in order to accurately sort out top performers from other applicants, you have to find out why these people are willing to go above and beyond ordinary performance. Looking at an applicant’s performance in their previous job is one indicator of how they’ll do for you. SLIDE2 But a much better predictor of future job performance and achievement is an applicant’s attitude. We didn’t really define attitude earlier, SLIDE
- So, attitude is how effectively, or ineffectively, a person responds to obstacles or challenges. It’s your job to figure out how much effort a candidate will exert when the going gets tough. Is he or she a passionate, driven, problem-solver or someone who complains and make excuses when confronted with challenges? Determining how a person responds in the face of adversity (their attitude) is a powerful predictor of future job performance. I would place attitude near the top of the list of positive indicators for hiring anyone. If an employee isn’t good at overcoming obstacles, then they aren’t going to be good at achieving goals. Simple as that! Here’s a secret I’ll share with you. Go to the bottom of the resume and ask them about their hobbies and what they do for recreation. If someone is a rock climber or a marathon runner or plays chess regularly, or competes in online gaming, or volunteers helping the disadvantaged or works with troubled youth, they are likely the kind of people who regularly overcome obstacles. SLIDE
- SECTION SIX So, you’ve hired top performers, who believe in what you believe, by asking the right questions, correctly assessing their values and determining that they have the right mix of talent, motivation and skill to succeed in your organization. How do you keep them? Employee retention is one of the hallmarks of a well-run company. And retention is always a function of your culture. Compensation and promotion are not the driving factors in why your best people choose to stay. Remember, these are “results” and make retention more enticing, SLIDE1 but people stay when they believe what you believe and they are invested in your culture. SLIDE2 A study Gallup did last year confirms this concept. They concluded that “if your employees can't define your organization's identity -- and what's distinctive about it -- they are likely to head for the exit. This means culture needs to be a part of any retention strategy.” SLIDE
- When you’re managing a company, it’s hard to touch every employee to ensure that they are engaged with you and your vision. But that is exactly what you need to do. SLIDE1 Don’t assume that all of your employees are happy. Employees one, two and three levels below you, don’t have the benefit of working for you directly. For them, their manager may have terrible people skills and be an unresponsive coach. SLIDE2 Remember this quote by Peter Drucker “People leave managers, not companies”? Take it to heart. So if you don’t build a relationship with everyone in your organization, especially your top performers, you can lose valuable people because of a bad manager. You can build these relationships in a lot of ways. Simply greeting every employee with eye contact and a handshake is a great start. The owner of my previous company used to do this at every meeting – without fail! SLIDE3 Another technique is to schedule “skip level” meetings. That is, you and your managers have one on one meetings with employees one, two or three levels below your direct reports. Speaking frankly about their job satisfaction and observing what they say and don’t say, can give you critical insight into where you might have weak links in your management team. SLIDE4 It is also critical for the top managers in your organization to ask, why their employees stay. Knowing why they stay can give you insight into what you are doing right and how you might reinforce those ideas. Too often, as an owner or CEO, you might find out this information in an exit interview. By then, it’s too late! SLIDE
- Steve Jobs has a quote about listening to top performers. He said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell US what to do.” So you want to establish a culture which takes input from, and rewards,. top performers – right? Too many organizations build their culture around the average performer. By doing that, they are simply encouraging average performance and they attract more average performers. SLIDE1 According to Gallup, the way to build a culture around high performance is to: Listen to the needs and wants of your highest performers. Learn where, when, how and why they want to work. SLIDE2 • Shape your culture to connect your overall strategy with what top performers value most and what enables their success. SLIDE3 • Regularly check-in for "stay conversations" to make sure your strategy is on target. SLIDE4 And if you want your employees to work as hard as you do, then compensate them accordingly. Why else would an employee kill themselves for you when you own the company and they don’t? The company I worked for most of my life had a phenomenal retention rate in an industry plagued by high turnover in sales. One employee we hired after we’d been in business for twenty years, jumped on board with a metaphorical gasp and sigh of relief saying, “Oh my god, I finally made it!” I asked what she meant. She replied, “Everyone knows that someone in your company has to die or win Lotto for a sales position to open up!” I was floored! I didn’t realize it from the inside looking out, how people saw us. The reason was the culture, and this person was expressing something that the owner of the company had to be proud of – no one wanted to leave our brilliant little company! SLIDE
- I’m going to say something most managers would never think to say or agree with, but I’m going to say it anyway: SLIDE1 Firing an employee, especially a sales person, for non-performance, is a failure of management. Firing any employee, especially sales reps is very costly. Overall, it takes three years for a new sales rep to be fully integrated, comfortable with the portfolio and systems, and posting healthy increases in sales. In 25 years as a sales manager, Vice President and President of sales organizations, I only had to fire three people for non-performance. I consider firing an employee, especially a sales person, to be a failure of management. SLIDE2 Given that you hired “right” in the first place, the responsibility to protect and nurture that person is ongoing and critical for retention. As a manager, it is your duty to direct and coach employees to success. It is irresponsible to sit by and watch them fail. Or as I’ve seen some managers do – assist in their failure! SLIDE3 Consider this: if one of your children was failing in school and couldn’t complete the course work, would you ever consider firing them? Of course, not. You wouldn’t do it! You would immediately take on the job of coaching, tutoring, encouraging and helping your child succeed. So why do we have such a cavalier attitude about letting underperforming employees go, rather than doing our jobs as managers and coaching them to success? You think this is a radical idea? Tell that to Charlie Kim the CEO of a company called Next Jump, right here in New York City. Charlie implemented a policy of lifetime employment. If you get a job at Next Jump, you cannot get fired for performance issues! In fact, if you have performance issues, Next Jump will coach you and give you support, just like we would with one of our children. It's the complete opposite of what we are used to seeing in business. And I think more managers need to learn this lesson.