Tell Pride Stories During Onboarding

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Consider adding pride stories in various sections of your on-boarding program. One of the most important messages is to communicate “Pride Stories” (implicitly and explicitly) that will attract and retain employees so they can be proud to work at your organization.

Implicitly: by conducting a well-designed, well-organized, effective on-boarding program so new hires can see the organization does things right. It shows “I’m part of a great organization,” and respect for management “The organization knows what they’re doing here.”

Explicitly: by sharing stories that communicate “You can be proud to work here” by sharing stories that demonstrate why your organization is worthy of pride. Consider stories new hires can share with their families.

Key themes your stories may include:

1. What makes your product or service great.
2. How your product or service has made a difference in the lives or businesses of your customers.
3. The good things your organization does in your local community, or for the world community.
4. Examples of employees or contract workers performing at elite levels, such as providing over-the-top customer service that blows your customers away.
5. How your organization is run with integrity, respect for its people, and competence.

How do you obtain pride stories?

  • Collect them from employees at all levels, about Moments of Truth that illustrate why they are proud to work in your organization.
  • Collect and cataloged them in a database. (Note what they communicate and what value they personify.)

Once you have collected the stories, you can: 1) include them in the on-boarding program, 2) include them on your recruiting site and/or 3) have recruiters share them at job fairs and in hiring interviews.

Sharing stories that inspire pride as part of your new hire on-boarding program not only will make your program more inspiring, it will also help to “confirm the decision” in your new hire’s minds that they made the right choice. So be sure to add pride stories that communicate “You can be proud to work here” in your on-boarding program.

What Message is your Employer Brand Sending?

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Employer branding helps organizations uncover, articulate, and define their image, culture, differentiators, and reputation for the purposes of attracting quality talent. So consider building your employer brand into your on-boarding program.

The on-boarding process is linked to and in some ways starts with the “employer brand” that you create to attract, engage, and retain the best people who are the right fit for your company’s overall goals. Some points to remember:

  • Your brand will be what potential employees (employee or contractor worker) recognize as who you are and why they want to be a part of your company.
  • Start before the candidate is formally hired by including information about your workplace and your culture in a Careers section in your website.
  • Send an employee handbook and other information prior to the first day of on-boarding.

The employee experience starts with the new hires first interaction with an organization—recruiting. The first impression a potential employee may have may extend far beyond company offerings in position, salary, and benefits to the employer’s value proposition and brand. The employer’s value proposition and brand can include several things: the employee’s opportunities for career advancement, rewards and recognition, management style, and company culture. The employer’s value proposition and brand are the elements that impact the employee’s experience and their decision to join and remain with an organization.

The importance of brand doesn’t stop at the recruiting process. Some organizations support formal career tracks for their employees in order to create the right kind of employee experience. Brightwing for instance recently received the “Coolest Places to Work For” label that aids in brand building. New hires like to know that an organization is committed to employees’ long-term growth and development.

Helping your people shine.
On-boarding programs provide a good opportunity to reinforce the employer brand and generate a positive employee experience. A new hire that goes through a company’s on-boarding program and sees: a solid company message on the organizational culture, the mission and vision from the CEO, colleagues are upbeat, the company’s core products, value propositions, and performance expectations are clear and consistently presented, and a buddy and/or mentorship have been established, will be more likely to be excited to be part of the team, have a positive attitude, and refer a skilled peer to the organization.

The company’s strategic objectives and mission should be clearly communicated in the on-boarding program and continue through in the employee’s life cycle. They are the key components that drive the employer brand.

Companies spend billions every year on their consumer brands to attract new customers and open new markets. Happy employees can also be great brand sale people. Does your new hire on-boarding program work to attract, retain, and motivate happy employees that can share the organization’s vision, mission, and products with a potential customer as an ambassador for the company’s brand?

Career Planning: Empowering New Employees

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What is Career Planning and when should it start? Career Planning in its most basic form is displaying an organizational chart and showing a new hire where they fit into the total picture. When the on-boarding program extends over a period of time (90 days to one year), Career Planning can be a well-thought out event that becomes part of your employer branding. Career Planning may include these key components:

On-boarding Program: New hire learns compliance rules and regulations, understands job clarification and expectations, learns organization culture norms, participates in socialization events to establish relationships and information networks, and develops knowledge and skills through training.

Performance Appraisal: Once the new hire’s performance is measured, he/she the supervisor discusses the development gaps with the new hire.

Individualized Development Plan (IDP): The supervisor and employee work together to determine a plan to close the performance gaps and develop the competencies expected to move up within the organization. This includes determining the support (coaching and mentoring) they will need. This is where “career planning” starts.

Career Development: The organization provides learning interventions to close the gaps and prepare the employee for the next career level. The employee may also attend learning interventions independent of the organization.

Career Management: This is the responsibility of the employee but can include the organization in some cases. The development plan should align the employee’s competencies with the job competencies required at each level for career advancement.

Helping your people shine.
Many companies believe that employees make their decision to stay or leave within the first 6 months of employment. Adding Career Planning as a component in your on-boarding program adds value, helps to engage the employee, ensures new hires that there is a long-term plan for them with the company, and may influence their decision to stay with the organization.

Integration of Career Planning in on-boarding is a good approach. However, for it to work effectively, an upfront and continual needs analysis is required, as well as, documented procedures of all functions and an effective training and development program.

How Do You Know if Your Recruiting Process Is Broken?

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Photo credit: AP | The Manhattan skyline remains dark after Hurricane Sandy, as seen from Williamsburg in Brooklyn. (Oct. 29, 2012)

With the vivid images of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy front of mind it seemed appropriate to draw an analogy for this week’s blog. (Not by the way to diminish the situation).

Over the 20 years I have spent in the recruiting industry, I have had the good fortune to work with some great companies whose recruiting function worked like a well-oiled machine. They are strategic in their approach, thoughtful in how they plan their strategy and have a hiring process in place that makes the candidate ready to jump at the opportunity. Sadly, there are many more companies who’s process is broken and they do not even realize it.

How do you know when your recruiting process is broken? According to a recent article published by Haidar Hadi, Product Marketing Manager, at BonitaSoft, there are seven signs companies should look for:

1)    Low retention rates: If your turnover is high then you are not recruiting the right people. Performance metrics should be reviewed when building the interview questions.

2)    Recruiting process is too long: Recruiters should have a pipeline of qualified candidates and build relationships with passive candidates that might be right for future opportunities. This prevents each new hire from being a start from scratch type of project. You already have people that you know are qualified to reach out to.

3)    You need to reduce the cost of recruiting: Posting, screening, interviewing and managing the overall process is time consuming and costly. Post wisely, leverage your network, automate where you can and make good use of your recruiting time to identify candidates rather than being buried in busy work.

4)    You have to deal with a complex approval process for new hires: If you have multiple stakeholders it is important to make sure that you have a process in place that allows for collaboration in selecting the right candidate.

5)    You have to deal with a complex interview process: Limit the number of candidates you present and make certain the candidate is fully qualified so that the interviewer can interview for talent as opposed to qualifications. Interviewers should be provided with structured questions. Most managers are not experts in interviewing and need guidance.

6)    You have to deal with legal issues: If your interview process is set up properly there should never be any questions around legal issues. Interviews need to be conducted properly, documented properly and candidate selection based on the best candidate for the job.

7)     You have to deal with a high volume of applicants: Make sure you have an easy way to compare candidate qualifications possibly in a table format so at a glance you can pull the best to move forward.

There are a number of points made around this subject ~ including another article sighting seven similar signs. Forbes offers what they say is the 15 Minute Fix to Your Recruiting Problems.Regardless of which points in your process that are broken the results are the same. If you do not take a hard look at your processes and fix what is broken in your recruiting process you will remain stalled in the storm and miss out on good talent.

 

How to Meet the Training Needs of Your Workforce

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Massive training manuals no longer meet the needs of today’s diversified workforce.

We’ve written previously about the importance of continuous training for your employees. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that 35% of workers consider professional development programs to be the top benefit offered by their employers. Your people are your most important asset, so investing in their development is critical.

One of the challenges with corporate training is the diversity of the workforce. Baby boomers learn differently from millennials, telecommuters have different needs than onsite workers, etc. Fortunately, technology has greatly expanded the options for a blended training approach. Rarely do companies just hand out 400-page training manuals that everyone is expected to read. A variety of mediums help to incentivize training and motivate employees in new ways.

Here’s a brief overview of the components of a blended training approach:

1. Instructor-Led Training. This is traditional training with a teacher leading a group of students. The “non-traditional” aspect is that it no longer needs to be in-person. Online courses enable employees scattered all over the world to meet in one virtual place for class. This way, students still get the “human experience” of interacting with a real-time teacher.

2. Web-Based Learning. Today’s workers are accustomed to getting information quickly and on their own time. Web-based learning tools allow that to happen. Many companies are converting their hard copy training documents to web-based learning tools. In addition to being accessible anytime/anywhere, these electronic documents are much easier to modify than printed manuals used to be.

3. Mobile Learning (mLearning). Morgan Stanley estimates that by 2015, more users will connect to the Internet via mobile devices than by a PC. Mobile learning applications are on-demand snippets of information that supplement ongoing learning for employees. For example, three weeks after taking a training course for a new repair process, an aircraft mechanic could look up details of that process on his mobile device while he’s working on a plane. Mobile learning apps are best suited for short sessions (2-6 minutes) that focus on a single learning point.

4. Gamification. Who says we can’t play at work?! A fun and educational training trend is to incorporate learning into video games. A University of Denver Business School study found that employees trained with video games have 11% higher factual knowledge, 14% higher skill-based knowledge, and 9% higher retention than workers trained in less interactive environments. One of our partners saw tremendous success with this approach. New employees played a game in which built they built their own virtual car and developed it into a customized screensaver. In the process, they learned more about the organization and its various offices.

April JenningsAuthor: April Jennings

How Strategic Onboarding Affects Employee Retention

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How you approach a new hire’s first day may determine whether he’s with you for the long term.

Fact: 46% of new hires are gone within eighteen months,1 and almost half of those losses occur in the first forty-five days of employment.2  Those numbers aren’t just startling; they’re expensive.  How can you design your hiring process to help your company do a better job of retaining its talent?

The most critical point in your hiring process actually occurs after the hire is made: the employee’s first day on the job.  You must have a systematic and comprehensive onboarding process to:

  • Help new employees feel welcome and comfortable in their new surroundings.
  • Minimize the time before new employees are contributing value to your organization.

Helping New Employees Feel Welcome and Comfortable

New employees are excited, but they’re also nervous.  They don’t know what to expect and may still harbor doubts as to whether they made the right decision.  Overriding that nervousness, however, is an intense desire to make a good impression and contribute right away.

Here’s the secret most new hires don’t realize: most of that could also be said for you, the hiring manager!  This is your chance to make a magnificent first impression!  The last thing you want is for the new hire to spend his first day sitting alone in a cubicle, filling out paperwork, wondering where to get a cup of coffee…and thinking about contingent plans if this doesn’t work out.

Make the first day a celebration!  Imagine if the new guy walks in to find a bottle of wine on his desk, his computer ready to go, and supplies waiting?  Wouldn’t that leave a lasting impression?  More importantly, get to know him!  One of the primary reasons cited for unsuccessful onboarding is the inability to establish effective working relationships.3  To proactively avoid this problem, perhaps each team member could take him out to lunch over the first few weeks.  Furthermore, each executive could schedule a special one-on-one meeting to lay out the goals of the organization and cast a vision for the employee’s role in achieving them.

One thing’s for certain: that employee will leave his first day more excited than when he arrived, and that bodes well for the people who hired him.

Minimizing the Time Before New Employees Are Contributing Value

You can’t just throw a new employee into the mix and expect great results.  In addition to technical training, he needs to be taught the core values of your organization and how his work helps achieve the company vision.  Training should also include suggested action plans for issues the new hire may encounter.  This will save valuable time as he settles into a new role.

A study of employees in the United States and the United Kingdom found that businesses lose an estimated $37 billion annually due to employees not understanding their jobs.4  The faster the new hire assimilates to your organization, the faster he can leverage the skills for which you hired him in the first place.

How Brightwing Wins at Onboarding

To help new employees feel welcome and comfortable, we provide:

  • A welcome basket
  • A tour of the building
  • Introductions to staff
  • A profile of the new hire sent to all employees
  • Pictures of existing employees for easy identification
  • An assigned mentor
  • A personal overview of paperwork, company programs, and benefits
  • Lunches with all employees
  • An introduction of the new hire at a company-wide meeting

To minimize the time before the new hire is contributing value, we conduct:

  • A review of assessment results
  • A core values overview with the CEO
  • A company history lesson with the company president
  • One-on-one conversations with the manager
  • Clear communication of goals and objectives
  • An overview of the corporate marketing philosophy and materials
  • Training on email and phones
  • In-house software training
  • Meetings with various employees to understand their roles in the company

Failed hires are expensive.  Brightwing can help you take deliberate steps to avoid that cost starting with the onboarding process.

Sources:

  1. Leadership IQ
  2. The Wynhurst Group: 22% of staff turnover occurs in the first forty-five days of employment.
  3. Journal of Management
  4. International Institute for Management Development

Your Last Failed Hire Cost $60,140!

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Here are some typical costs for an employee making $55,000 who leaves after eight months:
• H.R. involvement (interviews, onboarding): $1,100
• Manager interviews & other recruiting expenses: $1,000
• Advertising: $400
• Employee salary: $36,672
• Benefits (30% of salary): $11,000
• Training: $800
• Productivity Loss (other employees picking up 25% of failed hire’s work due to learning curve): $9,168

TOTAL COST: $60,140

Obviously, these estimates don’t apply to everyone, but according to industry based studies, 24% of bad hires in the U.S. cost the company more than $50,000. Nearly half cost more than $25,000. For failed executive hires, those costs can be 10-15 times the monthly salary. Those are big numbers, and they affect more than the bottom line. A bad hire hurts productivity and morale, not to mention the loss of intellectual property.

In 2010, 2/3 of companies reported a bad hire adversely affecting their business. Perhaps you are one of them. Here are a few quick tips for reducing the chance of it happening again:

1. Closely monitor turnover rate. Put it on your list of quarterly metrics.

2. Understand why someone leaves, and take steps to keep it from happening again. Conduct exit interviews, and treat the exiting employee with respect. There’s a reason he is leaving, and it’s in your best interest to know why.

3. Develop a strong recruiting process that brings in people who fit your culture, environment and organization.

Here’s a simpler one-step formula: partner with Brightwing! Our success depends on the success of your hires, and we have an impressive history of getting it right. We would like to
help you reduce your H.R. costs.

The Reality of Your MSP

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There are more than six billion people on the planet, each of us with talents and skills. Not one of us could be called a commodity.

So why then, when organizations seek out new talent, would they use a process designed for procurement?

MSPs (Managed Service Providers) aren’t new, and at face value, are well intended. In my more than 30 years recruiting and discovering talent, I have engaged with many of them. The core capability of an MSP; compliance and cost management are significant issues that should be addressed. But most MSPs promise big savings by squeezing cost out of systems and streamline procurement processes.

However, what I’ve invariably found is that whatever short-term success organizations experience, long-term they are almost always a drain on the caliber of talent an organization attracts.

High Performing organizations spend a great deal of time identifying, developing and communicating their brand promise and core values in the marketplace. Candidates who are sourced using internal hiring teams are carefully screened for fit with the culture and values of the organization in mind. They are put through a vigorous interview process and are assessed to ensure they align with the values, as well as the skills, for the position. A successful hire is the result of thorough conversations with the candidate and feedback from the hiring managers.

In contrast, the typical hiring process of MSPs only allows the vendor a limited timeframe (sometimes as little as 48 hours) to provide candidates. Candidates may only have as short as a 30-minute interview with the hiring manager (and believe it or not sometimes no interview) and throughout the process there is little to no feedback provided to either the vendor or the candidate.

Putting a requirement out with a hard limited deadline means that a lot of quality candidates are missed, particularly passive candidates who may truly be the best qualified. Additionally, when recruiters are unable to get feedback and make successful placements, they will turn their focus to clients who are more engaged in the hiring process. Because of this, top talent may be going to your competitors.

The typical MSP scenario can also greatly damage your employee brand. With little or no feedback; and constant submittals to a variety of positions within your organization, talent will eventually feel commoditized. That message and feeling eventually makes it into the market place. Also controlling or managing the message about your organization in the market is very difficult with multiple recruiting and staffing vendors who are usually not incentivized in the process to do so. The reality of the typical MSP managed “staffing” systems is that over time they almost always are a drain on the caliber of talent and, therefore, the future potential of the organization.

Talent drives innovation and success in any top-performing organization. Leading organizations understand that when they are discovering and acquiring talent, it’s an investment in their future and a statement about their potential.

Finding the type of talent that can help propel a company forward requires a people-centric process — one that allows a vendor to use their experience and insight to find the best candidate for the job. I’ve yet to find an MSP that drives a people-centered process.

Author: George Albert Opitz, President of Brightwing

 

3 Ways Employment Branding Beats out Job Postings

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Employment BrandYou can think of your Employment Brand as your organization’s reputation as an employer. And the stronger your Employment Brand, the more, and higher quality, candidates you will attract. In order to market your employment brand, you have to discover what makes your company unique (or your Employee Value Proposition). Then you have to communicate that through various mediums, such as your career web page and social media. But more importantly, you have to engage your current employees in the dialogue. Think of them as your brand ambassadors. Encourage your employees to blog about company events and perks, get involved in user groups or associations and attend community events. When people love the place they work, they can’t help talking about it.

 

 

Why it gets better results:

1. Higher quality candidates. If you want to attract innovators and people at the top of their game, you have to be other places besides the job boards. The best candidates are sometimes passive candidates. And the best candidates want to work for companies with a great reputation that have a compelling, interesting and authentic story to tell.

2. It doesn’t expire. Employment Branding has more long-term value. Once you have successfully built your employer brand it will continue to positively affect your recruitment for years to come. As your Employment Branding content gets circulated, your internet search engine rankings will continue to increase and inevitably drive more talent to your company.

3. It’s more cost effective. Through Employment Branding you can drive organic traffic to your career page versus using paid job postings. Interesting and authentic Employment Branding also drives free referrals from your employees and your local and online communities.

Author: April Jennings

How to Write a Realistic Job Description

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If you’ve ever visited one of the popular online dating sites and taken the opportunity to review the profiles of those seeking the “right” person for what they consider an “ideal” relationship you’ll notice a common theme on many of them.   The profile of the person they seek is perfect…literally perfect.

The list of things they’re looking for goes on and on with all kinds of requirements, interests, and qualities.  Do people like that really exist?

Probably not.

What if these folks approached their search with somewhat more realistic expectations, and just included of a few of the non-negotiable must have’s instead of listing out every little thing that would be “ideal”?  What if they included a little bit of info on what’s truly important to them (their values), and why those things matter?  What if they stuck to the “must have’s” and allowed for someone to learn/develop certain interests or qualities over the course of a relationship?

If they were to sit around and wait for someone who met all their “ideal” requirements they could be waiting a very long time, and interact with very few people.  At the end of the day, they might actually keep themselves from meeting someone really great; someone who has qualities they never expected or thought to ask for in a person.

Attracting Talent in the workplace is not all that different than attracting the right person for a personal relationship…a wider net gives you a larger pipeline, more choices, and offers opportunities to include those with unique skills and experience.

The “attraction” process often begins with a simple job description.  Much like the online dating profile, many job descriptions are loaded with requirements; full of ideal qualities and skills, and ultimately pretty limiting in terms of whom might actually be “right” for the job.

The most effective job descriptions are those that stick to core requirements—what is absolutely essential to performing the functions of the role.  Including an outline of how performance will be measured also provides a standard for both the individual and the manager.  Allow for some of the “ideals” or nice-to-have skills to be learned and developed along the way.  Often those “nice to have” skills change as the business changes.  Good job descriptions also include something of the core values and the behaviors that exhibit those values.  The potential for success in a role is much greater when you seek to match the core skills and values rather than focusing strictly on the never ending list of technical skills and experience requirements.

Here are some simple rules for writing a realistic but effective job description; one that is likely to apply to a range of different individuals who can perform the job, and without limiting the possibilities for potential in the role:

  • Outline the primary, or core responsibilities of the role.  This will also assist managers by providing clear objectives and standards for the role.
  • Stick to “must have” requirements—what skills are absolutely necessary to performing the job outlined?
  • How will performance be measured in the role?
  • Include a couple of the company core values as well as the key behaviors that exhibit these values.

Core requirements…simple, straightforward, and clearly outlined.  Effective, realistic, and applicable to a wider range of potential talent.  Now that’s absolute perfection.

4 Practical Employee Engagement Strategies that Drive Results

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Recent statistics indicate that engagement in our US companies is very low, around 32%.  This means that two thirds of our workforce is showing up to work every day under half steam.  To an owner of an organization this is difficult news.  Why are so many people disengaged?  There is another statistic that says that many people are not satisfied with their current position and when the economy picks up they will be looking for a new job.  A large research firm just lost one third of their IT department to a competitor.  The reason, the employees didn’t feel they made a difference and felt insignificant.  This is of course a very significant loss to an organization and there is a big link between people being engaged and satisfied at work.  So what can a company do to engage their people?

1)    Create a sharing culture rather then a telling culture. Hold meetings that allow employees an opportunity to share what they see, think and feel.  What are the clients feeling? Use the information from your employees and clients to create new ways to operate in the company.  People do not hate change nearly as much when they are involved in the creation of it.

2)    Create time on peoples’ calendars to create and implement new ideas.  Many people fail to share great ideas because it often means more work on top of an overwhelming work load.  Compensate people for new ideas and improved processes.

3)    Create visuals in the office that show how things are going.  If someone knows that their idea is moving along they will have a great feeling of being involved.

4)    Have people bring pen and paper to meetings.  Leave all computers out of your meetings as they create a difficult distraction and prohibit creativity.

 

 

Author: Kim Knapp, Organizational Consultant and Executive Coach at Corporate Life Success. Knapp has been coaching Brightwing Team members for the past 4 years and has helped numerous members of the Brightwing family grow both personally and professionally.

Corporate Life Success is supporting entire corporate cultures in the shift from fearful behaviors like avoidance and entitlement, to freedom behaviors of engagement and creativity. Her clients are having fun and enjoying their companies again. They are finding that the practice of some very simple principals can yield a dramatic result. Creative solutions, innovation and extraordinary growth are showing up as we address the fear and focus on freedom techniques.

The Difference between Good and Bad Bosses

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“Mmm, yeah, I’m going to have to go ahead and ask you to come in on Sunday, too” – Bill Lumbergh

Your boss may not be as bad as Bill Lumbergh from the movie Office Space, but as another Boss’s Day comes and goes, although the 2011 holiday fell on a Sunday (is this a slap to the boss’s face?),  I was wondering what makes a bad boss?

The internet is full of websites relaying stories of bad bosses:  reallybadboss.com, workingamerica.org/badboss and employeesurveys.com, just to name a few.

You will find thousands of real life personal tales of employees and their experiences with a ‘bad boss’.  Some are quite funny while others are outrageously horrifying – leaving you to wonder how one human being can treat another with such disdain.

There are accounts of a boss taking away all of his employees’ desk chairs, leaving them to work standing up.  Yet another employee, upon returning to work from a well-deserved vacation, found their work space was severely reduced and re-arranged.   Then there is the employee who was berated for keeping their desk too clean – the boss’s rationale was that a messy desk is evidence of an employee hard at work.  And the stories go on and on and on.

Then I thought, well these are extreme cases – sad for sure – and certainly on the edge of ridiculousness and hopefully rare in occurrence – but what about the ‘bad boss’ who isn’t mean and nasty, rather he just doesn’t know any better?

The Micro-Manager, The Belittler, The one who gives little or no direction, The UN-rewarding boss, The UN-approachable one.

These bosses are much more common in many workplaces – and seemingly easier to correct simply by having an open and honest conversation with your boss.  Do so, by not finding fault with your boss or shifting blame, but ‘guiding’ him/her to what your needs are in order to make you a better employee.  In other words – help them to help yourself.  Many times they may not realize the error of their ways  (insert snicker here!).

If you’re a boss reading this – take a few moments today to evaluate how well you interact with your employees on a day-to-day basis.  Find any areas for improvement?

On the other side of the coin, if you have a good boss, acknowledge them.  It doesn’t have to be an elaborate gift, a big ole heartfelt “Thank You” goes a long way and always works.

How to Use a Mentor System

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No matter how confident a person may seem, they are still likely to be a little overwhelmed when starting a position. A lot is placed on the shoulders of new employees. They have to get to know a fresh office with new faces as well as get into a routine for their workload. It’s almost as scary as being thrown into a labyrinth with a Minotaur. Wouldn’t it be awesome if they had a specific person in the organization to go to for help when they needed it? Someone who has been there for awhile and knows the ropes?

Flight Restriction

Mentoring is an amazing way to integrate a new employee, but how does a manager make sure that he creates a successful mentoring program?

Take Off

The first thing to do is find mentors suitable for the task. These people have to be the definition of your company’s values. The point of initiating new employees is not simply to have them learn the job. One of the main aspects a mentor provides is an example and teacher of what your organization represents. Your mentors should also be able to communicate effectively. It does not help a new employee if his/her mentor does not have the heart to point out mistakes and ways to correct them along with the compliments. Make sure that your mentors have the time to devote to the cause as well. Some employees want to focus on their work and don’t have time for added responsibility. Your mentors should also realize that they are becoming teachers and not royalty with servants. New employee abuse is the leading cause of work related deaths.

The next step is to give your new employee and his/her mentor clear expectations of what they are to expect from one another. Nothing is worse then putting two people in a position in which they have no idea what they are doing. Brightwing’s mentoring program delegates a set time frame for the mentorship period. It also sets clear expectations that the mentor and mentee will meet at least once a week and monthly with the mentor program leaders. Mentors are expected to provide constructive and honest feedback, teach by example, encourage, and maintain open communication. Mentees need to listen and utilize feedback, accept challenges, ask questions, and inspire his/her mentor. These are just a few guideline examples for what each person should get out of the program.

The final strategy is to stress the perks of the mentoring program to keep people interested. Mentors are given personal growth, and the ability to strengthen their communication, leadership, and coaching skills. Mentees get a better understanding of the organization’s core values and how to uphold them. They also develop a relationship with a fellow employee faster and receive more clarity on their job and where to go for help. Wouldn’t it be great if I could end this paragraph there? The truth is that people like physical rewards as well. At Brightwing, there is a Mentor of the Year award chosen from mentee feedback. Each mentor/mentee team is also given a monetary sum to place into future mentoring programs.

Maintaining Altitude

A mentoring program can only strengthen the integration of new employees if done right. If you utilize the points I have presented, you will see the benefits firsthand. Picking the right mentors assures that the new employees are in the right hands and that can make all the difference.

The Hiring Dilemma: Culture vs Talent

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Hiring a new employee is a skill that involves a lot of tact. It’s really an art form. In essence, you are bringing someone into your organization to provide something of value or fulfill a need. Obviously, most hiring managers go for talent that has the experience to back it up. This method does not always take in the big picture.

Flight Restriction

Hiring an employee based off experience alone will not necessarily garner the best outcome. It is the Brightwing belief that the people you hire have to also come with one essential thing; the ability to uphold your core values by having a genuine interest in the work and to get along with the people that they interact with on a daily basis. Is your company using this idea to the fullest?

Take Off

Let’s take a closer look to explain what we mean. Say you are in the business of hiring cartoon characters for a cold calling position. Your first potential hire is a spunky cat with little experience in the industry, but a chipper personality and desire to learn. He seems to have almost all of the values that your company does, but his experience in the line of work is from a different position. You decide you want to wait for someone with more experience. Your next potential hire is a tall, gray rabbit with a carrot in his mouth. He seems pretty personable, greeting you with a “What’s up doc?” His resume is also very promising. He gets the position based on past experience alone.

The new employee comes to work the next day, eyes bloodshot from too many carrots the previous night. He sits down and dials up his first cold call. The first core value of your company is taking the time to build a relationship with those you call, but this employee is very apathetic to his candidates. In the cubicle next to him is your best employee; a short man with a speech impediment, a hunting suit, and a rifle. Obviously things are going to go sour at this point. Suddenly, the new employee’s experience means nothing because he is running for his life. Your best employee is also rendered useless because he is too busy trying to kill your new one. What does this mean? The workplace is shot along with your client base because your employees cannot get along with each other, let alone spend the time to create a relationship with your patrons.

The new employee’s resume looked amazing, but he was actually not a good fit for your company because he didn’t share the same core values. He was also not able to work with other employees in the building. For this reason, it is important to always ask the right questions in the interview process so that you have a good idea of the person’s fit within the company. In this case, the first potential was probably the better choice. He seemed to care more about the job and have the core values that would have helped him fit within the company. Obviously, finding a mix between both candidates can happen too and is the desired outcome, but it does not always happen. Most hiring managers never even consider these ideas when screening potential employees.

Maintaining Altitude

The hiring process has to be about more than what’s on paper. You need people who can do their task well, but be devoted to it and the relationships with those around them in the process. Genuine employees go the extra mile because they really care about your company’s purpose. That is what you want right?

How to Get the Most out of Meetings

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We all remember the movie Ocean’s Eleven. Most of us wanted to be involved in a heist after. The movie just made it seem so cool with all the nifty ideas that were utilized to be successful. Heists are bad, and yet we were rooting for the team. Well, what made the eleven people so successful? They did something a lot in the movie that brought their ideas together. They had meetings!

Flight Restriction

In the business world, one cannot get anywhere without conducting meetings. They do more than just bring coworkers together. Meetings are the ideal way to spread ideas and make sure a project or task is done with ideas of all involved, but how exactly do you get the most out of them?

Take Off

1. People– The first thing that someone needs to decide is who to bring to a meeting. A DISC assessment might be a good way to decide which people to involve. DISC is a physiological assessment that places people into four different groups. They are as follows:

Dominance: Likes order, control, and assertiveness

Influence: Very social and likes to work in teams; optimistic

Steadiness: Patient but persistent; follows orders well

Conscientiousness: Likes taking everything into account, structure, and accuracy.

Obviously you need a good balance of these personalities in order to get the most out of a meeting. Two dominant people will just kill each other for leadership, and too many influential people will just socialize about what’s happening on their Facebook. A group of steady people will have no leader and likely die of starvation, and conscientious people will just be a giant pile of paranoia.

2. Agenda– Know what you want to do beforehand. Sit down and create a skeleton framework for what you need to discuss and its importance in the grand scheme of things. Try to frame out what questions you want to ask and form a clear purpose for the meeting. Without an objective, people might start discussing alternate dimensions or other things to scare other members or create an explosion of irrelevant information.

3. Know Your Limits– The best way to get anything out of a meeting is to know when to move on. You can sit there all day and debate on a topic, but might never reach a decision. Spend a little time on it, but if no clear decision is being made, then tell everyone to take some time to think about it outside of the meeting and press on to the next subject. The good thing about meetings is that you can reconvene. There is no limit! Remember to also finish the meeting with expectations of deadlines and what to do next.

4. Think outside of the box– Don’t be afraid to get some outsiders involved. Meetings might be productive if everyone is knowledgeable on the topic, but that might also be a downfall. You might think something is explained well or developed because you already have knowledge on the topic. Getting someone from the office who isn’t involved can assure that all angles are looked at.

Maintaining Altitude

These simple rules will assure that your meetings will be successful. Embrace the different personalities in your office and utilize them to your advantage. One more thing- set the mood for your meetings. If it’s warm out, why not meet outside? If it’s cold and rainy, go to a comfortable place with some soft background music. If it has to be professional, then you can go to the conference rooms, but people like to be relaxed when sitting in a group for long periods of time!

Making the Most of Your Employee Training

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Hold on to your hats because it’s time for all employees to get their dose of training! Your company has found reason to give its workers more knowledge on a particular subject, whether it is the integration of a new company wide program or leadership skills.

Flight Restriction

Training usually ends up being the afterthought of doing anything new. A lot of companies think that their employees are super human robots that can pick up and go with something like a fish to water. It’s time for a reality check, though. People need to learn about the new before they can become comfortable with it. But with so many different training approaches, what is the best way to make this happen?

Take Off

According to a survey done by the Chapman Alliance, the average time it takes to create a single hour for a training session is 43 hours. That is almost two days of work for an hour of material. That is why it is so important to know exactly how to approach a training course before it takes place. I mean, you wouldn’t submerge your hand in water before testing the temperature first right? The type of training is decided upon based on the people who are receiving the information. If the employees are scattered around the state, you obviously want to create a training program that involves SWAT teams breaking into their homes at night, kidnapping them, and taking them to a remote facility in South America that has a chalk board and desks. The easier method, however, is just utilizing the internet.

Brightwing and i3Logic strive hard to find the best possible courses of action for a training class. With technology today, the realm of possibilities for learning has grown substantially. Instructor led face-to-face training is not the only way to go.

E-learning initiative (online training) has become extremely convenient and popular as well. It is separated into the three following methods depending on how much interaction is needed:

Level 1: Low Interaction. This process involves graphics and written info for one to read online.

Level 2: Medium Interaction: This process involves videos or recorded interaction.

Level 3: High Interaction. This process involves interaction with avatar interviewing.

You can also blend the two methods together and do instructor led training online with group meetings and discussions in a virtual classroom. Don’t forget your virtual paper airplanes and spit wads when you log on!

If a small amount of employees need training and are all in the same general area, instructor led training works wonders. It allows for a great amount of interaction and knowledge sharing between employees and instructor. However, a lot of companies find it difficult to provide physical training because their employees are not all in the same place. This is where customized online training programs come in handy. The level of e-learning depends on the motivation of the employees. If they don’t want to do it, then a higher level of interaction is needed to keep them interested. Shiny objects are advised as people are generally attracted to them.

Maintaining Altitude

So there you have it! Now you know what learning solutions companies go through. Are you doing all that you can to make sure your employees are trained properly and efficiently? It is a long process that must be molded to fit each individual situation. In fact, I think I’ll end this blog so I can go work on my online employee potty training class!