Facing uncertainty can be challenging – being a business owner facing uncertainty is tougher.
Red Direction helps you [fast track and] grow your business – authentically, pragmatically, and resiliently.
Starting the Conversation:
Do your employees feel less important than your customers?
How does a company add value and grow putting intention around their employee experience?
Host: Jessica Dewell
Guest: Reagan Freed
What You Will Hear:
Talent acquisition is more than a process, it’s a relationship.
Portray the mission in all of your communications.
Before you post anything about filling open roles, know your story.
Too many responses decrease the chance of finding the right people for your culture.
Hiring is a two-way street.
Employee experience is the beginning (hiring) the middle (the way work gets done). These two factors predict the end.
Align your employee experience and your customer experience.
Resources and case studies (linked below).
#VBBRadio Question: What is the most challenging part of keeping the right talent.
#VBBRadio Question: Do all people look for the same quality, engagement, experience in their employers? And if there are some differences, what are they?
Find your own mix of technology and people to get the efficiency and level of interaction that supports the way you work together.
Your candidates may be your future customer (or an existing customer).
Two things you must do and two core competencies you need for intentional growth.
#VBBRadio Question: All other things being equal, is it more important to hire for skills or hire for good fit?
#VBBRadio Question: If employee experience is so vital for business growth, then why we still have a problem. What do you think? What is the root cause?
#VBBRadio Question: Can you elaborate more on “Culture Champions?”
What your culture is versus what you want it to be.
How we know we are ready for the naked truth – receiving feedback from your employees.
What makes it bold to proactively engage intentional growth?
Notable and Quotable:
Reagan Freed 3:50 That's one of the most important things that I help my clients with is trying to determine, “What is their mission?” What is their vision? And how do we portray that in the recruiting process? We're finding talent that aligns with it.
Jess Dewell 4:14 It's easy to put together a job description. We've got the Internet. And we've got the ones that worked or didn't work before. And we've got potentially people who were in a role that we've worked with before in a similar role that we could pull from to get that. But none of those things bring in that mission and that vision, or the values.
Reagan Freed 4:50 First, before you even think about your job ads are what you're going to post out there, think about your target candidate profile. Who are the people you think would be the best fit for that particular position. So for example, if you had a social media manager position open, and you want someone who's going to bring really cutting edge ideas around social media marketing, you might want to target someone who's fresh out of school, a Millennial who we know excels with some of those skills. So then think about what that target profile is, and where you're going to go find them. So a Millennial is going to look for jobs in different places than an X'er or a Boomer like me.
Reagan Freed 8:27 Recruiting needs to be a two way street. It's got to work for both the organization and the candidate. So they will have needs in the process to that I encourage all my clients to consider as well. And asking them that question along the way, “What else do you need to know about our organization to know that this is the right fit for you?”
Reagan Freed 12:18 Think of all the effort businesses, particularly small growing businesses, are putting into the consumer experience, to their services, or to their products. That is the most important thing to grow their business. Now take that mentality and apply it to their employees.
Reagan Freed 22:08 Your employees are all there for really different reasons. Some want a super fun a place to work, where they can play ping pong on their lunch brea. Somewhat really good benefits for their family. Some want to feel like they're making a difference in the community they work in. Knowing what that is will be absolutely critical to retaining your talent. And then there's a balance there too. As an organization, you can't just bend over to meet the needs of every employee, you've got to figure out what aligns with your culture, what you can offer them and where you can meet them in the middle.
Reagan Freed 24:24 You have to set some realistic expectations in the hiring process. There are some things you may not be able to offer, and therefore they may not be the right fit for your organization, no matter how skilled or talented they are being willing to accept that.
Reagan Freed 31:30 And when you think about creating a great candidate experience, consider to those candidates are also potential or current consumers. So the experience they have with you in that hiring process may determine whether or not they're interested in using your services or products in the future. And how many other friends or family are they going to go tell it. That's again, coming back to the alignment of the candidate and employee experience with the consumer experience. Make sure that you're maintaining that brand and reputation that you want to have in the community.
Reagan Freed 33:43 At the executive level, the reasons that you are there, and the reasons you are willing to work 70, 80 hour work weeks are entirely different than probably the people under you or within a company are therefore. Recognizing that the reasons you're there are different than the reasons they want to come join you and the reasons they will stay. Separate the two, and having that self awareness I think will be really critical in both your candidate experience and the employee experience you offer.
Jess Dewell 35:18 This concept of discernment. The more capacity that I have to weigh my awareness of what I'm willing to put in, versus what somebody else is willing to put in, versus what the company needs, is a guide to be able to make decision. Just making decisions in general.
Jess Dewell 36:06 The willingness to take the time to go through the decision making process, and make sure each step is right, is a pretty big deal.
Reagan Freed 41:17 Culture really, at the end of the day, is the behaviors that are exhibited in your organization. I encourage all my clients to take an assessment of that. What is happening today? What are the behaviors? How do we treat one another? How do we go solicit feedback from our employees? And do we listen to that? All of that factors into culture. Knowing that about your culture, (1) it's important, and then (2), does that line up with what you want your culture to be? A “Champion” would be the person that emulates those the right behaviors. That consistently carries your mission, vision and values first and foremost, both internally and externally.
Reagan Freed 50:11 “Vulnerability ,”that's where you'll find the most growth for your business when you're willing to be a vulnerable lead. When you're willing to do what it takes to listen to your employees and meet their needs.
Tags:
culture champion, mission, engagement, communication, feedback loop, intentional growth, business growth, culture, technology, hiring process
