Larry Wenger, Founder of Workforce Performance Group
Annie Lachs, Principal Consultant for Workforce Performance Group
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Creating Leaders Who Achieve Results
Click on "Our Services" for an Outline
of Training and Consultation we Provide
Leadership Training - Employee Motivation - Data Informed Hiring
For Human Service Organizations
Here's a Sampler from Our LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM ON TEAM BUILDING. Work teams are very popular today as a way of solving problems and getting jobs done. However, many teams fall short of their intended purpose because they fail to meet some of the requirements for effective teamwork. For example, they do not TRUST each other. Trust is an essential component of all successful working relationships including work teams. If your team is just forming or your team has failed to develop a sense of trust amongst the members, here's one thing you can do about it. Begin your next meeting by asking each member to share something personal which no one else in the group knows. If this makes someone feel uncomfortable, they can share. It's amazing, most are almost eager to share. Even members who have worked together for many years will have something to say. And further, the exercise binds the group together in a new and productive way. This simple exercise will help the team members to share their real, honest opinions about a new program, policy or procedure in a way that enables the team to determine the best course of action. For more ideas, call us for a free team-building telephone consultation: 1-877-872-6195.
REDUCE TURNOVER: HIRE THE RIGHT PERSON IN THE FIRST PLACE
You might think that with all the people out there looking for work, that it would be easy to find good job candidates. Actually, yes, there are lots of people looking for work, but finding the right ones for your organization is very tough; in fact I would say it's a downright dangerous time to make hiring decisions. Job applicants are increasingly bright, experienced, and articulate. And, they are well prepared for the interview, thanks to an abundance of resources on the internet and elsewhere.
Hiring managers on the other hand are ill-prepared to interview the applicant. In sharp contrast to the applicant, few managers have ever had any formal training in how to interview a job candidate. To make the experience even more problemmatic, the hiring manager is probably wearing several hats in the organization and so he/she arrives at the interview out-of-breath and ill-prepared, barely knowing the name of the applicant. Finally as a manager in a social service agency, they see themselves as a "people person" and firmly believe that they can rely on their intuition or "gut instinct" to tell a good candidate from someone who is not suitable. As hiring expert Carol Quinn notes, " hiring by intuition is like firing at a target in the dark without using night vision goggles."
A good hiring process begins with a job description which accurately describes the competencies which the job requires. Most job descriptions are written with the funding source in mind and are largely ignored (or sneered at) by staff; they are gathering dust on the top of a file cabinet. So the stage is set for a very casual approach to the staff selection process. In contrast, the same organization will examine in great detail the performance capability of a new copier they want to buy to make sure it will meet the organization's needs.
So after we have agreed on the competencies required for the job, we are ready to do the interview. Here are some tips for effective interviewing:
1. Prepare your questions ahead of time, so that in the interview you can really listen to what the candidate has to say.
2. Ask questions about how the candidate handled a specific obstacle in the past. Dont ask what they would do, ask what they have done. Find out how things turned out...what was the result of how the candidate handled the problem. It's ok if the strategy the candidate selected did not work...what's important is that they tried to overcome the obstacle.
3. Make sure the candidate gives you specific detail. You want behavioral detail.
4. When you are writing down questions prior to the interview, also write down "positive indicators" - what you want to here in the applicant's response.
5. Evaluate each response from the candidate on a 1-5 scale (5 being the best). You want to hire candidates that you have scored at least a "3".
Many organizations that we have worked with have managers and supervisors widely separated by geography. Often they do not have a standardized hiring process in place, so each manager goes about the process in a way that he/she thinks is best. This is very risky legally and will usually result in a lot of inconsistency in quality of candidates hired. If this is your situation and you would like some help in developing a standardized process, give us a call at 1-877-872-6195 or email lwenger@workforceperformancegroup.net.
Hiring managers on the other hand are ill-prepared to interview the applicant. In sharp contrast to the applicant, few managers have ever had any formal training in how to interview a job candidate. To make the experience even more problemmatic, the hiring manager is probably wearing several hats in the organization and so he/she arrives at the interview out-of-breath and ill-prepared, barely knowing the name of the applicant. Finally as a manager in a social service agency, they see themselves as a "people person" and firmly believe that they can rely on their intuition or "gut instinct" to tell a good candidate from someone who is not suitable. As hiring expert Carol Quinn notes, " hiring by intuition is like firing at a target in the dark without using night vision goggles."
A good hiring process begins with a job description which accurately describes the competencies which the job requires. Most job descriptions are written with the funding source in mind and are largely ignored (or sneered at) by staff; they are gathering dust on the top of a file cabinet. So the stage is set for a very casual approach to the staff selection process. In contrast, the same organization will examine in great detail the performance capability of a new copier they want to buy to make sure it will meet the organization's needs.
So after we have agreed on the competencies required for the job, we are ready to do the interview. Here are some tips for effective interviewing:
1. Prepare your questions ahead of time, so that in the interview you can really listen to what the candidate has to say.
2. Ask questions about how the candidate handled a specific obstacle in the past. Dont ask what they would do, ask what they have done. Find out how things turned out...what was the result of how the candidate handled the problem. It's ok if the strategy the candidate selected did not work...what's important is that they tried to overcome the obstacle.
3. Make sure the candidate gives you specific detail. You want behavioral detail.
4. When you are writing down questions prior to the interview, also write down "positive indicators" - what you want to here in the applicant's response.
5. Evaluate each response from the candidate on a 1-5 scale (5 being the best). You want to hire candidates that you have scored at least a "3".
Many organizations that we have worked with have managers and supervisors widely separated by geography. Often they do not have a standardized hiring process in place, so each manager goes about the process in a way that he/she thinks is best. This is very risky legally and will usually result in a lot of inconsistency in quality of candidates hired. If this is your situation and you would like some help in developing a standardized process, give us a call at 1-877-872-6195 or email lwenger@workforceperformancegroup.net.
Workforce Performance Group, 821 Dolington Rd. Newtown, Pa. 18940
1-877-872-6195, lwenger@workforceperformancegroup.net