Category

Recruitment

May 06
4

From little things big things grow…are you overlooking support staff?

By | Recruitment

There is nothing that gets me fired up more than a company that ignores the importance of support staff and the role they play in an organisation’s success. I see it every day in recruitment.

A company hiring a Receptionist recently said “this is the least important role in our company; just send us some CV’s”. Where do I start with this? The Receptionist is the first person your clients see and speak to, financially, this is still a $60K – $80K decision (salary + on-costs + training time + recruitment fees) and if your company is anything like mine, this is the training ground for internal promotion and future top talent! Get this hire wrong and you will potentially lose business and harm the company’s reputation. On the flip side, if the Receptionist is smart, competent and professional – this reflects that your business is smart, competent and professional.

Every day companies are missing the importance of getting these administration and support roles right. At Entrée Recruitment, my current PA started as the Receptionist and another is now a Consultant – all groomed and trained from the front desk.  Think of the recruitment costs I saved, the culture fit I already had right, the reduced risk of a new hire and the delight in providing career development. A bigger picture perspective rather than this is “just the Receptionist” can give you a long term competitive advantage.

One of the most frustrating support roles to recruit is a Personal Assistant or Executive Assistant.  Typically they support a Senior Executive such as General Manager, Director or CEO and such an important role needs to be given the recruitment attention it deserves. Unfortunately, what generally happen is that it is delegated to HR to ‘find some resumes’ and the Executive only gets involved in the last interviews declaring that “no-one is suitable” and there is “no chemistry”.  Gee I wonder why? You didn’t get involved from the start, you didn’t meet the Recruiter and you didn’t give a personal briefing on your requirements. It is virtually impossible to recruit a PA for someone you haven’t met.

To get this right and save you time, money and long term headaches with hiring the wrong person means committing to the process upfront like you would to hire a Senior Executive. 

  1. Personal briefing – meet the Recruiter who will be recruiting this role for you. Ensure they can demonstrate experience recruiting similar roles, are knowledgeable of the market, salaries and can recommend a proactive recruitment strategy.  It’s okay to have HR involved, but the person this role supports must be at the briefing.
  2. $ – commit to paying top dollar for this recruitment, like you would for an executive recruitment campaign. You get what you pay for, so a resume  flicking race by 4 different recruiters is not going to deliver you a top notch candidate. Your role also loses its ‘exclusive’ factor when every Recruiter in town all ring the same candidates for the same job….”what’s wrong with this role?” “they must be desperate” will be what goes through the candidate’s mind.
  3. Realistic expectations – don’t expect international experience, shorthand, board experience and to pay $50K.  Experienced Executive Assistants will save you money and increase your productivity – pay for the privilege or reduce your expectations.
  4. Honesty about your strengths & weaknesses – being honest with yourself and the Recruiter about your leadership style and what has frustrated previous Assistants is a good thing! It will mean that the match will be more accurate and your new Assistant knows what they are in for. If you are like the famous Adelaide business owner who likes his highlighters lay out in particular order for a board meeting – tell us! If you want your coffee cup pre-warmed and stirred in an anticlockwise direction two times – we need to know (yes that was a Partner in a law firm!).
  5. History – what has/hasn’t worked in the past – think of your best Assistant in the past – what made them so effective? What has completely frustrated you about others?  Be clear on what you want to see in your next hire.
  6. Training – not all Assistants will do things the same way and of course as Leaders we like things done differently to.  Assistants can’t read your mind – tell them early in the relationship how you would like things done and always correct them if you want something different.  Don’t hope it will get better – it won’t.  Training from day 1 is essential to develop and nurture a great working relationship.
  7. Invest in time & feedback – would you let a senior manager go weeks on end with no feedback on their performance, especially if they weren’t meeting your expectations? Of course not, you would probably have a weekly meeting and give them specific examples of what is working and what isn’t.  Do the same with your Assistant – feedback is the only way people will keep doing the things you like and stop doing the things you don’t.

Over the years my best Assistants became business partners – a person I could trust, make decisions in my absence and rely on to help improve my business results. The worst Assistants took up my time, created more work for me and clashed with the rest of the team.

I have learnt that support roles are critical to business results, workforce harmony and leadership productivity. Invest upfront, get the fit right and never underestimate the power of an effective Assistant.

Can you easily re-call your best & worst Assistant? Tell me – I would love to hear!

One of my best EA hires – Niamh – congratulations on the birth of your little boy George this week.

Apr 14
4

Who’s hot and who’s not…what the perfect resume won’t tell you

By | Recruitment

Interviewing, recruitment, hiring, finding the right candidate….it’s easy! It’s not rocket science. How hard can it be, get resumes, interview, have a chat, make an offer – done! If only this was true….

Last week I was doing the school drop off and was asked independently by two separate parents in business how to pick the right person at interview. How long have you got??? One was disillusioned by a highly talented person leaving to take a very similar role elsewhere with the only obvious added benefit seeming to be ‘working closer to home’.  The other was being challenged by picking an internal hire from 20 great resumes that all seemed to have the right technical experience.  Both were apprehensive due to incorrect hires in the past that initially looked right on paper. They were desperate for the secret ingredient, the right answer, the one thing that I could tell them that they didn’t know to ask at interview to get it right.

Subsequently, I was called to a meeting on Monday with a client who was completely frustrated and surprised when what they thought was a ‘perfect hire’, resigned after 2 months.  They too wanted to know where did they go wrong, when the resume appeared to be perfect?

First and foremost – recruiting people is not easy. Picking the right person is even harder.  We do it every day here at Entrée Recruitment and see, hear, talk and advise clients on how to do it better. It is an ongoing battle for most business owners – finding, recruiting and retaining the right people.

Here’s what all three situations had in common – you must look beyond what’s on paper and what’s technically being said at interview and hire for culture and motivational fit.

I agree that skills and experience are important.  They are necessary in the recruiting process, but what causes you headaches and performance issues goes well beyond being able to do the job, it’s a person’s ability to fit in and being in the role for the right reasons.

How do you determine this? It’s not fool proof, but here are some quick guidelines that I follow in a recruitment process to increase my odds:

  1. Technical skills & experience – is easy to assess from a resume, very factual, qualifications, systems experience etc. Some level of experience is still needed for most roles.
  2. Competencies –what are the competencies they need to do the job eg: teamwork, decision making, achievement drive. The key is that they must give a SPECIFIC example of a time when they have demonstrated this competency. This will usually occur in 3 parts (tell me about a time when…., what did you do and what was the outcome). If they don’t give a specific, they don’t have the competency. Don’t ignore this – even if the resume is fantastic – if they can’t answer these questions, they won’t be a high performer in the job.
  3. Motivation – this is often the trickiest part of the interview to assess. It involves asking questions around why they want the job, what is their perfect job, what other jobs have they applied for, why have they left previous jobs, what makes them stay with an employer, what makes them leave, who has been their favourite boss, who inspires them and why, where has been the best/worst culture they have worked in. Did I mention why they want this job? Not just any job. Why this job above others in the paper and on the net? And then tell me again why you want it – make sure they convince you.
  4. Warning signs – this is usually around behaviour during or post interview. For example, I had a candidate tell me they would call me Monday to confirm their interest in a job at Entrée, they called Tuesdayat 5pm. For me and my culture, this is a warning sign they wouldn’t fit in as one of our values is integrity – you do what you say you will do.
  5. Reasons for leaving – don’t ever accept the first reason.  I ask several times on the same job – tell me what were your reasons for leaving? What else contributed to you leaving? What other reasons were behind this decision? Probe, probe, probe and look for patterns of behaviour.

As I picked up my daughter from school yesterday, one of these parents thanked me, telling me how much easier her three interviews had been that day. Her change in questions towards motivation and culture opened up her thinking about what was being said at interview, if they would fit her team and it increased her confidence in making the right hire.

In my experience, motivation and cultural fit is more important than skills and experience.  The culture fit and motivation buys you loyalty, commitment and top performers who in the long term outshine the power CV with a technical answer for everything at interview.  Go with your gut – will you and your team enjoy working with this person every day of the week? And whatever you do – don’t “hope” that it will work out – it never does. Hope is not a recruitment strategy.