It's been my experience that whenever organizations find it difficult to recruit high performers, they invariably blame it on the labor market. They typically say, "There just aren't many good people about!" and then respond to this by lowering their standards. Presumably, they make the excuse that, because they believe they can't get good people, they'll have to accept poor ones.

Similarly, when job seekers find it difficult to get the job of their dreams, they respond by lowering their standards also. "If there aren't good jobs about, I'll just have to accept second best."

Getting the right people in the right jobs would clearly resolve all such problems, but this is not easily achieved. Face It Folks - There is no labour shortage. These days, the job market is filled with literally millions of job seekers pursuing literally millions of jobs. There is a shortage of people being hired for the job in which they will be most productive and best suited, as well as a shortage of companies building an effective Employment Brand, to make people WANT to work for their company. For more information see our workshop on Employment Branding! Organizations and job seekers have become like ships passing in the night. The result is that, for the most part, both organizations and job seekers lose out.

To resolve this dilemma, an associate of mine created and developed an online evidence-based system for recruiting, managing, and rewarding talented people. The system enables him to measure people's motivations and thinking styles, and link this to ongoing measurements of their performance on the job. Over the past 30 years, more than a million people from all walks of life across the globe have passed through his system.

In the process, the data collected has revealed that, in general, the people who perform well are also highly motivated, whereas the people who perform poorly are poorly motivated. This discovery led him to the golden rule of motivation, namely, we all like to do things we can do well, which, together with its antithesis, none of us likes having to do things we can't do well, underpins both our consultancy work with organizations and the structure of our personal development programs.

In what follows, I am going to refer to this golden rule of motivation to show exactly how both organizations and job applicants can achieve their objectives by raising (as opposed to lowering) their standards. The data collected by my associate reveals that it works this way:

When an organization lowers its recruitment standards, it inevitably ends up with people who will be poor performers. The antithesis of the golden rule (none of us likes having to do things we can't do well) applies and reveals to us that, because of this, these poor-performing people will also be poorly motivated in their new jobs. Because of this, such people typically don't remain long, and the organization is thrown into a downward spiral characterized by high staff turnover and poor operational performance.

Now let's look at what happens when an organization sticks to its guns and appoints only strong candidates. As the golden rule reveals, every time the organization finds and appoints a high performer, it brings into the team a person who is motivated by the job (we all like to do things we can do well). Such people want to do their best and therefore respond positively then management shown them ways to lift their performance. Also, because they like doing the job, they are also much more likely to remain as long-term employees.

Our experience with this tool has shown that this approach enables organizations to build a stable core of high performers. As this core grows, staff turnover reduces, along with the need for new recruits. The organization finds that it can be even more selective in the future.

If you would like to discuss your personal situation in more detail, please give us a call! Toll Free: 1-877-884-0051

Remember the days when you'd post a position and just wait for the resumés to pour in, when job-hunters had to sell themselves to you? Well, those days are long gone. According to Manpower, 40% of companies worldwide are having trouble hiring talent. In Canada, that number jumps to 66%. Everybody's vying for the same pool of workers, and that means it's up to you to sell your organization to them, not the other way around. For more information see our workshop on Employment Branding!

If you're running a smaller shop, you might feel at a disadvantage, going up against huge multinationals with all-inclusive benefits packages, stock options and countless of career opportunities. And if money were all that mattered, sure, maybe you'd be out of luck. But the reality these days is that most job seekers are looking for more than just a fatter paycheque. In fact GOOGLE was voted the best place in America to work for, and none of the employees named salary as the reason for their loyalty, motivation, and interest.

You are … who?
Communication—or lack thereof—consistently rates as one of the top complaints in employee surveys. The people in sales have no clue what's happening over in finance or IT. The lack of communication doesn't only exist between departments. We often hear employees stating that lack of communication from their direct superior, and/or lack of clarity from the superior regarding what is specifically expected of them, is also a problem. Information circulates via e-mail, if at all. That's not an issue at a shop with 10 or 20 employees, where the boss can gather everyone in the boardroom for regular updates. Small companies tend to be more closely knit so there's more communication and more chance to get involved in the decision-making process. You can knock on the boss's door to talk over your latest project or pop onto the plant floor to run something by the foreman. You're not 40 managers removed from the action. It seems more real-time. The manufacturing floor is right outside your door.

Bye-bye, bureaucracy
You know how it is at a big company—you have to get signatures from five higher-ups just to order office supplies. That kind of red tape disappears at a small shop, where there are fewer layers of management to wade through, if any at all. "Decisions get made a lot more quickly at smaller companies," says Stern. "The people who are responsible for making them are usually two doors down, rather than across the ocean."

Culture shock
Back in the 1960s, work-life balance didn't exist. Nowadays, it ranks right up there with salary and benefits—particularly among younger workers who think "9 to 5" is nothing more than a Dolly Parton flick. Flex-time arrangements—say, allowing them to work from home one day or week or come in to the office at 9:30 every morning, after dropping the kids at daycare—are cheap (or free) and can really pay off in terms of loyalty and increased productivity. Bonus for you: They can be very tricky to negotiate at large organizations with strict HR guidelines or unions. There are a whole host of other cheap or free perks you can dangle in front of potential hires if stock options aren't an option (yet). If the team pulls a few all-nighters on a project, give them a couple of extra days off with pay. Bring in a massage therapist every couple of weeks for mini-massages. Take everyone out for drinks when you complete a crucial project or land a big new client.

A bigger part of the picture
If you're a sales guy at a large company, you work in sales, period—no dabbling in product development or finance. The larger the organization, the more you become a specialist by default. At a place with, say, 25 employees, everyone pitches in. Smaller companies are better known for drawing on talent where it exists. "o if a guy in finance has a great idea for the marketing department, a small company is more likely to draw on those ideas. The big bonus for employees is that they get to broaden the scope of their experience—which can give them a big leg up on their resumé. You are better equipped to move to different cultures when you come from a smaller organization, because you're generally able to do a lot more.

Movin' on up
It also means you have a better shot at running your own show. With a broader scope and fewer people, there's more of a chance that you're in charge. If not, you can move up the ladder a lot faster. A while back an associate's company conducted an executive search for a small organization. "One of the questions the candidate wanted him to ask was, 'When is it likely I'll get promoted?'""The answer was, 'Whenever we get busy. If we have someone who looks like they can handle it, boom—it's done. You can move up as the business requirements change and as abilities dictate, not because that guy's been there for six years and you've been there for five." (Mind you, if the founder is running the place, there may be fewer places to go.)

If you would like to improve the efficiency AND success of your hiring program, while at the same time, reduce your hiring costs significantly, please give us a call! Toll Free: 1-877-884-0051