Do you have square pegs in round holes? Are you 100% totally satisfied that you have the right people in the right jobs? Recruiting the right people who perform at an outstanding level makes a lot of sense. But knowing how to do it is difficult. If I had known how to do this when I worked as a recruitment consultant I would have made thousands of pounds in extra commission.
The truth is in a world where we all have access to the internet, information, potential customers and cheap deals, people make the difference and add the value.
These techniques have previously only been available to large companies with lots of money
Now these techniques started back in the 70’s so they are really, really well established. They involve using competencies as the basis for your key people processes.
Competencies are the things outstanding performers do
- more often
- to greater effect
- which the average performers don’t or can’t do
Competencies have been used by the IBM’s, Microsofts and Unilevers of the world but they often don’t get used by small business because they have typically been too expensive or too complicated to implement.
When I worked for 8 years with the market leader in competency development, Hay McBer, I developed dozens of models for Barclays, Lloyds TSB, American Express, Woolworths, Sainsburys and many others. I was really hanging out for Harvey Nichols but it never came through. These companies spent thousands of pounds buying consulting resource to develop their own competencies for their company. My charge out rate when I left was £2400 per day and most competency models took at least 20 days to produce.
But now I have decided it is time small and medium sized companies should have access to these techniques.
Outstanding people without the price tag
I know how difficult it is to compete with the big boys, particularly when it comes to getting good staff. If you don’t want to pay the earth for staff you need to look beyond the obvious and recruit people who may not have the Oxbridge price tag but who are right for your business. Recruiting out side the box means you will be giving people a chance at success and they will be so loyal they will stay with you forever (or however long you need them).
When you recruit people on competencies you’ve got a better chance of getting the right fit for the job. With a better fit comes better productivity, lower training costs and better retention.
Competency based selection helped one organisation decrease turnover of new hires by 500%.
When people work productively they feel good about themselves and they’re happy to come to work – it makes sense. This means they are easier to manage on a day to day basis and they are less likely to leave you for another company.
It’s not rocket science
Now let’s pause here to explain how competencies work.
Think about when you were last in a restaurant with the partner of your choice. What service did you experience?……What did you see the waiter doing when he or she was going about their business…chances are you saw them doing a bit of the job description below….
Waiter/Waitress job description
- Taking orders
- Clearing tables
- Refilling drinks
- Getting the bill
- Getting the bill paid
Now think about how they went about their job. What was their style, their attitude, did they deliver service with a smile? What did you see them doing? Were they:
- Polite
- On time
- Friendly and
- They got the order correct
So far, so average
But now think about the single most fantastic service you experienced from a restaurant….what did that individual do that made that experience fantastic and memorable?
- Translated the menu (in my case, literally. I was in a restaurant in Utrecht and the waitress said to my Dutch colleagues, I notice you have an English speaker with you, would you like me to translate the menu into English – without anybody prompting her!!!)
- Provided an opinion about what was best
- Didn’t recommend the most expensive wine on the list
- Listened to what we wanted and checked with the kitchen
- Checked we had everything we wanted
- Entertained our son so we could eat
Now I’m going to ask you another question. Did the service that you experienced during that fantastic restaurant visit make it more or less likely that you would visit that restaurant again?
Now think about your own business and your own staff. If your customers were on the receiving end of the same level of customer service, would they be more or less likely to want to use your business again and again? Of course they would want to. They would come back time and time again.
Your recruitment isn’t working
Back in 1973 David C McClelland published a paper “Testing for Competence Rather than Intelligence” which launched competencies into the business world.
He found that traditional academic tests and school results do not predict how successful someone will be in a job. And yet businesses are still using these measures to recruit today.
When he worked with the US State Department in the early 70’s he found that the really outstanding young diplomats were the ones who were politically and culturally sensitive.
“I was a cultural affairs officer in North Africa. One day I received a directive from Washington saying I had to show a certain film featuring an American politician who I knew was seen as hostile to this country’s position. I knew that if I showed that film, this place would be burned down the next day by about 500 angry, left-wing students. Washington thinks the film is great, but the locals will find it offensive. What I had to figure out was how to show the film so the Embassy can tell Washington we did, and yet not offend anyone in the country … I came up with solution of screening it on a holy day when nobody could come…”
So the guy had political savvy and saved the day. It didn’t matter what he scored on his entrance exam or what expensive university he went to as there was little or no correlation between their exam scores and the ones who ended up being really good at their jobs.
When you recruit someone, how often do you use A level results or university grades to make a decision about whether to recruit or not? I bet the answer is ‘all the time’.
But you’re not alone.
Everyone does it. 97% of businesses use interviewing as a selection technique and most of us are very bad at it. Mainly because we haven’t been taught how to interview and also because we don’t use any proper selection criteria – except school results – which McClelland found don’t give a good indication as to whether people are successful on the job or not.
Before I had this information I used to do it but now I use competencies to recruit my associates I feel 100% confident that I’m recruiting the right person for my business.
Double your recruitment effectiveness
Actually nothing is 100% effective but using competencies for selection doubles your chances of getting the right person for the job. It has been proven that competency based interviewing is about 60% effective as opposed to personality tests (39% effective) or graphology or astrology (zero effective). But what McClelland found was what really matters is how people approach their day to day work – and the behaviour they demonstrate.
At this stage you’re probably thinking, “What has this go to do with me?” Well, apart from now knowing you don’t have to recruit expensive Oxbridge graduates to get the best people for you, applying these techniques can help you:
- Increase your sales beyond your wildest dreams
- Increase your staff retention cutting down on training and induction costs
- Dramatically increasing your business’s performance overall.
If you don’t believe me, here are some facts.
Double the effectiveness of your sales team
A survey of 44 US firms found that an outstanding salesperson (earning an average of $41,777) sold $6.7 million. Compare that with an average performer selling $3 million. The superior group sold 123 percent more than the average sales people, a difference of some 8,857 percent or 89 times the average employee salary.
So all you need to do to raise the performance of your sales team by 123% is to understand what it is the outstanding folk do and make sure everyone else in your business does the same.
Remember the waitress. This is simple.
Model your workforce on your outstanding performers to drive up overall output
What does the performance of your sales staff currently look like? Where are they in terms of performance – bottom, middle or at the top? Chances are you will have a spread of performance – it’s not called a ‘normal distribution’ for nothing.
Using competencies to articulate what you want in performance terms provides clarity, direction and motivation for your staff.
Double staff retention
Competencies help you achieve a better fit – square pegs in square holes. I helped one management consultancy halve their staff turnover and recruitment costs as a result of working with competencies. Before I introduced competency based recruitment they were recruiting staff based on who was already in the business. But guess what, the business was changing and this consultant was no longer the right fit. If you think that one person leaving typically costs a business 1 ½ times their annual salary, how much is your staff turnover costing you?
You don’t need an HR department
But you shouldn’t need an entire HR department to implement these. If you are bright enough to set up and run a business you are clever enough to get this stuff implemented. You just need a short cut like a ‘how to’ guide or toolkit.
And this toolkit needs to be a stand alone, easy to use package which doesn’t require lots of technical support or an in house psychologist!
You haven’t got lots of time or money to spend on this sort of thing although you know it makes sense to invest in people.
Remember this is based on years of 30 years of research by a Harvard professor but typically only the bigger companies have been able to access this before.
It’s been put together by some one (me) who has 15 years of experience working with these big companies but who also runs a small company so I know the challenges you face.
I’ve never been an HR manager so I don’t speak HR jargon.
What we’re talking about is applying some well established, proven techniques to manage your people better so you can get more output with the same resource.
You get Recruitment Excellence for £100 per job
We are offering exclusively to you, our Recruitment Excellence Toolkit for the price of £100 + Vat.
Each Recruitment Excellence Toolkit contains:
- A competency model which identifies what the outstanding performers do
- Interview questions which focus on identifying the key criteria
- Interview guidance notes including how to conduct the interview,
what notes to take, what you need to do when
- Interview recording and rating sheet to ensure you take down the right notes
which will protect you legally
We have developed Recruitment Excellence Toolkits for each of these high impact roles:
- Salesman
- Sales Manager
- Accountant
- Administrator
- IT Help Desk
- Customer Service – in bound
ORDER NOW
And we will send a confirmation e mail and payment details
Each Recruitment Excellence toolkit is £100 + Vat but if you order all of these toolkits we will only charge you £499 + Vat.
Get 6 toolkits for the price of 5
And, if you order any of these toolkits by February 15, we will include, for free, a job description for each of the toolkits ordered. That’s right, if you order a Recruitment Excellence toolkit for a Salesperson before February 15, we will include a job description for the same job, at no extra cost.
Order Before 15th February 2008
And get a free job description
These job descriptions help you manage the individual’s performance. Each job description includes:
- Typical accountabilities
- Typical performance measures
- Skills
- Competencies
No jargon, we promise.
Value not cost
The cost of this to develop is 20 years experience and many hours of development. With consulting firms charging up to £2,500 per person a day it is impossible to justify developing a bespoke system for a small business.
However our package will allow you to easily implement a proven system simply. How can you put a price on:
- Consistently recruiting only outstanding people to join your organisation
- Confidently promoting the right people who will succeed in management
- Undertaking professional interviews which successfully identify the best fit for you,
within a legal framework
- Providing daily, crystal clear feedback to your workforce about what they are doing well
and not so well (this is the single greatest motivator of performance)
Well, I would say look at the value, because I want you to buy our Recruitment Excellence toolkit.
The cost for all six models is £499 + VAT
One last offer
If you need help implementing these models I will provide 1 day of consulting support (normally £1000 + Vat) for HALF PRICE. That is, if you purchase one of our products I will provide 1 day of consulting input for £500 + Vat. That is really good value given that I was being charged out at £2,400 per day!
Contact me today to get your toolkit
Regards
Pam Kennett, FCIPD
Director
Chiswick Consulting
PS Remember, contact me pam@chiswickconsulting.com or 020 8747 4885 to order your Recruitment Excellence toolkit and receive your free job description for each toolkit you order.
PPS Just for reading this far I will send you a free Recruitment and Selection Checklist. This Checklist will help you identify how effective your current processes are. Contact me pam@chiswickconsulting.com or 020 8747 4885
