Development and deployment of a Recruitment Process Operation (RPO) should be configured specifically to your company’s needs.

Section 1:  Company Interviewing Profile

Spend the time learning about your company through a series of surveys.  The time spent is to analyze the work environment, communicate with some key hiring managers, and understand from the executives what their desires are from their employees.  This leads to the development of an “interviewing profile” of the company.

Section 2:  Calibrate the Recruitment Process Operation

The RPO becomes the basis for every recruited position within the company.  The process seems obvious, but most organizations simply do not follow the technique.  Being diligent will pay dividends in the long run, and all participants (candidates and hiring managers) will appreciate the spectrum.

Section 3:  Teach Hiring Managers How to Interview

Coaching basic hiring techniques to your hiring managers will help them understand how to interview their candidates and base their selection on confirmation of competencies, what motivates them and how they will fit into the organization

Section 4:  Actual Recruitment of Candidates (which begins with Section 1)

Have a company like VIGOR run the recruitment process for you, while the vendor implements the RPO and teaches interviewing techniques along the way.  Training does not usually work unless the trainee can implement the training immediately.  A vendor like VIGOR will work along side your hiring managers to ensure the techniques are aligned and the processes are being properly utilized.

RPO Outline

Finally, after Reading THIS, you’ll NEVER look at a banana in the same way again!

Bananas: Containing three natural sugars – sucrose, fructose and glucose
combined with fiber, a banana gives an instant, sustained and substantial
boost of energy. Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough
energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is the number
one fruit with the world’s leading athletes. But energy isn’t the only way a banana
can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial
number of illnesses and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.

Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people
suffering from depression, many felt much better after eating a banana.
This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body
converts into serotonin, known to make you relax, improve your mood and
generally make you feel happier.

PMS: Forget the pills — eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates
blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood. Anemia: High in iron,
bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so
helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium
yet low in salt, making it the perfect way to beat blood pressure. So much
so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry
to make official claims for the fruit’s ability to reduce the risk of blood
pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school were helped
through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and
lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the
potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore
normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to
laxatives.

Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a
banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and,
with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the
milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.

Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you
suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothing relief.

Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood
sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.

Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the
affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it
amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.

Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.

Overweight and at work? Studies at the Institute of Psychology in Austria
found pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate and
crisps. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most
obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The report concluded
that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels
by snacking on high carbohydrate foods every two hours to keep levels steady.

Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders
because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is the only raw fruit that
can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes
over-acidity and reduces irritation by coating the lining of the stomach.

Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a “cooling” fruit
that can lower both the physical and emotional temperature of expectant
mothers. In Thailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure
their baby is born with a cool temperature

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because
they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophan

Smoking: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6,
B12 they contain, as well as the potassium and magnesium found in them, help
the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.

Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat,
sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body’s water balance. When we
are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium
levels.

These can be rebalanced with the help of a high-potassium banana snack.

Strokes: According to research in “The New England Journal of Medicine,
“eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by
strokes by as much as 40%!

So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it
to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice the carbohydrates, three
times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the
other vitamins and minerals. It is also rich in potassium and is one of the
best value foods around. So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so
that we say, “A banana a day keeps the doctor away!”

You might want to pass this tidbit to your friends!!!!

The annual premium was very different from state to state. For example, the premium for a family health plan in New York was $13,296, while a similar plan in Iowa was $5609.

The annual premiums for health plans were also very different depending if the annual deductible was high or low. For example, family plans with no deductible had an average premium of $12686 each year, while plans with an annual deductible of $10,000 had an average premium of $5380 each year.

Many of these plans also differ in the amount of out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses and annual OOP maximums.

So let’s do some assumptions:

Average Co-Pay Cost for a Doctor Visit:          $25/Visit
Average Co-Pay Cost for Prescription Drugs:     $10/drug for generic and $20/drug for formulary and non-formulary

(Formulary simply means the list of drugs that the Pharmacy has plenty of stock of, due to cost savings and/or effectiveness. If you have a non-formulary drug prescription, they may or may not have it available to you immediately).

Now let’s assume one more thing….You have a slightly unhealthy year but no trips to the hospital or emergency room.

A single person has 5 visits to the doctor and has two drugs they take every month:

5 trips to the doctor at $25 = $125
2 drugs per month at $10 for generic = $240

Total Cost to you = $365 + Premium Cost of $2,985/year = $3,350

Let’s look at directly out of pocket:

5 trips to the doctor at $125 = $625
2 drugs per month at $100/month = $2,400   Total Cost = $3,025

Assume a family of 4 has a slightly unhealthy year:

$365 (Same as single)  X 4 Family members = $1,460 + Premium Costs of $6,328/year = $7,788

Out of Pocket:  $3,025 X 4 = $12,100  – This is 20 trips to the doctor and 8 Prescription Drugs per month

Now assume a family has a healthy year:

10 total trips to the doctor and 4 prescription drugs per month:

With insurance:  $7,058 (Half the out-of-pocket and still all of the premium)
Without Insurance:  $6,050

Now think about the Clinics that have popped up inside drug stores and grocery stores.  If they charge $80 (by the way, the ones around me charge $65 on average), insurance still pays $25 co-pay.  Without insurance, this will reduce your out of pocket by $45 per visit.

Even if you can make trips to these clinics for half of your visits, that is a savings to you without insurance coverage of $225.  With insurance, you are still paying the same.  Why not go to the specialist for a sinus infection.  It only costs $25 with your insurance.

Insurance was designed many many years ago to cover catastrophic healthcare issues, but for decades the average cost for healthcare coverage was cheaper to give to employees than a 3% cost of living adjustment to their salary (I remember doing the calculations).  Suddenly, healthcare costs began to increase, and we now have the issues we see today.

My problem is that if we are to have health care reform, mandating insurance coverage is not reform.    I am all for disease management, but I want to also see cost containment by hospitals, caps on medical malpractice awards, governance on what hospitals can charge on insurance (why should insurance have to cover a mistake made by the hospital?), removal of pre-existing clauses (something I agree with on the health bill), and if you are going to create mandates – can we look at setting up Coops similar to Rural Electric Coops and Farm Coops?  That seems more logical than having government running it.   Besides, both are great examples of success in bringing about help to our citizens.

Chuck Gillespie

I remember times sitting next to him on that dozer as we plowed the fields,  leveled the roads, and leveled the pony track (he also was a harness racer).  While all of the other land has been sold, and the family really only has about 150 acres left, we still have that bulldozer.  Last fall, my father and I were mowing down the “Back 40″ and Dad got his tractor & mower stuck a few times amongst the trees that have grown up over the past 30 years.

He began to look for a backhoe to excavate the trees, when I reminded him we still have that bulldozer.  So we are getting it running again.  It works great except that it will not turn left or right (forward and back, no problem).  Mechanics have begun to repair it, with the hopes that we have it fully operational this Spring.  There are fond memories of me with my Grandpa on the dozer, and now my daughter, nieces, and nephews will have similar memories with their Grandpa.

OK, you have the story (forgive the length) – here is my point.  If we were to have the emotional attachment to strike out and create a life-long memory, won’t that go so far as to watch your teams work more closely?  We unite as a team if we believe it is something worth fighting and we have an emotional attachment to it.  This is what you must do to unite your organization – create that memory.  Time in a hotel conference room is not going to be as powerful as jumping from an airplane with a parachute that was packed by one of your team members.  Organize a relief trip to Haiti or Chile.  Make it as outrageous/adventurous as possible – but also prepare to have a message to go along with the event.  It will last forever and your teams will be as strong as ever.  Get people out of their comfort zones and see how they really engage.

Finally, I have an honest offer if you are interested, and you are willing to travel to Southern Indiana (the farm is located 60 miles north of Louisville and 65 miles south of Indianapolis), come create a memory and put your team to the test by “logging” the farm (the trees are small,only about 5-10 inches in diameter).  I promise one thing – everyone will get to drive the bulldozer and knock a few tress down, and you will learn the power of team and lasting impressions for years to come.

Chuck

My own father, who I idolize, was my first soccer coach, so I figure this is a great opportunity to be like Dad.  My co-coach was coaxed into helping, even though she also was coaching softball for one of her other kids.  Needless to say, I really took this on myself.  The first communications were via email, explaining what was happening, who the coaches are, and the famous “I look forward to a great season.”  One that first day, I figure I will run them through a few drills to assess their playing level, determine my team’s strengths, and then build a strategy for play when we have our first game after only two practices.

When they all arrived for that first practice, I was very upbeat and excited.  We did our drills and I determined that our biggest strength is that they were all adorable – but we will have to work on soccer skills and find some competitive fire. This was confirmed in our first game, when we played the best team in the league.  I can still remember blowing the whistle to start the game and about 10 seconds later pulling the ball out of our goal.  New coach, new team, and I am unsure how we were going to get better.  The final score was 16-0, but the main reason it was that close is because the other team set up barriers on themselves for how they could score (must pass the ball to a teammate at least three times).

I was devastated and really beating myself up.  What did I do wrong?  Why did my girls not play better?  How were we going to improve?  Will the girls come back for practice?  What will their parents think?  I sat down that night and wrote a long email to the Commissioner asking for help and seeing if he could find a real coach.  I let my wife read it.  She asked me to not send it until I thought about it more.  I said I would wait until after the next practice.  It came.  All 12 girls came to practice and all 12 girls said they had a great time at the game.  I even had a number of parents congratulate me on a job well done – they really saw their kid get better as the game progressed.  What?  We got killed?  We were the worst team on the field that day!  I was ready to strangle myself!  You know what happened?  My team’s biggest strength become our mantra for the rest of the season for me.  I never said it aloud, but my goal for the rest of the season is to teach them fundamentals of soccer while being the most adorable team on the field.

Our warm up were to kick me with a soccer ball.  They would kick it and laugh.  They would spin in circles like the jewelry box dancers.  They would smile.  We would get out on the field and we would do our best.  I never sent that email.  We did not win a single game that Spring, but we had a blast.  8 of the 12 girls played in the Fall, and I was able to keep 4 of them on my fall team.  The other 4 did not play because of other commitments, but said they would return in the Spring.

What did I learn?  More than any training program could accomplish:

I learned that every team must build from its strengths, no matter what the strengths are.  We had a wining soccer season because my girls learned and they had fun, and they were the most adorable team on the field – which they embraced.

I learned that communicating by every means possible is critical.  As the coach, I spent the time to meet and discuss with each parent their own daughter’s uniqueness.  Talking as a team is powerful, but talking individually after the “team talks” made our season extremely successful despite the record.

I learned that it really it not whether you win or loose, but how you play the game.  We participated, had fun and learned.  My goal was to improve throughout the season and get as many of them to sign up in the fall as possible.  Mission accomplished.

I learned it is not fair to expect your novice players to be competitive with a team who has been together for a year – but it gives you a good place to set the bar and learn from them.  We played that same team for our last game of the year.  Guess what?  We only lost to them 6-2.  I would say we became a competitive team with time.

I learned to not give up to soon and that you can be your worst critic.  What would have happened if I sent that email? I may have lost the momentum because I was trying to unfairly compare us to the best.

My fall team had 4 from my previous, but we had some great players and kids who will likely be playing in college if they continue.  I recruited a co-coach who is awesome, and our fall team will remain together for the spring.  All 12 girls will be returning.  I am having fun and learning so much about leadership from a bunch of 2nd graders.

PS:  My daughter scored 1 goal in the Spring and 7 goals in the Fall – SHE ROCKS!!

So what happens to my “To Do” over time?  It grows to a list longer than my 8 year old daughter’s Christmas List (by the way, every commercial on the Disney Channel ends with “I want that too”).  The only way to reduce my stress is to begin to add to the “To Don’t” list – things I simply do not need to do.

Some people rate their lists, some people throw lists out and start over, and some people are simply freaks of nature and have figured out how to accomplish 35 hours of items on their “To Do” list in 15 minutes and still have time to invent the next great “Gotta Have” items.

For me, it boils down to the absolutes, the hopefully’s, and the “To Don’t” do.  At the end of each week, the Hopefully’s are either a part of the absolute list or they become “To Don’ts.”

My management of my “To Don’t” list consists of never adding it to the list unless other powers that be require me to add it.  I am a believer in simplifying life both personally and professionally.  Some things I never take off my “To Do” list:

1.  Give thanks for waking up
2.  Tell my family I love them
3.  Help someone out even if it as small as opening a door for them
4.  Give thanks for a great day
5.  TAKE OUT THE GARBAGE ON MONDAY (my wife adds this one)

After those 5, my daily requirements begin to be filled in.

To Date, I would anticipate my “To Don’t” list is hitting the size of War and Peace – and amazingly, they no longer clog my day of accomplishing my “To Do’s.”

Chuck

VIGOR seeks dynamic ways to ensure that your Workforce Strategies are handled effectively.  Our services range from an a la cart menu of consulting services to a full service HR Department dedicated to your business needs.  Pay for only what you need, when you need it.

www.vigorhr.com

The intent of changing management actions, has to do with legal liabilities and “employee rights.” If we do not go far enough, we are legally liable, and if we go too far, then the ability to manage gets tangled up in political correctness, which ultimately causes performance and execution to get lost in bureaucratic policy.

So what is political correctness?  According to Wikipedia, political correctness is a term denoting language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social offense in gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, handicap, and age-related contexts. In current usage, the terms are almost exclusively pejorative, connoting “intolerant” and “intolerance.”

I want to focus on the words “seeking to minimize social offense.”  These five words are the impetus, in my opinion, for why managers manage by policy rather than performance.  I recently attended the HR Technology Conference in Chicago, and there was a vendor that had t-shirts made up that summed it up perfectly – the shirt read “I am a 3” in reference to the infamous performance scale where hiring managers rate their employees on a scale of 1 to 5.  Honestly, when was the last time you gave a performance evaluation of an employee with a rating of 1?  I do not remember ever doing it myself.

I had managers coming into my office wanting to terminate an employee for poor performance, just weeks after the employee’s appraisal was conducted.  Did the performance appraisal discuss the deficiencies?  Nope!  Did the executive sign off?  Yep!  Did that person get a raise?  Yep!  Why?  Because a poor performance appraisal could socially offend them and everyone else got a raise (by the way, the concept of equal verses fair is another rant for later).

Policies are critical to ensure your company remains legally compliant and helps guide your workforce to understand what they can and cannot do.  However, have we gone overboard with management by policy?  We make a policy on how we dress (by the way, what is the difference between a crop pant and a capri pant?).  We put policies in place to manage the use of technology.  And these policies are written due to the actions of a few.  For example, 50% of companies have outright banned the use of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook rather than disciplining the few employees for abusing the privilege. Why? Because it is easier to manage a policy that bans something rather than disciplining someone for abusing it – we might socially offend them. By the way, quit standing behind legal advise – that is just a fear tactic and a lame way to not have to step outside of your comfort zone.

Attention business leaders….your entitled, poor performers are sucking your performers dry of spirit, and when the market turns, you will be left with those poor performers.  Employee surveys for 2010 indicate that 75% are planning to seek new employment – who are they?  Likely they are the good employees.  What are you doing to manage political correctness so you can keep the good employees and manage your poor performers out the door?

Chuck Gillespie is the President of VIGOR, a Human Capital Management firm dedicated to workforce process optimization and business strategy implementation.  Visit VIGOR at www.vigorhr.com or email VIGOR: info@vigorhr.com.

Let me start with mistake #1 – choose only the resumes that a person’s experience fits the qualifications. Certainly, competency is a big issue, but half the reason job descriptions necessitate “10 years of experience” is because compensation plans have determined that experience equals judgment. This makes me cringe only because I can find you an employee that has 15 years of experience whose judgment is not so ethical. Does the name Bernie Madoff ring a bell?

Any company whose compensation plan requires set years of experience for the next pay grade has lost out on some of the most talented individuals whose resume was thrown out because they did not quite meet the experience threshold. Granted, I just increased the number of resumes you are reviewing.

Mistake #2 – I need to interview twenty candidates before I can make a decision. If your policy dictates that you have to go through a set process in order to hire someone, then your recruiting process has officially missed the “new age boat”. One of the best employees I hired had an interview that lasted 60 seconds with only one question, which was “Why do you want this job?” She took about 45 seconds to reply. I then offered her the role.

Make sure you do the due diligence on them from a background check and drug test perspective, but if your hiring practice will not let you perform a fast-track hire for a job, then begin to change your policy and do your best to persuade any leader that they are wrong who claims this is a bad idea. If you do not change this policy, you are potentially missing the best candidates for your company. Superstars are not real interested in waiting for 6 weeks so you can fulfill your policy requirements.

Mistake #3 – Hiring for the hard skills on a position that also requires substantial soft skills. A typical scenario that happens often in today’s business is when the Head of Accounting also leads HR. I have seen “numerically inclined” HR professionals that can learn financial statements a whole lot easier than a pure accountant with below average “people skills” attempting to coach a manager on interviewing techniques.

Learning hard skills such as accounting and finance can be easier for most than training soft skills such as communications and employee relations. The reason is that once hard skills are learned, they become inherent in your daily work routine, but learned soft skills merely mask your natural behavior patterns, and thus your natural tendencies will show in some communication scenarios. If you are motivated and competent to learn, you can be successful at mastering soft or hard skills. Both require dedication and a willingness to move outside of your comfort zone. I am just saying to consider the soft skills heavily when recruiting for a multitask functioning position.

Numbers drive business but people drive profits. Successful recruiting efforts that identify both function and fit will pay off in the long run for your business. Do not dread the recruiting process, rather embrace it as the opportunity to bring the right person into the company that could help move your business to the next level.

By the way, Who is up for a cup of coffee?  I would love to catch up!

Philosophy: The Mayonnaise Jar

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, When 24 hours in a day is not enough;remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jarand started to fill it with golf balls.He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar lightly.The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous ‘yes.’The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.The students laughed. ‘Now,’ said the professor, as the laughter subsided,’I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.The golf balls are the important things – God, family, children, health, friends, and favorite passions Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.The pebbles are the things that matter like your job, house, and car.The sand is everything else –The small stuff.’If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff,You will never have room for the things that are important to you.So… Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the dripping tap.’Take care of the golf balls first — The things that really matter.Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.The professor smiled. ‘I’m glad you asked’. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.’

Because in today’s economic environment, if your HR leader has not analyzed the effectiveness of your people and processes, evaluated the current organizational structure, gathered employees KSAOCs (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics), researched technologies for corporate-wide business efficiencies, determined where bottlenecks for decisions are, looked into the job market for ways to up-skill certain positions, and offered suggestions for better internal communications, then you need to prepare for business as usual, status quo.  If business is in great shape, keep up the status quo, if not, consider that insanity has set in.

Ben Franklin defined insanity better than I can, so I quote, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.”  So why do you think the established processes and the personnel that got you to where you are can dig you out of the issue?  You may have the right people, but if HR is not evaluating processes, technologies, outsourcing, new processes, changes to outdated policies, and bench strength, I suggest you use the money you are paying HR to hire someone that can.

Here are three things HR must consistently analyze and make recommendations for changes:

1.  What policies might be preventing us from being able to hire and retain top talent?
a.  For example: Do we really need an IT developer at work at exactly 8am, when in reality they do their best work at 8pm?
b.  Are we paying equally or fairly – there is a huge difference and learn it fast!!
c.  Is it necessary for the person to be in the office – or in the same state or even country?

2.  What business intelligence technologies are in the market that can make our existing personnel more effective?
a.  Social work nets are good for collaboration, will it work for us?
b.  Are we using our software applications to the max?
c.  Do we need all of these applications and are they right for us?

3.  Does it make sense to outsource?
a.  Would a shared services contract to ramp up certain functions be more effective than hiring full time employees?
b.  What are our core functions and should we just focus on those?
c.  Can our culture benefit from outsourcing or will it negatively impact production?

Finally, keep track of employees strengths and weaknesses.  Develop a list of their KSAOCs, get the critical information that is readily available into the hands of people who can do something with it, and know that some existing policies are likely creating decision bottlenecks.  Evaluate, employ and execute.

Remember, though,  if the process is flawed to begin with, doing that process faster with technology will only allow you to fail more quickly.

Chuck Gillespie

VIGOR

www.vigorhr.com