Last time I talked about how each organization has a personality as a result of the collection of personalities within. Now let’s continue with the thought of improving that larger personality through a few common sense steps.
3. Interview any new employee within 7-14 days of starting work. People are smart and very quickly adapt to a new environment. This includes companies where a fresh face quickly blends into the culture. Many of us would like to change things but many cultural mindsets become invisible because, “that’s just the way we do it here.” The newest employee is more likely to wonder “why” and the smart cultural warrior will pounce on this information like the gold nugget it is. Oh by the way … act on the interview information.
Specific Take-aways:
- The important part of this interview is to only do it when you are completely open and 100% non-defensive. The interviewee will take cues from your body language – good or bad.
- Take good notes (and let the person know what and why you are writing vigorously.) Also, you must be committed to acting on this feedback or else the interview is actually a bad thing. Any boss who asks the type of questions as below is sending an implied message of coming improvement. Better to not ask and not change than to ask and then not follow through.
- Here are possible questions.
- What has surprised you about joining this company?
- What has disappointed you since you started?
- What processes seems cumbersome? What methods are really slick?
- What is your favorite part of this job? Why?
- Assuming the right skills match, would you try to get your best friend to work here? Why or why not?
- What kind of training do you wish you would have more of?
- What educational opportunities do you hope for in this organization?
- What things would make you a raving fan of this organization for a long time?
- If you were to describe this company as a person, what would that person look like and act like?
- IMPORTANT: Follow up with the new employee in no more than two weeks about improvements you made based on the feedback. The more the better. Please, please follow-up. If this is not your strength, enlist the help of a colleague or sharp executive assistant.
4. Hire for a value system first before experience. See if this sounds familiar. The typical hiring process looks for X years of experience in this specialty or that. Throw in a college degree for good measure and maybe membership in some professional group. Once the hiring manager is satisfied the person has “been there, done that” long enough, the deal is closed.
All too often though, the same hiring manager will grow disgruntled with the employee in the coming weeks and months. Why the dissatisfaction? The problem is rarely a discrepancy in the experience level. (They said they had eight years experience and they only have six, for example.) The complaint is usually something about the lack of performance or some obnoxious personal trait. This is a classic case of aiming for the wrong target and hitting it! The company ultimately pays the price in lower morale, productivity and profitability. Don’t get me wrong, experience is important, it’s just over-emphasized in too many cases.
Specific Take-aways:
- Identify the values most important in the ideal person for the position. If you can narrow the list to the top three or four, that’s best.
- Conduct more than one interview … face to face. You can’t afford to mess up the hiring decision because it’s too painful and costly. Sorry HR, telephone interviews are terrible for making quality hiring decisions. Skype is bit better but still not as good as in person.
- Conduct at least one interview at a local eatery or other public place requiring interaction with others. (I can’t take credit for this idea but don’t remember where I read it.) How does the prospective employee interact? Is this someone you want talking to your most valued customers?
- Get into discussions about decision-making with the candidate to start to understanding their thinking process. What values do you think are most important to them? Would you let this person babysit your 4-year old? Would you be comfortable to introduce this interviewee to your mother?
- If you don’t find the right candidate at first, start over. Don’t settle for second best or “just OK.” Resist the pressure to “just fill the position.” Take it from one with hiring regrets in a past life.
5. Learn to work outside the script. (OK, I fibbed a little … here is a fifth way to help build a stand-out culture.) Anybody can learn and run a business script. It’s not terribly tough to say, “Store policy is …” because it transfers the accountability to some nameless person deep in the company hierarchy. The clerk or low-level employee becomes the innocent face for a dysfunctional organization and this is doubly frustrating for the customer.
The first frustration is the restrictive policy that does not allow the customer to be completely satisfied or, heaven forbid, delighted! The second frustration is there is usually no way to give feedback on the dumb policy to the company because the person reciting policy has little or no influence. Too often, “company policies” arise out of a few isolated problems and rather than deal directly with the issues and the culprits, it’s easier to make a blanket rule and pronounce the problem solved. To the hapless consumer, it can seem as though some businesses work to find new ways of saying “no” like a “no-of-the-week” campaign.
I am not advocating anarchy or lawless minimum wage employees but surely it is common sense that team members be allowed and encouraged to think to delight customers (who are the life blood of any enterprise). After all, if the employees are that bad, why did you hire them in the first place? Why not communicate policy in a broader sense of timeless values such as respect, kindness, courage, fairness, justice, etc. This may prove difficult for the organization bent on hiring on experience alone – see the last section – but this type of employee is worth his or her weight in gold.
Specific Take-aways:
- Resist the urge to have very many company policies. Yes, you need some rules to keep order but keep the number down and, by all means, review all the policies at least annually to cut the most annoying 20%.
- Find a way to actively, genuinely ask for customer feedback so the lamest rules become painfully obvious … quickly!
- Give the frontline employees some decision-making authority using broad values (respect, kindness, courage, fairness, justice, etc.).
- Sorry to be repetitive but … ask customers, would you recommend your mother shop or work here? If yes, why? If not, why not?
- Educate the frontline employees. Don’t just throw them into the ring and expect instant success. I have seen it and so have you. As one colleague used to say, “Pay me now or pay me later.”
All the best!
————————
Related Articles
- Toyota’s Japanese-y Corporate Culture « Geek Buffet – Toyota’s Japanese-y Corporate Culture. Yesterday on Marketplace, they were of course doing a story on the big news that Toyota is now actually America’s biggest auto manufacturer, causing GM to fall from its 70-year reign …
