Living a Quality Life at Work

In today's world not everyone comes to work for the highest pay packet. Although, being well and fairly remunerated is important. People come to work for meaning as well, and if they are not, then they should be. Otherwise, why spend 8 or more hours a day at a place and with people you do not enjoy?

 

So, if you are an employer take a look at your retention and remuneration policies. Perhaps there are some non-financial benefits you can throw in which will mean more to the "bottom line" than financial benefits? Think about what you can do.

 

In our business we have defined some polices so everyone gets:

1. A company paid trip each year to a different place so they can fulfill a life dream - of course this has to be approved by the team
   
   
2. Community service days off - so each person can help others in the community in an area of interest
   
   
3. Quarterly company outings to local places that provide a unique but meaningful life experience, and of course is fun.

What I have found is that it is not just providing the policy which is important; it is the bonding experience around discussing each others dreams and passions. This is what builds the connection and makes everyone feel valued and involved. If you want an easy way to do this go and buy the Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly.

Matching Talents to Roles

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to help many firms with their hiring and a key part of my work is to review the job description. In my experience an aspect which is not paid enough attention by the employer is identifying the specific talents required for a role. That is those natural behaviors which the candidate can repeatedly do with ease. Examples of talents include communicating with others, being detailed and organized, making fast decisions and dealing with change, building relationships or innovating.

So often the employer will focus on defining the skills, knowledge and experience required for a role. Whilst important, these are all learned behaviors which can in many cases be taught on the job. However, the talents cannot generally be taught because they are ingrained or "hard-wired" behaviors from very early in life. In some cases, the talents can be learned to some degree but it is difficult, stressful and energy sapping. Unless the candidate also has the right talents then he or she is unlikely to perform well in the role over the medium and long term.

Therefore, I really encourage you to critically analyze the specific functions the role requires and match it to the talents required. Who were those people that have successfully performed the role in the past? What were their talents? Why did they succeed in the role? Normally, there is a common set of talents. These are then the talents that the candidate you are hiring should have. Of course, passion is vital as well. When you have both the right talents and passion then the chances of you hiring a "winner" are greatly enhanced.

Behavioral Interviews...Getting Beyond the Party Manners

Why do people come across well in an interview and then not perform when in the role? Do you actually know the right questions to ask a candidate? How well have you actually prepared for the interview?

Like anything in life or business, success comes from being well prepared. When you are hiring candidates for any role in your business being well prepared for the interview is critical. What I advocate is that you prepare your self to conduct a full behavioral interview. To do this properly, the candidate needs to complete a behavioral assessment before the interview. Then the key step is to use that behavioral information to design an interview agenda. This will then mean you have written down the specific behavioral questions you want to ask knowing their innate strengths and struggles. As a result you will have a much better capability to discover the candidate's true talents and get a better prediction of how they will perform over the long term.

What this type of interviewing means is that there will be different questions for each candidate depending on their behavioral style. This is why I have written a "Hiring for Talent" Powerful Questions book so that there is a readily accessible pool of behavioral questions to ask. To learn more go to www.hiringfortalent.com.

I have found that by staying focused on the behavioral questions you will get beyond the party manners which are on show during the interview and the sales talk. I will emphasize it is crucial that you get below the surface to the key performance issues. If you are not well prepared to ask your questions, then all you have had is a nice conversation and the truth has not been revealed.

If you are a candidate you should also get yourself ready to be asked these behavioral questions and also ask them of the prospective employer. For more information go to www.gettinghiredtips.com.