How to Grill an Applicant Tracking Vendor
Develop Champion Players
Use the techniques below to improve the skills of your management team andmethods of motivation and cooperation.
Skills
- Step 1: Identify skill requirements.
- List the essential skill requirements for each individual, as well as for the team as a whole. Be as specific as possible. The skill requirements you identify should:
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- Be observable.
- Be targeted specifically to your team members’ jobs (e.g., in addition toa general knowledge of tax laws and accounting, an accountant needs to know thespecific payroll system and payroll schedule of his or her organization).
- Include skills needed for your work units and your entire team to workwell together (e.g., listening skills, communication skills, etc.).
- Include both complex skills and fundamental skills (the “absolutelymust do wells”). Don’t assume that people know how to perform the basics.
- Step 2: Prepare development plans.
- For each individual and work unit, as well as the team as a whole:
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- Identify any skill gaps that exist (i.e., skills that are needed thatdon’t already exist-again, don’t forget to consider both basic as well ascomplex skills).
- List options for developing each of the deficient skills (e.g.,coaching/mentoring, training programs, on-the-job training, practice,role-playing, simulations, etc.).
- Develop a skill-building plan for each individual and work unit, and forthe team as a whole.
Motivation and Environment
- Step 1: Identify other barriers to performance.
- For each individual, work unit, and team, identify any motivational issues that might prevent your employees frommeeting performance expectations. Ask yourself:
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- What might make people not want to do what is needed to execute the gameplan?
- What can be done to make them want to execute the game plan? To inspirethem?
- Identify any environmental obstacles that might prevent your employeesfrom meeting performance expectations (e.g., ergonomics, resources, equipment,authority, time, process, etc.)
- Plan strategies to address each motivational and/or environmental barrieryou identify.
Team Cooperation
- Step 1: Clarify performance expectations regarding team cooperation.
- Your entire team needs to know exactly what your expectations are withrespect to teamwork.
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- Lead them in a visioning exercise by encouraging your team to share theirthoughts and ideas about teamwork, describe potential obstacles that couldprohibit them from working effectively together as a team, and offer suggestionsfor creating an environment of team cooperation.
- Once the visioning exercise is over, be sure to openly summarize yourteam’s agreed-upon definition of team cooperation and the specificresponsibilities each team member has in helping to achieve your team’s commonvision.
- Step 2: Create an environment of open communication.
- To help pave the way toward true team cooperation, it’s imperative that youestablish an environment of trust, honesty, and fairness. The best way is byopening up a two-way stream of communication with your team members. You can dothis by:
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- Involving team members in planning and problem-solving activities.
- Providing each team member with individual airtime.
- Treating mistakes and problems as learning experiences.
- Being open about your own weaknesses and mistakes.
- Inviting constructive comments, opinions, and advice from team members.
- Keeping feedback and group discussions constructive and non-personal.
- Communicating “negative” feedback privately. Never chastise anyindividual in front of the group.
© 2001, The Center for Effective Performance,Inc.All rights reserved. Assistance on how to effectively implement these checklistsin your organization is available through a new one-day management seminarentitled How to Build A Championship Team at Work.
Analyze Your Game
Determine the level of success your game plan and teamhave achieved.
- Step 1: Determine if necessary milestones and results are being achieved.
- To determine if your game plan is succeeding or not, it’s important tomeasure your progress on a regular basis. Review your game plan pyramid. Askyourself, are you and your team achievingthe necessary milestones and results with respect to:
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- Achieving team objectives,
- Implementing work unit methods and systems,
- Executing individual assignments and tasks,
If not, determine why:
- What problems need to be addressed?
- What lessons have we learned?
- Are these the right objectives, methods and systems, or individualassignments and tasks?
- Is something wrong with our approach?
- Does the team’s skill-building plan need to be adjusted?
- Are there motivational or environmental barriers to team, work unit,and/or individual performance?
- Step 2: Build on your success!
- For each area of success, be sure to ask:
- What roles were executed well by team members?
- Which methods or systems delivered the desired results?
- How did the team’s playing style contribute to our success?
- What modifications were made to successfully adjust to unforeseenproblems?
- What are the keys to our success?
- What actions do we want to repeat?
© 2001, The Center for Effective Performance,Inc..All rights reserved. Assistance on how to effectively implement these checklistsin your organization is available through a new one-day management seminarentitled How to Build A Championship Team at Work.
Dear Workforce What Is Standard Policy For Issuing Computer Equipment?
About the Experts
The following companies are helping us answer your questions:
Dear Workforce Why Do Employees Leave?
- Lack of recognition
- Inequities in salary
- Long-term sense of purpose and mission are missing
- Insufficient opportunities for professional and career development (promises may not match reality).
Dear Workforce How Do You Accrue Vacation Time?
Manager-Employee Talent Inventory
Use this form in your workforce planning to determine the skill levels of employees in various areas.
| A. Learning Ability: Learn quickly, learn by reading/study, grasp concepts, learn byhearing, learn by examples, willingness to seek feedback, learn by doing,willingness to develop self. Other:
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| B. Research/Analysis: Sense/notice/investigate, identify problem/source, research/gatherdata, troubleshoot/test solutions, compare/distinguish, persist to findsolution, question/interview, evaluate/learn from process,organize/classify data. Other:
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| C. Innovation: See new relationships, improvise resourcefully, synthesize data,visualize/design, conceive new ideas, develop new products/processes,invent/create programs, systems, etc. Other:
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| D. Human Relations: Show empathy/sensitivity, show tact/diplomacy, be a team player,cooperate, help/serve others, display warmth/sociability, counsel/guideothers, build trust. Other:
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| E. Spoken Communication: Listen well, keep others informed, express thoughts clearly, contributeto group discussions, express feelings assertively, communicate inpositive ways, give frequent feedback, use language well, make grouppresentations. Other:
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| F. Written Communication: Write clearly and concisely, write persuasively, take good notes,proofread/edit, illustrate graphically. Other:
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| G. Training: Prepare sufficiently, control time/process, train interactively, conveyenthusiasm, speak with authority, illustrate concepts, explain clearly,and maintain interest. Other:
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| H. Influencing Others: Build rapport/trust, promote/advertise, find others’self-interest/needs, recruit, see need to sell others, mediate/arbitrate,overcome discouragement, negotiate. Other:
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| I. Leadership: Take charge, focus on results, build compelling vision, confront toughissues, initiate change/take risks, use power appropriately, buildfollowership for vision, and maintain motivation. Other:
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| J. Planning: Anticipate problems, prioritize tasks, set realistic goals/schedules,develop plan for attainment, establish controls. Other:
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| K. Organizing: Establish logical systems, organize information, people, and tasks,bring order to chaos. Other:
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| L. People Management: Learn quickly, learn by reading/study, grasp concepts, learn byhearing, learn by examples, willingness to seek feedback, learn by doing,willingness to develop self. Other:
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| M. Numerical/Financial: Calculate/figure, operate computers, manage money/budgets, conductaudits, accounting/bookkeeping, handle purchasing, costanalysis/projections, find ways to minimize cost. Other:
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| N. Execution/Follow-Through: Implement decisions, attend to detail arrange/coordinate, deal with theunexpected, expedite, get things done on time, check/monitor, balancedetails with big picture. Other:
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| O. Manual/Physical: Eye/hand/foot coordination, fix/repair machines, hand/finger dexterity,build/assemble, operate/maintain machines, physical agility. Other:
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SOURCE:Keepingthe People Who Keep You in Business, Copyright© 2000 American Management Association International, http://www.amacombooks.org
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Usersmay, only on a one-time basis, include portions equal to one (1) page orless of information from the above Book in memos, reports, presentations, butonly if such materials are distributed or made available for non-commercial usein non-electronic form, to a limited number of individuals. All suchmaterials must include all copyright and other proprietary notices for theinformation used from the Web site, original source attribution, and the phrase“Used with the permission of American Management Association”. Users areprohibited from posting any content from the above book to any electronicbulletin boards, newsgroups or mail lists.
Table of Contents March 2001
F
eatures
| 2001 Optimas Awards |
| The 10 companies we salute this year are among the finest in an evolving HR world. They are examples that help to inspire, inform, and illuminate with practices that bring business results. By Janet Wiscombe |
| General Excellence: The Container Store |
| A company that thinks out side the box is bringing a fresh point of view to HR. By Jennifer Koch Laabs |
| Competitive Advantage: Quebecor World |
| Training was the key to a new level of customer service at the world’s largest printing company. By Jennifer Koch Laabs |
| Financial Impact: Bal Seal Engineering |
| By tracking trends and cutting costs, HR became a profit center. By Carroll Lachnit |
| Global Outlook: General Semiconductor |
| A worldwide company bonded its global workforce with “culture points” and counseling. By Caroline Louise Cole |
| Innovation: Fleishman-Hillard |
| HR scouts at this public relations company recruit, develop, and retain top talent. By Brenda Paik Sunoo |
| Managing Change: The Men’s Wearhouse |
| A clothing store that puts employees first is tailored for any change the harsh retail environment might bring. By Victor D. Infante |
| Partnership: DaimlerChrysler |
| Labor and management build a prescripition for health, and create a program that pays for itself. By Jennifer Hutchins |
| Quality of Life: First USA Bank |
| The Opportunity Knocks program helps employees zero in on their career dreams and achieve them. By Patrick J. Kiger |
| Service: New York State Dept. of Civil Service |
| Government does work. This agency used private-sector practices to transform a huge, troubled bureaucracy. By Jennifer Hutchins |
| Vision: Synygy |
| A system of quarterly evaluations encourages open communication and growth. By Jennifer Hutchins |
Departments
| Between the Lines |
| It takes research, review, and mass quantities of Chinese chicken salad to choose the winners of the 2001 Optimas Awards. |
| Mailbox |
| When e-learning works. • Making meetings start on time. |
| Dear Workforce: |
| Having fun – in a serious way. • Severance standards. • Is there a payroll pecking order? |
| On the Contrary |
| How does a new hairdo make the world a better place? Shari Caudron finds it’s all about the attitude you project. |
| The Buzz |
| Making layoffs your last resort. • A new generation: How to recruit the best and the youngest. • The future of minimum wage. • A look at what’s new in telecommuting. |
| S•M•L |
| A primer on pension and recruitment benefits. Whatever the size of your company, the options are vast. |
| Legal Insight |
| Sweeping OSHA ergonomics standards. • Should employees see their performance evaluations? • Racial barbs fly. |
| Think Twice |
| HR people wear a lot of hats, and Todd Raphael invites President George W. Bush to walk a mile in their boots. |
Five Tips for Developing a Synygy-style Evaluation Program
Five Tips for developing a Synygy-style evaluation program:
Provide frequent feedback: Instead of doing a lone annual review, evaluate employees every quarter. It’s more work, but it pays off, because it’s easier to identify both successes and failures and put them in perspective when they’re still fresh in the mind. More frequent evaluations enable employees and supervisors to adjust their goals and tune them more precisely to the company’s current needs. And problems can be corrected before they cause too much damage.
Ask everyone’s opinion: Employees don’t just have to get along with their department supervisors. They have to be able to work with other employees and other departments, and with the customers. By soliciting feedback from several players, a company can help an employee get in better sync with others. And someone outside a department may add fresh insights that immediate supervisors may not see.
Tie in compensation as an incentive: Feedback is most effective if there is a clear, quantifiable reward for using it. Develop a system for linking a portion of bonuses to performance on evaluations, and you’ll help employees keep their eyes on the ball. To accomplish that, you also have to develop a process in which you can assign monetary value to at least some of the feedback.
Put the evaluation process online: Create an electronic evaluation form and install it as a page on your company’s intranet or Web site. It makes it easy to use, reduces paperwork, and creates a more powerful tool. It will be easier for supervisors to analyze and compare the data in new ways – either for one employee or for an entire group. And employees can see and respond to their feedback in a clear, easy-to-understand fashion on their computer desktops.
Teach the art of constructive criticism: Candor is a rare commodity, but employees need to learn how to use it constructively. It’s crucial at the start of an evaluation program to educate employees on how to give constructive feedback (even if it’s anonymous) . Once employees realize that getting the unvarnished truth can improve performance – and lead to higher compensation – they’ll master the process quickly.
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