Hiring and Staffing Strategies
Leveraging Today’s Employment Market
Southeastern Accounting Show
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
3:20 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Cobb Galleria Centre; Atlanta, GA
Dan Erling, President of Accountants One
The Goal
Agenda
• The Goal
• Introductions
• Credentials and Elephants
• Strategies for Leveraging Today’s Employment Market
1) Understand your Company Culture
2) Write Realistic and Useful Job Descriptions
3) Conduct Behavioral Interviews
4) Obtain REAL References
5) Improve Retention through On-Boarding
6) Utilize our Unique Hiring Market
• Q&A
• The moment of truth
Introductions
Credentials and Elephants
Our recruiting success rate
since 2003
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Contract
Direct Hire
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
The Elephant in the Room
The Elephants in the Room
I run a Search Firm
Unemployment is 10% in GA
Strategies for Leveraging
Today’s Employment Market
Belief #1
CULTURE MATTERS A LOT
Technical skills account for only
25% of a successful hire while
Corporate Culture accounts for
75% of a successful hire.
“The thing I have learned at IBM is that
culture is everything.”
-- Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. former CEO IBM
Strategy #1
Understand your Company Culture
Cultural Scorecard
1.
Decision-Making
Guiding question: How are decisions generally made – by consensus or
by leadership?
By Consensus
1 2 3 4
5
6
By Leadership
7 8 9 10
Cultural Scorecard
2.
Communicating
Guiding question: How do people relate to each other: in a formal and
detached way, or in a more informal, personable way?
Formal
1 2 3
4
5
6
7
Informal
8 9 10
Cultural Scorecard
3.
Procedures
Guiding question: Are you organized around roles (favors consistent
procedures) or around talents and skills (favors flexible procedures)
Flexible
1 2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Consistent
9 10
Cultural Scorecard
4.
Innovation
Guiding question: Does your company innovate and develop
revolutionary products, or does it stick to its core offerings, progressing in
steady stages?
Revolutionary
1 2 3 4
5
6
7
8
Steady
9 10
Cultural Scorecard
5.
Employee Makeup
Guiding question: Are employees people who seek meaning in their
work or are they a resource hired to do what the company wants them to
do?
Seek meaning
1 2 3 4
5
6
7
Resource
8 9 10
Cultural Scorecard
6.
Teaming
Guiding question: Do you reward individuals for what they contribute to
groups, or do you reward groups for how they nurture individual
development and initiative?
Individuals
1 2 3
4
5
6
7
8
Groups
9 10
Cultural Scorecard
7.
Winning
Guiding question: Is your company a world of competing rivals, or a
world of cooperation and partnerships?
Cooperative
1 2 3 4
5
6
7
Competitive
8 9 10
Cultural Scorecard
8.
Profits
Guiding question: How much emphasis does your company put on shortterm shareholder value versus long-term economic value for all
stakeholders?
Short-term
1 2 3
4
5
6
7
Long-term
8 9 10
Belief #2
Time spent on a job
description on the FRONT
END of a candidate search
is time well spent.
Belief #2.5
Time spent on a job description on the FRONT
END of a candidate search is time well spent.
This is more important
RIGHT NOW than EVER
BEFORE!
From Jack Welch:
Understand: hiring correctly is critical,
difficult work
Accept: hiring based on your belief that
you’re a great judge of people virtually
guarantees failure.
Commit: to an objective hiring process.
"Hiring good people is hard. Hiring great
people is brutally hard. And yet nothing
matters more in winning than getting the
right people on the field."
Strategy #2
Write Realistic and Useful
Job Descriptions
REALISTIC and Useful
Job Descriptions
Objective #1
Objective #2
Objective #3
EVALUATION
Belief #3
Behavioral Interviews are
superior to traditional
interviews.
From Jim Collins:
Greatness is not a function of
circumstance. Greatness, it turns
out, is largely a matter of
conscious choice, and discipline.
Strategy #3
Conduct Behavioral Interviews
Behavioral vs. Traditional
Interview Questions
Traditional Interview
Are you good with
Excel?
Behavioral Interview
Describe an
instance where
you used Pivot
Tables.
Traditional Interview
Are you an
organized
person?
Behavioral Interview
When has your
Whatdid
How
project
you
organizational
management
organize
the last
style caused you
tools doyou
project
you
to miss a
utilize?
managed?
deadline?
Belief #4
You can gather information
that is true, insightful, and
helpful in a reference call.
It takes a wise man [or woman]
to discover a wise man [or
woman].
- Diogenes Laërtius, c. 200 AD
Strategy #4
Obtain REAL References
Behavioral vs. Traditional
Reference Calls
Traditional Reference Call
On a scale of 1 to
10 how good is
____ with Excel?
Behavioral Reference Call
Describe how
_____ used Pivot
Tables.
Traditional Reference Call
Is ____ an
organized
person?
Behavioral Reference Call
When did
What project
______’s
How did ____tools
management
organizational
organize
the last
does
_____
style
cause
project
he(and
/ she
effectively
him/her
to miss a
managed?
ineffectively)
utilize?
deadline?
Belief #5
An on-boarding process is a
worthy investment and one
that can positively affect
retention.
From Peter Drucker:
“People decisions are the ultimate
– perhaps the only – control of an
organization. People determine
the performance capacity of an
organization. No organization can
do better than the people it has.”
Strategy #5
Improve Retention through On-Boarding
Onboarding check list sample (part 1):
Department/Payroll Info
• W-4 Federal form completed and sent to Payroll
• W-4 State form completed and sent to Payroll
• Patent Policy Form
• Conflict of Interest policy statement
• Ensure employee has accessed the Employee Link to confirm Personal Data and to
provide Emergency Notification Contact
• Confirm with employee the name and phone number of Employee Relations
Representative
Human Resources
• Complete I-9
• Conflict of Interest Employment Form completed
• ID number issued by Human Resources
• New Employee Orientation scheduled by HR for __________________
Access Information
• Establish Email account
• Establish access to appropriate PC access and files
• Provide access to Company Intranet
• Passwords issued
• Establish phone extension
• Activate voicemail
• Provide long distance access code
• Add employee’s name to any email group lists, distribution lists, internal/office phone
lists and/or website
Onboarding check list sample (part 2):
Departmental Orientation and Office Access
•
Inform staff of employee’s arrival
•
Set up and clean office space
•
Obtain office supplies
•
Establish training schedule
•
Establish office mailbox
•
Introduce employee to staff on first day Bring on tour of building/office/facilities including
lunchroom, emergency exits, and restrooms
•
Indicate location of parking lot / rapid transit station
•
Provide keys (office, building, desk, file cabinets etc.)
•
Provide security codes if necessary
•
Show location of fax machines, copiers, printers etc.; provide instruction and any access
information
•
Review dress code and office protocol
•
Explain completion of timesheet
•
Review pay schedule
•
Confirm work schedule
Relevant Work Related Items
•
Business cards
•
Nameplates
•
Name badge
•
Pay card
•
Cell phone
•
PDA
•
Laptop
•
Uniforms
•
Manuals/handbooks
•
Tools
•
Other _______________________
Belief #6
A company can improve
their bottom line through
staffing strategies.
Nothing our company does is more important
than hiring and developing superior talent.
- Larry Bossidy, Chairman and CEO of Honeywell (retired)
Strategy #6
Utilize our Unique Hiring Market
Utilizing our Unique Hiring Market
• Part-Time Contractors
• Temp-to-Hire Solutions
• Flexible Contract Staff
• Reducing/Replacing Salaries
• Upgrading Talent
Q&A
www.danerling.com
The Moment of Truth
Hiring and Staffing Strategies
1) Understand your Company Culture
2) Write Realistic and Useful Job Descriptions
3) Conduct Behavioral Interviews
4) Obtain REAL references
5) Improve Retention through On-Boarding
6) Leverage our Unique Hiring Market
VALUE?