Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Finding or Developing Top Talent?
This morning I was on a conference call with a couple of colleagues when the question was posed, "What really is more important to small business employers; Finding great people or developing the talent they have?"
I think when you take a step back, they are really two different conversation threads. For now, let's start the discussion around, attracting top talent.
Good talent is hard to find and when you find a candidate you are sure would be great for your team, you have to compete with other employers to get the deal done. This means that you may have to spend valuable time on the recruiting process; done right, the time spent will be well worth the effort.
So where do you start? First, just saying "We need to hire a sales person..." really won't cut it...a step further, "We need to hire a sales person that has experience selling the types of widgets we sell". Better, but there's more to it than that. Let me take a quick tangent here (for anyone who knows me this is normal). I have a background in software product management (R&D). The product management team is usually responsible for studying the market, trends, competition, how the product should be used, look and feel, user experience, swot, pricing, packaging, launch etc. The first thing product managers do before getting Development involved and building or enhancing a new product is, WRITE A BUSINESS REQUIREMENT. (Close tangent).
When you want to find great talent, start with YOUR requirements of the candidates. Education, background, experience, are all obvious areas in question, but what about your company's culture? Work environment? Your style. Are you looking for someone to be a "company guy" (not being sexist here, just brief) or "one of the guys" or are you looking for someone to come in and bring new thoughts and ideas to the table (and possibly expand your horizon a bit) to help expand your business.
Writing a Candidate Requirement is key to understanding what you really need and want for your business. Having the Requirement doc will be a great advantage in crafting the job description for your candidates and/or recruiters.
When interviewing, ask questions that will give you a glimpse of how the candidate may approach a problem or opportunity; not just what you can already read on a resume.
At the end of the day you are looking for good people, as Rock Bottom Restaurant Founder and Chairman, Frank Day framed up for a friend of mine years ago,
Good luck in finding the right players for your team!
Dave
I think when you take a step back, they are really two different conversation threads. For now, let's start the discussion around, attracting top talent.
Good talent is hard to find and when you find a candidate you are sure would be great for your team, you have to compete with other employers to get the deal done. This means that you may have to spend valuable time on the recruiting process; done right, the time spent will be well worth the effort.
So where do you start? First, just saying "We need to hire a sales person..." really won't cut it...a step further, "We need to hire a sales person that has experience selling the types of widgets we sell". Better, but there's more to it than that. Let me take a quick tangent here (for anyone who knows me this is normal). I have a background in software product management (R&D). The product management team is usually responsible for studying the market, trends, competition, how the product should be used, look and feel, user experience, swot, pricing, packaging, launch etc. The first thing product managers do before getting Development involved and building or enhancing a new product is, WRITE A BUSINESS REQUIREMENT. (Close tangent).
When you want to find great talent, start with YOUR requirements of the candidates. Education, background, experience, are all obvious areas in question, but what about your company's culture? Work environment? Your style. Are you looking for someone to be a "company guy" (not being sexist here, just brief) or "one of the guys" or are you looking for someone to come in and bring new thoughts and ideas to the table (and possibly expand your horizon a bit) to help expand your business.
Writing a Candidate Requirement is key to understanding what you really need and want for your business. Having the Requirement doc will be a great advantage in crafting the job description for your candidates and/or recruiters.
When interviewing, ask questions that will give you a glimpse of how the candidate may approach a problem or opportunity; not just what you can already read on a resume.
At the end of the day you are looking for good people, as Rock Bottom Restaurant Founder and Chairman, Frank Day framed up for a friend of mine years ago,
"We want to hire good people. We can teach good people anything. I can't teach an idiot not to be a moron!"
Good luck in finding the right players for your team!
Dave
Monday, June 18, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Top 10 lies of Entrepreneurs
Guy Kawasaki outlines the Top 10 Lies from Entrpreneurs...Sound Familiar?
Thursday, June 14, 2007
GRAND OPENING! ThinkingHR and Arizona Small Business are now Live!
Today it's official, Arizona Small Business and ThinkingHR business blogs are now Live! Both blogs were created to share news, knowledge and opinions on small business (where we make our home) and topics related to human resources. I started posting on both sites a couple of weeks ago and have received some good feedback and have noticed the sites have been added to some well established blogrolls. Being an entrepreneur and in the HR space for now, 20 years, I've learned that transferring the knowledge between us makes it better for all. Thanks for visiting...more to come! Dave June 14 Announcement
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Virgo Capital Acquires Accord Human Resources
Transaction Provides Accord with an Equity Partner Focused on Growth
AUSTIN, Texas & OKLAHOMA CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Accord Human Resources, a leading provider of outsourced HR management solutions, and Virgo Capital, a private equity firm dedicated to the technology-enabled services market, jointly announced today that Virgo Capital has acquired Accord Human Resources.
via Business Wire
A Father's Day Question: Do Workplaces Need to Be More Father-Friendly?
This was a question that was posed in yesterday's BLR Newsletter (The link is below for you to get access to the full article).
So guys, what's the answer to the question above? Do our workplaces need to be more "Father-Friendly". Whether they are or not the article says we don't really take advantage of the time off programs our companies already have for us.
I am a Father of two teen-age boys (15, and 13). Over the years, I have tried to spend as much time as possible with them; coaching getting involved with school work etc. The BLR article states that the more time we spend with them the better off they'll be. This idea almost seems to be a "no-brainer". In fact, the article goes on to claim that, when asked, 7 out of 10 Fathers say they would take a cut in pay to spend more time with our kids. So why don't we do it?
Learn more about the programs your company offers you and take some time off with the kids-it will be great for all.
Happy Father's Day
Full BLR Article
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