ie should organisations seek to control their employees activities on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs etc. Or should they ignore it?

Here is my reply:

3 Random thoughts relating to social media

a) You can’t control what your customers say about you

But you can influence what they say by controlling the quality of your products, managing the level of service and treating them well.

The same applies to employees. You can’t control what they say. But can influence what they say by:  a) choosing carefully who you hire and then b) leading them well and treating them well.

b) You can’t control what your teenage kids do when they step out of the house

To a large degree you also can’t control what they do and say when their online.

So rather than trying to control them, it’s much more effective to try and influence them by educating them on what is right and wrong.  And teaching them about the impact their decisions can have on them now and into the future. Whilst at the same time role modelling the right behaviours.

c) Social media is here to stay

 And what we’re seeing right now is the tip of the ice berg.  It will get bigger and bigger - and policing it will become harder and harder.

So based on these 3 points, here are my views on Social Media policy in the workplace:

* Don’t try and police social media with policy and traditional HR red tape*

Instead embrace it and invest the time and resources into:

1. Educating people on the impact social media can have on their future career

We are all leaving a digital footprint everytime we post anything online. So help people understand this  and how they can use social media to manage their Personal Brand and enhance their career rather than damaging it.

2. Educate anyone in a leadership role

Educate your leaders so that they understand how social media can impact on their credibility and effectiveness in leading teams. How they can role model behaviours and use social media tools as allies rather than a potential danger

3. Educate client facing teams

Anyone facing off to clients needs to understand how their online activity can effect their credibility and success with clients - both positively and negatively. So instead of policing them - start equipping them.

The very essence of  any social media platform is about connecting with others, building communities, sharing ideas and collaborating. ie the cornerstones of modern business in today. 

Which is why all firms that position themselves as modern, entrepreneurial, innovative businesses (Eg the Virgin Group, Google and South West Airlines to name a few) are embracing Social Media - and so will reap the benefits.

Those that shun social media will a) probably never be able to police it really and b) miss a golden employee engagement opportunity.

So when it comes to Social Media in the work place - you basically have 3 choices:

- Police it with controls and policy

- Embrace it

- Ignore it

What are you doing..?

Regardless of which industry you operate within, your external environment has changed radically in the last 12-18 months.

The dark clouds initially sparked off by the credit crunch have now turned into an economic storm and in some parts of the world, a full blown hurricane. The recession driven by falling consumer and business confidence is having an impact on most of the industrialised world and beyond. 

Whilst many businesses are cost-cutting and reducing headcount, the forward-thinking ones are still maintaining a strong focus on retaining talent.

In a downturn, retaining the best people is crucial for helping you ride the economic storm, while also ensuring that you have the team to power ahead and take advantage of the opportunities when the economy and market turn around.

But retaining the right people during a down-turn isn’t always easy – here are 7 tips:

1. Have a plan (and get your people  involved)

Your best people will only stay and ride the economic storm with you if they are confident in your ability to survive through the hard times.

For that, you need to have a strategy to plough through the choppy waters your business may now be in, and to communicate it effectively. Where possible, involve your people in the plan and keep them updated.  This demonstrates to people that you value them.

Being valued and being involved are two of the most basic human needs.  Meet these needs in a downturn and people will want to stay with you.

2. Communicate more (make that much more)

In times of change and uncertainty, if you are not communicating with your people then someone or something else will fill that vacuum. That something is often gossip, rumour and negative vibes – which poison your business and its ability to succeed in a challenging environment, whilst also destabilising your people.

When people are insecure and don’t know what’s going on, they start looking at jobsites and entertaining calls from head hunters.

To minimise the risk of this, the leaders in your business need to communicate much more with people. There needs to be more management by walk-about – i.e. not just the formal meetings. More informal discussion that helps build trust and confidence in the leadership of the business whilst helping you alleviate rumours and undue concerns.

3. Tackle underperformers now

In a challenging market, you need a strong, focused, dedicated team around you.

You need people who are willing to get stuck in and do what is required to help your business ride the storm but also capitalise on opportunities that arise.

Taking brave decisions now demonstrates to your team that you are willing to do what’s necessary to ensure longer-term stability and the continued employability of people. Communicated in the right way, this sends a message to your best people that this is a business they want to stay with.  It also sends a not-so-subtle message to your average performers that they need to raise their game.

4. Be open, honest and authentic with your people

The 2 biggest fears your people will have are:
a) How sustainable is your business?
b) How safe is their job?

Having a level of honesty and authenticity in troubled times is a key part of building trust with your employees.

I appreciate that it’s not always possible on all issues, but be honest about what you know and admit if you don’t know the answer to something.  Explain that you’ll tell your staff when you do know, and make sure that you do what you promise.

Once again, this builds trust, minimises anxiety and keeps everyone focused on running the business. All of which helps you retain your best people.

5. Reward the right behaviours

To succeed in the current climate, your priorities should be to ramp up your sales activities, enhance your level of customer service and manage your cost-base much better.

So now is the time to look at rewarding those behaviours which add value to your business.

So take another look at the key performance indicators that the various teams in your business operate to and then ensure that your pay and bonus schemes are aligned to those behaviours.

This will make your business sharper and ensure that your best people are successful and well rewarded -  which of course helps you retain them.

6. Build a sense of camaraderie

When war veterans are interviewed they often say that the war-time was the best years of their lives.  When asked why, they say “because we were in it together.”

When people feel they have a common goal and are pulling together it creates a sense of loyalty that no amount of money can buy.

The more you do to create an environment of fun and togetherness, the tighter the bond and so the more connected to the business your staff will feel.

So, have more team nights out, go for breakfast, buy the team lunch – do whatever works for you and them.

When people associate work with feelings of fun and togetherness you create an emotional loyalty. They don’t want to let the team down and so less likely to move onto another employer.

7. Manage your thinking (and that of your leaders)

All of the above sounds great – but I know from personal experience that when things are tough it’s really easy to just feel down, frustrated and questioning yourself, which of course doesn’t motivate you to act on points 1 to 6.

So it’s important that the leaders in your business are focused on solutions and not the problems; that they are focused on what’s working, not just on what is not.

Having an upbeat and positive mindset (coupled with a healthy dose of realism), will help leaders engage with their people and set an example which will inspire others to follow. 

Just like real storms or hurricanes - economic storms and recessions are never permanent. Markets, like weather patterns, are cyclical.

The priority during a real storm or hurricane is to minimise the damage, survive the storm and then re-build once the storm passes. That’s exactly what your business should be doing  during the current economic storm – minimise damage, survive and then rebuild.

But to do this, you need to have a strong team of people around you - in the same way you would in a real storm or hurricane.

So as the uncertainty within the economy continues, stay focussed on retaining the right people. They are crucial to the survival and future success of your business.

These are some of the questions posed by Seth Godin in a recent blog post about whether you should hire people who are passionate about the products your business offers or simply focus on hiring an expert in their functional area (i.e customer service, financial control, sales, production etc).

He concludes that it’s more important that organisations hire people who are passionate and effective at what they do in their functional field as opposed to only hiring people who care deeply about the product – with the notable exception of marketing people who need to have a passion for marketing and a passion for the product being marketed.

On the whole, I agree with Seth.

Your business should not be filled with people who are simply passionate about your product or service. It may well work in the early days of a start up, but to grow and thrive, you need a team of professionals who can perform to a high standard in their chosen field even if they don’t have a strong passion for the product on offer – whether that’s a ski school, a charity or major corporation. 

Whilst, yes, you would ideally want a team that have both a passion for your product and an expertise and passion for their chosen job area – the reality is that you will struggle to fill every position in your business with people who have passions in both areas.

So you need to prioritise.

For most positions, your business should prioritise people who have a talent, passion and a track record in their functional role. They can learn about your business and your products and still perform. But hiring people who can’t perform yet are passionate about your business will become an expensive mistake.

They may even fall in love with your products and be truly passionate about them. Then again, they may not. But it doesn’t matter, provided they are performing to a high standard as the financial controller, the head of customer service or marketing manager of your business, you have the foundation to ensure your customers become passionate about your products – which, of course, should be the ultimate goal.

I strongly advise businesses of all size not to focus on looking for people with the full complement of skills and experiences, but instead focus on hiring those with the right values, attitude and personality (or VAP). We live in a world of intense competition, ever-changing products, services and technology, so your team are going to have to change and learn new ways of doing things anyway. 

They can always improve specific skills and gain more experience, but if they haven’t the right attitude, values or personality for the role and your business then they won’t fit in to your team. By being more flexible on the skills and experiences you are looking for, you open up a larger pool of potential candidates. But by ensuring they have the core traits that are right for your business, you ensure they are the Right People for the future of your business.

Those character and personality traits come with a person. Which is precisely why you should be laser focussed on hiring people with those traits. The experience and skills should be secondary.

So go ahead and define precisely what traits are required to be successful in your business - and then focus your recruitment campaign, interview and selection process around hiring people that exhibit those very traits.
 

I received one such email today with the headline “Recruitment - 9% Fee.”

I won’t quote the company in question, but rest assured I was not impressed for 3 reasons:

1. Because I have little respect for firms that cold call or email and ask for business without doing any research

Research into what I and my business do and what my potential needs might be. It’s even worse being spammed with a blanket email.  If they were chasing a lead which they had picked up from their market intelligence and attached a sample CV / resume (with names blanked out) that potentially met my needs, then I’d respect the fact that they had done their homework and were market aware. But doing a simple Google search on my name or company would tell them immediately that I was not a likely client for their services.

2. Because I’d never work with a recruitment supplier whose unique selling point is cheapness

Having worked in both a recruitment consultancy and in-house, I am fully aware of the benefit of good quality recruitment. So if I am using an external recruitment supplier it’s because I want them to add value for me and the business I am working with. That means they find the best people within my budgeted salary bracket, they save me time in the search process, they manage the candidate relationship effectively and ethically and act as my trusted advisor throughout the process.  I may be making assumptions here, but someone who sends blanket emails saying “call us we’re cheap” is unlikely to be the kind of partner that adds value to your business. They are more likely to be low quality, cheap-and-cheerful recruiters rather than a high-quality firm.

3. Because I’d never work with a firm charging as little as 9% of the first year’s salary.

I would never do business with a recruitment firm that charged less than 15% unless it was part of some kind of volume discount.  Why?  If it’s too good to be true – there’s usually a reason for it.

If a recruitment firm charges such low fees it’s for a reason: they pay their people a low salary structure (and so don’t have the best recruiters working there), the team may be working on a commission-only basis (which makes me question how ethical the recruiters are when selling opportunities), they may have fairly unsophisticated databases and pretty basic recruitment processes. All of which makes me question how much value they would add and whether I’d be storing up work and problems further down the line.

Even if it’s a very small business with low costs operating out of someone’s front room (as many small recruitment start-ups do), it tells me a lot about how little value the owner places on his/her expertise – that’s not the kind of recruiter I want representing me.  I want recruiters with a healthy self-esteem (without the arrogance), representing my business. How much you charge for your services is a function of how much you value yourself – not necessarily a reaction to the market.

In the current economic climate, it is most definitely a buyer’s market when it comes to sourcing talent – there are more people looking for work and more recruitment firms struggling to compete for less business - hence the unsolicited email I received. But whatever you do, don’t be tempted to focus on finding the cheapest suppliers in the market and screwing down costs. 

Instead find the suppliers who provide the most value to your business, who can become partners with you in your search for talent over the long run. To win the war for talent requires you to nurture relationships not just with your people – but with your recruitment partners too. Working with low-quality, cheap suppliers is not the way to build long-term relationships.
 

1. Construct a powerful vision - Talented people are drawn to businesses that know where they are going and have a plan for success. Craft an exciting vision for the future and communicate it to potential hires all the way through your recruitment process.

2. Make finding and keeping talent a priority - Make recruitment and retention a priority now and you will save time and money well into the future. Not exactly rocket science? Yet firms still complain about the challenges of recruiting people when they dont make it a priority. In the same way that you should never stop sales activities in a business, you should never stop recruitment activities either.

You may not have open vacancies or you may have a hiring freeze due to cost constraints which means you may not actually hire people. But you drastically reduce the time and cost of recruitment when you do have a requirement by ensuring that recruitment is always be a priority.   

3. Develop your unique proposition as an employer - Why would talented people choose to work for your business? Like your products and services, you need to have a compelling message and recruitment brand which makes you stand out from other employers against whom you are competing for talent.

4. Be clear about the people you are looking for - This is not just a ‘job spec’ of skills and experiences you see on a CV/resume - but about being very clear about the type of personal attributes you are looking for too. Focus on hiring people with the values, attitudes, the personality, level of ambition, the work ethic and work style that is right for your business. By focussing on these you hire the right ‘core’ traits and so can be more flexible the skills and experience. Which of course widens the net and helps makes it easier to find the right people. 

5. Develop a multi-channel attraction engine - The key is to search for people through multiple channels  - that is via direct applications, referrals, advertising, recruitment agents and headhunting. To keep costs to a minimum, your business may want to focus on becoming highly effective at attracting people for free through referrals and direct applications. But the key point is to ensure you are using multiple channels.

6. Effectively interview and select - Ensure your interviewing and selection methods are rigorous and thorough. Focus on assessing people objectively and fairly against the requirements of the role (set out in point 3 above) so that you minimise the chances of hiring the wrong people.

Sounds obvious right? Yet so many businesses recruit people that they instinctivley ‘like’ after the first few minutes of an interview, rather than than someone that fulfils the needs of the role or meets the cultural requirements of their business.

7. Sell the opportunity ethically and honestly - Regardless of the size and shape of your business, recruitment is about selling. But selling ethically. Everyone in your business needs to be able to sell your vacancy in an ethical way that draws people to your business. Focus on understanding the needs of future employees and communicating your unique proposition. Being honest, ethical and never overselling an opportunity will ensure you not only find people but keep them.

8. Deliver a fantastic candidate experience - Businesses that succeed in treating potential staff like potential customers will always have more success in hiring the best people. Treating every applicant as an individual and making prompt decisions will determine your success as well as enhancing your overall brand and reputation in the marketplace.

9. Create systems to deliver consistent results - You should always be looking for people whether you have a vacancy or not. Setting up systems will ensure that the above activities happen consistently and automatically. That you continually attract the right kind of people all the time and without huge effort. 

The challenge for any business is to integrate the above 9 strategies into their busines model so that recruiting talented people becomes a strength rather than the massive pain it often is in many businesses.

Is all this easy? Does it happen overnight?

No it does not. It takes time, but the key is to make a start.

So starting now, take a look at the above list and ask yourself what ONE thing can your business start changing right now? 

Whilst this is not always easy due to the pressures of business or an overly bureaucratic recruitment process, you should be challenging these at every turn. In the same way that it is unacceptable for your customers to receive a slow,  unprofessional service - so to is it not acceptable for potential employees to face poor service from you - after all they may well be a customer, or know someone who is.

Your recruitment brand and the overall brand of your business are heavily interlinked. In the hyper connected world of social media (i.e. blogs, Linked In, Face Book, Twitter etc) bad new travels incredible fast in the digital age. You never really know who you are rejecting or handling in a not so professional manner.

It could be the nephew of your biggest client, the wife of the editor of the biggest publication in your industry or it could be the best friend of an influencial  blogger who has enourmous power over your target market. You just don’t know, so it’s best to focus on giving everyone great service.

So on a practical level your business should:

• Acknowledge all applications promptly (within 48 hours at the latest)

• Keep candidates updated through the recruitment process by managing expectations appropriately

• Be on the front foot in communication instead of being chased up. The best people won’t be chasing you, they will be in discussions with your competitors. In large volume recruitment, this is not feasible, so it’s important to create systems to ensure you at least are on the front foot with high demand candidates

• Maximise the ‘human touch’ through the recruitment process as much as possible. If you can make a phone call, don’t email. If you can send an email, send a personalised email instead of a standard template (or insert a personalised paragraph into a template)

• Say ‘thank you’ a lot more. Thank you applying, thank you for attending the interview, thank you for being patient whilst we messed you around.

• Smile, be positive and enthused around candidates. Nothing sells your business better than enthusiastic and passionate people who represent the business through the recruitment process. 

• Be big enough to apologise when you get things wrong. Humility and honesty are attractive qualities in people and organisations

• If you won’t be progressing with a candidate, tell them as soon as possible. Don’t string them along

• Wherever possible – give personalised feedback after interviews. It helps the candidate in their job search and it reflects well on you as a business

Aside from the commercial reasons, handling candiates correctly is also the right thing to do - both professionally and morally. You never know, you or family member could well be searching for job at some stage and would I’m sure appreciate being treated with courtesy, professionalism and warmth.

So as you go through the recruitment process, always treat potential employees like you would potential customers.

We live today in a world with too businesses with too many products competing for the attention of time starved, information overloaded buyers who have more knowledge at their disposal than any other group of buyers in history.

Which is why competing for 1) their attention and 2) their business is a huge challenge in any market. But it’s not just buyers of products - but anyone that is marketed to - including the very people you seek to recruit and retain.

In such a world, it is stories (and not necessarily the product) that sell. Real stories and authentic communication which connect with buyers as people at an emotional level.

That applies whether you are trying to market a product, service, an investment opportunity, marketing a job opportunity to a new recruit or a long term career to an existing employee.

This was made really clear to me whilst watching this week’s episode of the BBC TV show Dragons’ Den.
Why?

UK-based readers who watch Dragons’ Den may have seen two entrepreneurs get financial backing from two celebrity millionaires - all because of the power of their story - and not their product or their business plan.

For those who haven’t seen it, the series is the venture capital equivalent of the talent shows American Idol or X Factor. The budding entrepreneurs give a three minute pitch to five millionaire investors (the ‘Dragons’) in a bid to secure an investment in return for a share in their business.

And just like the talent shows, the show features some pitches and ideas which are ludicrous, some that are genius and some which are neither.

You could say that the pitch in this week’s show by Former radio DJ Christian Richardson and business graduate Rachel Watkin was in the ‘neither’ category.

For the most part, the Dragons were uninspired by the idea of investing £53,000 into a recycled gift box business with fairly average products and an average sales record. It looked certain that they would be saying “I’m out” (the Dragon’s Den equivalent of Simon Cowell saying “You can’t sing, forget your dream and go home!”)

But during the question and answer session, there was a sudden change of sentiment amongst some of the venture capitalists. It came when the two individuals were asked to talk about their backgrounds and tell their personal stories.

To their credit, Richardson and Watkin gave a short, but candid account of what brought them there. Richardson was a DJ earning a comfortable 6 figure salary before developing a drug problem. He left his job and went into therapy before turning his life around. Watkin became ill after a routine operation went wrong. She couldn’t work, lost her property and had to start all over again.

Both of them wanted to make a fresh start and do something of value which would make a difference. Hence the ethical environmentally-friendly gift box business which provides major retailers with recyclable gift boxes for customers with a green conscience.

Within seconds Peter Jones, the telecoms tycoon, said: “When you tell me your story, it resonates with me. It makes you both highly investable. I’m thinking how can we make these people a success……I’m going to make you an offer…”

And instead of offering them £53,000, he partnered up with another Dragon to make a combined offer of £60,000 along with the opportunity to collaborate with another business which the two Dragon’s already owned. It was a complete turnaround.

Telling their authentic stories and being open about their imperfections made Peter Jones really connect with them and the whole situation turned round in a matter of minutes. You could say the lifeline and future success of their business turned on that single moment when they shared their strories.

Telling authentic stories is how I have always ’sold’ job opportunities to potential candidates when recruiting. Telling authentic stories is how I have always led and retained people.

Real, honest stories based around the history, values and culture of a busines along with the story of powerful vision for the future of a business engages people and is far more compelling than many people imagine.

Stories which are short, relevant and real will always do far more to help differentiate yourself as you attempt to recruite and retain talent.

Yes, real stories will put off some buyers. Indeed, not all the Dragon’s were inspired by the entreprenuers story.

But as my friend Chris Barrow says, “Marketing is the process you go through to decide who you don’t want to do business with.”

Marketing anything with authenticity means putting off the ‘wrong kind’ of buyers who don’t fit the profile you want to attract. It’s about developing a story which is focussed on drawing in the right type of people.

In a similar vein, your authentic story may well put off some potential and current employees. But that’s fine: at the same time you will draw in the right type of people who do connect with your employee brand at an emotional level.

And we know what happens when people connect with a brand emotionally - price becomes less important.

We buy from Nike, BMW and Starbucks for the brand - not the product or the price. There may well be better places to buy a better cup of coffee or a cheaper car. But it’s the the association with their brand values and how they make us feel that makes them unique.

When people who are emotionally connected with any brand in this way, the price becomes less important. They buy into the perceived value they get from the association with those brands.

In the same way, to attract, engage and retain talented people you need to focus on your business’s employee brand.

The way to do this is through stories. Stories which are authentic, stories which resonate with your target audience in a way that emotionally connects them to your business.

When you do this consistently, someone’s decision to work for your business is no longer about salary, compensation or the size and stature of your business. People want to be working with you because of who you are as a business - warts and all.

That’s when you stand out from the crowd and that’s how you find and keep the best talent without having to pay more than your competitors.

What’s your story…?

Want to see the 15 minute clip form Dragon’s Den?

It’s available to watch for free on the BBC iplayer site until until Sunday 7th September.

Just click here and forward the timer to 45 minutes into the show when the pitch for the gift box company begins. If you only want to watch the ’story’ part then forward to around 52 minutes in.

Seth Godin, the Marketing author and commentator has an interesting post on his blog about the selection process he went through to hire summer interns.

He was able to use Face Book as a way of simulating the same approach many firms go through during the screeing and assesment centre process with interns. It was completely free and, from what i can see, involved little work on his part other than just observing the behaviours of the individuals in the online groups before making some quick assesments.

He could quickly see which individuals took on leadership roles, which one were the followers and which ones he describes as the ‘game show’ contestants.

In addition to summarising the success he had with his search for interns this summer, Seth mentions how impressed he was with the people he could didn’t hire. So he engaged them on some further online projects on an unpaid basis. But part of the deal was that he would profile these individuals on his blog so as to help them in finding new opportunities.

I’ve just had a quick scan through the the hand made PDF profile of the interms and was stunned with the talent he attracted and their ability to market themselves so well at such a young age.

If you are looking for Marketing Graduates for next year then it’s worth taking at their profiles.

I’m not much of a follower of American politics and so haven’t really been keeping a close tab on this years election campaign. Also, if I’m honest, I find the lengthy US election process a little confusing and so haven’t followed the election press much at all.

But regardless of this, one of the aspects of the current election which I have been following is the Barock Obama campaign. Not because I’m a supporter or anything – but because it seems to be a very ‘different’ election campaign to the ones i have witnessed in the past – either in the US or in the UK.

Regardless of where you sit politically, his campaign team have created a unique brand around Obama which has no doubt contributed to their success to date.

On this point, I have just read an excellent post on the ERE blog by Cheryl Hardy from Talent Hook titled “5 Things Barrack Obama’s Campaign Proves About Your Recruitment Brand”

She details the 5 lesson’s from Obarma’s campaign which translate directly into your own recruitment and employee brand.

Namely:

1. Don’t slander the competition; state and consistently reiterate what you do best/differently/efficiently

2. Meet your talent where they live

3. Let your talent, sell your culture.

4. Embrace technology, social networking and meta data

5. Make the most of your own Internet space.

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