Talent Acquisition and Retention: The Six Bs

The 6 "B's" of Talent Acquisition and Retention

AND 6 QUESTIONS TO ASK TO ENSURE YOU'RE ON TRACK

You know I'm not a fan of oversimplifying complex processes with silly acronyms and whatnot, but the subject of the Human Capital's Bs came up yesterday, and I thought I'd share my two cents with you here on how world-class organizations attract, develop, and retain their talent pools.

Here is a short description of each of the HR Bs and questions executives should ask of their human resources professionals and internal leadership.

Buy

"Traditional" recruitment, including investments in:

• Employment branding
• Internal referral programs
• Business networking groups
• Automatic access to applications and employment data
• Relevant online recruitment resources
• Maintenance of contact with qualified prospects
• former applicants
• former employees
• contractors/consultants
• vendor reps

• Executives should ask "Are we effectively sourcing and onboarding talent?"

Build

Training and development through investment in things like:

• On-the-job development opportunities (i. e. advisory board, tasks force, special project)
• Training coursework (classroom and web-based)
• Mentorship and coaching programs
• Interdepartmental projects
• Empowerment, work/life balance
• Quarterly/Semi-Annual 2-way reviews

• Executives should ask "How do our employees rank their growth and satisfaction outside of work?"

Borrow

Partnerships developed with customers and vendors to increase innovation and share knowledge through:

• Joint ventures
• Experiential marketing
• Exchange programs

• Executives should ask "How much of our organizational intelligence comes from outside?"

Bound

Progressing talent through various career paths while promoting engagement 

• Personally relevant motivation
• Competitive compensation, and compensation incentives
• Non-financial investments
• Flexible and customizable benefits and working arrangements

• Executives should ask "How often do we fill key positions from the outside, and how does our retention rate compare to industry averages?"

Bounce

Drop the underachievers according to Welch's vitality model, but invest in:

• Defining and articulating the ideal culture
• Painting a clear picture of the future
• Transparent expectations and standards, with backing of Legal
• Providing candid feedback on all suggestions and complaints
• Fair and independent analysis of situations and markets
• Establishing just due processes including development opportunities
• Prompt and direct management of behaviors that are not in line with organizational goals and values

• Executives should ask "Are our poor performers in the right jobs? the right company?"

Bind

Constantly improve retention rates, foster pride and loyalty, and nurture potential through:

• Compensation
• Creative and personalized recognition and rewards
• Engagement tools
• Granting disciplined freedom with ownership of duties and outcomes
• Becoming an employer of choice by building a strong brand and employee value props
• Align internal and external communications to share and expand the message(s)

• Executives should ask "What more can we do to retain our top-performers?"

Sliding Scale Vending

Beverage Vending Machine Automatically Changes Price Based on Outside Temperature

While in Chicago the other day for the Shopper Marketing Expo, Coke’s Global Customer & Commercial Leadership Director (responsible for foodservice development and international growth strategy) described the technology used to increase traffic to vending machines at a handful of amusement parks in Spain for the past two years. The machines would automatically lower their prices as the outdoor temperature rose, by means of a software developed by Varadero.

From their headquarters, Coca-Cola spokesperson Carrie Brown explains, “The machines were designed specifically to increase trial of Limón&Nada as a thirst quencher in the summer heat.” Limón&Nada hopes to come to America under a different name as a low-cal, preservative-free lemonade from the Minute Maid brand. Also being offered in test markets is Limón&Nada Peppermint and Limón&Nada Light.

Brown said that the software hasn’t been used in other markets, but declined to comment as to weather (tee-hee) they planned on using this technology in the future.

Hungry for Change

Our Scouts were killing.

It was the Homecoming Game for our local high school. A buddy of mine came to see his son perform his courtly duties alongside the King and Queen of the day. The class of 1993 was celebrating it's twentieth reunion that weekend, so the stands were full of people recently flown to town wearing flannel with fanny packs while listening to Nirvana on their blue Walkmans.

The good ol' home team defense had just intercepted a beautiful pick when my almost potty-trained daughter tugged on my pant leg. With a familiar step dance her slightly raised eyebrows betrayed a distress that snapped me to action. As I was weaving through bleachers and band nerds with daughter in tow, I noticed that the line for the bathroom was certainly too long for her tiny bladder. I snatched the kid up under my right arm, brought my left across my chest to prevent a fumble, pivot and sprint with the all grace of number 10 (the Scouts' wide receiver) towards the school gym. Finally, we reach the sanctum of a clean restroom; and none too soon.

While she sat and playfully sang her version of  "Summertime Sadness," I wandered around the immaculate high school gym, admiring their top-tier equipment and amenities... but then, I saw this:

I was shocked.

Here I am, at one of the top high schools in the country, in the part of the school where they focus on teaching young people about health and fitness, and the almost-empty vending machine is almost all junk food. With all of the talk over the past ten years about child obesity and educating the youth on making healthy food decisions, how is this even possible? It is so counterproductive for government entities like schools to promote junk food and make it so easily accessible to children while other government entities are investing billions in healthcare and health education focused on choosing healthful foods and making healthy lifestyle choices. I can't believe that healthy vending isn't more of a priority for U.S. schools, especially for a school that prides itself on its commitment to wellness.

This is not over.

I got so worked up, I'm going to look into what the disconnect is, and see what we can do to fix this. Sorry Snickers.

Business Card Icons

I'm designing new business cards, and wasn't super excited about the vector image icon choices available, so I ended up making these in MS Word. Help yourself.

Why do we love Friday?

1956 Wisc. Badgers Cheerleaders possibly cheering for Friday*

Happy Friday!

After a very informal survey, resulting in not-so-surprising results, most American’s least favorite day of the week is Monday and we strongly favor Saturday. Friday beat out Sunday by a large margin, and Thursday took a close fourth. Chances are your favorite days are Friday and Saturday as well... But why?

Anticipation       

Disclaimer: I’m no scientist, and wanted to write this quick blog post in time to be relevant, so I didn’t do a lot more research, but I believe it is because anticipation of happiness is almost as powerful as the experience of happiness. The converse also applies, perhaps more so.

I mean, if you hate Mondays because of work/school, and love Saturdays because of lack thereof, then it rationally follows that Sundays should yield the same level of happiness as Saturdays. But they don’t for most of us. Friday is also a workday (and often a more demanding workday), and yet, we love Fridays. Some of us even prefer Thursdays to Sundays because the week is almost over.

Your Weekend Homework

Yup, I’d like you to do something over the weekend. I’d like you to take this information to increase your own happiness. Now, Fridays are awesome, and I want to you to continue to love Fridays… that anticipation of future bliss is a valuable tool, which can be applied to many other parts of your life, as well as improving outcomes for your clients**. My advice to you is to nurture anticipation of future happiness while suppressing negative emotions related to future misery. When things are not quite where you want them, look forward to the brighter future and positive outcomes of your work. When all is right with the world, be there in the now. Enjoy your Sunday. Hope for the best, and realistically prepare for the worst without cynically dwelling on it. I promise this will make you happier, healthier, and more productive.

*image used via Creative Commons license, attributed to http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/UW 

**I had a section prepared for how to leverage anticipation of positives for winning more deals and improving customer satisfaction, but decided that subject would be better discussed in its own post. Stay tuned!