Dear BEM Blog Readers,

On a sunday afternoon it is worth to prepare for the upcoming workweek. What is work anyway? Process, product, service? Yes, one of these but it all comes down to people. It is them who make the product, distribute it sell it and then offer the warranty service. That is why HR department has a very high responsibility: hire top performers. Ok, not all people are perfect and will fit the picture of the „employee of the year„, but you need „A-players” on your team to motivate the average rest.

How and where to find them?

Eric Herrenkohl, author of „How to hire A-players” advises.

In his research Eric found out the most important steps in the hiring process:

1. HR is very much like Marketing and Sales. If you know the rules, they apply to a different demographic (younger people, starting out or moving up in the ranks)

2. Branding, Marketing, Positioning – without these elements, attracting great talent (a-players) will be much harder and sometimes unobtainable

3. Provide opportunities for growth and development – „Under-30s” don’t have a lot on their plate (usually no husband/wife, mortgage to pay) so they make decisions quick, hence their careers are flexible. They then tend to make their career decisions based on emotions and if they don’t find that they can grow within your company/organisation, you will see their back sooner than you know.

4. Use new technologies in your recruiting process – it is affordable, easy to implement and effective. Two examples of that are: social recruitment portals (kind of like facebook for jobs) andonline video interviewing

5. Once you weed out your „A-players”, position them in a spot to motivate others. – if the rest of the team will start to model their work habits, your productivity will blossom

6. Get in front of more people – have lunch with one of your promising execs will ensure he stays with you, that will save you a lot of time and pain in finding the next one.

Noticing the HR conferences, books, podcasts and activity in that sector it is fair to say most professionals forgot to go back to basics: it’s about people, stupid.

In the upcoming week try to spend more time talking to your team. Those additional 20minutes (seemingly time-consuming) will save you more time and effort of hiring than you think.

Krzysztof „Chris” Dargiewicz

USEFUL VOCABULARY:

1.  workweek – tydzień roboczy

2.  to come down to – sprowadzać się do

3.  to fit a picture – pasować do opisu, obrazu

4.  employee of the year – pracownik roku

5.  a-player – czołowy, główny „gracz”

6.  average – przeciętny, średni

7.  demographic – grupa demograficzna, odbiorców

8.  to move up in the ranks – awansować

9.  unobtainable – nieosiągalny

10.  to have a lot on your plate – mieć dużo na głowie

11.  to weed out – przesortować; wyrywać chwasty

12.  to get in front of – stawić czoła, stanąć twarzą do

13.  to go back to basics – powrócić do korzeni, podstaw

14.  upcoming – nadchodzący