Hiring Intelligent Executives

Hiring intelligent executives (IQ, Emotional IQ , and Leadership IQ) is critical to an enterprises success. Here are "The Skills that Make up Executive Intelligence."

by Justin Menkes (from the Harvard Business Review, December 5, 2005)
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/pubitem.jhtml?id=5124&t=operations

Regarding tasks, intelligent leaders:	Regarding people, intelligent leaders:	Regarding themselves, intelligent leaders:
appropriately define a problem and differentiate essential objectives from less-relevant concerns.	recognize the conclusions that can be drawn from a particular exchange.	pursue feedback that may reveal errors in their judgments and make appropriate adjustments.
anticipate obstacles to achieving their objectives and identify sensible means to circumvent them.	recognize the underlying agendas and motivations of individuals and groups involved in a situation.	recognize their personal biases or limitations in perspective and use this understanding to improve their thinking and their action plans.
critically examine the accuracy of underlying assumptions.	anticipate the probable reactions of individuals to actions or communications.	recognize when serious flaws in their ideas or actions require swift public acknowledgment of mistakes and a dramatic change in direction.
articulate the strengths and weaknesses of the suggestions or arguments posed.	accurately identify the core issues and perspectives that are central to a conflict.	appropriately articulate the essential flaws in others' arguments and reiterate the strengths in their own positions.
recognize what is known about an issue, what more needs to be known, and how best to obtain the relevant and accurate information needed.	appropriately consider the probable effects and possible unintended consequences that may result from taking a particular course of action.	recognize when it is appropriate to resist others' objections and remain committed to a sound course of action.
use multiple perspectives to identify probable unintended consequences of various action plans.	acknowledge and balance the different needs of all relevant stakeholders.

Excerpted with permission from "Hiring for Smarts," Harvard Business Review, Vol. 83, No. 11, November 2005.

The Time to Plan for the Coming Skills Shortage is Now

Making the most of a mature workforce Some 64 million baby boomers (over 40 percent of the US labour force) are poised to retire in large numbers by the end of this decade. In industries already facing labour and skills shortages, forward-thinking companies are recruiting, retaining, and developing flexible work-time arrangements and/or phased retirement plans for these workers (55 years of age or older), many of whom have skills that are difficult to replace. Such actions are putting these companies ahead of competitors who view the aging workforce largely as a burden putting strains on pension plans and healthcare costs.

Advanced Screening Tools for Effective Talent Sourcing

Recruiting talent is constantly evolving more sophisticated tools. In this December 2005 Casino Journal article Greg Calvert, the CEO of The Performance Group, and I discuss the impact of pre-hire performance testing in the Casino industry.

http://www.billinman.com/news/Casino%20Journal/Casino%20Journal%20-%20Casino%20Metrics%20Article%20-%20122005.jpg

Are you familiar with the Temporary Staffing industry lingo?

Temp Staffing Lingo

ASA
American Staffing Association

Boutique firms
Firms that specialize in placing candidates for a particular industry or job specialty. This is in contrast to generalist firms that will seek to meet any hiring need that arises.

NAPS
National Association of Personnel Services.

Temps
The word used for temporary employees provided by staffing services.

Long-Term and Contract Help
A staffing firm supplies employees to work on long-term, indefinite assignments. Employees are recruited, screened, and assigned by the staffing firm.

Managed Services
A staffing firm assumes full responsibility for operating a specific customer function (e.g., mail room) on an on-going basis.

Payrolling
The customer recruits workers but asks a staffing firm to hire and assign them to perform services. Or workers currently employed by the customer are placed on the payroll of a staffing firm. Payrolling is distinguished from PEO arrangements in that the workers generally are on temporary assignments and make up a small proportion of the customer's work force.

PEO (Employee Leasing)
A business places all or most of its work force onto the payroll of a staffing firm and the staffing firm assumes responsibility for payroll, benefits, and other human resource functions.

Placement
A staffing firm brings together job seekers and potential employers for the purpose of establishing a "permanent" employment relationship.

Temporary Help
A staffing firm hires its own employees and assigns them to support or supplement a customer's work force in situations involving employee absences, temporary skill shortages, seasonal workloads, and special projects.

Temporary to Hire
A staffing firm employee works for a customer during a trial period in which both the employee and the customer consider establishing a "permanent" employment relationship.

Health Care
Physicians, dentists, nurses, hygienists, medical technicians, therapists, home health aides, custodial care workers, etc.

Industrial
Manual laborers, food handlers, cleaners, assemblers, drivers, tradesmen, machine operators, maintenance workers, etc.

Information Technology
Consultants, analysts, programmers, designers, installers, and other occupations involving computer sciences (hardware or software) or communications technology (Internet, telephony, etc.)

Office–Clerical
Secretaries, general office clerks, receptionists, administrative assistants, word-processing and data entry operators, cashiers, etc.

Professional–Managerial
Accountants, bookkeepers, attorneys, paralegals, middle and senior managers, advertising and marketing executives, and other nontechnical occupations that require higher skill or education levels.

Technical
Engineers, scientists, laboratory technicians, architects, draftsmen, technical writers and illustrators, and other individuals with special skills or training in technical fields involving math or science (not including information technology).

From BuyerZone.com
http://businessweek.buyerzone.com/personnel/temp_staffing/buyers_guide1.html

Workforce Definitions

The vocabulary surrounding the outsourced workforce movement (and how outsourced workers are acquired) is evolving rapidly. Are you familiar with the following terms? If your company is utilizing an increased amount of continent workers (Based on the Staffing Industry Analysts Glossary)

Contingency Placement -- The practice of charging a fee to either the applicant or the employer only after a successful referral of the applicant to the employer for employment. (Compare: Retained Search)

Contingent Workforce -- The group ofconsultants, contractors, temps, and other project based workers that a company employs. Usually these contractors are employed through staffing firms, project-based consulting companies, or through outsourcing.

Just-In-Time Staffing (JIT Staffing) -- A loosely used term that equates "flexible staffing" arrangements with the concept of "just-in-time" inventory control or delivery of parts for a manufacturing process. Rather than carrying inventory (or permanent employees), arrangements are made with a supplier to deliver parts (or help supply workers) just at the time when they are needed in the work process.

Managed Services/Managed Staffing -- Term used to describe facilities support management and outsourcing services. Refers to the on-site supervision or management of a function or department at a client (customer) site on an ongoing, indefinite basis; often the staffing service has output responsibilities and accountability.

Off-Site -- Business services provided for a client (customer) at the service provider's location, not at the client premises.

On-Site -- Vendored or outsourced services provided to the client (customer) at the client site.

On-Site Management -- On-site management of a department or function by the supplier. (See also: Facilities Management, Managed Staffing.)

On-Site Supervision -- On-site supervision by the supplier. (See also: Facilities Staffing.)

Payroll Service -- A business service that provides payroll processing, paycheck writing, and payroll tax administration, for a fee. No co-employer or joint employer relationship exists; it is plainly an administrative function.

Single Source Supplier -- The provision of staffing services employees through a single supplier source.

Strategic Staffing -- The pre-planned use of alternative or flexible staffing strategies by the customer. May include the use of temp-to-perm hiring, or planned temporary staffing for work cycle peaks or projects, for example.

Supplemental Staffing -- The provision of temporary workers to a client company to supplement the current workforce for peak loads, special projects, or planned and unplanned worker absences.

Vendoring -- The provision of business services by an outside supplier (vendor), where the vendor brings its own employees on-site to perform a specific function, such as running a cafeteria or providing security services, or uses its own employees off-site to perform a specific function that was formerly done by the customer.

Vendor On Premises (VOP) -- On-site coordination of a customer's temporary help services through an exclusive, long-term general contractor relationship with a temporary help company. The designated Vendor On Premises may enter into subcontracting relationships with other temporary help suppliers, or the customer may specify such relationships.

Contingent Workforce Security Risks

The contingent workforce (consultants, contractors, temps, and other project based workers) is a rapidly expanding sectors of the U.S. workforce. Growing at 15% annually and comprising over $100 billion in total spend this group is also one of the most prone to security issues. Workplace security has emerged as one of the most serious challenges facing businesses.

70% of corporations carry out minimal background checks on full-time internal candidates and estimates indicate that far fewer companies do any background screening of their contingent workers according to the Society for HR Management.. Since almost 90% of businesses use temporary employees and two million people work each day in temporary positions, the potential threat to U.S. business is substantial.

These threats include:

• Workplace violence
• Workplace harassment
• Theft of or damage to company physical property
• Theft of proprietary or sensitive information and intellectual property
• Employee negligence, misconduct, or fraud

The results of these security risks are significant:

• 25% of workers report they have been attacked, harassed, or threatened in the workplace according to HR.com
• 43% of respondents describe exposed resume exaggerations and falsifications as “significant” to “extremely significant” according to a 1999 corsSurvey on HR issues.
• 6% of the annual revenue for the average company is lost to employee theft according to the ACFE.
• $400 billion annually is accrued in employee fraud costs companies
• Around 20% of U.S. workers have criminal records and 13% of applicants do not disclose their criminal history according to the Department of Justice.
• Another cost of inadequately screening potential employees is legal liability. In so-called “negligent hiring” cases, companies have been found responsible for problems that occur as a direct result of their failure to thoroughly investigate candidates before hiring them.