Monday, 24 March 2014 00:34
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By Bruncha Milaszewski, MA CMF CGTP
Are HR managers responsible for poor selection and performance of candidates in a company? What is the responsibility of HR manager?
Ensuring the recruitment and selection of appropriate candidates has to be a shared responsibility of senior leadership, line managers and HR. Senior leaders need to set the tone and values of the organisation eg: establishing a performance-based culture, and one that engenders collaboration and trust. Then they must walk the talk.
They need to avoid nepotism and narrow hiring practices and empower line managers to develop job specifications with rigor. Further, senior leaders need to top talent has expectations for competitive remuneration and a reasonable approach to benefits and work-life balance.
Line managers need to clearly articulate the competencies required for the job and at what level and communicate this in an effective manner to HR. Know what you need, why you need it and spell out the criteria for best fit.
HR staff needs to participate in the process providing insight and tools that define best practice. Further HR staff need to be sure that they develop policy and procedures that facilitate the acquisition of talent in an efficient and timely manner - not create “paper bureaucracies”.
What’s needed is a shared vision, a collaborative approach and a move away from reinforcing the need to assign blame. Blame is not solutions oriented.
Everyone must let the real business needs of the organisation drive the decision making and behaviour of all involved. Want to bring out the best talent in your employees and colleagues? Take three words to heart: praise, raise, and amaze.
Praise
There’s no feedback as welcome as positive feedback, and the closer you deliver feedback to the action that warranted it, the more effective and memorable. Try this: run up to a colleague right after a presentation and say: “That was fantastic! I especially liked it when you…………...”
The faster and more specific you are with praise, the more impact it will have. In this way, the person can process your feedback at the very same moment they are processing the feeling of doing what you are praising.
Likewise, when someone sends me something they have written, I try to respond as quickly as possible; the longer I take, the less they think I care.
Raise
Once you assume responsibility for fostering talent, you have an obligation to clear a path for the growth of others. This is a complicated role, but to generalise it entails a variety of actions that reduce friction as each person seeks to raise themselves up in career terms.
For those who lack confidence, you must help them develop it over time. You must also help them summon the courage to take risks, perhaps before they are totally comfortable.
For those brimming over with confidence, you must find safe ways to expose them to the realities of what they face ahead. Don’t let an overconfident colleague get crushed; instead, provide them with a realistic glimpse of the challenges ahead, so their competence can keep up with their confidence.
For all, your challenge is to provide opportunities for meaningful growth. Nothing stifles talent more than the perceived lack of opportunity.
Amaze
There are few truisms I like more than: great managers bring ordinary people together to do amazing things.
If you can amaze people at the results they produce, you can bring out talents they never suspected they had. The best way to do this is to bring them together behind a common goal, and to ensure that all recognise their strength lies in their diversity.
We are not employees, managers, owners or executives. We are human beings with an endless variety of strengths and weaknesses. No one - including you - knows what is possible, so do whatever you can to open the door to amazing possibilities.
