The Impassioned Workforce

Yesterday I listened to a Harvard Business Review ideacast entitled “What it means to work here” drawn from the March 2007 HBR article. In it, Author and speaker Tammy Erikson discusses the value of creating and nurturing a signature employee experience.

Tammy describes the hiring practices of two organisations, Whole Foods and Goldman Sachs, who each have distinct and deliberate processes to secure a good fit with their existing organisation.

• Whole Foods maintains its team-based collaborative culture by placing new employees on a 4 week probationary period, at the end of which their new team mates decide their fate.
• Goldman Sachs maintains its reputation for top talent by putting potential new hires through many rounds of interviews; sometimes introducing them to as many as 30 members of the firm before a hiring decision is made.

Both of these companies have found a way to build their unique culture into their hiring processes, allowing candidates to self-select the organisation that would suit their temperament.

I think the lesson to be learned here is that differentiation for your brand is crucial, whether your target audience is internal or external. In celebrating and communicating the distinct value proposition that you offer employees, you will attract a workforce that has self-selected your organisation as the ideal place to nurture their gifts and meet their needs financially, emotionally and intellectually.

To understand and communicate your employee brand proposition:

• Speak to existing high performing employees. Find out what attracted them to work with the organisation and what perpetuates the relationship.
• DON’T just speak to long standing employees. Their reason for being may be very different from recent recruits. Ensure that you speak with the highest performers, the ones who have figured out how to be successful in your organisation.
• Speak to recent recruits. Has their experience since joining lived up to the expectations set during the hiring process? Are there any areas where expectations have been exceeded?
• Find out how your employees describe you to friends and family.Perhaps even think about inviting friends and family to comment on what THEY know about you and have learned from their loved ones.
• Ask people what they would tell a new potential hire when asked “what does it mean to work here?”
• Wherever possible – build experiential elements into your hiring process. 

As for this last point – think “The Apprentice”. Donald Trump puts potential new hires through a gruelling multi-week, multi-project selection process, at the end of which candidates know what it would really be like to work for the trump organisation. He truly has created a signature experience!

How do your recruitment processes reflect your brand culture? Are you offering a signature experience that will help new recruits self-select their suitability to adapt and be successful in your environment?