Getting Your Team Ready For The Digital World

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Future-proofing your business is going to be a never-ending task. Technology is conquering the world, and the business landscape is included in that.

Do you still use a ledger for your expense sheets? Likely not. Do you still send written letters to clients? Possibly, but not as often as previously. Do you still hand out flyers to market your business? Probably not. There are many mistakes your company can make, and not acknowledging the digital world is one.

Computers dominate your workplace, not textbooks, right? Right. The internet and digital technology have changed the ways that people conduct business forever. And that’s for the best! There are more ways to complete work and communicate than ever before. Instead of waiting for mail to arrive, messages can be sent and received instantly. Instead of transporting a bag of files around, data can be stored to the cloud and accessed by you from anywhere in the world.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article, Getting Your Team Ready For The Digital World

Photo courtesy of Frederico Cintra

The digital age brings a world of possibilities to you, your workplace and your team.

But where do you start?

It’s important to educate your team on the uses of the internet. Get together and brainstorm the possibilities. Work with your team to find solutions to issues and make sure that from the starting line, you’re all ready to work together.

So, getting your team ready? The first thing you need to identify as a leader is the weaknesses. Are members of your team uncomfortable with digital technology? If so, why? It’s imperative that you help your staff become more comfortable with the use of the internet. This will ensure that no-one is left behind as technology develops and your business relies on the increasing developments of the business world.

Training your staff is essential, even if they are fully knowledgeable about the use of technology in the workplace. Your team shouldn’t just be ready for the increasing use of digital tech, but should be ready for their own futures, and you should be the one to offer them guidance with this! Don’t be afraid of talking to your staff about their career development. This shouldn’t revolve around the future of your business, but should take their own aspirations into consideration. Now, this could involve losing them, but you’ll be doing the right thing for all parties involved and it’s a small risk that you should always be willing to take. Boost the skills of your staff with training courses from someone like Simplilearn and you’ll capture the benefits of the future, today. Get the best out of the digital skills of your staff and boost them when the opportunity arises. This means that you may be able to promote more often from within when vacancies arise, and that’s never not a good thing for your business and its future.

With technology and developments come risks. If your staff aren’t educated about the dangers of the internet, then a wayward download could cause disaster. Secure yourself with a good IT support team and regular system scans with decent anti-virus software and you’ll save yourself from catastrophe. Unleashing an uneducated team onto the internet could spell serious problems for your business.

What’s your workplace communication like right now? Do you all shout at each other from badly laid out desks? It’s time to change that and move away from messy, lengthy email chains that get your team nowhere. Start to utilize software like Slack and Basecamp to get the best out of your team. Both these applications offer a mobile solution to problems that workplace communication presents. You can attach files and minimize the amount of software that your workforce uses to avoid additional confusion.The advantages of this are usually overlooked and having one single platform for multiple, yet linked, subject matter is an an incredible method of increasing the productivity of your workforce. Regarding Basecamp alone, the campfire app within allows you to communicate instantly and in-real time and link to work. This cuts some steps out the process and allows your workflow to be centralized. No more messy communication methods, it’s time to clean up and get everyone moving in the same direction. Slack and Basecamp offer mobile apps, but there are multiple ways to connect when you’re not in the workplace. Whatsapp and Skype enable you to constantly be a presence, no matter where you are, and if your employees need you, they will be able to get hold of you.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article, Getting Your Team Ready For The Digital World

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The cloud is also something that can give your team a boost. Uploading your files to the remote storage solutions offered by Google and Dropbox can give your team so many options. Not only can your data be stored and accessed anywhere in the world that has an internet connection, you can collaborate on your documents with your staff simultaneously. There’s no need anymore for emails with amendments to be fired back and forth. Cloud storage is also a great option for backing up your valuable data.

The benefits of owning a business in the 21st century are fantastic. There are more ways to complete work than ever, there are more ways to collaborate and communicate than ever before. The digital age offers choice and freedom to your business and staff and the cloud allows you to run your business from anywhere in the entire world and even if you want to stay put, you can be totally flexible and mobile thanks to the options presented by the digital age. Answers exist all around for your problems, you only need to search for them.

Just make sure your team are ready for your leap into technology. It’s very easy to allow your staff to become left behind by your own rapid advances. Make sure you schedule time to speak to everyone on your time and take on their advice and concerns. Give them the chance to develop and encourage them to become the best employees they can be, but not just for the sake of your business. Allow them to educate themselves, but don’t be afraid to lead the way. Get your team ready for the digital practices of your business and you’ll have little to regret.

How a Consultant Can Fit Into Your Culture

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Great consultants don’t necessarily want to spend a lot of time talking about theory or generalities, they would rather roll up their sleeves and get into the mix to help you address your project needs and challenges now. That’s what you want to see: candidates that demonstrate how they can add value to the project, and are excited to get started.

Success in bringing in a consultant hinges largely on determining what they know about – and how they might fit into – the company’s culture, along with their soft skills. Hard skills are easy to identify and are part of the consultant’s resume, as well as their experience, accreditations and qualifications. If the manager looks only at hard skills it’s difficult to determine if there is a good fit because they are looking only looking at one dimension, when they really want to look at the full dimension, including the “nuances” of team dynamics and company culture.

Managers don’t get that full dimension until the actual interview process. Treat the interview as a sort of dry run for how the candidate might approach the project. Why not invite them to work with the project team for a day? For instance, have the consultant(s) come in and give them a problem to solve. Put the problem on a whiteboard and observe how they respond. Don’t expect a perfect answer, because they don’t know your business yet, but it’s a great way to see how they think on their feet. If you like the way they think and/or how they problem solve and the questions that they fire back at you, then put them on a 30-day, or even a three-month, contract and get them in the role. Have them start doing the work.

Remember you are not hiring a FTE (full time employee); don’t spend a huge amount of time combing through resumes. A short-term contract can have very clear metrics associated with the role, and if they are not meeting your expectations, have a conversation, determine why it is not working and what should happen to make it work, or move on. Another important aspect of the interview is a determination if cultural fit is there. You have to be clear about your culture, and who would work well with your team and on the project. Is your company community driven? Or, does it have an entrepreneurial spirit? What types of personalities would do well in your shop? Cultural fit works both ways – for yourself and the candidate. Ask if the candidate has previously worked in entrepreneurial environments, and how that worked out. Find out how he or she has performed in a similar culture. Have the candidate give examples of how they have done this job before, either as an FTE or as a contractor, and how they would accomplish the goals in your company within that culture.

Also ask how they deal with ambiguity. For example, the candidate might relate that he or she had to work on a project and was given very little direction, but had to hit a certain metric – and here’s how the situation was handled. This type of interaction gets into real-world scenarios and shows how the candidate performed in that kind of environment. Have the candidate explain how they have done this job before either as a FTE or as a contractor, and how they would accomplish the goals in your company.

Great consultants consistently bring a high energy level to their work and are excited to work on a product or service they love. As you interview, observe their energy, conviction, and acumen.

Here are a few questions to focus on when interviewing:

1. Tell me about your last project and your contribution to its success.

Tip: Follow up by asking the candidate to list the project team on a whiteboard or piece of paper, with a description of their role, who their managers/clients were, and their colleagues. You are looking for past performance, their contributions and consistency. This gives you more information about their role on a team, their collaboration style and possible references in addition to those you previously gathered from the candidate. It’s a good idea to request three examples that illustrate consistency and expertise on the project.

2. Tell me about a time when you failed on a project; what did you learn from that experience?

Tip: You are looking for resilience, adaptability and self-awareness. It may be hard to determine, but you are looking for consultants that see growth as part of their professional life. Are they continuing to seek out new certifications, training and knowledge within their industry?

3. What would your most recent manager/client say that your three key strengths are?

Tip: You are looking for awareness about how others view their strengths, skills and how they work with others. Watch how they respond. If they are evasive, fidgety or talk about how the previous team was difficult to work with, those could be red flags that the candidate has trouble working with others. Also, it might be a sign they are not a team player.

About the Author

Lisa HuffordLisa Hufford is the founder and CEO of Simplicity Consulting, a talent solutions company named to the Inc. 5000 list for five years running as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America. Inc. also named Lisa one of the top 10 female entrepreneurs, and she has been chosen as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Woman. She is the author of the book Navigating the Talent Shift: How to Build On-Demand Teams that Drive Innovation, Control Costs, and Get Results. www.lisahufford.com.

Veterans Among the Best Civilian Leaders

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When it’s time to hire for critical positions within your company, consider the training and certification in military systems offered to service men and women. Always at the forefront of innovation, technologies pioneered by the military are often adopted by the commercial sector; companies looking for cyber knowledge or network engineering skills can find this expertise among veterans.

What’s more, military personnel have soft skills that the private sector also values, problem solving, team building, crisis management, dealing with ambiguity, collaboration, and creative thinking among them. Intensive training and a well-understood chain of command may have instilled in veterans a respect for authority and a commitment to duty, but this was not to the exclusion of their development as leaders.

Extensive assessment data has revealed that learning agility, or the ability to apply past experiences and lessons learned to new situations and first-time challenges, and self-awareness are proven predictors of future success. When agility assessments from transitioning military personnel were analyzed, two-thirds of participants ranked higher in learning agility than their civilian counterparts, many of whom were seen as “high-potentials.”

This finding may come as a surprise to some in the private sector who have the preconceived notion that military members are highly regimented and not creative in their thinking. However, as business leaders who have hired veterans and former military personnel who have successfully transitioned to the private sector can attest, military experience promotes agility.

The ability to adapt and learn in new situations, combined with the dedication, commitment and strong work ethic veterans bring to the table, encouraged Korn Ferry Futurestep to more actively recruit veterans for Talent Academy, an intensive training and onboarding program for recruiters at all levels of the organization. We know the varied backgrounds and experiences of veterans will contribute to each participant’s success and with them onboard we will be better able to support the veteran hiring initiatives of our clients.

While veteran unemployment rates have come down in recent years, numbers for Gulf War Era II veterans (those who left to military after 2001) without a job continues to outpace those for the general population. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for this most recent group of transitioning service members is 5.8 percent while the overall unemployment rate is 4.9 percent.

The discrepancy could be attributed to misconceptions like those mentioned above and to misunderstandings on the part of both veteran and hiring manager. Programs like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “Hire Our Heroes” are needed to help veterans articulate their value proposition using competencies that potential recruiters, hiring managers, and networking contacts understand and embrace. This needs to be supported with well thought out and practiced stories from their service, shared without using any military jargon.

Some organizations are beginning to see the value in veteran recruitment and recognize the importance of tailoring their employer value proposition and brand strategy to them. Businesses with a commitment to hiring former service men and women are attending career fairs dedicated to veterans and building talent communities for veteran candidates. They are developing programs to support a veteran’s re-entry into the civilian workforce, which often include resources for spouses and children.

Attracting former service members is only half the battle. If these men and women don’t feel like a company is talking to them or that the roles are inaccessible to them because their resumes don’t match the job profiles, they will look elsewhere.

Talent acquisition leaders need to help their recruiting teams understand how the traits and experiences of a veteran candidate are applicable to an open requisition. Without this kind of conditioning, recruiters are likely to overlook a veteran candidate when they see, for example, three years of military service instead of three years of pharmaceutical experience on their resume.

It’s time to do away with the notion that transitioning service members are only qualified for entry-level positions or that they are ill-prepared for the ambiguity of Corporate America. As we’ve seen, these men and women possess a great deal of learning agility, an indication that they can adapt quickly in new situations.

As programs work to equip veterans with an understanding of how to navigate the civilian workplace and companies continue tailoring their messaging to this valuable demographic while coaching recruiters on how to interpret a veteran’s resume, these men and women may – finally – become easier to spot.

About the Author

Bill Sebra is Chief Operations Executive at Korn Ferry Futurestep. Click here to learn more about Korn Ferry Futurestep’s in-depth recruiter development program, Talent Academy.

How To Increase Corporate Success With Holistic Wellness

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When workplace wellness programs incorporate holistic approaches, success levels go up, workplace happiness goes up, and the cost incurred by management stays resolutely the same. So what’s the secret?

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About the Author

Dan ColganDan Colgan, CEO of Rock Paper Team, understands the powerful role such activities can have in combating summer burnout. When fighting a losing battle, it’s more important than ever that employers take proactive measures against a predictable dip in productivity.

Recruiting is Broken, Succession Planning is The Future

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Yes, I realize that saying “recruiting is broken” may sound like something Donald Trump would say if he was in the HR business. But as inflammatory as it may sound, it’s true. Think about it. Is your recruiting process delivering, on a regular basis, the top-tier leaders that your company is desperately seeking? Most people that I talk to are telling me “no.” They’re not happy with the results that their recruiters are producing, or at the very least, they’ve come to terms with what their recruiters can realistically produce.

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About the Author

Michael TimmsMichael Timms is a management consultant, author and speaker specializing in organization and leadership performance and the founder and principal of Avail Leadership. Michael is also the author of the new book, Succession Planning That Works. You can learn more about Timms and his book at www.availleadership.com and connect via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.