By Adrian Low, Managing Partner HRINC 

Most of the job advertisements I see posted on job sites are the result of human resource departments going through the motions of posting the job description, and the process of how to apply.

If your organisation truly wants to attract the best possible talent, then you need to spend some time learning from the marketing department.

Your company, and your vacancy is a product. You need to appeal to your target market. You need to understand your customer..... What are they looking for, and what do you have to offer? The technical term is employee value proposition or more simply put, “why should you work for us?” 

If you are a small company, don't try and sell yourself like the big guys. Focus on the fact that it is an opportunity to grow with the company, an opportunity to make a difference, or small family environment. There are many people that would rather work alongside the owner of the business, and get involved, than being one of a large team. You need to find what is great about your company and tell them.

If you offer market leading salary, then great, let them know. If you don't offer the highest salary, but offer flexible schedule, an excellent training program, childcare, convenient location etc., then shout it in your advertisements. If your product or company has a social impact, then appeal to those wanting to make a difference, not those seeking a salary.

If you can't answer the question - Why should someone come and work for us? then you will have serious problems attracting the people you want. If you are engaging a recruitment agency to assist with your recruitment, you should ensure that they know the answer to that question too.

Why should I follow you? This is a very confronting question for many managers and leaders. Your team may not ask you this question directly, but it is a question they will be asking themselves.

If you ask a group of managers and leaders this question, you may end up with a lot of blank faces, or an even scarier response would be "because I am the boss".

One key characteristic of a good leader is Self-awareness. To know who you are, what you are trying to achieve and how you are going to do it. To effectively lead others it is important to understand your own strengths, weaknesses, values, management style, communication style and vision. It is also important to understand how others see you. The way we see ourselves is often very different to the way others see us.  

I have been fortunate enough to be part of several organisations that understand that leaders need to develop their own self-awareness, and through that process, understand others better. I have seen many people grow in confidence, and become much better managers, leaders and team players in the process.  

The process of self-awareness can take many forms. Some may prefer hours of unguided self-reflection, though most people would benefit from some practical tools and exercises to start the process. Some of the tools you can use to understand your leadership style better include:

1. Research and understand the various types of influence you can use to lead, and your preference for each type. Authority, expertise, relationship, information, reward and punishment. Know which type of influence you have, when to use it, and which you may need to develop.
2. Find out what your preferred learning style is, and understand that others learn differently (you can find learning styles questionnaires on the internet). We all learn differently, and understanding the way you take in information can help others communicate with you better, while also gaining a greater understand how others take in information.
3. Feedback from your team. Getting honest feedback can be difficult, but asking for regular feedback on your communications, actions and management style can give you valuable information on how to improve.
4. Learn about various delegation and management styles including: Autocratic, empathetic, democratic, laissez-faire, transactional. Understand your preferred style and the benefits of each style.  
5. Psychometric assessments. There are a lot of psychometric assessments available, including Myers Briggs (MBTI). These assessments can give you excellent insight in to your personality and preferences, giving you a deeper understanding of your thought processes.
6. Understand your own values. Take the time to list the attitudes and values you believe in. Let your team know your values, and clearly communicate your expectations. Demonstrate your values in all of your dealings.

The journey of self-awareness as a leader is not only learning about yourself, your preferences and your style. It is about understanding the preferences and styles of others. A broader understanding of our differences, and a better understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses, will help you get the best out of you and your team. 

Once you understand your strengths, your vision, values and management style, perhaps then you will be able to answer the question - Why should I follow you?

Unless you are employing robots, hiring new staff is rarely as easy as ticking off a list of pre-defined specifications. People are complicated. Teams are complicated. Company culture is complicated.

Many large companies use structured recruitment process that require a systematic way of measuring each candidate against a list of pre-defined criteria. Many smaller companies often work on an informal approach focusing on "fit" or "gut feeling" when it comes to choosing new team members. Effective recruitment and interviewing falls somewhere in between.

The science: Identifying the key skills, develop accurate job description, identify required experience and qualifications. This is where automated short-listing comes in. This process can reduce the time for shortlisting significantly. The downside of strict criteria is that often you will miss amazing people that don't quite match the specifications, or would be suitable for other roles in your organisation.

A structured interview process including a set list of questions, panel interviews, written selection criteria are also used to ensure the application process is fair for everyone. This process assists interviewers to ask a set number of questions and compare based on those questions, simplifying the process and making all interview uniform.

Both of these processes are helpful to ensure candidates have the basic qualifications, skills and experience, but the structured process itself does not always find the candidate with the best "fit" for a company.

The Art: The art of an interview falls somewhere between our conscious and unconscious minds. Our unconscious mind is trained to make judgements without us being aware of it. Every person we meet, we make judgements about them within seconds of meeting them, or even just seeing them from across the street. We make these judgements based on a life time of experience and influence.

An experienced and trained interviewer learns to understand their conscious and unconscious biases, giving ability to see through first impressions. They can guide questions to dig deep in to the thought process and motivations of a candidate, explore other areas of experience, and assess someone not just on set criteria, but on hundreds of other more subtle clues that can identify the best "fit" for a position.

People are complicated and we all judge people on a huge number of criteria in just a few minutes. You make conscious and subconscious judgements about presentation, personality, voice, eye contact, confidence, humour, likeability, height, weight, age, nationality, speech, how they talk about other people and companies, challenges and motivations. We judge body language, as it can be contrary to what is said, it can be positive or defensive. Interviewers judge facial expressions and many other clues to assess the quality of the candidate and the truth of their answers.

The Romance: If you are a line manager, and you are going to spend 40-50 hours a week with the person you are going to hire, then you are probably spending a lot more time with that person than your spouse, children or friends.

You don't find a new husband or wife with a checklist. Choosing a new team member is not just about the skills.

In most cases of wrong-hire, it is not the skills, qualifications or experience that were to blame. It is most often issues between people. It is about relationships. It is important that those you chose to join the team, fit with the company culture and ethics. You must find those that can work together towards a common goal. It helps if you like the people you are working with, though being best friends is not essential (and sometimes a negative). The most important thing is that both trust and respect can be achieved.

Many experienced recruiters have developed an excellent "feel" for the interview process. It is a skill, and over time you learn to trust your instincts as well as the structured process. Over the years I would have interviewed thousands of people from all levels of organisations. With that type of database to make comparisons, a recruiter gains great confidence in their ability to identify strengths, weaknesses, relative quality compared to the market and potential issues with candidates. I always tell my recruitment teams that until they have interviewed between 200-500 people from one industry, they don't truly understand the quality of the person they are interviewing in comparison with other professionals in the market. 

The interview is a powerful tool in the recruitment process if it is conducted by an experienced professional. The interview process can also be a complete waste of time if conducted poorly.

If your line managers are conducting interviews for key staff, I would highly recommend they learn about their own decision making process, conduct interviews with experienced internal recruiters, or with a recruitment industry professional.  

To get the best results out of the recruitment process you must find the balance between Art, Science and Romance.

What is employee engagement?

We should first start with what it isn't. Employee engagement is NOT about your employees being happy. It is NOT about employees being satisfied. Employee engagement is about employees being committed to achieving the goals of an organisation.

Full engagement happens when a company’s values, goals and strategies align with values goals and strategy of the individual.

I am not saying the if the company wants to sell 1000 000 boxes per year, that the goal of the individual must be to sell 1000 000 boxes per year..... The company wants to employ people that are willing to learn, work hard so they can work their way up to management position to help the business to implement their overall business strategy. The individual wants to learn, work hard so they can get promotions, increase salary and work their way to a more senior position. Both the organisation and individual are reaching their goals. 

For commitment or engagement to be sustained, there must be alignment between organisational goals and personal goals. It must be Win-Win.

Below is a simple way to describe the four type’s engagement levels. You will most likely have all four types of people in your organisation.

• Satisfied - Contributing (happy and productive) Engaged
• Not satisfied - Contributing (Productive, but not happy) Can burn out or leave due to under appreciation
• Satisfied - Not contributing (Happy but not productive) Will continue to work with you, but are not focused on helping the company
• Not satisfied - Not contributing (Not happy and not productive) Will either leave, or stay and drain your resources

Why do we want engaged employees?

Engaged employees give what is called "discretionary effort" Effort that is above and the level required to fulfil the job description. Engaged employees:

• Give better service
• Are more productive
• Are more willing to learn and improve
• Make more sales / make less mistakes
• Are more likely to identify areas of organisational improvement
• Enjoy their work more
• Are focused on achieving company goals

Engaged employees are great. Every organisation should have them. Unfortunately you can't just go and buy some engaged employees and put them in your office. Engagement requires a company to address many different personal needs of each individual.

Here are 8 key factors impacting employee engagement.

1. Quality of management / leadership
2. Development and promotion opportunities
3. Total pay and benefits
4. Clearly defined goals / alignment and buy-in to those goals
5. KPI's, measurements of success and feedback
6. Culture and team environment
7. Resources to complete the task (including systems, procedures, policies)
8. Autonomy to make decisions / control over their work

What happens when one factor is missing?

1. Quality of managers and leaders: The quality of the leader is the single biggest factor. A poor leader can have a negative impact on many of the other key factors. The person with the biggest impact on employee engagement is their direct supervisor.
2. Development and promotion opportunities: With poor development, employees may feel that they are not competent to do their job, or feel unsupported. Without further training, and promotion opportunity, they may not see a future with the company and start looking at other options for further progression.
3. Total pay and benefits: If you are not meeting market rates or employee expectations, they may feel undervalued by the company.
4. Clear goals / aligned goals: unclear goals can result in unfocused work and wasted effort. Non-aligned goals mean that the employee’s goals are not being achieved through their work, and may direct their time to other projects.
5. Key Performance Indicators / Feedback: If an employee doesn't know how you are going to measure success, then they don't know if they are doing a good job, or can be unsure where to focus their efforts. Good employees may feel like they are underperforming, and poor employees may think they are doing a great job. If there is no feedback or measurable performance indicators, individuals can't measure their success.
6. Team and Culture: A poor manager, or poor teamwork and culture can make good employees feel like they don't fit in. It is human nature to be want to be accepted and liked. Create a strong team spirit, and employees will feel less like an employee and more like family.
7. Resources, policies, systems: Without the appropriate resources to complete their job, employees will feel frustrated or confused.
8. Autonomy: Another basic human need is to feel like you are in control. Without some level of autonomy, an employee may feel like they are micro-managed, or that they don't have control over their own performance.

Maintaining Engagement

1. Review your systems and procedures against the 8 key factors outlined
2. Ensure organizational goals are set and regularly communicated
3. Develop your supervisors, leaders to understand what motivates their team, and manage expectations in the context of your organisation. Leadership is key.
4. Managers conduct regular reviews with team members to understand any missing factors for each individual, and to understand their goals, as individuals often change their goals over time. 

People are complicated. Even though you will never be able to fully engage every person in your organization, it is vital that you are consistently working toward providing an environment that encourages maximum engagement and focusing on Win-Win for employees and the organisation.

Who is responsible for Employee Engagement?

To achieve high levels of employee engagement you require commitment from all levels of management. Senior management, human resource departments, and frontline managers are all responsible for driving the engagement of staff.