Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Beyond Leadership

Beyond Leadership is Horizon Point’s line of resources for managers of people. Managing ourselves is a distinct set of behaviors from managers the work of others, and we are here to help. Read stories in this category if you are ready to take the next step into people leadership (or if you’re looking for articles to send someone else…).

  • Career Development: A Resource For Talent Retention

    Career Development: A Resource For Talent Retention

    Guest blog written by: Steve Graham

    In a recent study, conducted by the Work Institute, career development was identified as the top reason people leave or remain with organizations. In their study titled, 2017 Retention Report, 240,000 employees were interviewed about factors that were most influential in their decision to stay with or leave an organization.

    For decades, organizations that have invested in developing their people also experienced higher market shares and lower turnover than competitors. Despite the positive data to support career development, many organizations continue to fall short.  Lack of growth is a common reason given during exit interviews for leaving. In a study conducted by Empxtrack, reviewing data from over a number of years and involving approximately 52,000 exit interviews, the research identified lack of growth opportunity as the second most given reason for leaving an organization. The study indicated that 22% of job exits were directly related to growth.

    The good news is that with a little more focus on helping people develop their careers, organizations can reduce turnover.  Fears that investing in an employee and then having them leave the organization is one of the most common excuses for not offering training or other development opportunities. The truth is that people will leave anyway, to find an organization that offers them opportunity.  Having a well-trained and engaged workforce does not happen without an emphasis on career development.

    Career development initiatives include: formalized training programs, mentoring, internal coaching opportunities, and other opportunities. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) offers resources in integrating career development within an organization.  According to SHRM, having a designed career development path for employees allows managers to address gaps in training.  This is helpful in preparing people for promotions as well.

    Career development impacts performance. When people feel like their organization cares, and is focused on their development, it creates a deeper level of engagement. This increases the level of commitment on reaching individual and organizational goals.  Helping people become their best can help your organization stand out.  Designing a culture that supports career development also enhances your employer brand.

    Here are some basics steps in creating a career development focus:

    1. Know your people. Take time to learn them as individuals.
    2. Conduct a career path inventory and find out where they want to go.
    3. Use technology to create learning opportunities.
    4. Search for outside assistance and resources.

    Resources include, but are not limited to, workforce development programs, degree programs, mentoring, and career coaching.  The National Career Development Association (NCDA) is a great place to start.  The world of work is changing and organizations need to be in better alignment with the needs of their people. If an organization is not offering career development, people will find it elsewhere. They will seek places of employment that embrace their individuality, interest, and goals.

     

    About the Author: 

    Steve Graham serves as vice president for marketing, HR business partner and college instructor. He holds graduate degrees in management and higher education. As a life-long learner, he has additional graduate and professional education in executive and professional coaching, health care administration and strategic human resource management. Steve is also the Founder and President of Valiant Coaching & Talent Development, LLC.

    He is a certified HR professional with The Society for Human Resource Management, certified coach with the International Coach Federation and a Global Career Development Facilitator. His professional memberships include: The Society for Human Resource Management, the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration, Association for Talent Development and International Coach Federation.

  • 4 Tech Solutions that help you Hire for Fit AND Diversity

    4 Tech Solutions that help you Hire for Fit AND Diversity

    Most people live in an “or” world.   Whether we like it or not, we think in terms of always having to choose between two or more options or paths, rather than thinking in terms of “and”.      

    I was reminded of this when hearing the CFO of Eli Lilly, Derica Rice, speak to a group of college students who have received scholarships he and his wife fund. He told them that he always thought in terms of “or”.  I can have this career “or” that, but not both.  I can have this life “or” this one, but not both.  But one day, he said, his wife told him that he had earned the right to live and think in an “and” world.   

    This is a powerful message to us all, particularly to the minority students he is seeking to help.  I’ve found that it is also helpful to extend his point in inspiring diversity to the need to hire for both diversity AND fit.  

    And technology can actually help live in an “and” world when it comes to hiring for diversity and fit instead of relying on human, subjective judgments.

    Here are four tech companies that are doing just this:

    BLENDOOR  Using technology, Blendoor hides data that’s not relevant (for example name, graduation year and photos) and highlights data that is in order to reduce unconscious bias.

    You can view a video that explains their merit based hiring here.

    TEXTIO– With a slogan that reads, “In hiring, every word counts,” Textio focuses on helping companies write the best job postings.   In doing this, better word choice leads to more applicants, and more diverse ones at that. In particular, the company touts a 23% increase in women applicants.

    This graphic on their website says it all.

     

     

    PYROMETRICS–  Founded by a Harvard and MIT PhD in a Neuroscience team,  the company uses gamification, machine learning & artificial intelligence and unbiased algorithms to match potential employees with employers.  

    You can request a whitepaper from them on gender equality related to the science they use at the bottom of this page.

    HireVue.  When I first heard about HireVue, I thought their key value proposition was to reduce recruiter time in hiring, in particular interviewing.  Upon learning more, I realized they are also helping to reduce bias in hiring by using data (according to their speaker at HRTech, a 15 minute interview generates more than 25,000 data points) to identify best-fit for companies.

    You can read more about how using their (and Pyrometric’s) artificial intelligence helped Unilever increase their diversity hires by 16% (among other positive outcomes) here.

    Choose to live in an “and” world and the possibilities for solving problems are endless.

     

    How do you kill two birds with one stone by thinking “and” instead of “or”?

     

    Like this post, you may also like:

    You can hire for fit AND diversity: How the most innovative companies hire right

    Diversity and Inclusion in My Eyes and in the Eyes of My Children 

    What is Diversity and Why Does It Matter? 

    3 Ways to Embrace Diversity and Inclusion in Career Development

    Creating Community in Your Organization 

  • 3 ways to embrace Diversity & Inclusion in Career Development

    3 ways to embrace Diversity & Inclusion in Career Development

    Working in career development, I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to work with individuals from all over the U.S., and I occasionally have clients that live or have lived abroad. It is eye opening to see how different cultures and areas of the country approach career planning. Embracing diversity and inclusion is important for job seekers, employers and career practitioners.

    Here are 3 ways to embrace Diversity and Inclusion:

    1. Job Seekers – Seek out companies that are searching for candidates based on culture fit. You can often recognize these organizations because their culture is evident in their marketing, mission statement and by their selection process. Look for companies who offer realistic job previews and/or have applicants complete a pre-screening assessment; these are often predictors of organizations who prioritize diversity and inclusion.
    2. Employers – Employers should make diversity and inclusion a priority by ensuring employees and potential employees know they work to make sure the right people are in the right seats on the bus. They seek candidates who bring something to the table that others in the organization do not. This practice, in and of itself, will allow for diversity. In addition, companies who offer training in diversity and inclusion often prioritize the practice.
    3. Career Practitioners – In our work to help others find employment or make employment changes, we should be abreast of diversity and inclusion efforts. And, we should work to be inclusive of the clients and students we work with. In the Facilitating Career Development course we offer with Horizon Point, we discuss helping skills and their importance in working with individuals who are different than we are. Having knowledge of cultural diversity is also important; this is also a key component in Horizon Point’s course (NCDA approved). For more information or if you would like to register for the course, click here.

    For more information on Diversity and Inclusion in relation to Career Development, check out these articles:

    Building a Culture of Diversity and Inclusion in Career Services

    Creating a Culture of Diversity and Inclusion: Start with Small Wins

  • Laughter is the Best Gift You Can Give

    Laughter is the Best Gift You Can Give

    Returning home from the HR Tech Conference proved to be a challenge when it came to weighing our bags. One bag weighed too much.  How did this happen?  It wasn’t that way coming.

    It was all the swag from vendors!

    I was impressed by the vendors’ creativity in designing their gifts. I didn’t even have to buy a souvenir for my kids. I snagged a backpack for my son, nail polish (bright purple and pink, no less) for my daughter and a coloring book and colored pencils for them both.

    I got a monogrammed luggage tag for me, a personalized t-shirt that states “HR Llama Don’t Want No Drama” with a cool looking llama on it, two mini bottles of champagne, two cool water bottles and the customary hugger for my husband. Why he loves to collect those things, I don’t know.

    But, by far, the best gift was at the Globoforce booth. I like their mission and mindset anyway, so I was planning to stop by their booth regardless. But their marketing took the cake.

    Basically, the way their prize worked was that two young and lively staff members where there encouraging you to spin a large wheel. There was only one actual prize on the wheel which was a paid trip to the Work Human Conference. The rest were phrases that described things that could go on in a typical workplace. They asked me a series of engaging questions to get to know my workplace, then asked me to spin the wheel.

    I missed the conference trip by one tick, but what I got was an improv skit from the two staffers based on the information they got from me and where the wheel landed.  IT WAS HYSTERICAL!

    It was more memorable and a lot lighter (pun intended) than anything I took away from other vendors.   Which would lead me to use them before I used any other vendor in their space.

    Laughter really is the best gift.  Especially when it’s so on point with your mission to make the workplace more human.

    Kudos Globoforce.

     

    What do you do to make your workplace more human?

  • What is Diversity and Why Does it Matter?

    What is Diversity and Why Does it Matter?

    I distinctly remember the first time I knew I lived in a bubble.   I was 17- a junior in high school.  I had two elective slots open.  For one, I decided to be a science lab assistant that didn’t require much work.  This allowed me to walk across the street one day a week to spend time with an at-risk elementary student as her mentor.

    Up until that point in my life, I thought most people lived like me.  Some had more and some had less but I didn’t think there were drastic differences.  As I got to know this little girl and hear her story, I realized I was wrong.  Dead wrong.

    She and her brother had been shuffled from home to home, with no one really providing for them.   She didn’t know where her next meal would come from and who would (or wouldn’t) be picking her up from school and where she would sleep most nights.

    That same year, I also had a period of my schedule where I was an aide in the developmental wing of our high school.  I spent time with students around my age with varying degrees of cognitive and physical disabilities.

    This was the beginning of the realization that not everyone’s world, even if we were occupying the same physical space, was the same as the world I was in.

    With a large focus on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, my realization that I lived in a bubble helps to illustrate that diversity and inclusion aren’t just about your Title VII criteria and other subsequent legislative catagories- sex, race, color, national origin, religion,  age and sexual orientation.

    Diversity and inclusion aren’t about discrimination. It’s about creating an environment in work and in life that proves it is valuable to be around people who are different from us. This value is added through perspective and leads to business results.

    So when you think about your workplace (and life), do you have diversity and are you open to the perspectives around multiple criteria of diversity?

    Does it include diversity in:

    1. Demographics- Title IX criteria such as sex (and sexual orientation), race, color, national origin (I would also add geographic diversity- I’ve learned a lot from people who grew up in a different part of the United States than I have), and religion.
    2. Age
    3. Cognitive Diversity including things that many would label as “disabilities” like Autism, Asperger’s, etc.
    4. Physical Diversity including things that many would also label as “disabilities” tied to physical limitations- blind, deaf, paraplegic individuals, etc.
    5. Personality Diversity
    6. Socio-Economic Diversity
    7. Political Diversity
    8. Diversity of Experiences

    A lot of these areas of diversity can’t be seen.  They come with being heard.

    As a business leader, I’d encourage you to use the Privilege Walk  to begin the conversation of allowing a variety of areas of diversity to be seen (by the positions people end up in on the walk) and then be heard by facilitating a discussion around it.

    Because “companies with inclusive talent practices in hiring, promotion, development, leadership and team management generate up to 30% higher revenue per employee and greater profitability than their competitors.” Source here.

    I read To Kill A Mockingbird in High School too.  I was 15.  But it wasn’t until I was 17, walking into that little girl’s current front yard to take her to dinner that I realized I just learned what Atticus Finch meant, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

    Climb into someone else’s shoes today.  You’ll add more value if you do.

     

    Interested in learning more about diversity and inclusion? Join Mary Ila at SHRM’s Diversity and Inclusion conference as she tackles the topic of hiring for fit AND diversity.

    See session information here.