Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Beyond Work

Beyond Work is our line of resources for people and community leaders looking for something new and innovative outside, be it a new job, career change, or personal development outside of work.

  • 4 Ways to Take LinkedIn to the Next Level

    4 Ways to Take LinkedIn to the Next Level

    You’ve gotten a LinkedIn account set up, created a stand-out profile, built your network and have started searching for jobs.  Now what?

    Ideally your job search should lead to people seeking you out instead of you having to search and apply for openings.  This is done by creating a stellar profile and maintaining a personal brand that is consistent with your career goals.   Be active in your use of LinkedIn so that people will come to you.

    1. Manage your Skills & Endorsements to ensure the ones you want to be known for are seen (How to reorderthem)
    2. Get Active with Groups
    3. Get Active with Recommendation
    4. Be a Content Driver

    Have you taken your use of LinkedIn to the next level?  If so, what results have you seen?

  • 3 Steps to Get Your LinkedIn Profile Job Search Ready

    3 Steps to Get Your LinkedIn Profile Job Search Ready

    Ready to start a job search?  Know you need to have a presence on LinkedIn and other social media channels but don’t know where to start?  If you have no idea what LinkedIn is or don’t know where to start to create an account or profile, the first three levels of the LinkedIn plan below can get you well on your way to active social media networking and job search.

    Level 1: Getting Started

    Level 2:  Build your Network

    LinkedIn uses an algorithm for search results that is impacted by the number of connections you have.  Therefore, it is critical to build your connections.  If your profile is good to go, then the next best investment of your time is to grow your network.

    • Send out invitations to connect  (the link describes a variety of methods to connect) with those you know by customizing your invitation to them.
    • Aim to make at least 500 connections.   Create a timeline to manage growing to this number.
    • Endorse your connections. Create a strategy for endorsing 10-20 people at least once a week.  Endorse those skills that you know the person has, don’t just blanket endorse others.
    • Request to connect to 2nd and 3rd degree contacts with introductions.  You have five available introductions at one time.
    • Accept invitations of people you know or have an indirect connection
    • What are groups?
    • Aim to join 10-15 groups
    • Target, search and join groups by:
      • Industry
      • College Alumni
      • Company/Business
      • Conferences
      • Trade Organizations
      • Nonprofit groups
    • Search for Job Openings

    Level 3:  Get Active in your job search

    Once you have your profile in tip-top shape and a growing network to tap into, you can search and apply for openings through LinkedIn.

    How are you utlizing LinkedIn to maximize your job search?

  • No Rules, Just Shoes for Sensitivity Training

    No Rules, Just Shoes for Sensitivity Training

    One of our favorite clients requested that we come in and conduct “sensitivity training” for employees.   According to Wikipedia, sensitivity training “is a form of training with the goal of making people more aware of their own prejudices and more sensitive to others.”  The client wanted to make sure that employees understood how to conduct themselves around each other and customers and to understand the legal standards around discrimination.

    Of course, we at Horizon Point aren’t very good at conducting your standard, run-of-the-mill employee training that revolves around an instructor standing at the front of the room telling you what you should and shouldn’t do.  Number one, that’s just plain boring, and number two, this kind of training doesn’t lead to changed and improved behavior on the job.

    So we shook it up a bit, and after getting groups in the class to research and explain with examples what legislation such as Title VII of Civil Rights Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, Sexual Harassment Law, and The Age in Employment Discrimination Act, our theme for the training became:

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    When it comes to knowing how to interact with others in the workplace, the legislation that surrounds this dynamic can become overwhelming.  Overwhelming to the point that it inhibits your ability to accomplish anything for fear of doing something wrong.

    The challenge of our “Beyond Talent” approach to “Sensitivity Training” is to simplify it.    And quite simply, you simplify how to interact with others by taking a walk around in their shoes before saying or doing something.  Throw the law or rule books out the window and challenge people to get to know people who are different than they are and try their “shoes” on for size.   By doing this, nine times out of ten you’ll act in a way that won’t ever get you in legal hot water, but more importantly, this way will build more engaged and productive workplaces because people are treated with respect and valued for who they are and what they contribute to the team.

    Have you ever been thorough a sensitivity training?  What was the best take away?

  • Throwing compensation structure out the window

    I’m going to contradict myself (again). I seem to do this a lot, outlining a way to be process oriented by designing a traditional talent management program.  We’ve done this over the last couple of weeks by describing how to do job analysis, job descriptions and design a compensation plan. 

    But the key to knowing how to design any talent management program is to know yourself, or rather know your company. For mid to large companies, having job descriptions and a wage structure to define how you compensate people is more than likely completely necessary. It keeps things consistent, fair and easier to administer. 

    However, in a world where jobs are constantly changing and therefore the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to define jobs are also constantly changing, defining a job based on hard and fast definitions and then trying to recruit and retain employees based on these hard a fasts may be a tremendous challenge.

    Another approach

    Instead of defining a job and recruiting to that description, find the superstars, those who know how to constantly learn and adapt in a fast-paced world, and hire them, then define the job around them. Pay them what they demand (the superstars know how much they are worth) and then temper their demands with a structure that incentivizes results your company needs them to achieve. 

    Notice this doesn’t mean ever defining the job, but it does mean that you may do it after you make the hire. We’re pretty adamant about defining the job through the behaviors you want people to exhibit and the results you want them to achieve in order to measure and reward performance. 

    We’re in the process as a small company of doing this now. A compensation structure is not what we need to recruit and retain people at this time. What we need is a superstar or two that understands the core of what we do (career development and talent management) and has experience in it, reflects our company values, and is motivated by achieving the results we need achieved.

    One day we may need a defined compensation structure, but right now it isn’t what we need, so we aren’t going to try to cram ourselves into a traditional process that may inhibit our ability to recruit and retain talent. Your company, on the other hand, may need to structure in order to recruit and retain talent. Realizing the outcome we all want is great talent that stays doesn’t mean we all get to that end result the same way.  

    What processes (or unprocesses) do you have in place to make sure you get the talent you need?

  • Want to keep great employees? Know how to compensate them.

    Want to keep great employees? Know how to compensate them.

    We’re working on a compensation project now with a company to redesign their exempt salary structure. When thinking about how to best design a system, it’s important to realize there are two key factors: 

    Internal Equity– Are you paying people fairly compared to what other people within the organization are making based on the knowledge, skills and abilities required for each role? 

    External Competitiveness– Are you paying what the market demands for certain knowledge, skills and abilities required for each role in order to recruit and retain people?

    Basic steps to consider when designing a compensation structure: 

    You gotta do a job description. In considering the factors of internal equity and external competitiveness, both of these hinge on knowing the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for the jobs in which we you trying to define a compensation structure.  Read more about performing job analysis and what a job description needs here (link back to previous post). 

    Get market data.  For external equity, you need to know what the market pays for the jobs you have.   

    Some sources for market data: 

    Career One Stop

    Salary.com

    Salary Expert

    BLS

    Define compensable factors. Compensable factors are based on what the organization places a value on (internal equity) in order to differentiate the value of roles.  For example, education is a compensable factor.  In general, positions that require a bachelors degree have a higher value placed on them than those that only require a high school diploma.

     

    Create the structure. Creating the structure takes the information defined in the previous steps to create salary grades and ranges. Grades are the hierarchy of the salary structure (grouped by jobs with relative worth) and ranges are the minimum and maximum established within grades. Using compensable factors for each job, you will then place each job into the appropriate salary grade.  

    Create a Salary Administration Manual. In order to make sure that the structure you created is implemented appropriately, a salary administration manual needs to be created.  The manual should include a description of the newly created structure, administrative procedures governing the structure and guidelines for annual salary increases. In addition, it should contain ways to keep the program up-to-date through a periodic systematic review of the structure.

    Designing and creating a compensation system seems like a daunting task. But if you take things step-by-step, you’ll see that it can be manageable. More importantly, if done correctly it can add tremendous value to your organization by helping you recruit, retain and reward talent appropriately.