Finding, hiring and engaging great people for growing Kiwi businesses
For every growing business the success of their business depends on great people. It is daunting reading for any business owner in New Zealand when headlines are flooded with the challenges of attracting and retaining talent.
- Unemployment at a record low of 3.4%
- Zero immigration
- High job postings
If that wasn’t enough, we see coming out of the USA, the concept of the ‘great resignation’, an unprecedented wave of Americans who have quit their jobs in recent months (over August and September 8.7 million Americans walked out on their roles).
The great resignation or the great reshuffle?
Changing the narrative though is the likes of LinkedIn’s CEO Ryan Rolansky, who believes what is taking place is instead the great reshuffle, that the bulk of our current workforce of millennials and Gen Z (between 50-80%) are making moves based on seeking greater fulfillment and purpose in their roles.
And this is very good news for small to mid sized growth businesses.
Recently Sprout led a discussion on this topic with business owners from both the NZ Leaders and Connector North Harbour communities in the following areas:
- Being found as a business by potential applicants
- Being attractive as a business an employer of choice
- Engaging your people
What came out of this conversation and out of our research were some key areas which was linked to our research on both what small businesses are able to offer and those that are Gen Z (born 1980) and younger are seeking.
Great ideas and conversation came out of the session, sharing with you, the top 5 from the day are:
1. Purpose
Purpose has moved beyond a buzzword, perhaps best summed up by one of the business owners:
Know what you stand for and ensure your team to contribute to this, to achieve something beyond the tasks in their day to day job, is much more powerful. Think strongly about your daily messaging around the larger purpose everyday, versus focusing on the daily tasks.
2. Truly care
A big advantage small business owners have over larger businesses, is that you can create bespoke benefits and recognise people in your team as individuals.
Through the discussion, we heard great examples of business owners who have hired cleaners for team members that are stretched, allowed greater flexibility, taking a genuine interest outside or work, dedicating paid company health days and paying people what they are worth before they ask for it.
What stuck with us is the number of times that business owners talked about having their team involved in the direction, strategy and getting their insight. This is smart - the employee market is filled with Gen Z and millennials, but so is the economy.
We have started ‘meet the leader’ type of meetings where we spend time with our team on an individual basis where you can truly get to know the individual, but the team member gets the opportunity to know us, that we are human too and also to understand more about the direction of the business. This has been hugely valuable.
3. Ownership
At Sprout we passionately believe that if you treat your team like business owners, extend trust, provide them with the opportunity to make decisions, manage their own time and think critically about the decisions they are making you will see increased engagement, ownership and accountability. This was summed up well by an initiative one community member put in place:
Increasing the level of trust with our people has helped boost engagement and productivity. We changed the time management system we are using. We have billable hours and we just let that go. We put the trust in the team and they have really taken to it. There have been no downsides.
4. Values
There was a lot of conversation about having meaningful values that actually mean something to the organisation. It was clear that there are those that don’t have values, or they have been created once and put on the wall and not spoken about. However, those that are using the values are able to use them in attracting talent and asking values based questions, having hard conversations using values as the yardstick of behaviour. What stood out to us was one member who spoke about leading from the front with values.
Values are for all of us. Yes, our new people need to live our values from day one. But it starts with me, the business owner and other leaders in our business. If we do not practice what we preach and allow ourselves to be held accountable then the values become worthless. We truly believe that by being a values led business this helps us attract and retain our best people.
5. Remember what it feels like to be on the other side
It has always stuck with me, from research in the ‘future of recruiting’ study that 64% of candidates that have a poor or bad experience will not use your company's products or services ever again. Yet, so often the experience is not good. What was interesting is we heard from more than one business owner, that the catalyst for starting their own business was a poor recruitment experience.
The group spoke about not forgetting what it is like to be on the other side. To take care in the recruitment process, be thorough for both parties, but don’t drag it out unnecessarily.
One business owner spent three months in numerous interviews for a large corporation, conversations very focused on the company, not on the individual. Suffice to say he spent almost as long in the recruitment process as he did in the company.
Key points that we took away were making sure you share on social media what it is like to work for your company, being clear about the process, to not make a hiring decision based on a 15 minute coffee and meeting the team as part of the process.
We particularly liked this mindset:
We move in an agile way in our recruitment. Our candidates are encouraged to interview us more than the other way around. We are aware of this in our communication with them, from the moment they apply, to the moment they sign a letter of offer. Switch the process around. The added benefit is you will see opportunities in your business to improve, evolve and develop that you would not have seen otherwise and you will find great people.
We 100% understand that finding and retaining great people is hard. The fact is, it always is. This is where we need to learn from others to do all we can in this area.
The power of a community
Finally, now more than ever, the discussion highlighted the power of the community, but also the power of the collective. When you open source a current challenge, you get different perspectives and ideas.
Thanks to all the members of NZ Leaders and Connector North Harbour for openly sharing their thoughts and ideas. If you are interested in finding out more about these communities then contact Ben Marris to find out more.
Better together.
