TM - April 2008 - (Page 12) [letters to the editor] Effective Recruiting I read your editorial about “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” (November 2007) and couldn’t agree more with your premise. I am the director of education, and retention for my 13 people is the highest in the company. It all starts with the philosophy about hiring. I hire for life and when the person is hired, he/she cannot fail, or I have failed him/her. I would never hire a person unless he/she was perfect for the position. Here is our process: • Written job description with specific roles and responsibilities. • Identification of eight essential qualifications necessary to do the job. • Development of an interview guide based upon those qualifications. This is constant for all candidates regardless of their background. • Structured interview with me first. I use a seven-step interview process: 1. Establish rapport. 2. Clear up any red flags. 3. Determine qualifications. 4. Gain a precommitment (only if I want to continue the interview). 5. Describe the position (only if this person is a viable candidate and passes steps 1-4). 6. Gain commitment. 7. Wrap up and end interview. If the person passes this interview process, I send him on to other people in our group for a second interview. If the person passes the interview we invite him/her in for a practicum to show us what they can do. It is usually to develop an activity and leaders guide. We invite several people to be part of the practicum, and we then evaluate the interviewee afterwards with a set criteria. This has been very successful, and we have never hired a person who April 2008 Talent management is about operating efficiently and effectively in an environment, and ultimately, talent management isn’t about competition and market share. has not stayed for at least five years. My average tenure is more than 10 years. I’ve been here 23 years and my senior person, 17 years. Anthony V. Codianni CLO/Director Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc. Irvine, Calif. Engagement Thank you for writing that piece about engagement (“The Engaged Difference: What People Want,” December 2007). You put into words the essence of what’s it like to be engaged in something. This past fall, I managed to become part of a group rescuing a fledging association, and when asked why I volunteer so much of my time, I couldn’t explain it more than, “I’m on a mission to make ” Your article captured all my thoughts, energy and why I am so excited about our relaunch. The other members feel the same way, but we haven’t found the right way to express it beyond catch phrases here and there and maybe an e-mail once in a while. Brilliantly done! Vivian Bringslimark Senior Consultant Parexel Consulting Talent Management Market Share I just read your editorial in the December 2007 issue of Talent Management magazine (got a bit swamped with other things), and while I agree with much of your thinking, and with all the underlying concepts and principles around talent management and its importance, I always get concerned when I read or hear the idea that talent management is about competitive positioning and market share and shareholder value. This is absolutely true in the profit-based world, but it ignores the fact that talent management is just as critical and fundamental in the not-forprofit world. We’d happily reduce our market share here! We have more “customers” than we know what to do with, and given that Fort McMurray, the largest center in our health region, is scheduled to triple in size by around 2015, we’re going to be even more swamped. We’ve got an aging population (although Fort Mac is overall pretty young), one or more pandemics potentially in the future, aging equipment, limited funding — all kinds of factors. Talent management is about operating efficiently and effectively in an environment, and ultimately, talent management isn’t about competition and market share — it’s about quality of patient care and patient safety, about community health and wellness and about quality of life for the people we serve. I know you understand all this all too well, but I worry that when talent management is constantly presented in profit-based terms, it is devalued for those organizations where profit doesn’t come into the picture. Sylvia Lee Manager, Learning & Organizational Development Northern Lights Health Region 12 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com http://www.TalentMgt.com
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