Ascent Solution's Blog

Managing poor performance

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:27:17 +0000

It’s never easy to find yourself in a situation where a member of your staff is underperforming and not hitting targets. There can often be a myriad of reasons behind underperformance, but pulling the situation back from the brink is not something that always happens successfully.

A business (especially in media sales or a similar environment) can never afford to carry people whose performance is below par, but it is always worth trying to pinpoint the reasons behind underperformance and address them – bringing that unproductive member of staff back into the fold and saving you the hassle of recruiting and training a replacement. In addition, you’re also retaining the experience that the member of staff has acquired – and letting people can go can often have an unsettling effect on the rest of the office, whether it is friends of the person who are angry he or she has been shown the door, or the uncertainty that ‘it could be me next’. All in all, it is a situation that must be addressed.

When trying to manage underperformance, there are a few simple, basic steps that can help all parties to quickly come to terms with what is required.

Confirm and clarify the job description
Ensure that the member of staff has been given a clear job description (you’d be amazed how often this fails to happen!) and that they fully understand just what is expected of them, and the tasks they are responsible for.

Discuss the problems – and solutions
The person needs to be told that they are falling short. Give them specific examples of the areas in which they are underperforming, and explain that their performance needs to improve – but that you want them to succeed and will give them the chance to correct the problems.. Agree a sensible timeframe for the improvements to be implemented, and make sure that clear targets and objectives are set.

Support through training and development
If the person appears to be underperforming on a task because they simply don’t know how to do it, ensure they are given access to training. Such training needs to be incorporated into the agreed timescales – if someone is learning something new, you will need to agree extra time for them to get it right, as opposed to situations where the person knows exactly how to perform the task but has not been meeting quality expectations. It may also be that the person is underperforming because of issues away from the workplace – domestic difficulties, for example, or an illness in the family. If this is the case – and remember that you have no right to pry – you must tread carefully and try to ensure that the staff member is aware that you are supportive of them and want them to improve their performance, but that below par performances cannot be tolerated indefinitely. If your company has a counselor, ensure that they are aware of the support that they can draw on as well.

Is the training working?
If training has been implemented, its effectiveness needs to be assessed. Is the information being relayed correctly, and is it being retained by the person being trained? Remember that if training is not working, you need to assess the training itself before automatically assuming that the trainee is incapable of improving!

Review the performance
Once the training has been given, the tasks have been clarified, the expectations have been laid out and the timescale has been agreed, there will come a time to review the situation. Ideally, everything will be fine – the number of calls being made will have reached the required quantity and/or quality and all parties can move forward positively. However, if that is not the case then further action is required. A new timeframe will need to be agreed for improvement, and it will need to be made clear that failure to reach the required standards will result in the a disciplinary procedure. Milestones will need to be set and agreed on.

Manage the disciplinary process
you can’t just sack someone immediately for underperformance – you will need to follow the standard disciplinary procedures of verbal warnings and written warnings before there can be a final warning and ultimately a dismissal if there is no chance of iproved performance. Dismissing a member of staff is obviously the last step, and not something that should be done lightly – always seek advice from an experienced HR professional before proceeding with a dismissal to make sure you have done everything correctly in legal terms and are not leaving yourself or your company open to an unfair dismissal claim.

Voucher companies - flash in the pan, or a game-changer?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:36:17 +0000

Are voucher codes similar to feng shui – ie a complete load of nonsense that will quickly fall from grace? Well, it would seem not, given the floatation valuation of Groupon earlier this year in excess of $20billion. Do I use them to buy my Christmas gifts? Not yet but then I’m not much of a shopper – but I am keen to save money if I can do so.

But what’s it like to work for the likes of Groupon, Living Social, KGB Deals and Travelzoo? Well we used to recruit for a voucher company earlier this year and placed some really talented media sales professionals with them – at all levels from telesales, to field sales through to senior management. However, hardly any are still working there.

The fact of the matter is that if you’re not tough enough or good enough to work in an environment that is faster than the speed of light then you’re not going to cut it as a success in these organisations. They throw money at fantastic offices, have pool tables and table tennis to off load steam, but the culture is very much work hard / play hard. These deal companies are essentially in almost permanent “start up mode”, trying to cover as much ground as quickly as possible and therefore, demand a ‘start up’ level of commitment from their staff, and for people who thrive on that, they are the perfect environment

However, it seems to me that either these American-style cultures are just too fierce for us Brits or, perhaps, the majority of media sales organisations have simply been offering a way too soft culture for too long. I met people that have worked at the likes of Groupon who previously had worked successfully at big media companies and the consensus was that they were let go abruptly by the voucher companies, but they explained that in a more ‘British’ organisation, they would have been given a nudge that they were underperforming and would have been given a lovely HR led, soft style approach over a few months to a year to get things on track. Does that mean that our mainstream B-B media companies are good hiding places for average salespeople that rely heavily on their market leading brands, rebooking existing clients with a friendlier ‘account manager’ style approach?

Or have the Groupons of the world got it hugely wrong in that they demand way too much from their sales staff?

The Yellow Pages of old used to have a similar culture – 9-6 you’re out on the road meeting and presenting to clients all day, selling on the spot to get a buy or a deal signed up there and then by a naive restaurant owner or hairdressing salon. Then you would be expected to head home and do all your admin and lead sourcing so that you have a full day following. It wouldn’t be worth the breath you breathe should you decide to clock off at normal hours and go into work the next day with an empty diary. And it appears from this side of the fence that its similar work ethic needed from our American owned voucher companies.

I was told by one ex employee of Groupon that she often found herself working all weekend in order to keep up with the speed and demand for the job. She would regularly work until 11pm / midnight in order to be up early again the next day full of energy. She described it as a way of life – Groupon becomes your life!

Now, it’s not all bad because some months she earned in excess of £4,000 commission – IN ONE MONTH! Not bad eh? In addition to that she described her Groupon experience as ‘brilliant’ – so what was so fantastic about working there? Well, the people around her were completely inspirational and all legendary at what they did. She got on really well with her manager and the exit from the company was not an easy decision.

For those happy to cruise through a career, the solution used to be to get a job in a large UK based media company. However, the American approach that these voucher companies are bringing to the market has raised the bar – nearly all of the larger, more traditional media owners that we recruit for are looking for those hungrier, more driven sales people as well and are undertaking a huge push to make sure that their businesses is staffed only by those with the right kind of attitude.

However, I still think that those looking to push themselves are more likely to find a challenge befitting them in a more American-style environment. We’re currently recruiting for KGB deals and I visited their offices last week – I was blown away with the speed of growth and buzz about the place. So if you think you’ve got what it takes and want to throw yourself into an environment that could consume your life for a time, but give you a wonderful ride along the way earning a shed load of money, then maybe the voucher companies are a good bet? If so, I’d definitely be interested in hearing from you!

Twitter account theft raises interesting questions

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:27:13 +0000

The market in which I operate – recruitment – and the market into which I recruit – sales and media – have a lot of similarities, one of which is just how important an individual’s contacts book is. To say it’s not what you know it’s who you know is not entirely true, but there can be no doubt that strong, established relationships with important people at relevant businesses is a key strength for many job applicants. Through building and developing those relationships, they can move onwards and upwards, using existing contacts to bring new business into a company. At a senior level, the strength of a job hopeful’s contact list can often prove the decisive factor, while even at more junior levels within a company it is of huge benefit if a new starter can provide a way to open dialogue with companies who are not currently partnering with your own business.

In recruitment, the relationships I have with hiring managers and HR Directors at big companies are an essential part of what I do and who I am. Sometimes, they move companies and give me a call in their new role because they have come to know me over time and (hopefully!) they know what Ascent Solutions is about, and what we can deliver.

However, there’s a very interesting argument developing in the legal world at the moment that could have some major repercussions in sales and recruitment. In fact, the repercussions could affect pretty much every industry.

There’s an article on Lawspeed.com where an American court is adjudicating on precisely who owns a twitter account. An employee of a business blogged and tweeted as part of his role, and built up a following of 17,000 people over the four years he was employed. When he left, he took the account with him and changed the name on it (from Phonedog_Noah to NoahKravitz). His former employers are claiming that they ‘own’ those followers, which were gathered as the result of the company funding a social media strategy. They’ve monetised each follower as being worth $2.50 per month (don’t ask me how) and are claiming $340,000 for the 8 months that @NoahKravitz ‘kidnapped’ their followers by tweeting as himself.

It’s a really interesting conundrum isn’t it? How would you feel if you invested significant money into a social media campaign so that you recruited hundreds or thousands of followers to a twitter account – and then the person you had been paying to tweet from it resigned and took the whole lot with them? I’m betting you’d be pretty hacked off – I certainly would be!

Exactly how a court can solve this kind of issue is beyond me in many respects as I am certainly not a lawyer, but it does seem to me that this kind of possibility is something that we all need to bear in mind from now on, and that the best way to do that would be to prevent the issue arising in the first place.

It’s therefore becoming absolutely essential that tweeting art work for work purposes is something that needs to be done from a work Twitter account – one that is owned by the business. When the person using the account leaves, it is perfectly plausible that his or her tweeps may well want to continue to follow the actual person tweeting, and if that is the case, the tweeter should simply be able to advise people he is moving on and then contact any followers he wanted to continue to follow him on his personal account (or his new work account). The company can then pick up the Twitter account as it is, and if people want to continue following (or follow an alternative account suggested by the company) then they will.

There will inevitably be those who feel that the company should own the lot and that the employee isn’t even entitled to say that he or she is leaving and can be followed at a new account, but that older way of operating, closely guarding contacts and information, is something that is being threatened immensely by this bold new age of social media. If a business is seen to be operating in such a way in the current climate, I would suggest that it runs the risk of being perceived as out dated and old fashioned, of not really buying into what social media is al about.

Don’t get me wrong – as a businessman I think that the when you are paying someone to do a job, the fruits of their labour belong to the business that has funded them to be able to do that work – there’s no two ways about it. However, in the social media-driven world in which we operate, I have no problem with people retaining their contacts as they move from company to company. To give the company that the person is leaving no legal right to the details of those contacts however, is VERY wrong indeed, and it could set a worrying precedent in many respects.

At the end of the day you can’t ‘own’ a twitter follower any more than a TV channel can ‘own’ a viewer – people will follow and unfollow whatever the hell they like. But for a business to effectively put itself in a position where they have no legal right to access the information that their employees have gathered as part of their working responsibilities is a very daft thing to do.

I have a funny feeling there’ll be a frantic rewriting of contracts and social media policies as a result of the court ruling – whichever direction it goes in.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter – how would you feel about your employer being able to take over your twitter account when you leave – fair, or not?

How to nail that job interview

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:20:29 +0000

There are three simple things that your interviewer will be considering when looking across that interviewing table.

1) Can you do the job?
2) Do you want the job?
3) Do I like you?

I find that by educating my candidates to think like a hiring manager or a recruiter it actually helps them through the interview process, and most people benefit from this advice.

Let’s first of all consider things from a candidate side; you are preparing for an interview; researching the company history and ‘about us’ pages, you’re looking at who works there, what they do, referring to a job brief or an advert to draw reference from and of course, you’re preparing answers to the usual competency-based questions assessing your strengths and weaknesses.

But remember, this is not a ‘memory test’ – this is more of a personality interview. I often find that those candidates who spend hours and hours scouring the internet for information on the company and trying to memorise it in a hope to rattle off some stats in the interview invariably don’t perform as well as those who have followed my advice. And it’s easy, its just three key steps.

To do this, you need to consider what the interviewer is doing prior to your interview wand understand how they are feeling. Would they have agreed to give up an hour of their time to meet you if they were not convinced by your CV? Unlikely. Are they going to read your CV and prepare for the interview in the hope to catch you out, thereby having a consistently negative approach to hiring? Let’s hope not. If they do, it may not be the job you’re looking for anyway. No, the reality is that a hiring manager wants nothing more than to feel positive and upbeat when they meet you and in that respect they want you to do well in the interview. Most hiring managers that I know (and have known) actually don’t enjoy recruiting. It often takes up so much time and distracts them from their day job; therefore they would want nothing more than to find the right person as quickly as possible.

Now that you’re thinking like a hiring manager, consider the obvious points such as presentation, time keeping and polite manners – but that stuff is very basic so we won’t dwell on the basics. Those three key points are:

1 – Can you do the job?

If you consider this basic question you will see that it answers the key point to recruitment. Every hiring manager wants to bring someone in for the position that is doing exactly the same job but somewhere else so that the impact to them and their team is minimal. So you need to demonstrate that you can do the job in the interview. This is more than just getting across your strengths and this is certainly not you rattling off boring stats of company history. This is thinking in advance about what the hiring manger is looking for, thinking ‘if I were recruiting for this position; what questions would I ask to test whether someone ticks all the boxes? What boxes need ticking? The job brief or job description will give quite a lot away, but also use your initiative and speak to friends or former colleagues for advice. If you know that they job requires you to attend nine meetings a week, then get across that you can achieve that and back it up with answers. If the job requires someone that understands the media agency market, then get across who you know and what you understand – this is much better research and a better use of your time rather than company stuff. Brush up on your skills and abilities and back them up with good examples. Make sure you know your experience and turn this into positives throughout the interview and match it to key boxes that you know the interviewer is looking to tick.

2 – Do you want the job?

Often this is the part that most candidates fall down in. they are so obsessed with researching companies, market trends, memorising what Obama stated last year in order to repeat some crappy self-help Anthony Robbins style nonsense, that they overlook the key things – attitude, desire and passion!

Imagine once again that you are the hiring manger. You have three candidates booked in for final interviews today. All have the exact same experience, the same contacts and industry knowledge and the same salary expectations – they are clones for the sake of this example in every way bar one – how much they want the job?

Candidate A and B do a good interview, match their skills and come across well; however they don’t ask many questions back to the interviewer. At the end of the interview they get up and leave as quickly and eagerly as if they had realised they left the oven on at home. Then candidate C comes along delivers an average interview compared to the others but there is one key difference – they ask loads of questions to the interviewer. How does this work? What about that? Would I be working directly with you? Could you see me doing this? And they leave the interviewer with no doubt that they really want the job; not only that they back it up with factual examples of why they want this specific job; if you gave me this opportunity I would benefit by x, y and z which is perfect to me.

This may seem a bit self-absorbed, but actually good hiring managers will know that people are motivated by more than one variable; therefore if they know why someone wants the job; it is easier to manage them.

How do you get across that you want the job? How about starting with telling them? Leave the interviewers with no doubt that if they offered the position to you then you would accept. Back this up with asking loads of questions throughout the interview so that you can justify that you now know loads more about the company and opportunity and that based on all this information that you have gained through natural curiosity that you have made an informed decision to state that you want the job. Very few interviewees actually get across correctly that they want the job and more often than not they come across as though they have simply attended the interview for interview sake.

Equally, if you are attending a final interview and have been asked to prepare a presentation (or something similar) then make sure you do it properly. This is a tangible gauge for an interviewer to see how much you really want the job. Candidate A turns up with some stuff, albeit good stuff, in his head. He delivers a good presentation and charms his way through. But what impression has he left? Candidate B doesn’t know the industry sector as well, has spent hours researching the market and has not slept for days preparing the all-singing all-dancing PowerPoint that has been checked and checked again by friends and relatives and practiced on in front of whoever is kind enough to lend an ear. They deliver the presentation, hand over a CD with it burnt on for the interviewer to slip into his computer later on for reference. Who would you give the job to? Exactly, even if candidate A has all the knowledge, most people would hire candidate B because they have proved that they want the job more.

3 – Do I like you?
Well, recruitment and hiring decision always comes down to personality. My advice here is be yourself, but be the polite self that met your fiancée’s parents for the first time rather than you at 20 climbing the lamppost in the town centre after slipping on a kebab. Be the self that walked up and shook the Dean’s hand on your graduation day, not the self that whinged to mum to get a sick note because you hadn’t done your chemistry homework. You want to be relaxed, but not too relaxed – a lot of my clients appreciate nerves in an interview because it shows that you want something. Too relaxed and you come across as cocky.

It’s all a fine balancing act, but if you think like a hiring manager and plan for your interviews in this way, I can almost guarantee better results. But of course, it depends on your preparation and effort.