The NoLimits Blog

Time for a change, 0% recruitment.

There is something strange…

Take a look at the global talent landscape; there are two major trends that don’t intuitively make much sense:

1. Large scale unemployment. A jobless recovery. Entrenched levels of high unemployment among the young. More than 1.5 billion people – half the global working population – in vulnerable or insecure jobs. See a summary of the latest trends from the ILO in the UK Guardian newspaper: Global unemployment trends 2011 International Labour Organisation

2. A global talent shortage. The number of employers struggling to fill positions is at an all-time high. The global skills shortage is worsening, with more than one-third of companies reporting difficulties filling positions because of a lack of talent. The perceptions about a lack of skilled workers are everywhere. Manpower Group, for instance, reports that many employers surveyed say they have difficulty filling positions because of talent shortages. See the latest manpower global survey http://www.businessinsider.com/manpower-group-survey-q4-2011-10

Who is at Fault?

Employers lay blame with lots of generalisations about: Education; Government policies; Candidates who lack necessary skills and experience; insufficient qualifications; or a lack of soft skills.

Time to Wake Up?

Employers are demanding more of job candidates than ever and in ways that are demonstrably unsuccessful in finding the right person for the job. Either failing to find someone at all, or hiring someone who is then unsuccessful in the role and leaves after a few months, or even worse hangs on in role after role failing to deliver, demotivated and dragging the rest of the organisation down.

An Error of Laziness?

Companies want workers to be able to fill a role right away, without any training or ramp-up time, based on having done that specific job before, or based on academics. Put simply to get the job, you have to already be doing that job, or you have to be loaded up on outmoded academic credentials.

The candidate sourcing and recruitment industry has evolved over the last few decades to fit this desire for the easy route - to provide candidates who match a specific job in this way and then to charge for the sourcing of these individuals with little or no real evaluation of a candidates ability to do the job, or ability to learn to do the job and little or no attention to integration and on-boarding.

An outdated model? Finding people used to be hard work; recruitment companies developed networks and global databases on candidates and charged for the value of this with a % fee based on salary. Recruitment companies grew rich and employers paid for the easy option.

The Price you Pay

The macro impact is simple - a record global talent shortage combined with record global unemployment.

There are many more micro impacts at the company level:

1. Failure to fill critical roles, with the associated business impacts
2. Demotivated and disengaged employees, who find themselves doing the same job with no opportunity for growth and development
3. Staggering costs from mis-hiring, losing significant numbers of new hires, costs distributed across the whole business, wasted recruitment fees, wasted management time, wasted training, delayed projects, disruption to existing employees and teams, the list goes on and the real costs are huge.

Most of all business leaders will recognise and agree with this in some-way. 

Find a Better Way

Some assumption busting:

1. It is easy to find people today than ever before; technology has moved on, the recruitment industry, by and large, has not. How many of you are still paying 15-25% for sourcing candidates and often much more for senior positions? Finding candidates is significantly easier with the power of social media such as LinkedIn. There is little value in providing you with matching resumes, it's low value work, easy to do and there is no need to pay anything for this. 

2. The perfect candidate does not exist; drop the idea of finding a ‘perfect’ candidate based on someone having done exactly the same job before, even if you find this person, they will usually be demotivated and uninspired by doing the same job.

3. Academic grades are irrelevant. Academic credentials have never been a valid predictor of ability. As a predictor of success in role, the validity co-efficient from rating experience and qualifications is just 0.11*. Picking a CV at random while blindfolded would be a more reliable selection method. (*Schmidt & Hunter (1998). The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology Psychological Bulletin, 124, 262-274.)

The Remedies

Discover the power of transferable skills and competencies and the incredible motivation, passion, energy and engagement that you can get from people who fit the values and culture of the organisation and benefit from learning to do the job with just a little training, practice and on-going guidance.

How?

1. Hire Better

Dramatically improve ability to select new hires using valid criteria to assess capability to deliver. 

There are two valid selection tools that are most significant – simulations and interview techniques that assess evidence of relevant competencies and transferable skills. 

Hiring managers need to know how to (and need help to) define their requirements in terms of critical competencies, desired behaviours, values and attitudes.  

Organisations, HR and hiring managers especially, need to create and learn relevant assessment approaches and know how to apply these in assessing transferable skills, values, attitudes and motivations.

 2. Transform Induction

Develop an on-boarding programme. The amount of training that the average new hire gets varies from miniscule to non-existent and much of what does exist includes just basic company induction. 

There are many people out there who could step into jobs with just a bit of training—even recent graduates who don't have much job experience, college students are pursuing more vocationally oriented studies. Follow the example of professional service and accounting firms or law firms that have long duration trainee models at lower costs, so give new workers a longer probationary period—with lower pay—until they get up to speed on the requirements of the job.

3. Dramatically Increase Internal Promotions

Drive enhancements in talent development to promote from within – set aggressive targets for internal promotions and organise work so that employees are given projects that help them learn new skills. Then hire in new employees at lower levels in the organisation at lower cost and deliver on training.

Overall there are many ways to hire more successfully that make it easier to find good people and cheaper too. It’s much better for everyone.

Save yourself organisational pain, time and money and contact us for a no-obligation discussion on how you can implement 0% recruitment fees combined with better selection, on-boarding and talent development.

 

Fiction of course: The death of Credit Cards

A FICTIONAL EXTRACT FROM A FUTURE BOOK: The Death of Credit Cards

Studies in Change: Except from “A financial history of the world” by Martin J Cropper, HBR Publishing NY 2035

From Chapter 9. Payments…..

9.3.2 The Death of Credit Cards.

"...finally came together in such an unexpected way to end the dominance and the use of all credit cards and debit cards overnight on the 3rd June  2012."

Are you old enough to remember credit cards?

Chances are, if you were born sometime in the last half of the 21^st Century, you will remember the experience of lugging round in various pockets, bags or pouches a thing called a wallet. And this wallet would typically be bursting at the seems, sometimes literally, with small retangular multicoloured, multi-logoed pieces of plastic. It seems odd now looking back that this cumbersome state was just something that we accepted, on a par with carrying a phone (remember them) or wearing shoes (some things don’t change at least). In fact if you are perhaps a little older still you remember a world before even carrying a phone was the norm and when you had a wallet filled with a cheque book, bank notes and coins, then something changed, gradually first in the US in the earlly 1950’s and then across Europe and the rest of the world during the 1970’s.

Early Systems of Credit

As we have already described, during the 1920’s, the use of credit was regularly practiced in both the hotel, as well as the oil industries who commonly extended credit to their fondest customers. This practice then allowed patrons to pay for purchases or services later. Initially, credit was offered directly from merchants to their consumers who, in turn, also directly repaid their debts back to the original merchant.

Mimicking the success of hotels and oil companies, stores eventually began offering credit to attract new customers and as a way of boosting existing customer loyalty. As a new credit concept began to grow in popularity with consumers, merchants formed groups based on agreements to do business with consumers by accepting credit purchases on cards from other stores within their group. This alliance allowed customers the luxury of shopping at a wider number of stores while using the same agreement they enjoyed with the original merchant.

Early Charge Cards

John Briggins later created the charge card when he introduced the “Charge-It” program in the mid-1940s, which permitted merchants to directly deposit sales slips at their bank and, in turn, the bank would then bill that merchant’s credit customers.

The story really began however in 1949 when a man named Frank McNamara had a business dinner in New York's Major's Cabin Grill. When the bill arrived, Frank realized he'd forgotten his wallet. McNamara and his partner, Ralph Schneider, returned to Major's Cabin Grill in February of 1950 and paid the bill with a small, cardboard card. Coined the Diners Club Card and used mainly for travel and entertainment purposes, it claims the title of the first credit card in widespread use.

Plastic debuts

By 1951, there were 20,000 Diners Club cardholders. A decade later, the card was replaced with plastic. Diners Club Card purchases were made on credit, but it was technically a charge card, meaning the bill had to be paid in full at the end of each month.

According to its archivist, American Express formed in 1850. It  specialized in deliveries as a competitor to the U.S. Postal Service, money orders (1882) and traveler's checks, which the company invented in 1891. The company discussed creating a travel charge card as early as 1946, but it was the launch of the rival Diners Club card that put things in motion.

In 1958 the company emerged into the credit card industry with its own pruduct, a purple charge card for travel and entertainment expenses. In 1959, American Express introduced the first card made of plastic (previous cards were made of cardboard or celluloid).

American Express soon introduced local currency credit cards in other countries. About 1 million cards were being used at about 85,000 establishements within the first five years, both in and out of the U.S. In the 1990s, the company expanded into an all-purpose card.

Closed-loop system

The Diners Club and American Express cards functioned in what is known as a 'closed-loop' system, made up of the consumer, the merchant and the issuer of the card. In this structure, the issuer both authorized and handled all aspects of the transaction and settled directly with both the consumer and the merchant.

In 1959, the option of maintaining a revolving balance was introduced, according to MasterCard. This meant cardholders no longer had to pay off their full bills at the end of each cycle. While this carried the risk of accumulating finance charges, it gave customers greater flexibility in managing their money.

Bank card associations

The general-purpose credit card was born in 1966, when the Bank of America established the BankAmerica Service Corporation that franchised the BankAmericard brand (later to be known as Visa) to banks nationwide.

In 1966, a national credit card system was formed when a group of credit-issuing banks joined together and created the InterBank Card Association, according to MasterCard. The ICA is now known as MasterCard Worldwide, though it was temporarily known as MasterCharge. This organization competes directly with a similar Visa program.

The new bank card associations were different from their predecessors in that an 'open-loop' system was now created, requiring interbank cooperation and funds transfers, Visa and MasterCard still maintain "open-loop" systems, whereas American Express, Diners Club and Discover Card remain "closed-loop."

Visa and MasterCard's organizations both issued credit cards through member banks and set and maintain the rules for processing. They were both run by board members who are mostly high-level executives from their member banking organizations.

As the bank card industry grew, banks interested in issuing cards became members of either the Visa association or MasterCard association. Their members shared card program costs, making the bank card program available to even small financial institutions. Later, changes to the association bylaws allowed banks to belong to both associations and issue both types of cards to their customers.

Credit card processing evolves

As credit card processing became more complicated, outside service companies began to sell processing services to Visa and MasterCard association members. This reduced the cost of programs for banks to issue cards, pay merchants and settle accounts with cardholders, thus allowing greater expansion of the payments industry.

Visa and MasterCard developed rules and standardized procedures for handling the bank card paper flow in order to reduce fraud and misuse of cards. The two associations also created international processing systems to handle the exchange of money and information and established an arbitration procedure to settle disputes between members.

Other issuers join the party

Although American Express was among the first companies to issue a charge card, it wasn't until 1987 that it issued a credit card allowing customers to pay over time rather than at the end of every month. Its original business model focused on the travel and entertainment charges made by business people, which involved significant revenue from merchants and annual membership fees from customers. While these products are still in its tool chest, the company has developed numerous no-annual fee credit cards offering low introductory rates and reward programs, similar to as traditional bank cards.

One of the last major entries into the card business was the Discover Card, originally part of the Sears Corporation. According to Discover, its first card was unveiled at the 1986 Super Bowl.  Discover Card Services sought to create a new brand with its own merchant network.  A 2004 antitrust court ruling against Visa and MasterCard -- initiated by the U.S. governement and the Department of Justice -- changed the exclusive relationship that Visa and MasterCard enjoyed with banks. It allows banks and other card issuers to provide customers with American Express or Discover cards, in addition to a Visa or MasterCard.

A blessing or a curse?

Some called it a blessing that people could borrow money so easily and help fuel the purchase of consumer goods and services no matter what their income. Others called it a curse and the basis of all that was wrong in America in the era of the great credit crunch- millions of people living beyond their means, drowning in debt and bankruptcy and foregoing the discipline of saving for instant gratification.

Even dogs and children could get credit card offers in the mail. If you filed for bankruptcy, no problem, there was a credit card offer for you.

No matter where you fall in the spectrum of sentiments about credit cards, there's no doubt the plastic cards had a major impact on society. The 2008 CreditCards.com "Taking Charge" survey found that 82 percent of Americans felt that credit cards were essential, with the same percentage saying credit cards provide a valuable service. Amazing to think that within three years they had all but vanished completely from the scene, certainly no one would have thought that in 2008.

Traveling or facing any kind of emergency (stranded on a highway, a quick relocation because of disaster) without a credit card as a backup you would quickly see the truth of the essential nature of cards then. Online purchases and many of the convenient payment options (utilities, bail or school lunches) we now enjoy would not have been possible without credit cards.

Consumer advocates argued then that the popularity and widespread use of credit cards made it all the more important for government to step in to protect consumers from potential abuses and unfair practices which was an interesting pre-cursor to todays debates about the ubiquity and ease of instant  and pre-purchases.

Recalling the invention of the credit card unveils a perfect illustration of how rapidly strong business ideas will spread and transform how business is done worldwide. In a very short time period, the credit card had grown into a popular and convenient tool routinely used in the marketplace. Understanding their purpose and how they came into being, helps us in respecting how today’s payments options evolved.

The great iPay transformation

Of course alternative payment options had been evolving continuously through the last decade of the last century and the first decade of this. We had major initiatives by many companies dedicated to the simplification of both Virtual World and Real World payment modes, including alternative forms of payment rising to prominence, from online payment services such as the now suplanted PayPal, to credit card keyfobs to chips that could be implanted into cell phones or other devices, or even in people, however all these lacked the interoperability and standardised approaches that would finally came together in such an unexpected way to end the dominance and the use of all credit cards and debit cards overnight on the 3rd June  2012, with the now imfamous joint presentation between Brin and Cook combiniing the news of the incopration of Google as a bank and with the launch of the Cloud based Apple iPay system……

 

How does your company deal with massive unplanned change? Are you a change agent or a change follower?

Successful Communication and Customer Relationship Skills

Successful Communication and Customer Relationship Skills

Learn powerful techniques in influencing and leading relationships to build trust and confidence with internal and external clients and business partners, creating better outcomes faster with challenging situations and difficult conversations.

  

 

During this workshop you will:

  •    Learn the importance of adapting your communication style to the thinking and behaviours of         your clients and business partners.
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 An intensive 2-day programme in Singapore

23 November - 24 November 2011

14 December – 15 December 2011

 

This 2 day workshop can also be tailored and run exclusively for your organisation, department or team.

For more details, click on    Download CommunicationRelationship Skills Advert - 2011

Coaching for Leaders

Coaching for Leaders

An exceptional 2 day leadership development programme in Singapore 

9-10th November 2011  and  30 November-1 December 2011

 

Build a coaching culture within your organisation to achieve high employee engagement, drive performance and retain your top talent.

 

Workshop Content

• Study models for performance and development coaching that help solve employee performance challenges, goal achievement and development needs.

•   Discover and apply the NoLimits 5 step coaching process to give structure to your coaching conversations.

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• Understand the power of questioning techniques to generate solutions.

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This 2 day workshop can also be tailored and run exclusively for your organisation, department or team.

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Power Presenting

Power Presenting
 

A powerful 2 day programme to discover the art of impactful presentation

Singapore: 15-16 November 2011 and 7-8 December 2011       

 

     

Now you too can make confident,

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Workshop Content

•  Learn how to structure your message to engage your audience.
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This 2 day workshop can also be tailored and run exclusively for your organisation, department or team.

For more details, click on   Download Presenting for Leaders Advert - 2011