Wings of Hope

Toni Clem, president and CEO of Scoppechio, one of the largest private marketing and media firms in the country, says, “We believe online marketing is an absolute inclusion in our plans. With over 90% of job seekers going to Linkedin, Glassdoor, Indeed, Monster, Facebook, etc. to search for a job, we include it automatically.” Applicants are looking across all channels to partner with a business model that suits them. Once they’ve discovered the great benefits your company offers, the resumes and applications will begin to flow.

After you’ve assembled your most-liked applicants, it’s time for the interview process. While preparing for this, Tiffany says, “It’s important to have some direct questions that will show you if that person has had the experience you’re looking for.” Then, make sure the questions you chose are relevant — just like the panel of co-workers you’ll be assembling to ask them. “When you put the interview panel together, put together a group of people who the candidate could see themselves working with,” Cindy says.

This interview panel will be working together to discover a possible new team member. “The best way to conduct a candidate experience is to have a lead interviewing team who interviews the candidate on different performance competencies,” Toni says. She suggests the interview be structured in this way so your potential new hire won’t be asked the same question multiple times depending on who’s interviewing. This also illustrates that you value your candidate and their time. This can set the early groundwork for mutual respect and a professional level friendship to develop.

So once you’ve found the “perfect match” for your company, how do you tell them? A snail-mail letter might take too long, and do people still phone one another anymore? Yes, Cindy says, calls are made when the offers are finalized. Each organization has its own standard offer, and Toni says this offer can include a number of “incentives” like “a strong benefits package, which would include medical, dental, vision, 401K, long term/short term, life, and disability.”

This sparkling new contract and benefits package, blended together with your exceptional work environment, will bring your new team member to their very first day of work. “A strong positive onboarding experience is critical. It’s important that new hires have a seamless integration experience with their manager and team,” Toni says. On that first day, this can look like walking them through schedules and/or having key personnel take them to lunch. “Continue to have someone be the point person to keep them in the loop for their first week,” Tiffany says.

AFTER FINDING THAT PERFECT MATCH, THERE’S A LOT THAT CAN BE DONE TO KEEP PEOPLE ENGAGED.

You’re off to a rousing start and a healthy working relationship. Now it’s all about strengthening that relationship. There’s a lot that can be done to keep people engaged in a work environment. “Along the path is always managing their expectations,” Toni says. Establishing a habit of honest communication can extend trust so that your working partnership can grow. “It’s all about radical transparency in regards to what we’re doing right and what we can do better,” she says.

Should the channel of communication fall to the side and your employee decide to move to another job opportunity, don’t fret. First, speak to them to assess why they’ve decided to leave, and see if perhaps adjustments can be made. “Sometimes you’re in a place to offer a different position or give a raise, and then sometimes this isn’t an available option,” Cindy says. If adjustments simply aren’t an option, Toni says, “Be true to yourself as a company. Our team members that leave, we want them to be happy wherever they go.”

Hiring the best match for your company means finding your most compatible team player. Once that goal is scored, keeping the lines of communication flexible and open can make your working relationship a partnership that thrives for the long term.

BEFORE YOU GIVE YOUR HEART

By Joyce Oglesby

Q: “I’ve been involved with a wonderful man for two years. I love him and he loves me, and we are now talking engagement. But before I say yes, I’m wondering if my concerns are valid. We communicate, but we don’t. He says he wants to hear my point of view, but then anytime I share it, I’m always wrong, I disappoint him, and/or I never meet his expectations. I feel chastised like a child and find myself recoiling. He doesn’t want to hear how “I feel” because he looks at things more black and white and believes emotion is a wasted effort. I was not quite honest with him once in the beginning of our relationship because I wanted to avoid a recurring argument about an issue, and he continues to throw it in my face. I’m looking for a different approach for handling these issues. Can you help?

Joyce’s FIX: Perception is a double-edged sword. It is quite the friend when it keeps us on the winning side of right, but a dreadful enemy when it blinds us from the truth.

I’m sure there may be a wonderful man who has captured your heart, but the one you describe is likely the one who will break it in time. My good sense is telling me to talk you out of saying yes. My understanding behind the power of love will attempt to offer a different strategy to the issues facing you. I am pleased, however, that you are asking these questions on this side of the altar. You have recognized some caution flags that, if left unaddressed, could wave red in your future.

1. Communication. There is an art in communicating — listening. It seems as though he is predisposed to knowing you will always be wrong, a failure, and not enough. Talking down to you as if you are a child does not sound like a partnership as much as it sounds like a dictatorship. I am going to encourage you to challenge him. I get it — you don’t like confrontation. Sometimes, however, it is necessary for survival. It is time for you to draw a line in the sand for yourself. Allowing his negative input about your opinions, giving him permission to discredit your efforts as disappointing, and accepting that you fall short of accomplishment will serve to eradicate the value you see in yourself. Next time, don’t recoil. If it evokes an argument, so be it. Dismiss his criticism lightly, and let him know you disagree with his assessment of you as a person of worth. This new attitude will not only embolden you, it will cause him to assess whether he needs to adjust his behavior or move on to someone who will tolerate his insolence.

2. Feelings. His denial of the significance of emotion is more than a caution flag. He appears to be someone with a cookie-cutter mentality for whom people should only react in a certain manner and think a specific way. It must be within the realms of his cold, impassive logic. Take the next opportunity presented to ask him to look at your feelings, regardless of how little emphasis he places on them. Present him hypotheticals, talk about them, make him hear you out, and simply consider that people are unique and distinctive. If you are unsuccessful in having him look, much less step, outside of his box, imagine this mindset instilled into the hearts and minds of your children. It’s a 50/50 chance they would think like him rather than feel like you.

3. Integrity. I’m sure you wish you could take the white lie back. I feel quite certain you have asked him to forgive you, and he probably has said he does — he simply can’t forget it. Trust is a critical foundation in every relationship. “Communicate” to him that you have given him no cause to distrust you since that time. Get him to agree that it is never going to be mentioned again. If he can’t let it go now, he never will.

You cannot communicate in silence. Nor can you connect for a lifetime of love, happiness, and fulfillment, which is what marriage should look like, with you feeling put down, chastised, or devalued. Today is the time to address these troubling issues. If he loves you, he needs to adore you, not control you or tell you how to think and/or not feel. If you feel weighed down when he’s around, once he pops the question, the answer should be emphatically “no.”