IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE THE ONLY
CONSTANT IS CHANGE, EMPLOYEES WHO
EMBRACE CHANGE AND ADOPT A LEARN-TO-
WORK MINDSET ARE CRITICAL TO
THE SUCCESS OF AN ORGANIZATION.
can elevate a team whereas a poor fit can bring the entire team’s
performance down. When there is a good fit, relationships are
built more easily, problems are solved more quickly and higher
engagement ensues – delivering superior performance, which is
the ultimate goal.
HOW TO ASSESS ATTITUDE AND SOFT SKILLS
A good place to start recruiting for fit is to tap into current employee
and alumni networks; these are people who know what it’s like to
work at your organization and will be good judges of who will be
a good fit. All employees should be encouraged to be talent scouts
in their interactions outside of work. General networking can also
provide an opportunity to be exposed to potential candidates in a
“natural” setting before they are “on show” in a job interview.
Attitudes can be harder to assess than technical skills, but
there are assessment tools that can address traits such as desire
to learn. Effective interviewing techniques can include behavioural
questions to uncover attitudes and soft skills. For example, when
asking a candidate to describe how they responded to a mistake,
does their response demonstrate accountability and approach
the situation with a growth mindset? One U.S. bank uses group
interviews to assess empathy: They ask one candidate to relate an
embarrassing situation and then watch how the other candidates
react. Extra-curricular activities can also be revealing; playing
team sports or participating in community volunteer work can
demonstrate collaboration and willingness to work with others to
achieve a goal.
A CAREER GROWTH PATH
VERSUS CAREER LADDER
Today’s employment “deal” is a partnership in which the employee
contributes their passion, discretionary effort and talents to help
leadership
the organization be successful. In turn, the employer invests in the
employee’s development so that when they eventually move on,
they have a stronger resume and are more marketable. Once the
employee is on board, the organization takes an active role in sup-porting
their employees through development and the employee
takes a proactive approach to their own learning.
To keep learning-driven, “can-do” employees engaged, traditional
career paths need to be imagined as “growth paths” as described by
Jane McConnell in her work on the “gig mindset.” Career advance-ment
is less about moving up a career ladder and more about
seeking opportunities to gain more experience and knowledge,
whether this is in an employee’s current role or elsewhere in the
organization. This requires performance and reward systems that
encourage leaders to take a broader view and share top talent with
other areas of the organization. Some organizations are creating
“skills inventories” to facilitate matching employee skills with proj-ect
requirements. Cross-functional project teams are an excellent
way to develop transferrable skills such as communication and col-laboration
and provide valuable on-the-job learning that can’t be
gained from a classroom course.
This kind of approach may require a more fluid definition of
“team” rather than the more traditional definition based on func-tional
area. Performance management and reward systems may
need to be revised to support this.
In an environment where the only constant is change, employ-ees
who embrace change and adopt a learn-to-work mindset are
critical to the success of an organization. Attracting and retaining
these employees by providing ongoing learning and development
opportunities is a formula HR professionals need to master based
on the unique needs of their organization. n
Marni Johnson is senior vice president of Human Resources and
Corporate Affairs at BlueShore Financial.
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