Monthly Archives: June 2019

address the current hiring crisis

A Key Element to Address the Current Hiring Crisis

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A key element to address the current hiring crisis is to become an employer of choice. This class of employer has people wanting to work for them because of their reputation of being a great place to work.


I interviewed professional recruiter Joanne Vassiliou of Prestige Human Resources about the current situation, and she pointed out that to become an employer of choice means that companies need to invest in creating a good work experience for their employees.


She explained that employees want good benefits, to be treated with respect and to have opportunities to grow and develop. She said that satisfied employees will leave positive reviews about their employer on sites like Google, Indeed and Glass Door.


Reputation has become open to everyone online and potential employees will look at what others have to say about a company, which will greatly influence their decision to consider employment there, according to Vassiliou.


Building a good reputation as a good company to work for takes time to build and thus needs to be part of an employee attraction strategy. Every size company needs to plan this important component of their operations otherwise it can have a serious impact on their ability to grow and be profitable. Several examples of this was given in an article in the French daily newspaper La Presse.


employee performance problems

Five Questions to Ask Before Solving Employee Performance Problems with Training

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Five questions to ask

  1. Have the performance expectations of the job been defined and communicated to the employee?
  2. Has proper training been provided to the employee?
  3. Has the employee demonstrated an ability to perform the key tasks of the job adequately?
  4. Has a way to track and measure performance on the job relative to the expectations been established and implemented?
  5. Has regular feedback and follow-up coaching been provided to the employee?

Training and development is usually only part of the solution when it comes to employee performance issues.


In the video I describe a recent experience with employee performance that I observed with sales representative at a large conference.


leadership style

How to Have the Lower Third Performing Employees Behave like the Top Third Employees

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I recently met with two entrepreneurs who had about one third of their staff performing below what they expected.


Their top employees are more experienced, skilled and care about their work and the company. The less experienced and younger staff in question are less reliable and have more of a 9-5 mentality.


The two partners want to better understand what they need to do to have the lower third performing employees behave and perform like the top two thirds.


The company does home renovations and they work on several projects at a time. One owner looks after sales and the other manages the projects and staff. Their roles used to be reversed and their management styles are different.


The partner managing the staff on the job sites has a more autocratic style of leadership while the other is more democratic and diplomatic. The younger employees who are not meeting expectations seemed to work better under the more democratic style of leadership.


The entrepreneurs thought that the younger less experienced staff members would learn from the more experienced and skilled workers who are more productive, produce better work and have better attitudes when it comes to putting in longer hours.


My suggestion to them was:

  • Learn how to adjust their leadership style to each individual and situation
  • Learn how to train and coach the difficult staff to address the performance issues
  • Set performance agreements with all employees with specific review dates and provide coaching when needed
  • Set rewards and penalties based on the agreed performance commitments
  • Teach the better performing employees to act as mentors or coaches to the younger less experienced employees
  • Engage the employees in problem solving sessions to discuss how to improve the work and continuously deliver better quality
  • Apply progressive discipline should the employees in question not respond to the efforts to correct their behavior

In times of good economic conditions as they are presently for these entrepreneurs, a lack of adequate staff who can deliver what the customer expects can be the biggest hindrance to organizational development and business growth.