Boardroom events: handling difficult conversations

HR professionals are faced with difficult conversations on a regular basis across all levels of the organisation; performance management, conflict mediation and being the ‘bearer of bad tidings’ around the areas of recruitment, salary and promotion to name just a few.

In many cases HR professionals are left with a tough balancing act to deliver the message in a way that satisfies business expectations while meeting the many needs of the employee. Add to the mix the complexity of human personality and it’s no wonder there is such a variety of reactions and emotions in these situations.

Developing skills in the area of handling difficult conversations is often left to trial and error as we work through our life experiences. The ability to calm down aggressive responses, re-engage those who ‘shut-down’ and effectively interrupt and redirect conversations going nowhere requires a large repertoire of artful questioning, refined negotiation skills and a high level of emotional intelligence.

After listening to many tales of difficult conversations in HR through our clients, we decided to start running events targeted at HR professionals to accelerate their skill development around difficult conversations. The first boardroom event: handling difficult conversations was a two-hour, small group session which provided the latest research around the underlying causes of emotional responses, a chance to build skills and practice these skills in interactive conversations with an aggressive and passive employee played by the facilitator.

Interest in the event was overwhelming and initial feedback from the first session was very positive, with participants reporting the workshop gave them tools that “…are a good foundation to build on and useful to have as a 'security blanket' when confronted” and “…it was very relevant and practical to all occupational roles”. Those who attended also enjoyed the chance to network and share experiences with other HR professionals across different industries.

If you are interested in attending our next boardroom event please contact Pam Illingworth to get more information and to register a place.

No talent shortage – just a shortage of ideas

Most companies know that new business from existing customers comes at a cheaper cost than business gained from new ones. Not only do they experience a reduced cost of sales, they can often better qualify the business opportunities and further cement long-term customer relationships. So why is it that when it comes to acquiring executive talent the prevailing view is to chase it in the open marketplace?

Current approaches to the ‘talent crisis’ are actually addressing the wrong issues and in most cases popular attraction and retention strategies are making the problem worse. One only need look at the underlying assumption driving these solutions—most companies and the recruiters they engage see this as a ‘supply-side’ problem. The logic goes something like this:

• I have a senior executive role to fill
• I’d like to have at least three to four short-listed candidates
• Unfortunately, I struggle to find enough quality candidates since they are in high demand and relatively scarce
• I consider internal candidates, competitors, like industries, transferable skills, even overseas candidates
• It’s a difficult and timely process but I end up finding three of the best quality candidates
• It’s now a rush to make an offer before the preferred candidate takes another one or tells their current employer and negotiates a better package.

For most this is an all too familiar scenario and for an increasing number of companies this often ends with the preferred candidate walking away from the deal. Companies relying on this ‘supply-side’ solution are experiencing delays in recruitment completion time, spiralling recruitment-related costs and increasingly over-inflated salaries as the best executive talent engage in an unprecedented bidding war. To make matters worse, organisations often feel they are being held to ransom by these external candidates and the recruitment companies that promote them.

In many cases companies feel pressured to accept their second preference, pay more than they are prepared to and then find themselves spending more time, effort and costs managing, supporting and on-boarding these second preference candidates. They then find themselves paying a subsequent ‘talent tax’ when seeking to retain executive talent because they are often unclear as to who is worth retaining and who isn’t. After all, most have no reliable way of measuring executive potential other than relying on past performance as an indicator of future success.

Such approaches are also flawed because they are based on a static view of the organisation in terms of its structure and prevailing business model. The recruitment and workforce planning goals are often based on current business operating models and plans or at best significantly lag the strategic direction or changes to the external environment. Hence, these existing ‘attraction and retention’ strategies are forever chasing an elusive goal by simply pouring more people in through the supply-side of the talent management system.

To effectively address the talent crisis requires a ‘demand-side’ perspective. As with any business facing a significant and enduring resource constraint, one needs to look closely at how to reduce reliance on that particular resource. Take for example, the ‘oil crisis’. This can equally be viewed as a supply and demand issue. In response, those reliant on this resource (demand-side) are exploring alternatives (e.g. lighter aircraft and passenger vehicles, fuel efficient engines, hybrid vehicles, etc). In addition, suppliers are looking for additional oil reserves and alternative fuels (e.g. solar, wind power, clean coal, etc).

Likewise the talent crisis can be addressed by leaders re-thinking how they run their business now and in the near future with this particular resource constraint top of mind. Leaders at all levels in the organisation need to look at ways of managing their business and their talent to reduce, mitigate and defer their reliance on external talent. As the ‘oil crisis’ illustrates, organisations have little direct control over the quality, price and quantity of executive talent in a highly competitive marketplace. And these external conditions are unlikely to change in the next decade. Some are even suggesting that this period of labour market constraint is heralding a new paradigm in how organisations attract, develop and retain employees.

There is no talent shortage, just a shortage of ideas on how to address the problem. The solution relies on leaders re-thinking and taking action, not through traditional search, selection or recruitment solutions that are focused on the supply-side of the problem, but by challenging their prevailing business operating models and by the way they identify, develop and retain key talent from within the organisation.