Build a tower, build a team: 5 TED lectures for recruiters and HR professionals
Why resumes — Not an indicator, and an open salary culture doesn't mean team conflicts.
What makes employees happy at work? Why diversity teams have a better chance of releasing wow products? A culture of open paychecks — good or bad? And why weed out candidates with non-perfect resumes — Isn't always the right thing to do?
Gathered 5 TED Talks about recruiting and HR management. Each video lasts no more than 20 minutes — Anyone can find that much time for self-development once a day.
#1. «Why consider a candidate without a perfect resume», Regina Hartley
If candidate doesn't have a classic CV or it's not perfect — That's no reason to turn someone away, says HRD Regina Hartley, an American supply chain management company.
Imagine needing to close a job. You're likely to get candidate resumes in two categories:
- «Silver Spoons». People of this type don't have the challenges of life, and circumstances are conducive to everything. First there was a good school and a prestigious university, later — stable jobs in large companies with high salaries. They never have to struggle.
- «Fighters». Usually CVs of people in this category are characterized by short-term part-time jobs, sometimes — Lack of higher education. Such candidates were not financially supported, so they had to survive on their own.
The speaker believes that people from the second category are the ones who should be invited to the interview in the first place. They are more adaptable, ready to give 120 percent, fired up about an idea, and willing to learn if necessary.
And so, before you invite a candidate with a perfect resume to an interview, ask yourself: «And as an individual grounded only in success and perfection in everything, will overcome challenges?».
#2. «Why you need to know how much your coworkers make», David Burkus
Starbucks and Bufferoo have been frank about salaries, believing that this approach motivates employees and fosters a culture of fairness. In post-Soviet countries, the principle of open salaries is often viewed negatively, and management is convinced that such an approach will cause envy and conflict within the team.
«Few of us can tolerate happiness
— the happiness of one's neighbor is meant»,— Mark Twain
David Burkus, professor of management at Oral Roberts University's College of Business, and the founder and editor of the leadership publication LDRLB, is convinced that companies should stop hiding their employees' income levels.
A good subordinate should earn more than a bad boss
When people don't know how their pay relates to their peers, they are more likely to believe they are underpaid or even discriminated against. Survey 70k. of employees in 2015 showed: almost 2/3 of those whose rate matched the market rate felt they were underpaid. Of those, 60% said they were willing to quit — Whether they were getting more, less, or at the market level.
You don't have to open up salary data to everyone. You can limit yourself to partial transparency: for example, at the U.S. IT company Glitch indicate the salary range for each position, and the information is open only to employees. Starbucks has the same principle, and for some positions they use a calculator that calculates the amount based on the skills of the professional.
In Vanity Fair, it was the team itself that decided to go public with their income levels. When executives imposed a ban on salary disclosure, some employees came into the office with signs around their necks saying how much they were getting.
#3. «Build a tower, build a team», Tom Vuek
Tom Wujec, founder of The Wujec Group consulting firm and best-selling author of design books, gives an example of a simple team-building exercise that he included in his international design seminars. You'll need a packet of macaroni, duct tape, string, and marshmallow.
Employees are divided into groups of 4, their task — build the tallest tower possible in 18 minutes, using 20 pasta tubes, 90 cm of duct tape, 90 cm of rope, and one marshmallow. The marshmallows need to be placed at the very top of the tower.
What's the challange: To accomplish this task, one must quickly team up with one's co-workers.
Most people begin the exercise with planning: group members draw a sketch and then lay out the pasta, trying to build a higher tower. When time is short, put a marshmallow on top. And usually the structure falls apart.
This fiasco is most often experienced by graduates of business schools. Children make more reliable, taller, flatter, and more interesting towers. All because they don't compete for the title of a team leader, but act in concert.
In addition, business school graduates are trained to develop the only right plan — That's what they're trying to put into practice. Children, on the other hand, operate on a principle known in the design of, — iterations. In the process, they figure out which ways to build a tower are successful and which — no.
This exercise will help to coordinate the work of the team and find ways to improve the product.
#4. «Let's be brave, not colorblind», Melody Hobson
Statistically, diversity teams are 35% more productive than regular teams. Facebook, Amazon, and Walmart have even introduced Global Diversity & Inclusion Manager, in which the specialist creates a level playing field for all employees.
Melody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments LLC, confirms the importance of the DEI trend (diversity — diversity, equity — equity and inclusiveness — inclusion). She says teams with diverse ethnic and racial cultures come up with more innovative ideas, improving products and business profits.
In spite of this, racial discrimination — Still a pain in the ass for today's corporate culture. Light-skinned people make up 30% of the U.S. population, but they hold 70% of the jobs. There are only seven leaders on the Fortune 250 list — Asian/Pacific Islander Americans, and out of a 1k. of publicly traded companies in 2014, only 2 were led by African-American women.
«Managing an internal communications system»