Part 3: Outlining the Vision for the Future and Inviting Everyone to Participate in Getting Us There
Part 3
Outlining the vision for the future and inviting everyone to participate in getting us there
By Chuck Baren, COO of HirexHire
HirexHire is Building a Great Company for Great People.
Part 1 and Part 2 of this 6-Part blog series explained why we believe that is important and how we are establishing trust with our employees. In Part 3, we talk about how we set the vision for our future and get buy-in from employees to help get us there.
At HirexHire, we are building a great company for great people. We’re also on a mission to build our small business into something scalable and self-sustaining that will survive long into the future. As we grow, we need our employees to actively participate in our evolution, so we need to ensure they understand how they can personally benefit beyond just collecting paychecks.
HirexHire Team Outing | Night out in Wicker Park, Chicago
Getting Employee Buy-In
How do we do that? We begin by outlining what we want to become in the future, in terms of our service offerings and internal operations, and we discuss that vision with our employees.
Specifically, we share the vision for our organizational structure and the roles and responsibilities we anticipate needing to support the services we intend to offer. But job titles and reporting structures in an uncertain future aren’t enough to compel great employees. Great employees want to know how personal skills development will create opportunities to grow with the company and be an important part of the future organization. At HirexHire, we help employees envision their future by defining a skills-based career path and providing opportunities to work on these skills while serving customers and building our operational infrastructure.
Here’s an example. Recruiting and serving customers is in our business DNA, and we will grow by adding more people to our delivery teams. The specific roles and responsibilities will evolve as we grow, but we can plot a general career path for our employees now by talking about the required skills we expect them to develop over time. We simplify the conversation by grouping delivery team skills along two dimensions (1) full life-cycle recruiting skills and (2) customer relationship management skills. Having done that, we can help employees plot their skills on these dimensions and overlay current and future roles to show how personal skills development leads to opportunities for advancement. See the nearby chart.
Of course, we must help our employees develop skills by providing opportunities and being specific when setting expectations. For example, an important skill along the Customer Relationship Management dimension is the ability to run a meeting. Basic skills include setting an agenda, starting and ending on time, taking notes, sharing next steps, and keeping commitments for any takeaway tasks. More advanced skills include being able to bring the conversation back on track when it begins to derail; knowing how to resist an unusual suggestion or request and when to relent and accept scope creep; knowing when to stay quiet when the customers debate with each other to avoid choosing sides; etc. The real experts will have a commanding presence, the ability to manage escalations, and the ability to influence the decisions of customer executives.
When we discuss skills in this way, we help employees understand their development needs and advance faster. And as they progress, it will be easier to envision themselves in our future and support the plan to get us there in a mutually beneficial way.
By sharing a vision for the future of our business, defining a skills-based career path, and helping employees plot themselves on that career path, we continue shaping the kind of company great people will want to help build and where they’d like to work for a long time.
Thanks for reading Part 3! In Part 4 of this blog series, Chuck writes about being clear with expectations for great work and how HirexHire recognizes and rewards it.
How HirexHire is Building a Great Place for Great People - Hire by Hire:
Follow @hirexhire on LinkedIn to receive each part as it is published.
About HirexHire
HirexHire (pronounced: hire by hire) is a Chicago-based recruiting and talent consultancy that integrates with companies short-term to provide long-term talent solutions.
We take a seat in our client’s everyday operations to understand their people, goals, gaps, and challenges. We then develop and implement the processes and technologies to execute a sustainable and scalable talent plan.
We partner with companies expecting or experiencing high growth, leading them to hire at scale or fill a critical role rapidly. We develop and execute creative strategies to carry out all aspects of the recruiting process: crafting job descriptions, building candidate pipelines, vetting candidates, conducting interviews, negotiating offers, and leading new hires to their first day on our client’s team.
HirexHire was founded in 2018 with an initial investment by founder and CEO Mike Durec. The firm found its first customers through Mike’s network in the Chicagoland startup community. Consistent success has led to a sterling reputation and steady growth. The company has more than doubled its number of customers, revenue, and employee base each year and is showing no signs of slowing down.
About Mike Durec
Founder and CEO
As Founder and CEO of HirexHire, Mike partners with operating executives and investors to develop and implement processes and technologies to successfully attract and retain talent.
In his past work as a corporate recruiting leader in technology, Mike crafted and managed strategies to hire thousands of professionals across many functional areas worldwide. He has led hiring initiatives in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, Germany, France, Australia, and India. Mike brings practical leadership experience and a legacy of success to every engagement.
HirexHire now operates with Mike’s proven approach, deploying empathy with candidates and hiring managers and advocating for the best interest of both parties. Mike emphasizes the two-way relationship between the employee and employer, resulting in long-term people placement and greater work-life satisfaction.
About Chuck Baren
Chief Operating Officer
Chuck has more than 20 years of experience working in professional services for SAAS providers, most of which was with Fieldglass, where he helped it grow from 20 employees and no revenue in 2000 through its $1 billion acquisition by SAP in 2014. He regularly received high marks for the level of employee engagement of his teams for which he prioritized people management and the need to attract and retain top talent by building a great place for them to work. By the time he left SAP Fieldglass, the professional services team he led had grown to approximately 200 employees.
Chuck wrote about his experience leading his growing team at Fieldglass through challenging periods of rapid growth in Money Matters, Top Tips for Success, the Business Leaders Edition, volume 3. His chapter entitled “People Management is Key to Survival in a High Growth Environment” helped propel the book to Amazon Best Seller status in its first days of release.