Dear all,
This is a great article by Dr. John Sullivan.
One of the primary questions in the minds of candidates is "Where will I be two years from now?" Unfortunately, most recruiters and managers respond to that question with meaningless generalities like, "You'll have lots of opportunities." In fact, what candidates actually want is a realistic preview of where they are likely to go over the next two years if they join the firm. If you want to dramatically increase your offer acceptance rate, give applicants a "Where You'll Be" profile!
What's A "Where You'll Be" Profile?
A "Where You'll Be" profile is a sales tool designed to convincingly demonstrate to an applicant the kind of opportunities a top performer might expect at a firm.
The profile is a brief preview of the kind of learning, growth, and economic opportunities that a new hire might reasonably expect to have during their first 1-5 years of employment at the firm. It's designed to excite candidates with some actual examples rather than just meaningless platitudes. Some of the key elements in a "Where You'll Be" profile include:
- Skills you are likely to gain/improve
- The type of projects you're likely to work on
- The level of people you're likely to be exposed to
- The type of flexible work options you might have
- The economic rewards you are likely to get
It's A Profile, Not A Promise
A "Where You'll Be" profile is designed to show the kind of opportunities top performers might experience in this particular job class. It is not supposed to be a recruiter's "BS" sheet. Instead, it is derived from a compilation of the actual experiences of top performers in this job class.
The profile can be developed based on information obtained through a series of interviews, surveys, and focus groups with top performers and their managers (in this targeted job classification). By identifying the actual opportunities that a new hire might experience, you put realism in your profile and you avoid wild "guesstimates." Since this is a profile of what opportunities top performers have actually had, it makes the lawyers less nervous (of course, a disclaimer statement stating that the past is not always a predictor of the future is always attached as part of the actual profile).
Elements Of A "Where You'll Be" Profile
The content of a "Where You'll Be" profile should vary with the wants and the expectations of the job applicants. You should start by surveying your top candidates about their job expectations. You then need to provide specific information for each of the areas in which they have a high level of interest in your profile. For example, some of the "Where You'll Be" areas for a software engineer position might include:
- Skills And Learning Opportunities
- Technical skills you might acquire
- Software languages you might learn
- Management and people skills you might acquire/strengthen
- Classes, industry events, and seminars you might attend
- Projects And Growth Opportunities
- The number and variety of development projects you would likely participate in
- The number and type of projects that you might lead
- The likely number of horizontal transfers
- The number of promotions you might get
- People Exposure
- The number of teams you are likely to participate in
- The number and level of executives you are likely to interact with
- Key customers, suppliers, strategic partners as well as industry and government officials you will be exposed to
- Work Options
- The likelihood of being able to take part in flexible work options (flextime, work at home, job sharing)
- The likely number of horizontal transfers opportunities into new (non-software) functions or departments
- Economic Opportunities
- Percentage of possible salary increases
- The range of likely bonus awards
- The number of possible stock options they could be granted
- Also consider including estimates (based on past performance) of the total economic value of their bonuses, stock options, and salary
- Challenges And Risks
- The number, type, and level of risks they will be allowed to take
- Opportunities to have their own personal ideas funded
- Opportunities for public and company-wide exposure and visibility
- The impact on the firm (its products and customers) their work is likely to have
- Tools And Equipment
- Software they will have access to
- Hardware and technology they will have access to
Potential Variations Of The Profile
1. Provide ranges.
Rather than just listing the highest levels of achievement and rewards in the profile, an alternative is to list the possible ranges a new employee might expect. My preference is to focus on the highest levels likely to be obtained by a top performer. Although both average and top performers like to know "where they will be," by listing the higher levels obtained only by top performers, you can then use the profile as a motivator to encourage current average performers to become top performers!
A profile can also be done for a single "average job" at a firm, rather than doing separate profiles for each major job classification. The obvious disadvantage is that a single profile (that averages all jobs into one) requires such a large degree of combining opportunities that the profile is not likely to excite top performers.
2. Show them that "people like me" work here.
In addition to wanting to know "where they will be," applicants often want to know that "people like them" already work for the firm. You can help show them that by providing demographic profiles showing that people from similar schools, neighborhoods, ethnic backgrounds, former employers, and age categories currently work (and excel) at the firm. In addition, specific "success story" individuals that started two years ago can be profiled to "personalize" the statistics.
Retention
Incidentally, the research for your "Where You'll Be" profile might show that the actual growth and learning opportunities in your jobs are lacking. If this is true, you can use the "gap" data as a starting point for revising your people practices and for making your jobs more challenging and exciting both for new hires and for your current employees.
Next employees can be asked to provide information on what frustrates them and what motivates them on the day they start their job. From that list, their manager can develop customized "learning, challenge, and growth" plans to ensure that they actually get "where they want to be" within their first and second year.
"Where You'll Be" profiles can also be used for motivating and retaining existing employees that are continually getting external "Where You'll Be" offers (promises) from (external) recruiters!
Conclusion
If you treat applicants like potential customers, you soon realize that it is essential that you provide answers to their questions about your "product." By providing them with a realistic job preview of what they can expect if they become top performers, you can both excite them and also improve the odds of them saying yes to your offer. The profile can be put on the firm's jobs page or be a paper document that is handed to applicants.
It takes courage to act "outside the box." Unfortunately, most HR people lack that courage. If you are going to recruit top talent, you need to take risks and to act differently than your competitors. Cisco has done an "economic rewards" "Where You'll Be" chart for a while (don't they lead in just about everything!). Now it's time to expand the profile (and add non-economic elements) in order to make it a complete sales tool.
From India, Pune
Acknowledge(0)
Amend(0)
108This is a great article by Dr. John Sullivan.
One of the primary questions in the minds of candidates is "Where will I be two years from now?" Unfortunately, most recruiters and managers respond to that question with meaningless generalities like, "You'll have lots of opportunities." In fact, what candidates actually want is a realistic preview of where they are likely to go over the next two years if they join the firm. If you want to dramatically increase your offer acceptance rate, give applicants a "Where You'll Be" profile!
What's A "Where You'll Be" Profile?
A "Where You'll Be" profile is a sales tool designed to convincingly demonstrate to an applicant the kind of opportunities a top performer might expect at a firm.
The profile is a brief preview of the kind of learning, growth, and economic opportunities that a new hire might reasonably expect to have during their first 1-5 years of employment at the firm. It's designed to excite candidates with some actual examples rather than just meaningless platitudes. Some of the key elements in a "Where You'll Be" profile include:
- Skills you are likely to gain/improve
- The type of projects you're likely to work on
- The level of people you're likely to be exposed to
- The type of flexible work options you might have
- The economic rewards you are likely to get
It's A Profile, Not A Promise
A "Where You'll Be" profile is designed to show the kind of opportunities top performers might experience in this particular job class. It is not supposed to be a recruiter's "BS" sheet. Instead, it is derived from a compilation of the actual experiences of top performers in this job class.
The profile can be developed based on information obtained through a series of interviews, surveys, and focus groups with top performers and their managers (in this targeted job classification). By identifying the actual opportunities that a new hire might experience, you put realism in your profile and you avoid wild "guesstimates." Since this is a profile of what opportunities top performers have actually had, it makes the lawyers less nervous (of course, a disclaimer statement stating that the past is not always a predictor of the future is always attached as part of the actual profile).
Elements Of A "Where You'll Be" Profile
The content of a "Where You'll Be" profile should vary with the wants and the expectations of the job applicants. You should start by surveying your top candidates about their job expectations. You then need to provide specific information for each of the areas in which they have a high level of interest in your profile. For example, some of the "Where You'll Be" areas for a software engineer position might include:
- Skills And Learning Opportunities
- Technical skills you might acquire
- Software languages you might learn
- Management and people skills you might acquire/strengthen
- Classes, industry events, and seminars you might attend
- Projects And Growth Opportunities
- The number and variety of development projects you would likely participate in
- The number and type of projects that you might lead
- The likely number of horizontal transfers
- The number of promotions you might get
- People Exposure
- The number of teams you are likely to participate in
- The number and level of executives you are likely to interact with
- Key customers, suppliers, strategic partners as well as industry and government officials you will be exposed to
- Work Options
- The likelihood of being able to take part in flexible work options (flextime, work at home, job sharing)
- The likely number of horizontal transfers opportunities into new (non-software) functions or departments
- Economic Opportunities
- Percentage of possible salary increases
- The range of likely bonus awards
- The number of possible stock options they could be granted
- Also consider including estimates (based on past performance) of the total economic value of their bonuses, stock options, and salary
- Challenges And Risks
- The number, type, and level of risks they will be allowed to take
- Opportunities to have their own personal ideas funded
- Opportunities for public and company-wide exposure and visibility
- The impact on the firm (its products and customers) their work is likely to have
- Tools And Equipment
- Software they will have access to
- Hardware and technology they will have access to
Potential Variations Of The Profile
1. Provide ranges.
Rather than just listing the highest levels of achievement and rewards in the profile, an alternative is to list the possible ranges a new employee might expect. My preference is to focus on the highest levels likely to be obtained by a top performer. Although both average and top performers like to know "where they will be," by listing the higher levels obtained only by top performers, you can then use the profile as a motivator to encourage current average performers to become top performers!
A profile can also be done for a single "average job" at a firm, rather than doing separate profiles for each major job classification. The obvious disadvantage is that a single profile (that averages all jobs into one) requires such a large degree of combining opportunities that the profile is not likely to excite top performers.
2. Show them that "people like me" work here.
In addition to wanting to know "where they will be," applicants often want to know that "people like them" already work for the firm. You can help show them that by providing demographic profiles showing that people from similar schools, neighborhoods, ethnic backgrounds, former employers, and age categories currently work (and excel) at the firm. In addition, specific "success story" individuals that started two years ago can be profiled to "personalize" the statistics.
Retention
Incidentally, the research for your "Where You'll Be" profile might show that the actual growth and learning opportunities in your jobs are lacking. If this is true, you can use the "gap" data as a starting point for revising your people practices and for making your jobs more challenging and exciting both for new hires and for your current employees.
Next employees can be asked to provide information on what frustrates them and what motivates them on the day they start their job. From that list, their manager can develop customized "learning, challenge, and growth" plans to ensure that they actually get "where they want to be" within their first and second year.
"Where You'll Be" profiles can also be used for motivating and retaining existing employees that are continually getting external "Where You'll Be" offers (promises) from (external) recruiters!
Conclusion
If you treat applicants like potential customers, you soon realize that it is essential that you provide answers to their questions about your "product." By providing them with a realistic job preview of what they can expect if they become top performers, you can both excite them and also improve the odds of them saying yes to your offer. The profile can be put on the firm's jobs page or be a paper document that is handed to applicants.
It takes courage to act "outside the box." Unfortunately, most HR people lack that courage. If you are going to recruit top talent, you need to take risks and to act differently than your competitors. Cisco has done an "economic rewards" "Where You'll Be" chart for a while (don't they lead in just about everything!). Now it's time to expand the profile (and add non-economic elements) in order to make it a complete sales tool.
From India, Pune
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Namaskar Rajatji,
Feeling of uncertainty in modern life is the biggest stressor. However, Indian wisdom says that the good or bad future is certain. To illustrate, in 1478 B.C. after the Mahabharata war, Gandhari cursed Lord Krishna with the complete destruction of the Yadu dynasty 36 years later. Lord Krishna smiled, and when asked about the reason for smiling, he replied, "It is destined to happen." Subsequently, in 1443 B.C., Dwaraka sank to the sea.
So, one can plan very well, but the exact future cannot be visualized. I may be wrong.
Regards,
Jogeshwar
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Feeling of uncertainty in modern life is the biggest stressor. However, Indian wisdom says that the good or bad future is certain. To illustrate, in 1478 B.C. after the Mahabharata war, Gandhari cursed Lord Krishna with the complete destruction of the Yadu dynasty 36 years later. Lord Krishna smiled, and when asked about the reason for smiling, he replied, "It is destined to happen." Subsequently, in 1443 B.C., Dwaraka sank to the sea.
So, one can plan very well, but the exact future cannot be visualized. I may be wrong.
Regards,
Jogeshwar
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Namaskar Mahantaji,
Feeling of Uncertainty in modern life is the biggest stressor. However, Indian wisdom says that good or bad future is certain. To illustrate, in 1478 B.C. after the Mahabharata war, Gandhari cursed Lord Krishna of complete destruction of Yadu dynasty 36 years later since then. Lord Krishna smiled and when asked about the reason for smiling, he replied - it is destined to happen. It happened and Dwarka sunk to sea in 1443 B.C.
Thanks for your insight especially on historical facts. However, my gut feel says that the above approach brings a fatalistic outlook to life, which may harm a person or demoralize a manager. It's easy to judge the past, but should we cloud our minds with the same way when looking at the coming future? Nay, I disagree.
Warm regards, Rajat
From India, Pune
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Feeling of Uncertainty in modern life is the biggest stressor. However, Indian wisdom says that good or bad future is certain. To illustrate, in 1478 B.C. after the Mahabharata war, Gandhari cursed Lord Krishna of complete destruction of Yadu dynasty 36 years later since then. Lord Krishna smiled and when asked about the reason for smiling, he replied - it is destined to happen. It happened and Dwarka sunk to sea in 1443 B.C.
Thanks for your insight especially on historical facts. However, my gut feel says that the above approach brings a fatalistic outlook to life, which may harm a person or demoralize a manager. It's easy to judge the past, but should we cloud our minds with the same way when looking at the coming future? Nay, I disagree.
Warm regards, Rajat
From India, Pune
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Dear Rajat Joshi,
Feeling of uncertainty in modern life is the biggest stressor. However, Indian wisdom says that the good or bad future is certain. To illustrate, in 1478 B.C. after the Mahabharata war, Gandhari cursed Lord Krishna with the complete destruction of the Yadu dynasty 36 years later. Lord Krishna smiled and when asked about the reason for smiling, he replied, "It is destined to happen." It happened, and Dwaraka sunk to the sea in 1443 B.C.
Thanks for your insight, especially on historical facts. However, my gut feeling says that the above approach brings a fatalistic outlook to life, which may harm a person or demoralize a manager. It's easy to judge the past, but should we cloud our minds in the same way about the future? I disagree.
Warm regards,
Rajat
Dear Rajatji,
Thanks for posting your view very clearly. In fact, the difference lies in eastern and western thinking. You are inclined to subscribe to the western view. However, I do not think that the eastern conviction can be uprooted in any case.
Once Chhatrapati Shivaji was very much disgusted by looking after his kingdom. So, he went to his guru and said, "I want to give up administration."
The guru instantly said, "O.K."
Shivaji asked, "Whom to transfer the administration to?"
The guru replied, "To me."
Shivaji instantly said, "OK" as he was sure.
Now the guru said, "Now the entire kingdom is mine, and I appoint you as my representative. Please look after it."
Shivaji was relieved of his stress.
Regards,
Jogeshwar
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Feeling of uncertainty in modern life is the biggest stressor. However, Indian wisdom says that the good or bad future is certain. To illustrate, in 1478 B.C. after the Mahabharata war, Gandhari cursed Lord Krishna with the complete destruction of the Yadu dynasty 36 years later. Lord Krishna smiled and when asked about the reason for smiling, he replied, "It is destined to happen." It happened, and Dwaraka sunk to the sea in 1443 B.C.
Thanks for your insight, especially on historical facts. However, my gut feeling says that the above approach brings a fatalistic outlook to life, which may harm a person or demoralize a manager. It's easy to judge the past, but should we cloud our minds in the same way about the future? I disagree.
Warm regards,
Rajat
Dear Rajatji,
Thanks for posting your view very clearly. In fact, the difference lies in eastern and western thinking. You are inclined to subscribe to the western view. However, I do not think that the eastern conviction can be uprooted in any case.
Once Chhatrapati Shivaji was very much disgusted by looking after his kingdom. So, he went to his guru and said, "I want to give up administration."
The guru instantly said, "O.K."
Shivaji asked, "Whom to transfer the administration to?"
The guru replied, "To me."
Shivaji instantly said, "OK" as he was sure.
Now the guru said, "Now the entire kingdom is mine, and I appoint you as my representative. Please look after it."
Shivaji was relieved of his stress.
Regards,
Jogeshwar
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
A good one ..
Yes, you are right that I subscribe to Western thought, especially of being responsible for your actions or Karma. Can you please enlighten us on where the thoughts of Western & Eastern converge or have common ground.
Regards, Rajat
From India, Pune
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Yes, you are right that I subscribe to Western thought, especially of being responsible for your actions or Karma. Can you please enlighten us on where the thoughts of Western & Eastern converge or have common ground.
Regards, Rajat
From India, Pune
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Dear Rajatji,
Namaskar.
Acculturation is a process with the following stages:
1. Awareness
2. Diffusion
3. Emulation
4. Integration
5. Assimilation.
This happens spontaneously. VADAMS (vocal and dashing members of the society) of the dominant culture may resist the elements of the subdued culture, but the common members in any society accept and reject the elements of any culture based on utility. So, spontaneous experimentation is ongoing, and let us wait for the final stage of assimilation.
Regards
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Namaskar.
Acculturation is a process with the following stages:
1. Awareness
2. Diffusion
3. Emulation
4. Integration
5. Assimilation.
This happens spontaneously. VADAMS (vocal and dashing members of the society) of the dominant culture may resist the elements of the subdued culture, but the common members in any society accept and reject the elements of any culture based on utility. So, spontaneous experimentation is ongoing, and let us wait for the final stage of assimilation.
Regards
From India, Delhi
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)CiteHR is an AI-augmented HR knowledge and collaboration platform, enabling HR professionals to solve real-world challenges, validate decisions, and stay ahead through collective intelligence and machine-enhanced guidance. Join Our Platform.
BEST RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES.doc
Employee Development - PPT 9.ppt