Results from the IncBizNet Leadership Forum Meet Up 

September 19th, 2008

Inc 500/5000 Conference

Leadership Forum: Recruiting, Retaining and Motivating EmployeesIncBizNet Meet Up Transcript – 2008 Inc. 5000 Conference 

Best Practices and Ideas:

 Recruiting / Hiring:

• Profiles International or another online database with surveys and ratings
• Inquire about candidate’s pre-college activity
• Have they ever owned or started a company or worked for themselves?
• Immerse candidate in company culture from the very start of the interview and gauge reaction or engagement (example – a company scrapbook)
• Ask for a time-limited self description – i.e. describe yourself in one word or a 5 minute self description
• Reaction to cultural policies – example – a no negativity policy (including emails, jokes, etc)
• Convert entrepreneurs to intrapreneurs
• Attitude Driven scenarios – How would you approach X?
• At least 4 interviews for every successful hire
• Hiring Consultants
• Psych Exams – Big 5. Need for achievement / affiliation
• Personality Profiling (test on current employees for accuracy)
• Have them drive to lunch for the interview (check out their car and driving skills in traffic as indicative of their organizational/interpersonal skills)
• Have candidate provide a write-up or written report of their take-away from the interview process

 Retaining:

• Hire employees you like and pay them well
• Let them “own” their job – give them responsibility, accountability, plus trust and necessary support
• Make it fun, offer perks
• Exit Interviews
• Review process that helps future policy – actionable
• Welcome basket, lunch or celebration of some kind
• Involve their families (anniversary cards, birthday baskets, etc)
• Vision Boards/ Personal Goal Achievement
• Flexibility – hours, working from home, family affairs. Focus on quality of work over quantity
• Allow employees to tailor their own benefits package- opt in or out of benefits, etc.
• Love and really care for your employees as people – they know the difference
• Employee Surveys re: quality of life
• Events / Holiday celebrations (i.e. St Patrick’s Day bakeoff)
• Be honest about salary expectations – and also proactively adjust salaries to market when applicable
• Consistent acknowledgement methods

 Motivating and Growing (help employees grow with the company):

• Open Book Management – let employee see what they’re making or not making for the company
• Mandatory Education / career development
• Stock Option Plan (everyone’s an owner invested in the brand)
• “Live Your Truth”
• Clearly outline company requirements and vision
• Identify de-motivators and eliminate them (do project post-mortems)
• Write up core values and make relevant to each employee.

• Make a chotchkie around those values (i.e. a notepad or mouse pad) (this one seems unfamiliar)