Maybe you’ve pictured moving up the career ladder – Manager, Director, VP, even C-level? Or maybe you are already at the level you’ve always wanted, but don’t quite know how take your performance to the next level?
What if I told you that you could be sabotaging those dreams?
What do I mean by that? The number one determinant for success or failure of a leader is their ability to field a high performing team consistently. This – should be your #1 concern.
“Nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not strategies.” – Larry Bossidy, CEO of AlliedSignal
Now – take a quick look ? at these numbers.
- The highest risk factor for organizations (and your dreams) – is talent shortage – according to Gartner Inc.’s Emerging Risks Study. “Organizations face this talent crunch at a time when they are already challenged by risks that are exacerbated by a lack of appropriate expertise,” said Matt Shinkman, Gartner’s managing VP and risk practice leader.
- Not only that, Leadership IQ conducted a three-year study of 5,214 managers, across 312 organizations, hiring more than 20,000 employees, and found over an 18-month period that 46% of those hires were found to be mis-hires.
- Oh – and – of the 50% of your team that remains – only 19% of those will turn out to be successful.
- And lastly – according to our Corner Office Consultants 2020 Workday Salary Survey – 60% of participants are looking to change companies within the next 2 years.
- The numbers don’t lie – and with all of these factors in play – how can you assemble a strong team with minimum turnover – so you can accomplish the goals that impact your career trajectory?
Check out these 5 tips you can implement immediately to build the kind of top notch Workday team you want – and thus, eliminate missed project deadlines, budget overruns, wasted time, lower moral, high turnover and personal sacrifices.
Oh yeah…AND put your career dreams on a better path.
Tip 1 – Must Get Compensation Right
This seems like a no-brainer, but I can’t tell you the number of companies we’ve come across that do not have their compensation aligned with the Workday ecosystem. The market itself is hot – and Workday is even hotter. These professionals are in high demand.
Trying to align experienced Workday professionals with your non-experienced existing staff is not going to work. Salaries will have to be based on Workday experience or either job requirements will need to be revised. And even though the market has temporarily slowed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it will quickly rebound to pre-pandemics numbers. That means, a TON of competition for talent in candidate driven market.
Tip 2 – Flexibility for the Right Talent
With this type of labor market, flexibility is so key in maximizing the pool of talent to choose from. Given the nature of Workday itself – companies that adopt a remote team policy will have the opportunity to yield a much higher pool and quality of candidates. If not, companies are forced to pull from local talent or rely on candidates open to relocation, which is extremely hard to find these days. In fact, in our 2020 Workday Salary Survey – only 29% of respondents said they would be open to relocation for a new position.
Also, remote work options – even if a few days a week – ranked as one of the Top 2 benefits companies can offer.
Tip 3 – Be Creative
When looking for team members, the initial goal is usually to identify a candidate that matches everything we ‘think” we want in a role – especially around modular experience. So, position profiles are written with all of these rigid “must have’s” and “must do’s”.
Leaders who recognize strong talent and have a willingness to build a role around that top talent, will no doubt get some of the strongest players out there. Here’s a scenario we see all of the time – in our 18 years of recruiting. A candidate has good exposure to Workday in one or two particular modules, but not necessarily in the modules a company wants. Given the candidate’s aptitude for the system, it is much easier to train-up rather than keep looking for that “perfect” person for months. (And yes, we’ve seen a company hold a position over for 9 months insisting on finding the exact skill and location). This is especially true in situations where there is less flexibility to adjust compensation or location.
Tip 4- Have a Compelling Vision
The top 2 things we consistently hear that Workday professionals are looking for in a new role are company/management commitment to fully utilizing the system (and thus ongoing projects) as well as the ability to cross-train in multiple modules. Having a multi-year roadmap and being able to articulate that to candidates will help attract those top 10% go-getters.
Tip 5 – Gotta Move, Move, Move
Remember what I said about a hot Workday market? Companies that are still utilizing the old-school, slow, traditional hiring practices will lose talent, period. Candidates, even the 82% that aren’t actively looking (according to LinkedIn), are getting bombarded with opportunities these days. (By the way, this includes people on your team, but we’ll talk about that another day).
As their curiosity rises, they start searching for other opportunities. So, even though a candidate is speaking with your company, odds are they are also actively talking with a few other companies as well (competition).
Multiple offers and even counteroffers are very common occurrences in this candidate-driven market. Move slowly, you’ll lose people, period.
Final Thoughts
Yes, the quality and consistency of your team directly impacts your future success and as a leader, you have a chance to impact how it will turn out. By implementing these tips along with consistently keeping abreast of trends in the Workday ecosystem, you are putting yourself in the best position to achieve your own career dreams.
*Insert self in the picture above*