Garage sales are stocked with gifts that were not Appropriate

In a recent article, I described garage sales as an inexpensive source of fun tokens to help convey your message of appreciation, while keeping in mind that it’s your words that mean the most to recipients.

In addition to being a potential treasure trove of items that could be used to help convey your message, garage sales also offer evidence that others have failed to find Appropriate gifts to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries or to recognize staff.

Whether purchased at a neighbour’s sale or from a retailer, it is vital that symbols of our gratitude used when recognizing staff are selected with the recipient in mind. Appropriate tokens of appreciation should reflect your knowledge of the individual—their interests, hobbies, non-work life, career plan, reading preferences, etc.

Related Article: 7 Questions to Ask to Recognize Staff Appropriately

When I think about garage sales, the image that pops to mind is of a collection of games in a faux leather case embossed with the logo of the organization that likely presented it to an employee as an award after five or 10 years of service. I willingly paid seven dollars for it at a garage sale.

It includes several games I enjoy or should learn—backgammon, chess, cribbage, dominos, checkers and two decks of playing cards that provide an infinite number of games.

The collection was perfect—for me!

But obviously not for the recipient who didn’t even remove the cellophane wrapping before adding the box to the garage sale table.

Plainly, the gift was not selected with the recipient in mind. The employer didn’t know this individual well enough to realize that a games collection would be of no interest.

In my first book, Thanks! GREAT Job!, I recalled a conversation with an acquaintance who unintentionally illustrated what happens when what is meant to convey a message of appreciation is not Appropriate. She showed me a set of glasses etched with her employer’s logo that she—and everyone other employee—had received to mark a milestone in the company’s development.

“I would really like to have more of these,” she told me. “They are really expensive glasses but most people don’t know that. I am sure that I’ll be able to buy more at garage sales next summer.”

It was yet another confirmation of the truth of “Guru of Thanks” Bob Nelson’s estimate that up to 90 per cent of the money being spent on recognition trinkets is wasted. Many of these items are destined for landfills or garage sales. 

I can’t escape this article unscathed. Years ago, I was part of a school district’s leadership that decided that everyone—teachers, support staff, custodians—who worked for the school system would appreciate receiving a baseball cap with the district logo.

Well, we were wrong. Some were not thrilled to receive a baseball cap to show they were part of the team.

Within 24 hours, at least one had been donated to a used clothing store and a friend took delight in reporting that a cap had been observed on the head of someone definitely not associated with the school system.

There is a common theme to these stories of recognition gone wrong. They demonstrate one of the 12 staff recognition practices to avoid that I included in my new book Thanks, Again!—believing that “one size fits all”

That’s not true for clothing and it’s not true for staff recognition. No two staff members are alike. Everyone has distinctive characteristics. Recognition that fits one person may not be a good match to a colleague’s recognition preference or reflect what’s important to them. Recognition that is Appropriate is more memorable than when everyone receives the same generic award. 

One-size-fits-all recognition doesn’t work.

Thanks, Again! will be available for purchase during its official launch on Tuesday evening, October 3 at 7:00 p.m. in the Second Cup Cafe, 8303 112 Street NW, Edmonton. You can also buy Thanks, Again! at Audreys Books, 10702 Jasper Avenue, Edmonton (and on their website) and online from Amazon, Indigo, and the FriesenPress Bookstore.

Skills: Now or Later?

The advice to “hire for attitude and train for skills” presents employers with a challenge. It requires them to abandon a fixation on past career histories in order to evaluate candidates in a more holistic way. 

Your hiring process should go beyond looking at candidates’ education and training and their on-the-job experience. Those are all easy to measure, but they are not a measure of the candidate’s suitability to fill your vacancy.

For some jobs, specific educational requirements are non-negotiable (think teachers, nurses, accountants, engineers, etc.). Certain skills are essential from Day One, but other skills that are necessary for future success in many jobs can be acquired through training.

There may be some value in three or five years of experience, but only if the experience is relevant and if the person did the work in the right way. Five years of doing a job poorly is likely worse than having never done the job at all. It’s easier to learn new skills than to first unlearn bad habits developed over years before training to do the job properly.

It is unwise to think believe an applicant who has done a similar job in the past has the skills for the position you need filled. Instead, you should anticipate hiring people who will need training to meet your performance expectations, even if they have done a similar job before.

Requiring applicants to have a specific number of years of experience does not at all guarantee they have the right skills to do the job you are offering. Including a long list of required skills in advertising in the hope of attracting the right person may instead  discourage very trainable individuals from applying because they lack some of the “required” skills.

It’s enticing to think that you will be able to hire people with all the skills you require. It would certainly reduce your training costs! Employers may also feel they can’t afford to wait for new employees to learn the skills needed. 

But ideal potential employees are rare.

Accepting that no one will be able to step into a new job and be immediately productive frees you to move beyond focusing on only skills when hiring. It allows you to examine potential an employee’s attitude and to consider what they could add to the culture of your workplace. 

In the hiring context, attitude is more than being “friendly” or “enthusiastic.” It is about how people approach work. What is their commitment to customer service and collaboration? Do they apply their creativity and integrity to their work? What motivates them? 

Some will argue that candidates can fake attitude but they can’t fake skills. Anticipating that this may be the case, ask questions that require candidates to describe how their commitment to customers service, collaboration with co-workers, or making carefully considered decisions was reflected in their performance in previous work settings.

To learn more about how a candidate’s past performance has reflected their values and attitudes, confirm what you hear during interviews when checking references.

When you commit to hiring for attitude and some skills, it’s important to identify which skills are fundamental to the job and required on Day One and for which skills you are prepared to give the new employee training.

In a twist on the oft-used interview questions, “What are your career goals?” and “Where do you want to be in five years?” (which in a previous article I advised not asking during interviews), instead set learning targets for newly hired staff that will make them successful in your organization.

As their supervisor, identify what you expect their skill level to be in two years’ time and establish milestones along the way.

If you plan to hire primarily for attitude and are prepared to train new employees, it’s important, during the hiring process, to assess their motivation to learn. Has their past performance reflected their willingness to learn new skills and to do so quickly? 

Garage Sales — a source for inexpensive tokens of appreciation

Limited budget for staff recognition? Searching for inexpensive tokens to convey your messages of appreciation? Look no further than neighbourhood garage sales.

As the refrain goes, “One person’s garbage is another person’s treasure.”

Shopping garage sales is a way to find inexpensive items to recognize staff for what they do. The treasures to be found at garage sales can become Appropriate ways to recognize staff.

Recognition that is Appropriate respects the recipients’ recognition preferences and reflects their interests.

Finding Appropriate tokens of appreciation at garage sales or elsewhere requires that you know staff well enough to recognize what will be an Appropriate match for them when you convey your message of appreciation.

As is true of any item employed when recognizing staff, garage sale treasures are just symbols that are used to support your message of gratitude. What really matters to recipients are the words you use to say thank you.

When presenting these recycled tokens of appreciation be upfront about the source. Don’t attempt to pass off items sourced from a garage sale table as new, even though some items you discover will never have been used.

Explain why you thought about your staff member when you saw the items and why you believe someone else’s discard may be something they will treasure because it relates to their interests.

Recently, I chanced upon a gigantic garage sale raising money for a local choir. As I went from table to table, I discovered items that would be perfect for people who are in my circle of family and friends.

You can do the same.

During my garage sale experience, I found the following items that I believe would be Appropriate because they relate to the interests of people in my world:

• A Harry Potter game for someone who is a great fan of the boy wizard.
• A collection of mystery stories for a mystery lover.
• A handmade tea pot for someone who enjoys nothing more than a good cup of tea to begin his day.
• A box set of Big Bang Theory DVDs for a fan of the series.
• A hardback copy of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin for a history buff
• A travel guide for the country someone dreams of visiting.
• A cookbook for the “resident chef” who is always searching for new recipes to try.
• Coffee cups for someone who volunteers at a seniors drop-in centre that is always short of cups for its clients.

What you purchase for a dollar or a bit more (or less) does not have to be presented right away. Set it aside until the moment is right—when it’s time to thank an individual for what they achieved or how they contributed.

The advantage of a delay is that if you are anxious for an opportunity to present this “perfect” token of your appreciation  you will be more alert for actions warranting recognition.

The next time you visit a garage sale, think about the people with whom you work. What will you see that will be Appropriate for some staff members? They will thank you and so will your staff recognition budget.

How to write interview questions to get evidence you need to identify the right person

Along with resumes and application forms and reference checks, interviews are an important component of the process that will assist you to identify the right person to hire—as distinct from the “best” person.

Interviews are an opportunity to learn more about candidates than what you learned from their resumes or application forms. It’s an opportunity to collect evidence about candidates’ previous on-the-job experience. Have they done the right things in the right way for your workplace?

The questions you ask during interviews determine the quality of the information you gather. Before writing your questions, be clear about what you want to learn from the candidates’ answers.

Questions should be tailored to the vacancy to be filled and to the culture of your organization.

If you ask questions because they are the questions that everyone is asking, you can be assured that those are the questions the candidates have prepared themselves to answer. You will learn little about candidates from their well-rehearsed answers. 

There are three considerations when deciding what you will ask about:

Your top performers—What do they do that makes them successful? Write and ask questions that require candidates to describe how they have responded to circumstances similar to what they will experience if hired. Do the candidates provide evidence of having responded as your top performers would respond?

Your organization’s values—What candidates have done previously tells you about their values related to integrity, collaboration, teamwork, customer services, etc. Ask questions to ascertain if the candidates’ past behaviour corresponds to how you would want them to perform. Has what they have done demonstrated that their integrity or commitment to collaboration aligns with that of your organization?

Your organization’s future—What skills, competencies and values are required of staff members who will help carry your organization to its desired future? Use interviews to determine if candidates possess what you will need from them to move your organization forward.

Use the following guidelines when writing interview questions:

Think past tense: Ask about what candidates have done, not what they will do. You want evidence of how they have acted, not speculation about what they might do. Keep in mind the principle of behaviour description interviews (BDI). It states that, “Past performance is the best predictor of future performance.” People tend to respond to situations in the same ways as they responded to similar circumstances in the past. Does what you hear from the candidate align with what you would expect top performers to do and the values of your organization? Begin your requests for information with phrases such as, “Describe a time when …” or “Recall when you were …”

Keep your questions short: Challenge yourself to write questions that could be tweeted, especially back when tweets were limited to just 140 characters. The longer the question, the more likely you are to provide hints about how you want it answered. Candidates will listen to interviewers’ words for hints about what they want to hear. The more talkative interviewers are, the less effective they become.

Be prepared to ask followup questions: Probe to learn more. The more you learn about candidates, the better prepared you are to decide who is the right person to hire. Ask when and where what they describe occurred. Encourage them with “tell me more.” Seek clarification when required. Point out inconsistencies.

Plan how you will assess candidates: Create an assessment tool that consists of a rubric against which you assess candidates. In this way, you will be prepared to compare candidates against standards you established prior to the interview and not to each other.

Prepare to take notes: Create a note-taking form that includes your initial request for information, followup questions and the assessment rubric. 

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Participants in Interview Right to Hire Right workshops will have opportunities to craft and receive feedback on questions they can use the next time they have a vacancy to file. Contact Nelson to schedule a workshop for your leadership team (nmscott@telus.net or 780-232-3828).