PeopleTalk Podcast

This week we reflect upon a topic that Paul came across recently in the Harvard Business Review, the topic of Limits to performance – but more specifically, how some peoples high levels of performance do not translate well when they are promoted. As always, we chat openly around the subject through the lenses of each of Worlds; L&D, Recruitment and HR

People Development- Putting in plans to develop and nature high performing talent is key, but what about raising the conversation with those who may not make the next career step in your business, should we have this conversation? Should we have it early or should we support the person if they want to make the move and see if things work?

Recruitment- this has huge implications when it comes to a business's hiring strategy. We discussed, hiring potential v's 'ready made', Internal v's external hiring considerations, is there such thing as over promotion?

 HR– more often than not, the payoff for performing well is that you get the opportunity to climb the career ladder – so if we are saying this can be a poor decision for the individual and the business, how else can we manage performance and reward?

As the World slowly splutters back to life, we chat about the early impact this is having on our Worlds of HR, L&D and Recruitment 

As we all feel our way back in to some normal life again, how is this journey looking around work, does anyone have the answers and do we foresee this changing as time goes on??

We meander our way (as usual!) through the subject this week covering off;

- For some businesses, this is feeling like 'start up' territory again...exciting but plenty to do!
- Will a nervy candidate market cause challenges in sectors in growth mode?
- We have missed the human interaction...but will making time to do it again be a priority? 

This week we attempt to tackle the massive subject that is Social media in 20 minutes!! This will lead to a few spin off episodes to discuss a few topics in more detail. Today, lead by Rachel, we give summary to how Social media impacts each of our Worlds in HR, L&D and Recruitment.

Last year over 70% of 18-34 year olds found their new job via social

• Recruiting via Social...Do you know and understand your target audience?
• Creating the right content remains key
• Paid marketing is driving increase in performance and reach...therefore we must think like marketeers
• Learning content is being driven by the 'Youtube effect'
• Do you HR policies cover Social content?

We would love to continue this conversation in further episodes and would love to connect with any digital marketing people or employee lawyers with interest in this space and get you involved...find us via our links in the bio

We hit the quarter century this week with the 25th episode of the PeopleTalk podcast. 

Today...building trust through recruitment & onboarding, firstly is it possible and more importantly how can we do it. With the changing world of the last 18 months one trend that is shining through currently...the breaking of trust with current or past employers who have gone back on their word and how this is carrying over into recruitment processes for new opportunities...so how so do we build trust from the very first conversation to ensure we bring the best people in to the business and as a candidate you find the right role....and just importantly keep them!

With Chris leading today, he has seen that this seems focussed around a couple of key areas currently; flexibility of working in office/remotely and talk of bonus/commission and cynicism around it being paid.

 So with this in mind how do we build trust with prospective team members through a recruitment process...

 Today we chatted about-

- the moving landscape- if you are still finding your way....be honest!
- create open dialogue...and make it 2 way...this has to be right for both sides
- don't follow others, be true to you and what your business needs
- The opportunity to 'test' each other through a process is key...no surprises on day 1

Our key take aways as always revolve around openness, honesty and transparency of conversation

This week we're talking about the importance of the working environment to employee performance.

 With the World slowly returning some degree of freedom to us....we hope....today we talked specifically around what the working environment can do to impact performance of the business through the eyes of HR, L&D and Recruitment 

Rachel started us off defining the 2 aspects to the working environment:

• Physical environment – contentedness, health and well-being, Open offices were designed for open communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing
• Behavioural  environment – shaping work enjoyment, working relationships & processes – influenced by leaders & managers

 We go on to cover a range of topics (some actually related to the title today!) including; 

• Have we seen the trends in environment before but not on this scale? 
• how do you define a culture if you never come together?
• Do some businesses want to come back in to the office but are too scared to go against the grain of flex and hybrid trends?

This week, Paul lead our conversation around the topic of 'Team Building' which saw us focus particular attention on people returning to a physical office in the coming weeks and months. 

We feel this is the start in a series of chats around team building , particularly around the building of blended teams, mixing those in office and those remotely joining the set up. 

• Communication and clarity are key
• Expectation setting 
• What does 'team' mean in the business
• How to remind yourself that teams all think differently

An ongoing theme in the world of people in the workplace is that of talent. We ourselves have talked around this subject quite a bit recently. Businesses are always on the look-out for their next rising star, or are putting considerable effort to talent development within their business. 

We discuss this from a slightly different angle today around the question that Paul poses....Is there anything wrong with 'just' being a 'worker'?  What does it mean to be an individual that is happy with their current position, and what does it mean for a business to have employees that don't have lofty aspirations of senior leadership?

As always we cover a range of views over the 20 minutes this week which included;

• businesses should recognise that a team needs a core of solid, stable and reliable workers
• As we every sports team, we need the 'water carriers', those who don't seek the spot light and turn out 7/10 every week
• It's still ok to have a high performing culture and bring those in to the business that don't want to over achieve at every turn
• How do you develop these individuals in a different way?
• Leaders may need to learn that some people 'just' want to be solid at their current job