Course title:
Staffing – Recruitment, Retention,
Development: A Best
Practices Approach
By Marianne Ransom
Director of Human Resources
Attracting and retaining
employees is one of the greatest challenges that companies and managers
face. Finding and keeping the best
people is no longer simply a human resources issue but a challenge that is
discussed in board rooms. One
executive recently said, “The real Y2K problem is not computers, it’s people!”
What is going on?
The challenge of attracting
and retaining employees results from the fact that as the demand for workers is
increasing, the workforce growth rate is declining. In 1998 the unemployment rate was 4.4% and it remains at record
lows. The growth rate in the labor
force has steadily declined from 2.5% in 1965 to .75% in 1999. By the year 2015, the labor force will
actually begin to shrink. It is clear
from these statistics that human capital is the next frontier for competitive
advantage. One of the ways to get a
competitive edge in today’s labor market is to become an employer of
choice.
One of the most important
steps to take in becoming an employee of choice is to find out what employees
want. This information is readily
available and can be obtained through surveys, exit interviews, focus groups,
and other sources. But then, you, as an employee yourself, probably know the
answer to that question. We want it all!
We want challenging and interesting work and lots of incentives (pay,
perks, benefits). We want a clear corporate
vision and high quality leadership. We
want a great work environment and to be recognized for our contributions. And,
while it’s impossible to outline all the opportunities for creating an optimal
work environment, there are a few identifiable practices that can make a
difference. This paper will focus on WRQ, a software company in Seattle,
Washington that has become an employer of choice and some of our key practices.
WRQ has received local, national, and international attention for
being one of the best companies to work for, and for creating a corporate
culture that attracts top performers. WRQ, with over 700 employees worldwide,
has an 18-year history of growth, profitability, award-winning products and
services, and a high employee retention rate.
In fact, in 1997, WRQ was honored by Arthur Andersen, receiving both the
Local and National Enterprise Award for Best Practices in “Motivating, Training
and Retaining Employees.” Recently,
WRQ was recognized by Fortune Magazine
as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.”
One of
the distinguishing factors about WRQ and the workforce challenge of the
millennium, is the company’s value-based approach. Doug Walker, WRQ’s CEO and
founder, refers to the company’s employees as its greatest asset. Since the beginning, WRQ has been operated
with the employee in mind. The three
values that come to the forefront are individual responsibility, respect and
business success. We strive to create
an environment where each individual has the responsibility and the authority
to find solutions and bring new ideas to fruition. This responsibility creates a sense of purpose and commitment,
and the result is employee loyalty. We
also strive for a trust-based work environment that values honesty, listening,
and direct communication. Ownership is
also encouraged at every level in the organization. Each employee is responsible to do what is best for co-workers,
customers, and the company. Here’s a
high level view of some of WRQ’s best practices for attracting and retaining
employees.
Nothing is more
critical to WRQ’s continued success than hiring the best people in the
industry. The best way to retain
employees starts with the hiring process, by getting the right person in the
right job. We do this by making it a
practice to find people that not only offer relevant skills and experience, but
also possess the qualities that will make them successful in our
environment. To make sure this happens,
WRQ employees have identified some characteristics for managers and
employees. These characteristics are
used as a basis for interviewing. WRQ
hiring managers choose an interview team and meet with in-house recruiters to
generate a recruiting strategy.
Interview teams consist of people from the hiring team and some
potential co-workers. In this age of
“hire ‘em quick before they get another offer,” we strive to strike a balance
between moving quickly to get candidate through the process and taking the
necessary time to determine fit. One of
the ways we do this is by training our managers and interview teams to use
behavorial-style interviewing techniques that solicit examples of real live past
experiences from applicants, rather than descriptions of hypothetical
situations. We screen candidates for
integrity, effective communication and listening skills, the ability to
collaborate, and evidence of a respectful nature. Because the high-tech industry
is rapidly changing, WRQ hires individuals who are intelligent, curious,
innovative and resourceful, and can adapt to changing conditions. WRQ uses a long-term approach when hiring
candidates because today’s needed skill set may be obsolete next year. Some of the ideal WRQ characteristics
include:
·
Highest level of personal and professional integrity
·
Intelligent and intellectually inquisitive
·
Good communicator and listener
·
Self motivated, self-managed; takes individual
responsibility
·
Team player
·
Tolerant of ambiguity
·
Treats everyone with respect and dignity
·
Good work ethic
WRQ
has designed behavioral interview questions for each of these characteristics
that are part of an interview guide that is available to hiring teams on the
intranet. Here are some examples:
Integrity:
“Tell me about a situation when
it was neceesary for you to have the trust of others. What was the situation?
How did you know that others perceived you as trustworthy?”
Ambiguity: “Tell me about a time you started
working one way, but events dictated a change.
What was the change? What did
you do? What was the outcome or result?”
At
WRQ, sourcing, recruiting and hiring is the responsibility of everyone who
works there. Currently, approximately
40 percent of the people we hire are referred by employees. WRQ reinforces this priority in several
ways. We have a very successful
employee referral program offering a gift certificate for a cup of premium coffee
to employees who e-mail an applicant’s resume to our electronic database. We
pay employees between $150 to $900,
depending on the position, if the person they refer is hired. Sometimes we will double the amount to renew
interest and increase our candidates.
The success of this program is proof that WRQers enjoy working for the
company and they want their friends and former associates to work there
too. Other sourcing strategies include
advertising (print and Internet), Intranet job posting, networking, recruiting
for leads at our new employee orientations and occasionally working with search
firms and agency recruiters.
The evangelist
team
The
idea of continuous hiring is one that we are beginning to formalize internally
through our newly developed evangelist team.
The evangelist team is a group of employee volunteers that will help
refer people, not just for current open positions, but to build a data base of
qualified people from which to draw for future positions. This team will be responsible for fostering
the continuous hiring idea within WRQ to continue building our pool of
qualified candidates and develop relationships with people that may work at WRQ
at some point in the future.
Perhaps the number one tool for attraction and retention is employee development. In this age of rapid change in technology and the globalization of work, WRQ acknowledges the importance of providing people with the opportunity not only remain current in their field but learn new skills and development expertise. These opportunities are reflected in every aspect of our corporate training programs.
Employee
development courses help employees improve their skills in areas such as
communication, performance planning, interviewing and interpersonal
skills. Because employees know best
what kind of education development they need, WRQ has a tuition reimbursement
program that provides financial assistance for employees in order to increase
their expertise and advance in their careers. Job related training is paid at
100%. The WRQ philosophy of continuing
education is to support both the personal and professional growth of employees
in a way that will ultimately benefit both the employee and WRQ.
Management development
WRQ
has a management development program designed to help groom leaders to be
better operational and strategic managers.
The curriculum is designed to provide managers with the necessary skills
to ensure that WRQ is successful. The
course work focuses both on providing managers the opportunity to gain basic
skills as well as leadership development.
One
of our courses is a new manager orientation, the purpose of which is to educate
new or newly promoted managers within WRQ.
The course provides a general overview of WRQ’s internal management
processes, as well as an overview of the tools and resources available to
managers. Topics covered are corporate
strategic initiatives (presented by the President, CEO, or COO), recruiting,
hiring, compensation, retention strategies, communication, performance
planning, and an overview of available HR support and resources. Another course we offer is a two-day
Intentional Leadership Course where managers learn how to lead and inspire.
Recently
WRQ designed a personal development program for managers to encourage them to
share their expertise with each other.
Managers are encouraged to pick an area they need to develop, explore
ways to do so, and to find an opportunity to receive mentoring.
Education, training, and support
In addition to the people development courses WRQ offers:
·
Global Sales Education:
Training for field and channel sales people for WRQ around the world.
·
Online Learning:
Web-based training classes that are designed for technical staff who support
WRQ products.
·
Technical Training:
Opportunities to learn more about supporting WRQ's products including classes,
discussions, meetings and other events.
·
Third-Party Vendor Technical Training: Technical training classes are available for non-WRQ products,
such as programming, networking, and using Microsoft applications.
·
WRQ Employee IT Technical Training: Employee IT Technical Training classes are designed for
those who provide technical support for WRQ products and need to advance their
installation, configuration, and troubleshooting skills.
·
WRQ Community College: These
classes are held every Thursday during the lunch hour. The sessions are
brown-bag sessions (i.e. employees bring their own lunch) and very informal.
The topics include information about our products, our markets, or our own
internal departments.
·
Weekly
Meeting: The company-wide meeting is held weekly to provide
information about the business of WRQ.
Employees come to this meeting to hear important updates about what is
happening with WRQ’s business as well as an in-depth presentation or discussion
of a hot topic or business issue. Notes from the meeting are distributed to the
entire company.
·
Benefits
Fair: Each year WRQ coordinates a Benefits Fair.
Representatives from our insurance carriers, EAP, transportation programs are
available to answer employee questions in a fair-like setting. Free cholesterol, blood pressure, and body
fat testing, ten-minute massages, and drawings for prizes are provided.
New performance planning initiative
Currently WRQ is
working to implement a structured, yet compelling performance planning process
that includes core competencies, a career development component, and is
supported by Human Resource Management Systems functionality. Desired outcomes of this process will be
that managers will be better able to communicate expectations, understand the
road to success, and understand their role in supporting, adapting with and
driving the business strategies of WRQ. Elements of this process will include:
·
A collaborative process, incorporating an employee
self-review
·
An
evaluation by a set of core competencies as defined for WRQ
·
A
non-ranking method of evaluating employee performance, designed to provide
metrics for solid benchmarking of activities and outcomes, feedback, recognition of accomplishments, areas for
improvement and a road map for future success
·
A
component to identify career development opportunities
·
A
component to identify professional development opportunities
·
A
process to identify a succession plan for key employees
According to the Towers
Perrin Workplace Index, the factors critically important to employees’
willingness to commit to a company include the degree to which:
·
Employees believe the company treats them fairly
·
The company considers their interests
·
The company shares financial success with them.
Each of these factors can be
observed in WRQ’s compensation programs.
The compensation programs at WRQ are intended to encourage employees to
act consistently with our company objectives and values as well as to reinforce
them. The philosophy behind our
compensation plan is to attract and retain individuals who are committed to
quality and to encourage employees to have outstanding customer service and
integrity, to do their best and to bring out the best in others. Through our compensation plan we encourage
initiative, free exchange of ideas and employee involvement.
The compensation plan at WRQ
provides consistent guidelines for base salaries, but it does not impose
excessive rules that would inhibit the manager’s judgment. Our compensation program contains these
elements:
·
Competitive: The company is committed to providing total
compensation opportunities that are competitive with those offered in
comparable positions in other organizations with which we compete for
employees.
·
Internal
Equity: It is of major importance that compensation at WRQ
reflects each employee's level of expertise, ability to contribute and actual performance
level and that pay opportunities are managed consistently across the
organization.
·
Employee
Involvement: WRQ involves employees in the development of pay
programs and encourages them to play a role in administration, evaluation, and
improvement of those programs.
·
Communication: WRQ
provides each manager with the information needed to understand the
compensation programs and the tools necessary to make sound pay decisions. In addition, all employees are provided with
the information and education necessary to fully understand their own total
compensation packages.
WRQ shares the performance of the organization with
employees and rewards them for their level of contribution in the following
ways:
WRQ strives
to create an environment where people can develop in all aspects of their
lives. By providing resources that enable employees to take care of themselves
and their families, we remove barriers that can stymie employee creativity and
productivity. We believe that employees who are fully engaged and passionate
about their pursuits will be the best contributors to the long-term success of
the company.
One way WRQ
respects its employees is by encouraging people to balance their work and
personal obligations. The company does
this through the retirement benefits, comprehensive health and welfare
benefits, generous time-off benefits, flexible work schedules, and
telecommuting. WRQ has a pilot
job-share program in the sales group that was developed by employees. The Human Resources department is
continuously evaluating the benefits it offers its employees. One of the
reasons WRQ implemented a cafeteria benefits plan was to allow its employees
greater flexibility and more choices, as well as to attract and retain a
diverse workforce with varied expectations and needs.
WRQ fosters productivity by
providing employees with the tools they need to efficiently perform their job
responsibilities. The company makes good use of technology—voice mail, e-mail,
cellular phones, and laptop computers--which are available to all WRQers. Each employee has a PC with access to the
Internet/intranet, and WRQ has successfully harnessed the benefits of the
Internet/intranet to keep employees abreast of the company’s business
operations. Employees can easily and conveniently access the same information
whether they are in the Seattle office, at home, on the road or visiting one of
its satellite offices. Some examples of
the kinds of information that WRQ makes available in electronic form to all
employees are: product sales information, company financial reports, trip
reports from sales people and systems engineers, and weekly meeting
minutes.
Many departments at WRQ have
their own Web pages on the intranet that include descriptions of services and
products. For example, the Human
Resources web page includes information on its health and welfare
benefits—including some carriers’ summary plan descriptions, 401(k) quarterly
results, and the Employee Handbook. WRQ’s high level of automation makes it
efficient for employees to communicate with one other and get the information
they need. WRQ has also implemented a WRQ photo directory on-line that contains
pictures of many employees, a floor plan showing where the person sits, as well
as a description of where the employee works and what they do.
WRQ provides resources for
employees, teams, and individuals to celebrate. Each team has the flexibility
to plan its own celebrations, i.e., birthday parties, mixers, product launch
parties, and other informal gatherings that recognize special team
accomplishments. WRQ team and
company-wide events are also used as a venue for employee communication and as
team-building opportunities. Our Halloween party includes office-to-office
trick or treating, a haunted house, and a costume contest for WRQ kids. Each year, we sponsor a “Bring Your Child to
Work Day” so that our children have an opportunity to find out what it’s like
to work for a software company.
WRQ also has corporate participation in sporting
events, such as the Mariners, for individual employees to use with family or
friends. WRQ purchases season tickets
to the symphony, which are distributed by lottery to employees and also
provides a zoo pass for use by any WRQ employee and their family or friends.
WRQ has two architecturally
innovative facilities, the Westlake Union Center and the 1100 Dexter Building,
where almost every employee has an individual office. Both buildings are equipped with locker and shower rooms for
those who work out at lunch-time or use alternative transportation to commute
to work. Additional amenities include secured bicycle storage areas, kayak
parking, futon rooms for on-site massage and lactation rooms for nursing
mothers. Our newest facility offers a covered basketball court to encourage
friendly scrimmages during lunch breaks.
Employees at
WRQ receive service awards for their years of service at the 5-, 10- and the
15-year mark. Currently this award is
an embossed jacket.
WRQ believes that its business success gives us the opportunity to be generous with both time and money in supporting the community. This belief is carried across every level of the company, from the founding partners to the newest employees. It is an important part of WRQ’s business philosophy and corporate culture. Sometimes, it is the reason why people go to work there. There is a sense of teamwork that is derived from a group of employees working together to reach a common goal. WRQ employees are proud to make a difference in our community and this attitude shows up in our work environment. Doing what it can to preserve our environment and giving something back to the community makes long-term business sense, for everyone.
As a company, WRQ has
selected two organizations to receive major support: Childhaven and The Nature Conservancy. WRQ has committed more
than $1.35 million to The Nature Conservancy in the last five year, and over $1
million to Childhaven, an organization dedicated to helping abused children and
their families. WRQ has been the lead
donor for two major fund raising campaigns for The Nature Conservancy (TNC). In
addition to WRQ’s monetary support, employees lend numerous hours volunteering
their time to support the efforts of these two organizations. However, TNC and
Childhaven are not the only organizations that benefit from WRQers time and
resources.
Many WRQers are active in other charitable causes. WRQ encourages employees to continue their work and offers support by matching funds and by providing financial support to organizations in which WRQ employees play active roles. Employees who are willing to give of their time as volunteers have the company’s support to use company resources and, quite often, company time. WRQ employees are very community service minded. In addition to individual involvement with various charitable organizations, teams of WRQers participate in regularly scheduled events that benefit our community. Some of the community events we support are Earth Day beautification projects, Adopt-A-Street clean-ups, blood donations, and food drives. These philanthropic events not only improve the quality of our community but also serve as fun, social activities for our employees.
Earth-friendly practices
WRQ also
supports the community in which it is located through its earth -
friendly practices. Earth-friendly practices are not a new-found
value for WRQ. Since the company’s
inception in the early 1980’s, WRQ has incorporated a conservation philosophy
in every aspect of its business operations.
WRQ’s program for conserving resources and remediating environmental
damage consists of several elements: an extensive recycling program,
alternative transportation program, contributions to environmental
organizations, and other earth-friendly practices.
CONCLUSION
Becoming an employer of choice means creating a work
environment where employees can work hard, feel valued, and gain the skills
they need to be competitive. It takes a lot of dedication and commitment—and it needs to start from the top.The more companies work to create an environment where people can motivate themselves, the more success will follow. And the benefits extend not just to the employees, but to the community and beyond.