BC Business
How to Motivate Your Team
If you’re The Personnel Department At the Vancouver headquarters of The Personnel Department, the long-service diamonds may dazzle and the overseas trips may tempt, but president and founder Leslie Meingast, 52, insists that it takes more than perks to motivate your workforce. “It starts with the hiring of people,” she says. “We have customized benchmarking that has really helped us narrow-in the kinds of people who would be successful here. If you make sure you get it right in the beginning, it is easier to keep working with people when you understand their personal motivations.” The company’s benchmarking program starts with current employees. The top performers are asked to complete an assessment and the results are analyzed to identify the type of person that is most likely to succeed. From those results, a hiring equation is formulated and when potential recruits fill in a new assessment questionnaire, they have to make a company fit of 78 per cent or more to make the grade. It may seem harsh and inflexible but Katie Bowkett, VP and 12-year veteran of the company, says this method is much more sensitive than many of the personality and behaviour assessments currently available. “The benchmarking tool we use is really unique. It drills down to the attributes of each person, which are very specific, rather than their traits, which are very general. It has had a huge effect on the quality of our hires as well as the length of tenure.” As a company that specializes in recruitment, retention and HR consulting across a range of sectors, it’s no surprise that it has access to the most sophisticated recruitment methods. But how do they keep their 300 B.C.-based employees engaged and focused once they have landed the job? A good starting point is personal acknowledgement, says Bowkett. “People need to know the value that they personally bring. How what they do every day impacts the company, the reputation of the company, their own career development and the bottom line for the company.” Acknowledgement comes in many forms, with diamonds given for ten years of service and exceptional performance “over and above the call of duty.” There’s also the biannual winners circle jaunt to destinations such as Hawaii and San Francisco for staff that have met or exceeded their targets. To ensure optimum performance, the company runs its own in-house training scheme – TPDU. The Personnel Department University is a compulsory, credit-based program comprised of mandatory and elective career-related courses that are taken on company time. The Personnel Department also provides funding for any member of staff who wants to gain external accreditation such as a master’s degree. The more relevant the course to the business, the more funding they receive. If, like The Personnel Department, you have multiple locations (in its case, six offices in Canada, Australia and the U.S.), it takes more than a mission statement on a wall to ensure that the corporate vision is shared and understood by all. Katie Bowkett says Meingast’s high-profile presence is a definite bonus. “She likes to provide direction and advice and she spends a lot of time in the branches talking to people. This hands-on style isn’t just a personal preference, says Meingast – it’s essential for success. Most importantly, you need to cultivate an inclusive workplace, says Bowkett. “We have expectations that everybody who works for us to come up with new ideas and we are always encouraging that participation. We have regular meetings with the staff and the TPDU was a brainchild of one of those meetings.” If diamonds aren’t in your budget, Meingast says focus on the essentials: hire for company fit as well as skill set, allow room for personal and professional growth, be clear about individual responsibilities, actively nurture a positive company culture, and if the executives do make their presence felt, make sure that they instill inspiration, not fear. Throw in a competitive compensation package with profit sharing options and flexible working options and you, too, could prosper.