Reduce Hiring Costs While Improving Person-Role Fit with ORCA’s SMARTHIRING©

In the competitive landscape of today's business world, organizations are constantly striving to find the perfect match between candidates and job requirements.

The ideal employee possesses the right skills, fits seamlessly into the company culture, and aligns with the core values of the organization. After all, a well-suited hire can drive performance and growth, while the wrong choice can cost precious time, money, and team morale.

According to The Fordyce Letter, key executive vacancies alone can incur costs exceeding $50,000 per day. In response to these challenges, ORCA HR Solutions presents SMARTHIRING© – a groundbreaking science-based framework designed to transform your recruitment process and optimize your hiring outcomes.

What is SMARTHIRING© and What Does It Entail?

SMARTHIRING© is more than just a program; it’s a comprehensive strategy that combines objective methodologies with science-based tools to ensure your hiring decisions are grounded in data-driven insights. It’s about finding the perfect fit, not just for the role but also for your organization’s unique values and culture. Through SMARTHIRING©, HR leaders, recruiting teams, sales managers, and CEOs gain access to a powerful toolkit that assists in making well-informed decisions, ultimately leading to enhanced company performance.

In the following video, Paul O’Beirne, CEO of ORCA HR Solutions, delves into the challenges faced by HR leaders and managers when seeking to hire the perfect candidates. Dive into the practical approach that transforms this framework into a prudent investment with substantial returns. Explore the realm of SMARTHIRING© and uncover how this scientifically grounded strategy can reshape your recruitment landscape, bringing a fundamental shift to your organization’s hiring decisions.

How Companies Are Using The Program And Which Roles Benefits the Most

The SMARTHIRING© approach is versatile and applicable to companies of various sizes. Whether you’re a small enterprise or a large corporation, this program can elevate your recruitment game. While SMARTHIRING© can be tailored to various roles, organizations that employ sales and service-based individuals have shown the greatest potential for reaping its benefits. By combining science with strategy, SMARTHIRING© is particularly effective in roles where a candidate’s behavioral alignment, skills, and acumen are crucial to success.

Benefits of SMARTHIRING©

Embracing SMARTHIRING© comes with a host of advantages that can reshape the way you hire:

 

●      Precision Matching: SMARTHIRING© ensures a strong alignment between candidates and job requirements, reducing the risk of mismatches.

●      Custom Benchmarks: Unlike one-size-fits-all approaches, SMARTHIRING© crafts a unique benchmark tailored to your specific organizational needs and culture.

●      Reduced Turnover: By identifying the best-suited candidates, SMARTHIRING© contributes to a higher retention rate, saving your organization time and resources.

●      Enhanced Collaboration: A collaboration meeting assists in fostering effective communication between new hires and managers, setting the stage for successful onboarding.

●      Strategic Advantage: SMARTHIRING© equips your organization with the tools to make hiring decisions that provide a competitive edge.

The SMARTHIRING© Approach

At the heart of SMARTHIRING© lies a structured process that guarantees holistic evaluation:

  1. Job Profile: ORCA collaborates with clients to define the role’s key accountabilities, success metrics, and high-performance expectations. Ensuring alignment among key stakeholders, this step lays the foundation for success.
  2. Job Assessment: A comprehensive blueprint is created, analyzing behaviors, motivators, competencies, and acumen essential for the role. This goes beyond a mere candidate qualification – it’s about understanding what your business truly needs.
  3. Hiring: Using the job profile and blueprint, SMARTHIRING© evaluates individual applicants, focusing on holistic compatibility rather than a narrow checklist.
  4. Gap Analysis: By comparing candidates’ profiles with job requirements, SMARTHIRING© identifies any gaps and provides insights for informed decisions.
  5. Onboarding: A collaboration meeting report facilitates effective communication between new hires and managers by highlighting predominant behaviors, motivators, and skills for proactive interactions.

Why SMARTHIRING©?

The driving force behind SMARTHIRING© is ORCA HR Solutions’ dedication to enhancing hiring outcomes. By incorporating objective methodologies and science-based tools, SMARTHIRING© offers a systematic approach to address the challenges organizations face during recruitment. It’s not just about making hires – it’s about making the right hires that align with your organization’s vision and goals.

Elevate your hiring decisions with SMARTHIRING© – the science-backed strategy that transforms recruitment, aligns candidates with company culture, and propels your organization toward success. 

 

To learn more about how SMARTHIRING© can redefine your hiring process and create lasting impacts register for our educational webinar at learning.orcahrsolutions.com/webinars/orcas-smarthiring or  contact our team at experts@orcasolutions.com

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How Tech Companies Can Manage Stress Through Assessments

ORCA Blog Featured Image 11

Workplace stress is at an all-time high and those in the tech and IT industry are shouldering more than most. 

According to Gartner, Inc., by 2025, nearly half of cybersecurity leaders will change jobs, 25% for different roles entirely due to multiple work-related stressors. Employee burnout and anxiety are leading to record attrition rates, and organizations that rely on the knowledge and dedication of their workforce are facing a significant threat to their security teams.

Although many of these companies know that workplace stress is an issue, often it can be considered an individual issue, not something the company itself needs to change. Or if a company does want to address stress, they aren’t sure how to diagnose, make changes and measure that change. That’s where stress assessments and workshops can help to give good data and actionable steps to make an impact. 

But first, let’s talk about the issues that cause stress in tech organizations.  

The damage of workplace stress when left unaddressed

When employees experience stress, it can have a significant impact on the organization as a whole. Prioritizing the wellbeing of employees by taking steps to manage stress levels is critical for organizations, and leaders, who wish to create a healthier and more productive workforce. Workplace stress can cause: 

  • Burnout: a common result of prolonged stress, can cause employees to feel exhausted and disengaged from their work. This can lead to decreased productivity, lower morale, and increased absenteeism.
  • Attrition: employees who experience high levels of stress are more likely to leave their jobs, seeking opportunities with better work-life balance or lower stress levels. 
  • Work Quality: when employees are stressed, they may make mistakes, miss important details, or fail to take necessary precautions, leading to an increased risk of errors. 
  • Security Threats: employees who are stressed and burnt out are less likely to follow security guidelines and protocols leading to a higher risk of data breaches. 

Security threats are especially concerning for the IT and cybersecurity sector where insider threats such as data theft, sabotage and malicious activity require constant vigilance from employees. Mismanagement of critical security tasks can lead to data breaches and compromise an organization’s sensitive data which could easily result in fines, penalties and punitive consequences. 

Diagnosing stress through assessments

Workplace stress can be a complex issue that manifests in different ways depending on the individual and the organization. Without a proper diagnosis, it can be difficult to determine the root cause of workplace stressors. For example, you may not be aware of which departments or roles are most affected, what specific stressors are present, or how stress impacts individual or team performance. Without this information, any solution or intervention implemented may be ineffective or even counterproductive, as they may not address the underlying causes. Not to mention, without a clear understanding of the problem, it can be challenging to measure the effectiveness of any interventions.

Assessments, like the TTI SI assessment offered by ORCA, are powerful tools that can diagnose issues like stress on an individual, team or organizational level. This allows for real data that can give companies a baseline of where they are at now as well as showing improvements over time. As we all know, without data and measurable results, C-suite leaders and board members are less likely to take action. 

Addressing stress individually for leaders

Leaders who take an active role in managing stress at their organization create a more positive and productive work environment that benefits not only their team but the organization as a whole. When leadership is involved it sends a clear message to staff that their wellbeing is a top priority, leading to increased engagement and a more positive work culture. However, our philosophy is that leaders must show by example and manage their own wellbeing first before they can help others. Actions from leadership trickle down and sets the tone for the whole organization.

That’s why helping leaders identify their individual stressors is vital to the organization as a whole.

When working with ORCA, the TTI SI Assessment is paired with ORCA 4 A’s of Conscious Leadership framework so leaders can identify their stressors and take action to solve them.

Diagnosing stress within teams and organizations

Similarly, assessment can also be utilized to diagnose workplace stressors within teams or in the organization as a whole. Organizations can: 

  • Determine how stress is impacting productivity 
  • See if work demands are spurring discontent 
  • Uncover unresolved issues across teams 
  • Have the prompts to address stress head-on

This helps companies then implement programs and actions to reduce the specific stressors that are most important. 

Companies that proactively address and effectively manage workplace stress are seen as more attractive places to work and will help retain and attract great talent. 

Get a sneak peek.

With stress being such an issue for many of our clients, we’ve created some additional free resources so you can learn more about how to actionably diagnose and manage stress in your organization. 

I’ve created a free 15 minute mini-course on 7 ways you can diagnose organizational stress—AND 7 ways to actionably address that stress, now.

In just a few minutes, I’ll give you an overview of: 

  • Why stress management is important for organizations
  • The 7 factors of stress in the workplace 
  • How to measure the 7 factors of stress individually, as a team, and as an organization
  • Determining actions to manage and address organizational stress

Once you’ve completed the mini-course, you’ll also have access to try out the TTI SI Assessment for free. This way you can see what’s included in the report  and experience the value it can provide for your organization. 

Get access to the mini-course and your free assessment here. 

How CHROs Can Lead (Consciously) During a Shallow Recession 

We know 98% of CEOs are forecasting a shallow recession in the next 12 to 18 months. As more and more CHROs and People Officers are included in overall business decisions, these roles will be important in determining how well the business does. While CEOs and CFOs promote caution in expenses, how can CHROs help lead, consciously?

Provide support + guidance in talent management

CHROs can help by ensuring employees are motivated and committed to the organization’s success during a downturn through programs that promote employee well-being and foster a positive workplace culture.

Talent management can not only survive but evolve during an economic downturn. Adaptation is the fourth step in our Conscious Leadership framework, because now that we’ve become aware; acknowledged where we’re at (in this case, on the verge of a recession); and taken action toward our preferred outcomes, now we can adapt. Guiding what recruiting will help the organization be most productive at this time will be an adaptive process CHROs can impact greatly. 

Help identify + retain key employees

CHROs can help the CEO to identify and retain key employees who are critical to the organization’s success in higher-growth business lines.

With the highest tech layoffs since the dot-com crash 20 years ago, retaining key employees will be crucial to keep business going. Encouraging feedback and input from employees; fostering an atmosphere of flexibility; and placing an emphasis on clear work objectives are all routes to greater retention and employee engagement, but one thing we see as an even bigger barrier for CHROs to help through is stress management. 

Keep an eye on stress management

A shallow recession is a time of uncertainty, which can lead to a high level of stress for CHROs and other leaders. 

According to recent data, more than one-third of working Americans reported experiencing chronic work stress, and just 36 percent said their organizations provide sufficient resources to help them manage that stress. During a recession? That number is sure to be higher. 

It’s really important to take care of yourself first, prioritizing effective self-care. You can’t fill others’ cups without first filling yours. 

Being open and empathetic goes a long way. Everyone will react differently to change and a recession and everyone is impacted differently. Taking strides to reduce stress across the organization will be more important during this time. 

Raising the consciousness and competencies of your organization starts with your leadership. Leaders are multipliers and when we bring our whole, conscious, intentional selves to the table, people thrive and flourish (and therefore our businesses thrive and flourish).

Be proactive with stress management for recession-proof HR

CHROs need to be ready to come to the executive table with an actionable plan to lead during the upcoming recession. If you’re a CHRO and need help developing your organizational leadership objectives and execution, reach out to our experts at experts@orcahrsolutions.com. 

Or take a complementary stress assessment and 30 minute consultation to see how you can use it within your organization. Email experts@orcahrsolutions.com to request yours. 

In today’s workplace, managing stress is #1

The link between stress, emotional intelligence, + highly productive teams in tech organizations

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, now more than ever, workplace stress in America has become a serious threat to workers’ overall wellbeing and health, ultimately threatening and weakening organizations. But what exactly counts as work stress? It’s not the challenges that energize you psychologically and physically and that motivate you to learn and problem solve (“good stress”). It is when job requirements fail to match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the employee, causing negative and often harmful physical and emotional responses (“bad stress”).

With job stress becoming an increasing problem, researchers have conducted numerous surveys and studies to find out how many employees are affected and what type of mental and physical health problems they are experiencing as a result. Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report shows that in 2021, stress among the world’s workforce reached an all time high, with 44% of employees experiencing stress a lot of the previous day. In the U.S. and Canada, that number is higher with 50% of employees experiencing daily stress that can be categorized as “bad stress.” 

So how do you, as a CHRO, reduce workplace stress? 

On the front lines of tech stress

As technology progresses, we are pushed further into an online world. As a result, there are more and more security issues with hackers trying to breach and disrupt companies and organizations in this online space; at ORCA HR, we work with many tech companies, and see stress in the cybersecurity sector as a particularly acute scenario. 

One concern of a past client from a cybersecurity organization was how these security breaches were impacting the workers who had to prevent or fix these issues, especially since these breaches caused severely negative PR. 

According to a report from IBM, the majority of cybersecurity incident responders think the rise of ransomware has exacerbated the stress and psychological demands—with 67% of cybersecurity incident responders said they experience stress and anxiety in their daily lives as a result of responding to an incident.

To help this company, we created a stress management workshop that helped workers identify, acknowledge, and control their stress, which was becoming pervasive even when there wasn’t an active breach.

Discovering your workplace stressors

One tool that we like using to assess stress is the TTI SI Stress Quotient Assessment tool. This is a diagnostics tool that focuses on workplace culture and helps to determine and measure one’s stressors. It does so by analyzing stress in 7 different dimensions to help pinpoint which areas your team might be struggling in.

The seven dimensions include: 

  1. Workplace Demands
  2. Effort and Reward Balance
  3. Control
  4. Organizational Change
  5. Management Issues
  6. Social Support
  7. Job Security

Each of these categories have their own set of characteristics and responses which can affect performance on an individual or team-wide level.

Understanding where stress resides within the seven dimensions of the workplace

  • Workplace Demands 
      • Stress resulting from excessive demand happens when workloads become overwhelming or skills or talents don’t match the position.  
      • Reflect: Is my job even designed well enough in terms of what I’m expected to do?
  • Effort and Reward Balance
      • When high levels of output and effort are met with minimal rewards – whether that be compensation, a promotion or simple recognition for a job well done – an individual’s stress can skyrocket. Without an effort/reward balance, an employee can feel disconnected, unmotivated and even angry.
      • Reflect: Is my effort and the reward I receive in balance?
  • Control
      • Feeling powerless is a universal cause of job stress. Lack of control comes from high responsibility paired with low authority, not being heard, not being involved and others not understanding your work.
      • Reflect: Do I have autonomy in my role?
  • Organizational Change
      • Changes within the organization– from management restructuring to new policies and procedures – impact individuals differently. For some, it brings apprehension, insecurity and confusion – all which can raise stress levels when changes are not properly communicated or understood.
      • Reflect: How much organizational change is causing stress?
  • Management Issues
      • Reasonable directives from your boss should be expected. It’s when he or she creates enormous pressure or challenges, to the point of it hindering your workload, that cause stress to increase.
      • Reflect: Is your manager equipped to handle the increasing scale of the work?
  • Social Support
      • An unsupportive social environment can cause workplace stress. Managers who don’t provide clear and consistent information and co-workers who fail to assist one another leaves employees feeling unengaged and unproductive.
      • Reflect: Am I receiving support from others around me?
  • Job Security
    • Fearing for your job is extremely stressful. However, stress can also be caused by lack of advancement, being promoted too slowly or being promoted too quickly to be successful in the job.
    • Reflect: Do I feel secure about my job?

When you’re not aware of certain things, they are going to control you

Workplace stress is something that can have a large negative impact on productivity and employee flourishing if left unchecked. Through the use of the TTI SI Stress Assessment, we are able to analyze stress from many different viewpoints; not just individual stress but also organizational stress. If you can look at the whole system people work in and break it down into types of stress, then you can find the particular stress that needs to be addressed. 

Once we are able to pinpoint and defuse the stressors, we are able to begin making progress to reduce their control and impact on performance. 

Is your team (or even your whole organization) struggling with stress? 

Take a complementary stress assessment and 30 minute consultation. Email experts@orcahrsolutions.com to request yours.