Simply Hired Blog

Signs A Company Has Gone "Toxic"

By Michael Carroll, 
Author of Fearless at Work

Part of being recruited to a new job is being "sold" a polished and bright picture of the company, its business prospects and its culture. And, its only right that a hiring manager, Human Resources and the company overall put its best foot forward when trying to attract talented players. Every enterprise has an exciting story to tell and they ought to tell it well!

But getting a full and realistic picture of a company beyond the "polish" is the responsibility of each individual who is considering joining the prospective enterprise and there are many avenues for doing proper due diligence on a prospective employer. We can "discretely" solicit opinions from executive search consultants, former employees, and competitors and through social networks like Linked In and Facebook, in order to glean "confidential" insights into the culture and leadership of the company. Or we can review the company's benefit package to assess management's commitment to employee health and well-being: does the company have an EAP? Does the medical plan cover annual physicals? Is disability and life insurance covered and at how much? And of course we can review annual reports and financial filings to get a true measure of the business health of the company.

But, one of the most challenging dynamics to assess when trying to determine the health of a company is what I call assessing the company's tolerance for "cranky pants" or to put it a bit more bluntly -- to what degree has the company gone "toxic". We have all either had the experience or know others who have of joining a new company or taking a new job and finding out that many of the people we are working for and with are unpleasant, confusing, disheartened, incompetent or just plain "toxic". And unfortunately when we find ourselves in such a situation we almost always ask: "How did I get into this situation? What did I miss?" But missing the "toxic" signals is easy to do because more often than not they are what are called "undiscussables" -- unspoken "red flags" hidden in plain view.

"Undiscussables", a term coined by Chris Argyris of Harvard, are issues that people are afraid to openly talk about though they are secrets that everyone knows. And highest on the list of "undiscussbables" are manager/leader behavior and co-worker performance*.

Getting some clarity on these "undiscussables" can help us join a company or take a new job with "eyes wide open" and here are three techniques for shaping such a realistic view.

Look for coded words versus candor 


"Undiscussables are spoken about in code. For example, describing a CEO, future boss or colleague as a "task master" "tough", "hard charging" "assertive" or "Type a" often signals that the individual lacks the vital emotional intelligence skills to be an effective leader. Or if the workplace values are overly described as "demanding", "competitive" "hard driving", we may be receiving a message that the workplace is less than supportive or possibly blindly counterproductive. One word that always sets off an alarm for me is "interesting" as in " . . . well let's just say this is an interesting place to work . . . " I always sense something toxic brewing when I hear such a line.

On the other hand, if people within the prospective company or project team are candid about shortcomings, willingly share concerns and maturely discuss cultural and leadership challenges the likelihood is that dysfunctional "undiscussables" are not dominant within the culture. When we experience socially intelligent people from the get go in our meetings, the likelihood is that they are elsewhere in the company. Candor and maturity in conversations in anticipation of a prospective engagement bodes well for finding such health and maturity elsewhere within the enterprise.

Read the messages sent through the work atmosphere 


One dynamic I am always attentive to when visiting a new enterprise is what messages are being sent -- deliberately or not -- through the workplace atmosphere. When on Google's campus, for example, the vibrant cafeterias, outdoor recreation and pet friendliness say: relax, enjoy, work hard and make it happen. When visiting a certain prestigious business school the message is: we are really really smart (really!) and we prefer associating with important people. Or when visiting a top investment bank, the message is: we are sharp, restrained and going a billion miles a second. It is a good exercise to permit one's poetic instincts to read and phrase the atmosphere of an enterprise since all companies telegraph messages about their cultures -- including hints at their 'undiscussables'; it's just a matter of skillfully paying attention in order to read them.

Can you have a human moment


Finally, another way to get a picture on the health and well being of a prospective company or work team is to what degree you have an authentic human moment with potential future colleagues, managers and associates. Too often the recruiting process has an air of a "breezily-polite" interchange focused more on facts, employment history, compensation and job requirements. And while such practicalities are important no doubt, the inability to connect with something genuine and human is a telling indicator of what might be to come if you were to join the team. Politeness without substance often masks a culture that places more value on goals than people; appreciates results over talent.

On the other hand, when prospective colleagues and managers naturally share themselves -- telling stories, enjoying a laugh, recognizing shared commonalities -- we sense the likelihood that such authenticity would likely be valued throughout the company or team. And when we leave a discussion with a prospective employer feeling well treated, listened to and respected our instincts tell us "This is the place for me!"

*See "Driving Fear out of the Workplace", Ryan and Oestreich (Jossey Bass 1991)

© 2012 Michael Carroll, author of Fearless at Work

Michael Carroll, author of Fearless at Work, worked on Wall Street and in the publishing industry for over two decades, holding executive positions at Shearson Lehman Brothers, Paine Webber, Simon & Schuster, and the Walt Disney Company. Founding director of AAW Associates, Carroll consults with major corporations on bringing mindfulness into the workplace. He is a longtime student of Buddhist meditation and an authorized teacher in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa. Carroll has taught mindfulness meditation at the Wharton School of Business, Columbia University, Kripalu, and the Cape Cod Institute. 

Find Organizations that Support Career Development

It is often said that people join companies but leave managers. While conflicts with managers can sometimes be personality-based, more often it is because the manager either does not follow or does not adequately use their organization’s talent management tools to establish goals with their employees, fairly and constructively evaluate performance and provide development opportunities. Asking your potential boss about talent management during the interview process will allow you to answer two important questions:

1. Does the company have a robust talent management process?
2. How well does the manager use the tools and value the talent management process?

The answers to these questions will give you important clues about the attention that will be paid to helping you understand what is expected of you, coaching you to success, and developing you for advancement – all most likely critical elements in your future job satisfaction.

Here are some things you would hope to see in your new company:

• A goal-setting process in which the manager and employee work together to set individual goals that support departmental and organizational goals. That way, you know what is important, how to focus your efforts and what is expected of you.

• A performance review process where the manager assesses your performance at least annually (more often is better!) using objective criteria that you will fully understand. That way you will know how to achieve good performance and how well you are doing. Are managers and leaders held accountable to provide fair and constructive performance reviews to their employees? How is good performance rewarded and poor performance addressed? You will want to see an objective and well-defined process that your potential manager is comfortable using.

• Ongoing communications about the organization’s goals, progress being made and how individual activities support those goals. Knowing how your work contributes to the larger organization is highly motivating.

• A competency model or career path (note: it might be called something different) where the knowledge, skills, abilities and experience required for jobs to which you aspire in the future are clearly defined. That way, you will know what you have to do to progress in your career.

• Employee development, such as internal or external training programs, on the job training, stretch assignments, mentoring programs or other things aimed at helping employees grow and advance in their current jobs and future roles. What lateral and promotional roles exist that you may be able to take on as your experience grows? Does the organization have a well-defined process for applying for these roles? What is the manager’s track record for helping employees advance in their careers?

• Pay for performance. How is compensation managed? Can high performers receive bonuses and salary increases? Is there a defined process by which raises are determined? Can the manager explain it?

An organization’s talent management programs can give you important insight into how they value and treat their employees. While smaller organizations may not have all the formal talent management processes described above, a good manager will be familiar with the concepts. Good managers should know how to objectively evaluate performance, coach the employees in their care to do their best without micro-managing, and be invested in developing their employees for career advancement. By looking into these things before accepting a new job, you can help yourself make the right choice.

Sean Conrad works and blogs for Halogen Software. He's passionate about encouraging companies large and small to adopt talent management best practices that drive employee and company success.

The Essentials of Collaborative Hiring

A collaborative hiring process goes a long way towards gauging how well a new hire will work with the entire existing team. The essentials of collaborative hiring are inviting all relevant team members, having freedom to share candidates, and keeping lines of communication open.  

According to a recent SmartRecruiters survey, 70% of people who have hired say their company includes at least three current workers in each hiring decision. At SmartRecruiters, the social recruiting platform, David is Director of Social Media, Ben is Director of Business Development, and Amy Craig is Director of Product Marketing. They are here to tell you how to hire collaboratively:

(1.) Invite All the Relevant Team Members

David: Build flexible hiring teams. Whoever the new person will work with should have input in hiring for that position. If you are hiring a project manager who will work heavily with the marketing and sales team, that candidate should interview with people from both the marketing and sales teams.

Ben: Crowdsource your interview. Have the entire office submit questions, and use those as a guide for your conversation with the candidate.  That way, everyone's personalities and concerns are represented.

Amy: Make your recruiting processes transparent, easy and social to essentially turn all of your employees into recruiters. Top performers usually know other top performers, so it’s important for employers to tap into one of their best sources of talent--their employees.

(2.) Having the Freedom to Share Candidates & Jobs

Amy: If you don’t have a Facebook company page, you’re missing out on the opportunity to turn fans into hires. Share your jobs on your social networks and let your fans, followers and connections do the rest. 

David: A great talent is a great talent. But a great talent may not be right for a particular role. Collaborative hiring requires the mindset of I will refer that talent to a colleague in a more relevant department within the company. Even if that colleague is not hiring right now, this mindset will create a better talent pipeline in the long run.

Ben: No one cares what you had for lunch. Tweet your latest job opening instead, or the company you just started working for.  Companies should give their employees tools for sharing jobs and for offering their social contacts as candidates.  Make your employees’ social networking person-hours more beneficial to your company’s hiring processes.

(3.) Keeping the Lines of Communication Open

Ben: Don’t burn a bridge to a potentially great candidate.  Just because he or she was not a good fit for one job, doesn’t mean that candidate won’t make a perfect hire in another position.  Stay in touch with strong candidates and keep them abreast of new openings.

Amy: Great people are hard to find, so when you’re able to attract them, with or without an available job opening, you should keep the lines of communication open with all the talent in your pipeline. 

David: Talk to your colleagues. Make sure you consolidate your notes in one easy to read place, ideally one with a social network style real time feed.

Currently, our recent survey found that only 24% of recruiters and hiring managers have said to “know where things stand” with a current candidate. But what percentage of you have seen the most recent Facebook photo of your high school acquaintance’s new baby? Probably more than 24%. In this age of real time updates, SmartRecruiters believes that enterprise software should encourage social behavior. For, hiring a great fit works best when you leverage the inputs, compatibilities, and personalities of your company. 

SmartRecruiters is the free social hiring platform with easy candidate management and a recruiting service marketplace that includes sourcing from Simply Hired. 

Job Openings Continue to Increase Nationwide in December

Today Simply Hired reported that nationwide job openings have increased for the sixth time in seven months. In November, job openings had a slight increase of 0.1 percent month-over-month and 3.4 percent year-over-year. Nationwide job competition held steady at a ratio of three unemployed persons for every one job opening. 

“We have seen consistent job opening growth during the latter half of this year, which is a very good sign that our economy is headed in the right direction,” said James Beriker, president and CEO of Simply Hired. “Since consumer confidence is continuing to increase and the ratio of unemployed persons to each job opening is holding steady at three to one, Simply Hired has an optimistic view that 2013 will be another year of steady growth.”

Job openings increased in 20 out of 50 major metros in November, however, most changes – both gains and losses – were very minimal this month. 

Half of all occupation categories (nine out of 18) experienced growth in job openings this month. The largest amount of growth was seen among educators (6.3 percent) and food workers (5.2 percent). Of the occupations that faced declining job openings, farm, fishing and forestry workers (-8.8 percent) experienced the decrease month-over-month. However, the majority of change, both gains and losses, was relatively small considering that two-thirds of all occupations changed by less than one percent.

For more on the Simply Hired report view the full press release.

Job Hunt Skills You Need to Survive

Finding a new job is a massive undertaking that can consume a lot of time and effort for job seekers. The job search process itself is like a project with a beginning and an end that has many phases and tasks to complete such as finding available job openings, updating resumes and cover letters, interviewing, performing follow-up, and more. With all the work to be done to find their next career opportunity, job seekers need the right set of job hunt skills to survive during the multifaceted job search process.

Courage: Mental strength to persevere and withstand fear or difficulty

Courage allows job seekers to step outside of their comfort zone to accomplish what they set out to accomplish. Some job seekers are afraid of asking for help from people while other job seekers are afraid of networking with strangers. Many other fears emerge during the job search and the ability to face them straight on takes great courage. Envisioning what you hope to accomplish and envisioning the feeling of success that comes from facing your fears can serve as motivation.

Focus: Dedicated attention to an interest or an activity

The job search can take the form of a full-time job which can be overwhelming. With so many tasks to take on, job seekers need stay focused on what’s important. They need to understand their career goals and if an activity doesn’t assist them in the right direction, then a change might need to take place. Also, dedicating a set amount of uninterrupted time can sometimes lead to better results than spurts of job search activities scattered throughout the day.

Organization: Arrangements in a coherent, systematized form

The devils are in the details and this holds true even during the job search. Imagine as a job seeker you’ve applied for twenty jobs over the last two weeks. Then you receive a phone call that XYZ company wants to schedule an interview for XYZ position. That’s great, but unfortunately you don’t remember what the position entails and the job posting is no longer online. This is key information that could help you better prepare for your upcoming interview. Keeping track of the details is essential and this can include what jobs you’ve applied for, who you have made contact with, and other information that matter now and possibly later on. 

Instincts: A natural or intuitive way of acting or thinking

Instincts are within all of us, but how many job seekers use it during the job search process? During the job search, people might be faced with a decision whether they should apply for a job, whether they should custom tailor their resume, and other decisions. The answer might be in trusting your gut. Most of us have heard stories of people getting jobs that they might not have been qualified on paper but they still applied. The result, they got the job because they were one of the best candidate overall because they were able to successfully communicate and demonstrate their value. Instincts are an invaluable trait that sometimes gets overlooked.

Kindness: The quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate

A little act of kindness can go a long ways. Remember how you felt when someone said something nice to you? A good impression is one thing but a lasting impression is another. Being sincere and caring might be the difference that makes you stand out from the crowd of other candidates for a position. Say thank you to an interviewer by sending an email or handwritten note. Compliment the receptionist on how helpful she was. And perform other kind gestures when you see the opportunity. So be kind to whoever you meet not only during your job search but during the lifetime of your career.

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