Tag: tips for employers | Artisan Creative

7 Reasons for Building Strong Social Connections at Work

Wednesday, February 28th, 2024|

In today’s fast-paced, competitive, and often hybrid work environment, fostering social connections at work is more critical than ever. Not only does it contribute to a happier and more cohesive team, but it also brings about several benefits that can positively impact both employees and the organization.

Here are seven reasons why building social connections at work is essential, along with ideas for encouraging these connections:

1. Stress Relief: A supportive social network at work can help reduce stress. Interacting with co-workers and sharing experiences can provide a valuable outlet for dealing with job-related pressures. Consider setting up “stress-free zones” where employees can relax and chat during breaks, or for remote teams set up a “watercooler” Slack channel, or offer Headspace as an option for stress relief.
2. Boosted Employee Morale: Workplaces where colleagues enjoy each other’s company often have higher morale and can increase job satisfaction.
3. Enhanced Engagement and Camaraderie: Social connections at work foster greater loyalty and commitment to the team and the organization. Those who feel connected are more likely to stay with the company longer and go the extra mile to achieve its goals. Promoting regular meetings where employees can openly discuss ideas and concerns is one way to nurture a sense of belonging.
Improved Productivity: Social connections can significantly impact productivity. Effective collaboration and communication among teams can lead to more efficient project completion. Encourage open communication channels and provide collaboration tools like messaging apps or project management software such as Monday.com, Trello or Slack.
Knowledge and Skill Sharing: Building relationships at work facilitates the sharing of skills and knowledge. Employees are more likely to share their expertise and mentor others when they have strong social connections. Establish mentorship programs or organize knowledge-sharing sessions to promote skill transfer.
Better Health: Social connections don’t just boost mental well-being; they also contribute to physical health. Encourage employees to engage in physical activities together, such as group workouts or walking meetings, to promote a healthier workforce. Remote teams can do the same and set up accountability partnerships to accomplish health goals together. Classpass or Burnalong offer solutions.
Fostering Creativity: Diverse social connections often lead to more creative and innovative solutions. Encourage collaboration across different departments and facilitate brainstorming sessions. Create spaces where employees from various areas can meet and exchange ideas to inspire creativity. If you are part of a remote team, encourage brainstorming sessions using tools such as Miro, Menti or Jamboard.

Here are a Few Ideas for Encouraging Social Connections at Work:

Open Workspace Design: Consider an open office layout that encourages spontaneous interactions and conversations. For remote teams set up one-on-one Zoom connections.
Social Events: Organize regular social events like happy hours, team-building activities, and themed lunches to promote interaction. Many online tools and games can facilitate the same for remote teams. Check out Letsroam for fun ideas.
Mentorship Programs: Create mentorship opportunities for employees to connect and learn from each other.
Collaborative Projects: Assign cross-functional teams to work together on projects to foster collaboration.
Wellness Programs: Offer wellness programs or fitness classes to encourage employees to lead a healthier lifestyle together.
Diverse Workgroups: Mix up workgroups to ensure employees interact with different colleagues regularly.
Feedback Culture: Promote open and constructive feedback to improve communication and relationships.

For additional tips listen to the artisan podcast for sessions on culture and well-being:

Desmond Lomax, of the Arbinger Institute, talks about belonging Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Rachel Cook talks about elevating the employee experience
Dr Heidi Hanna talks about Stress Relief

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Episode 8: Onborading

Wednesday, December 13th, 2023|

Congratulations!! You’ve hired your newest employee, now let’s talk about Onboarding them.

Let’s do a Pulse Check

What is the onboarding strategy?
Is the infrastructure (the SOPs, training manuals, LMS, etc.) available to teach and onboard?
What additional resources do you need to successfully onboard and train?

A robust onboarding & training program creates ongoing engagement, a sense of belonging and continues to highlight your employer brand as well as enhances your new employee’s experience.

It’s critical that their first few months are connected, welcoming, and inclusive and that resources are being allocated to onboard and train them, regardless of their experience or seniority.

Even a senior-level candidate with years of experience requires onboarding and training. Although they may know how to do something, they still need to learn how to do that work within your company’s environment and culture.

Candidates are not mind readers and it is an unrealistic expectation to assume a brand-new hire knows what you are expecting without clear and open communication.

Create a feedback loop and touch base often.

The same three principles we just reviewed for hiring also apply to onboarding

Prepare your onboarding before your candidate starts. This is especially crucial for a remote team member as it takes extra planning to make them feel connected and included.

Send a welcome kit to their home with branded swag/plant for their desk
Make sure all their equipment. Logins and access are set up on day 1
Organize an in person (or remote) welcome lunch to get to know the rest of the team members.

Reviewing your processes, SOPs and products through your new hire’s eyes, can create opportunities for improvement and enhancements that you didn’t expect.

Create an orientation and shadowing program to review technical know how and to learn about the culture,
Stagger the training. Too much info at once is too much
Tailor the program to their learning style (Visual, Kinesthetic, Auditory)

And

Be Present, Open, Inclusive, and Build trust
Make yourself available to the candidate for any questions
Do an end of week wrap to hear of any challenges, opportunities, or feedback

Having an unwavering commitment to building trust, with a focus on preparation, creating processes, and having the presence of mind to do so are the foundations needed to transform your hiring practice.

Happy Hiring!

Watch the previous episodes in this series:

Episode 0: Introduction

Episode 1: Transforming Your Hiring Mindset

Episode 2: Writing Impactful Job Descriptions

Episode 3: Recruitment & Sourcing Strategy

Episode 4: The Candidate Experience

Episode 5: The Interview Mindset

Episode 6: Interview Timing

Episode 7: The Follow-up

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Episode 6 : Interview Timing

Friday, November 17th, 2023|

At this stage of the game, you have set clear expectations for the role, you’ve written an amazing job description, prepared before and during the interview, and had your first interview with a candidate.

Now it’s decision time and time to choose whether that candidate is a good fit and ready to move to the next stage, or not.

It’s only natural that you may want input from other stakeholders to help you with the decision. You may feel a second or third interview and perspective is needed before you can make an offer.

If that is the case, then be mindful that your candidate may have other interviews scheduled elsewhere too. And if your decision-making process takes too long, you may risk losing your candidate to timing.

I am a fan of including key stakeholders in interviews. Remember that your candidate is also interviewing your company, so a couple of interviews with other stakeholders will give them additional insight into the culture, team environment, and product.

However, be mindful of the intention of multiple interviews, the impression it can leave, and the impact it may have.

Time is a valuable asset for everyone—including your candidate. The days when candidates had to jump through multiple hoops to show their interest in a job are over. Today, companies have to do the same.

So without clear and open communication, a lengthy interview cycle can imply that you are not serious about a hire, or are indecisive, or that you have doubts about their candidacy, and that their time is not valuable. This is not the way to build trust.

So please set expectations with the candidate upfront, or if working with a recruitment firm let them know what the interview process in your company is like, so they can inform their candidate ahead of time.

A simple statement can set the tone: “Our process includes X interviews with Y stakeholders. We value your time and promise an expeditious yet thorough process to give us both a strong sense of connection, understanding and requirements.

If multiple rounds of interviews are necessary, or assessments are required, please find out where the candidate is in their interviewing journey with other companies. Are they awaiting an offer, or have they just begun their job search?

Be ready to pivot and adjust your approach if you really like this candidate and they are your front-runner.

In our experience, we have had situations when a client was really excited about a candidate, but other stakeholders in the decision-making process were unable to conduct the follow-up interview for a couple of weeks due to vacations, tradeshows, and other deadlines….and during that time, the candidate accepted another offer.

Don’t lose your top candidate to TIMING. Create a process for fluidity. If needed, conduct multiple interviews on the same day or if multiple days are needed, then

make the interview a priority, and clear your and any other stakeholders’ calendars so everyone is committed to continuing the process smoothly without unnecessary delay.

If hiring is truly a priority….make it be one.

Let’s do a Pulse Check

Can you make interviewing a priority at your company?

How many rounds of interviewing do you need before a decision is made?

Who are all the stakeholders that need to be part of the decision-making?

Watch the previous episodes in this series:

Episode 0: Introduction

Episode 1: Transforming Your Hiring Mindset

Episode 2: Writing Impactful Job Descriptions

Episode 3: Recruitment & Sourcing Strategy

Episode 4: The Candidate Experience

Episode 5: The Interview Mindset

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Episode 5 – Interview Mindset (IQ, EQ & AQ)

Saturday, November 11th, 2023|

By this point in the hiring process, you’ve spent lots of time and resources to set up your employer brand, write your job description, review incoming resumes, and now you are finally ready to invite a handful of candidates to an interview.

No matter what route you take to get here, make sure your energy tank is full when you meet your prospective interviewee.

Make sure you are present, you are focused, prepared, and in the right interviewing mindset. Also, it’s key to allow each interviewee to shine on their own merit, and not let any history of previous bad hires impact this new person and this new opportunity.

It’s imperative that you or your lead interviewer are not tired, hungry, or rushed and instead are at your best to represent your brand in the proper way and make a good impression.

If your hiring mindset is wrong, it can lead to a wrong hire!

Interviewing is both an art and a skill and it involves curiosity, empathy, and authenticity to become a skillful interviewer. In order to conduct your most perfect interview, consider the following pointers to transform your interviewing mindset.

The perfect interview starts with

Your preparation
Managing your energy
How do you build rapport
Staying present and focused
Creating engagement
Create a true human connection
And building trust

Skilled interviewers have an equal balance of questions to determine IQ, EQ & AQ.

IQ-focused interview questions as about technical skills and expertise, certifications, education, awards, and the specifics of how to do the required tasks.

And while skills-based questions are critical in assessing a candidate’s ability to do the job right, they only paint a partial picture of overall fit within the company.

Equally vital are the interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence (EQ) of a candidate, which reviews alignment, culture fit, values, communication skills, and overall compatibility within the team.

Add to the mix an opportunity to assess for AQ, or adaptability quotient that highlights a candidate’s ability to handle change, leadership, decision-making, stress-management skills, and navigating the unknown!

This can be extremely valuable if you are launching a new product, are a start-up, or going through some changes within your organization or if all your processes and SOPs are not quite solid.

Assessing EQ and AQ skills requires asking open-ended, values-based, and situational interview questions which enable you to delve into a prospective candidate’s empathy, conflict resolution, and problem-solving capabilities.

Open-ended questions also allow your candidate to dive deeper into a topic and expand their answers, highlight their reasoning, thought processing, and communication skills

For example, you can glean so much information by asking:

Share a time when you successfully diffused a misunderstanding between two colleagues.
Provide an example of fostering a sense of belonging and teamwork among your peers.
What leadership qualities do you admire most about yourself or your current boss?

Values-based questions tie the interview questions back to your company’s values.

For example, if your company’s core value is Agility, then a line of questions that focus on agility will give you a glimpse into how that core value shows up for your candidate:

Tell me more about when you had to juggle multiple projects.
How do you handle change and unexpected interruptions?
Can you explain your approach to prioritizing and planning your day?

If Accountability is your company’s core value, then ask:

What do deadlines mean to you, and how do they impact teamwork?
How do you motivate yourself to stay accountable and achieve your tasks?
Describe a situation where you rallied your team members to accomplish a task.

While hard skills can be acquired or taught through various educational resources, assessing a candidate’s cognitive and emotional intelligence requires that you actively listen, be present, and be focused.

Asking follow-up questions, and observing their body language and communication style. This approach ensures a thorough evaluation and helps identify candidates who possess the right blend of technical as well as interpersonal skills that may align with your company culture.

Let’s do a Pulse Check

How are you currently interviewing for IQ, EQ, and AQ?

Watch the previous episodes in this series:

Episode 0: Introduction

Episode 1: Transforming Your Hiring Mindset

Episode 2: Writing Impactful Job Descriptions

Episode 3: Recruitment & Sourcing Strategy

Episode 4: The Candidate Experience

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Episode 3 : Recruitment & Sourcing Strategy

Tuesday, October 24th, 2023|

Now that you’ve clarified your employer brand, and written your job description, let’s talk about your internal and external recruitment strategy.

Before you start looking externally for candidates, have you considered anyone from your current team who may have the skillsets you need to execute? Perhaps they are in another department or are ready to take on a new challenge or for a promotion.

An internal hire could be a morale boost and build trust, bring recognition, growth, and internal mobility within your teams…and in the long run, be a great retention tool. It reduces the need for someone to look for a “better opportunity” elsewhere because they trust that opportunity exists within and you’ll look internally first.

However, if you do need to hire from outside of the organization, you’ll need a recruitment & sourcing strategy that is best suited for your needs.

If you have an HR or recruitment team in place, then you have great support as a first line of reviewers to evaluate the incoming candidates.

However if you don’t have the bandwidth or the support to plan your own sourcing strategy, you may want to consider working with a recruitment agency that will work with you to showcase pre-vetted and pre-qualified candidates.

Let’s do a pulse check:

Who do you know who may know someone?
Do you offer incentives internally for referrals?
Are there companies that are aligned with your expertise, or your mission/ values where you want to see people from?
And…what companies or verticals do you NOT want to hire from? ie. Potential vendors or existing customers, or competitors
Do you want to hire from a competitor?

If you decide to pursue the route of working with an outside recruiter instead of doing it internally yourself, then it’s critical to ask the right questions to find the recruiters and agencies that best suit your needs.

Recruitment agencies typically work either as a retained or as a contingency agency.

A contingency firm will invoice you after a placement is made. There are no upfront fees, however in a contingency search typically the agency is working on several roles with multiple clients at the same time, and every role has equal focus and attention.

A retained firm, on the other hand, typically charges a 1/3 to get started and the balance when the candidate is hired; or a third to get started 1/3 when they present candidates and the third one that hire is made.

In a retained relationship, specific focus and priority are given to an open role, and a dedicated team is assigned. They often will help you write the job description, take you through an in-depth pre-qualification process to learn about the role, team, and your company, and in return will send you a handful of qualified and pre-vetted candidates to review. So if you have an urgent need or have a very specific requirement, this may be the right route for you.

In both cases, fees are typically anywhere from 20 to 30% based on the candidate’s first-year salary, and a guarantee period is extended.

Even though in a contingency agreement there is no upfront fee, there is still an internal cost to consider.

Do a cost analysis of what it means to hire a professional recruitment agency versus the cost of internally doing it yourself.

Internal costs include your or your team’s resources, bandwidth, and expertise, as well as the cost of that open role, the cost of lost productivity

This exercise is no different than doing a cost analysis whether to work with an outside marketing agency, an outside accounting firm, or a payroll agency vs doing those functions in-house.

If you do determine that working with a recruitment agency is the route to go, then hire a firm that has a specific focus and expertise within the skill set that you’re trying to fill versus working with a generalist recruiter.

When you’re gauging potential partners, ask your peers and colleagues for referrals, and schedule a meeting to learn more about that particular recruitment agency’s policies, processes connections in the marketplace, and sourcing practices.

Look at firms whose core values, culture, and mission align with yours and who can attract the type of talent you’ll want to hire.

By the same token, you must be upfront and truthful with your recruiting agency and partner with them.

Share with them any challenges or roadblocks with this role or at your company. Let them know of any past candidates and any who are being reviewed currently. The last thing you’d want is for them to reach out to the same talent pool.

The more your agency knows the more targeted they can be in their search and be advocates for your company.

Let’s do a Pulse Check

What is the internal cost of this position being open?
Is there someone on your team who has the expertise to review incoming resumes?
Does my internal HR team have the bandwidth to recruit this new role?

Watch the previous episodes in this series:

Episode 0: Introduction

Episode 1: Transforming Your Hiring Mindset

Episode 2: Writing Impactful Job Descriptions

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Episode 2: Writing Impactful Job Descriptions

Monday, October 9th, 2023|

Once you’ve clarified why you are hiring, the next step in the hiring roadmap is to determine who the ideal candidate is.

And specifically, what are the core technical skills and interpersonal skills, that are missing within your current team that you need to address?

These answers will help determine the requirements the role needs and support the details needed for writing a viable and accurate job description to clarify the day-to-day responsibilities.

Equally important is to define the hard skills or IQ the role needs (the technical know-how, the programs, the education), as well as needed soft skills ( the communication skills, leadership skills, the EQ for the role).

Think of creating the job description as a marketing opportunity for your company. This document promotes your company to potential candidates and creates a strategic roadmap for hiring and retention success.

Writing this impactful job description is a critical step in the recruitment process, however, it is too often considered an admin task that is rushed, copied from other roles found online, or relegated to ChatGPT so it can be done quickly and posted on external or internal job boards.

Yes, you can use AI to start the foundation of the requirements, however, you’ll have to customize and tailor it so it is unique to your company, conveys your voice, and your message, builds trust, AND supports your employer Brand. Otherwise, your role (and company) will sound like hundreds of others on the web and will get lost in the noise of other job posts out there.

A good job description should demonstrate what success can look like for a candidate, clarify potential, and growth opportunities, list the company values, perks, and your company’s unique offerings.

Unfortunately, many job descriptions read like a laundry list of wants and todos, and rarely differentiate between what is a MUST HAVE. Many job descriptions focus only on what the company needs and neglect highlighting what a candidate may want.

If the salary is not aligned with the years of experience you are asking for, determine whether you can offer better benefits, sign-on bonuses, or early reviews to boost the overall compensation package. Or if the salary parameters are not aligned, consider if you really need someone with all the skills listed, or can you hire someone more junior who may not have that experience and whom you can teach, mentor, and groom?

Clarifying these parameters helps define the expectations, goals, and success metrics for any job opening. In fact, without these, you may elongate the hiring process by sifting through unqualified applicants and waste your and your team’s most valuable asset, your time!

Once you are clear about the must-have skills that are needed, you can build a process or create a toolkit to evaluate the applications that are being submitted or the interviews you are conducting.

Geoff Smart, the author of the book WHO, suggests creating a Scorecard and details his process for it in the book.

You and your team can determine and rank the hard and soft skills you are looking for and plan how you’ll move an applicant through the hiring process.

Regardless of the hiring framework you use, the recruitment tools you have, or the assessments you may have in place, these preparation steps will help determine the years of experience you need and the seniority level the role requires and that will directly correlate to the salary and the length of time it may take to find the right candidate.

Only you can decide what qualities and experiences are a must-have, what you are willing to teach on the job, or when to extend an interview or reject an application.

Let’s do a Pulse Check

How do you define and differentiate your company to applicants?
How do you differentiate between the must-haves vs. the nice-to-have skills & qualifications, as well as hard and soft skills?
How do you define what success looks like and what it offers a candidate?
How realistic are the must-haves in the job?

Watch the previous episodes in this series:

Episode 0: Introduction

Episode 1: Transforming Your Hiring Mindset

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Episode 1: Transforming Your Hiring Mindset

Monday, September 25th, 2023|

In his book” The Speed of Trust” Stephen R. Covey says “Trust is the one thing that changes everything.”

In Hiring, building trusted relationships starts before the recruitment and interviewing phases begin.

It starts with the preparation you do before you set out to hire that builds trust sets the stage for WHY a candidate chooses your company instead of a competitor’s.

In any hiring climate, You want to be a candidate’s First choice and highlight WHY joining your company is a good career move for them.

Not only are YOU interviewing a potential candidate, THEY are also interviewing YOUR firm, and in that vain they are reviewing YOU, and checking out your company’s reputation.

It is no longer a one-way responsibility on the candidate’s shoulders to promote their skills, YOU have to do the same.

What prospective candidates learn about your firm via your digital presence helps establish your employer brand and builds trust between your company and their decision to apply. Clarifying your purpose, identifying your values, and highlighting your culture, and being a subject matter expert in your industry builds trust with applicants.

Building trust includes the communication you have with them from the time they apply, throughout the interview phase to the final step of an offer.

Trust is also built (or broken) in how you lead, how you give feedback, how you interview, and how you,= as a leader, show up.

I am going to ask you more questions to get you thinking about “why”…..

You don’t need to have the answers now….this is to transform the hiring mindset. There is a worksheet in the resources section to work on this when you are ready.

Trust is a critical component here and ties right into why you are hiring now:

Why is this role open?

Is it because of growth?
Or is it because of attrition?

If it’s because of growth:
Are you hiring because your workload is too much and your team is already tapped?

Or is your team missing key skillsets to address the new work?
Is it to offload some of the things that you are doing yourself that you just don’t want to be doing anymore?
Is there an influx of projects, however, you don’t have enough staff to be able to handle them, or are deadlines being missed or opportunities being lost?

However, if it’s for attrition:

Did an employee leave?
Or did you let somebody go?

These are very different questions to ponder and the answers may shed light on a deeper issue to address with the next hire:

If somebody left:

Why did they leave?
Was there a cultural nuance that you need to be aware of?
A team dynamic or leadership issue to be aware of?
Was it because of salary/benefits?
Did they leave for a better opportunity? What does that mean? And how can you message and build trust that they can grow and flourish right here and that your workplace is that better opportunity?

Or did you let somebody go?

Why was that?
What was missing in how they did their job?
What was missing in their technical or communication skills?

Contemplating these questions will help you determine what your team needs now, who will be the right candidate, and how your employer brand is perceived… then start building trust with your messaging as you embark on the hiring journey.

Let’s do a Pulse Check

What does your employer brand convey?
Can an applicant get a sense of your culture from your digital presence?
How is trust established via your online communication?

What the previous episodes in this series:

Introduction

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Introduction : Transforming Your Hiring Mindset

Saturday, September 9th, 2023|

Do you remember your first job interview and how you felt?

I did. I was excited. I was prepared. I even bought myself a new outfit. And I was confident that I was just going to ace that interview.

However, things changed when the interviewer showed up …late, unprepared, rushed… and then grilled me question after question without creating any space for me to ask my questions. And then they cut the interview short because they had to run to their next meeting.

The irony is, I did get an offer from them after all, and turned them down, and instead accepted another position and ended up staying at that job for close to 10 years.

That first interview was 30 some years ago, and I still remember the feeling I walked away with. Unheard.

And perhaps that’s why I am here with you. A seed was planted that grew into a passion that both the candidate and the hiring company have a win-win relationship.

For the past few decades, my team and I have worked with hundreds of companies and business owners on their recruitment objectives and have gathered great insight into when interviewing and hiring go well, and when they don’t.

Whether you have an in-house HR and recruitment team, work with an outside recruitment agency, or you yourself are reviewing all those incoming resumes, there are several critical steps to implement throughout the hiring process to create success and become a skillful interviewer.

Usually, we expect the candidate to come prepared, be open, be engaged, have high energy, and be communicative. We want them to not only have researched the role, know about our company, and be enthusiastic, we want them to want the job!

Today, we are going to flip the script and focus on us as the business owner, hiring manager, or department head who maybe deciding when it is the time to hire, or greenlighting the budget and salary, or perhaps conducting the first or final interview.

This series is divided into the 3 phases of hiring to transform the hiring mindset and set the stage for a successful hiring practice that will set you apart from your competitors. The three phases are:

The Preparation required before interviewing & hiring can begin
The Process for set-up, and follow-up on applicants and interviewees
The Presence of mind is needed during the interview and onboarding.

Together we will review the importance of establishing trust in your employer brand, writing impactful job descriptions, becoming a skillful interviewer, and creating follow-up procedures to transform your hiring practice.

So, let’s start at the beginning of the hiring journey before you decide to hire!

Enjoy the first of our 9-part series.

Katty Douraghy | President | Artisan Creative

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How Adults Learn

Wednesday, June 21st, 2023|

Whether you are training new hires or making a presentation to a large group, it’s important to communicate your ideas properly. And whether you do this in person, or online it requires additional steps to create engagement and interactivity.

Adults learn differently and bring their life experiences and cognitive abilities with them, and thus have different ways of learning and processing information that may not necessarily resonate with everyone in the same way.

Presenting material in different styles and modalities can transform a training experience from frustration into an epiphany. Balance your training where some work can be done collaboratively in a peer-to-peer environment and where your new hires can learn from each other while solving problems.

Personalize the experience to enable your employees to adapt to methods that best suit their learning style. Storytelling and linking situational examples with past experiences or scenarios can lead to better retention.

Adult learners have specific learning styles and balancing your training where you can combine the various styles can also have a positive impact.

For example, some people learn best through pictures and graphics. Others connect with metaphors and associations, while some learn best through reading or listening to an oral presentation. Some may have trouble sitting still for hours and may learn better by doing group activities.

Most of us learn best through a combination of pictures, sounds, and feelings, that compliment our dominant learning style. This idea is crystallized in an educational theory called “VAK,” for “visual, auditory, kinesthetic.”

If you facilitate training, and onboarding sessions, or make frequent presentations consider experimenting with visual, auditory, and kinesthetic modalities and notice how participants respond.

Auditory Learners

Auditory learners learn best through language; when something makes sense to them, they may say, “I hear that!”. If your training materials are text-heavy, encourage participants to take turns reading the material aloud. Use the Socratic method – ask questions and let the group paraphrase the core ideas in their own words. Invite compelling guest speakers to share their stories and teach in different verbal styles. E-learning materials can include audiobooks or podcasts that can be consumed on the go. Use repetition or clever wordplay to help the material “click.”

Skilled copywriters are well-positioned to help you speak your audience’s language and get them talking.

Kinesthetic Learners

This type of learner likes to move around, do things, and take a “hands-on” approach to learning. Reading a book or watching a video may become a challenge if they can’t get involved and connect to the ideas being presented. Kinesthetic learners will retain more information if they take notes by hand, work with three-dimensional models, or interact with others in the group. To engage kinesthetic learners, let them change seats, or stand as needed for part of the presentation or provide frequent breaks for snacks and fresh air. Make your training interactive, and add components of peer-to-peer learning.

The right experience designer or instructional designer can help design modules to create more interaction.

Visual Learners

Visual learners learn best with visuals, graphics, presentations, slideshows, videos, flowcharts, and infographics. To engage them, use color, diagrams, photographs, and information architecture to break up heavy text. They have keen aesthetic sensibilities and see the symbolism in imagery that others may overlook. When explaining themselves to others, they may say, “look here,” or “let me draw you a picture.”

To engage visual learners, work with the best designers and presentation specialists you can find.

If you are training online, be sure to take plenty of breaks, group trainees into breakout rooms, call on the audience to read portions of the text, use the whiteboard, and use slides where possible.

What is your learning style?

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Bringing Our Whole Self to Work

Monday, April 10th, 2023|

I decided to repost this article that I had originally written in 2021 because this past year has reaffirmed that as hiring managers we must encourage interviewing and meeting candidates with empathy and authenticity. There are gaps in many resumes these days. Before rejecting a candidate because their resume has gaps, or it seems they have job hopped, can we pause and ask why to learn more? These have been hard times for many. Layoffs are a reality. Short freelance stints are a reality. Covid and its emotional and financial repercussions are a reality.

Can we connect on a human level with one another?

This is my story:

When people hear that I’ve written a book, they generally assume that I’ve written about recruiting, human resources, or the culture of creativity. After all, with over 20+ years of experience in the creative recruitment field, it’s an expected assumption.

When they learn that my book, The Butterfly Years, is actually about the journey from grief toward hope, a puzzled look crosses their brows, expressing an initial surprise that I share so vulnerably my experience of loss and grief.

You may wonder, what does that have to do with my business? What’s the connection? Well, writing the book had absolutely nothing to do with my business and has everything to do with my business… because it has everything to do with me.

I choose to bring my whole self to my business.

In the book, Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations, Frédéric Laloux explores the concept of new organizations (Teal Organizations) where management and teams focus on creating a culture where the whole self comes to work.

My whole self has dealt with grief this past decade, including the loss of both my parents and step-parents. I wrote about grief because it was hard for me to concentrate, stay focused, or even remain positive. I worked hard to hide what was happening inside. Of course, I did not let candidates or clients, or even my team, get a glimpse at what was truly happening to me on the inside at that time. I thought that I needed to fake it so I could make it. I was wrong.

Over the past ten years, I’ve learned the importance of being true to myself, being authentic, and encourage genuineness from those around me, professionally and personally.

So this is a request to all the hiring managers and recruiters who are interviewing right now. Everyone, every single candidate that you connect with, is more than their LinkedIn profile. They are so much more than what you see on their resume. It’s key to learning more about a candidate’s interests and passions, about their core values, aspirations, and motivations.

As you interview new candidates or manage existing ones, ask yourself who is the “whole self” that you’re interviewing and meet them where they are with empathy and authenticity.

Katty Douraghy

President, Artisan Creative

LOOKING TO HIRE

LOOKING FOR WORK

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