12 Management Competencies – Strategic Planning

This is the second in a series of posts detailing The 12 Competencies of a Manager. Each week I will expand on the definition given with information on what the competency means in real terms, as well as hints and tips for managers.

2. Strategic Planning 

Definition:  Creates a clear, long-term direction for every aspect of their business. Ensures that plans dovetail together and are broken down into medium and short-term steps. Identifies appropriate resources required and contingencies needed. Gains total commitment to plan through shared understanding and a disciplined approach.

I’m a great advocate of Roger D’Aprix’s Manager’s communication model. Of the 6 questions, strategic planning can help to answer nearly all of them.

Initially, it looks as if only No. 5 “Where are we heading?” is covered. Then, when you look deeper into the definition, you see that by identifying the correct resources, a clear job description (1) for staff would be part of this. By breaking the plan down in smaller chunks, individuals would know how they are doing (2) against the plan.

The shared understanding covers points 3 and 4, so all that’s left is point 6 “How can I help?”

What a lovely position to be in, all from carrying out one competency well.

So, what needs to happen in real terms to make this a reality?

1. Create a Vision and make sure that it’s something that your team can question their activities around. i.e. “Is what I’m doing going to help us to achieve our vision?”

2. Identify the values of the business/team by utilising the knowledge of the individuals in the business/team. You can do this by asking them what the culture of the business/team is and what it means to them. Get them to come up with 10 words to describe how it feels. Look at the top 5 repeated words… if this is not how you want your business to be described, then you need to work on the culture before you can finally determine the values.

3. Create a list of key objectives that you will need to achieve, to be able to realise the Vision. This may be increases in staff numbers, new positions created, office moves, new locations opened up, moves into new markets, turnover, profit levels, staff attrition rates, cost savings etc. These need to be broken down into medium and short term targets.

4. Share the Vision, Values and Key Objectives with the team and update them on a regular basis – ideally quarterly. It works both ways – they update you on their plans at least quarterly as well.

5. Ask the team members for their contribution. What can they do to make sure that the above happens? This way, everyone is working towards the same objectives and the plans all link together. Too many managers don’t share enough and certainly don’t update their teams regularly. With everyone in the business now having a Quarterly Business Plan (QBP) that works towards achieving the company’s / team’s business plan, you are now all pulling in the same direction and much more likely to achieve.

So, as the manager, you are responsible for driving the Strategic Planning, but it’s not all down to you to achieve the plan – you can’t do this without the input of your team.

There are 12 posts altogether in this series, with an addition of the original overview post that details all of the management competencies. I hope they’ll be beneficial for you. For the original post with a snapshot of all of the competencies covered in this series, click here – The 12 Competencies of a Manager

The full series of posts: –

1. Management Competencies – Analysing the Business

2. Management Competencies – Strategic Planning

3. Management Competencies – Monitoring the Business

4. Management Competencies – Meeting Goals

5. Management Competencies – Building profitability

6. Management Competencies – Customer Relationship

7. Management Competencies – Team Priorities

8. Management Competencies – High Business Performance

9. Management Competencies – Team Development

10. Management Competencies – Communication

11. Management Competencies – Sales opportunities

12. Management Competencies – Perseverance

Angela Cripps MD, Connemara UK

http://www.connemarauk.com

The 12 Steps to the Recruitment Process – Step Two

Last week I started this new series of posts and started with The 12 Steps to the Recruitment Process – Step One which was all about making sure that you took enough quality information on the role and the company to give you any chance of making a good match. The links to all of the posts in this series can be found below.

Step Two – Making a recruitment plan

Phase 1, covering the first 4 steps of the recruitment process is all about making sure that you are not going to be wasting your time. Therefore, there is a lot of qualifying in these initial 4 steps to make sure that you are going to be successful once you start putting candidates forward.

Once the position has been qualified, then the recruitment plan needs to be written. So many people in the recruitment role miss this step. They dive in to finding candidates and steaming ahead to get their shortlist of candidates created, ready for interview. Much time and hassle can be averted in the 9 steps that follow, if just 10 minutes are taken to write out the recruitment plan and get it agreed and signed.

So what’s included in a recruitment plan?

The recruitment plan is exactly what it says – a plan of action of what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and by whom to make sure that the position is filled successfully. The key is to have agreement with the line manager and the recruiter – whether they be in-house or external. Some of the key elements that should be listed in a recruitment plan are:-

a) How many CVs are required to view (if any)

b) The full interview process with timeframes

c) Feedback format and times and dates agreed

d) Where the candidates are likely to be found and specific candidates to approach (if any)

e) How many interviews with the dates and time slots agreed

f) Start date stated (an actual date – not ASAP)

g) Signatures of all included in the recruitment plan

It’s a simple one page document that would physically resemble an action plan. It has 5 columns with the actions required, who is responsible, review dates, completion dates and a tick box for when the action it’s completed (always my favourite box).

So, if you’re not currently writing out Recruitment Plans and agreeing them with the person that is going to make the offer to the candidate, then you may be feeling a little out of control of the process… this is why. Having a plan that both parties sign will add more credibility to the commitment that both parties have made to filling the role.

Next week Step 3 and it’s sourcing the candidates for the role – which is a huge subject – so it’ll be a challenge to get it into 500 words, but I’ll try my best.

Posts in this series: –

Step one – Taking a qualified position

Step two – Making a recruitment plan

Step three – Sourcing potential candidates

Step four – Qualifying the candidates

Step five – Interviewing the candidate

Step six – Presenting the candidate to the line manager

Step seven – Candidate preparation and briefing

Step eight – Line manager interview

Step nine – The candidate debrief

Step ten – Managing the offer

Step eleven – Resignation briefing and management

Step twelve – The post placement and onboarding plan

Angela Cripps, Connemara UK

http://www.connemarauk.com

1. The Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant – Planning

Just over a month ago, I wrote a post for my series “So you’ve become a recruitment consultant…” on the key competencies of a recruitment consultant. This post has so far had over double the amount of hits of any of the others and as there are 12, I thought this would be a great topic for my next series of posts over the summer.

So over the next 3 months, we’ll tackle each one in more detail with the main purpose, added hints and tips of how to question to see what level of competence someone has, as well as what type of activity / evidence they should be demonstrating at a high level.

The information shared will be a combination of my own experience as a recruitment consultant & manager, the 25 years I’ve spent in the industry and the research that I was involved in many years ago to establish which are the key competencies and the subsequent work to utilise this information when recruiting, training, developing and retaining staff for the long term.

1. Planning 

People that know me or have been on one of my training courses will know that this is a pet subject of mine. Planning is relevant to everything that a recruiter does. Too many are so busy just ‘getting the job done’ that they don’t see planning as an activity that is key to their role. I myself used to feel guilty if I took myself off to a quiet corner and spent some time thinking about what I wanted to do next week, month, quarter, year. What totally convinced me was that the interviews that took place to determine the key competencies found that 100% of successful consultants interviewed, planned.

Purpose: –The purpose for a recruitment consultant is to plan in order that they create themselves time for sales and service. The overall purpose is to make sure that they meet the needs of the business, their customers and their own goals through their planning.

Questions to determine planning competence: –

1.  Tell me about the types of planning you carry out in your role:

a. What period of time do you usually plan for?

b. What are the keys steps in the planning process?

c. What activities do you give key priority to?

d. What do you find most difficult when planning anything?

2.  Tell me about a successful activity or event that you planned recently:

a. Talk me through the background to it?

b. How did you approach it?

c. What were your first steps?

d. What specifically did you do to ensure its success?

e. What did you learn about planning as a result of this exercise?

3.  Tell me about some of the longer term planning you have carried out:

a. What is longer term for you?

b. What are you usually planning for?

c. What do you still find challenging about longer term planning?

High level of competence shown: –

• They keep the plan uppermost in people’s minds.  They create energy and drive in the plan so that the actions will take place and bring people’s attention back to the plan – even when under pressure

• They understand the importance of involving others in the plan i.e. clients / candidates / team, in ensuring commitment to it

• They address the consequences of the plan and have a contingency in place – always thinking of the “What if?”

Each week I’ll tackle a new competency and I will follow the same format of Purpose, Questions and Examples of what a high level of competency would look like.

For the original post with a snapshot of all of the competencies I will be covering this summer, click here – The Key Competencies of a Recruitment Consultant.

Angela Cripps, Connemara UK