George F. Black has seen
a lot and learned a lot in
his 11 years as president and CEO at RSA Corp. But
when it comes to determining
the cultural fit of an executive-level job candidate at the
100-employee company,
Black often turns to his wife,
Sherry, for advice.
“She has incredible intuition,” Black says. “She knows
my company quite well. At
times, she says, ‘I still don’t
understand what you really
do, but I know what kind of
people are good for you.’”
While skills are valuable,
Black says it’s just as important that a new employee fit in
with the other employees and
buy in to the company’s vision
and values.
By making cultural management a part of his job description, Black has led the IT,
strategy and staffing services
provider from $6.4 million in
revenue in 2003 to $14.5 million in 2006.
Smart Business spoke with
Black about how to make your
employees feel valued by letting them write on the walls.
Q. How do you get off
to a good start with a
job interview?
A resume should only
answer one question, and that
question should be, ‘Do I want
to know more?’ The mistake
that many of us make is to
look at a resume and decide
that isn’t the person and not
do a thorough job of figuring
out who this person is.
Never make a prospective
candidate wait. If you can’t
and it’s just unavoidable,
make sure someone meets the candidate and helps them
through the wait time.
Secondly, I always ask the
candidate to share with me
their most memorable success
and their most memorable mistake. A lot of insight can come
from those two. Probably as
important as anything else is to
ask open-ended questions or
questions that cannot be
answered by yes or no.
Try to relax the person
who is interviewing
through some open-ended banter at the very
beginning. I never interview across my desk.
My interviews are
always either around a
conference table or in a
couch and chair setting.
Q. What tools do
you use to determine
cultural fit?
Get the individual into
a social setting.
Everybody is on their
best behavior through
the interview.
If you can get them to
relax a little bit, that’s when
some of the true story comes
through. It doesn’t always
work; it’s not 100 percent foolproof. But if you can get that
opportunity, at times, you can
see if the real person comes
through.
Q. How can you ensure
a smooth start for a
new employee?
One of the industry trainers
and gurus I respect is a man
by the name of Jack Daly. One
of the things he talks about is
how crazy we are because we
celebrate when an employee
resigns. We have a going-away
party.
But we don’t do anything like
that when a person starts. It’s
important to welcome a person on board so the first couple of days are memorable to
them in a positive manner.
When someone starts a new
job, there is a lot of trepidation. There is a lot of worry as
to how I’m going to fit in.
When we have a new employee start, particularly an executive, we have a two-week
indoctrination or orientation
plan that includes every
important touch point within
the organization.
We meet in the reception area
for a little continental breakfast
and introduce the new employee to everybody. We say, ‘We’re
glad you’re here.’ You can go as
far as having balloons on the
back of their chair so when
they walk into their office, they
have colorful balloons saying,
‘Welcome.’
It really gets them started on
the right foot. There is no lack
of understanding for what to
do the first two weeks. I think
that’s a real important step to
getting a person launched correctly.
Q. How do you maintain a
healthy company culture?
It’s part of our culture to regularly recognize and celebrate.
It’s well-known that after a
certain level, salary falls way
down on the list of motivators
for employees. Right up at the
top is recognition and the ability to feel like one is making a
difference.
You can see the chests swell
with pride when they are recognized.
One way for everybody to
participate is the use of bulletin boards and write-on
walls. There are pictures and
success stories and the opportunity for people just walking
down the hall, if they have a
creative thought on something
that is going on in a project,
they just write on it.
It has all of the various
projects that are going on
and the initiatives that are in
progress, and people can just
come along and write on it.
Just say, ‘What about this?
Have you thought about
this?’ It’s a way for everybody to participate. <<
HOW TO REACH: RSA Corp., (281) 488-7961 or www.rsacorp.com