Kristi Stepp: A 360 Degree Look at Career Strategy: Executive Search, Onboarding, Retention, and Succession Planning
Kristi Stepp, Partner with Sigred Solutions, a boutique talent strategy and retained management recruiting firm, joins us to share her insights into developing a career and job search strategy, successful onboarding and retention efforts for managers, and proper organizational succession planning. Kristi has held leadership positions at General Motors, Kelly, Pepsi Cola, and Volkswagen.
When to engage a search firm as an organization and how Sigred Solutions goes one step further to assisting with onboarding.
Talent Acquisition: searches, internal candidates, succession planning.
Complexities of a search: what does the organization need, finding a fit technically and culturally, evaluating candidates, the interview, and onboarding.
A shift in the landscape of recruiting and career searches.
Non-negotiables for a search in 2022: LinkedIn, Resume, Hustle and Grit
The STAR method.
Who are your super connectors and how can they help you in your career search?
If you are looking for an executive role, most of them will not be posted on LinkedIn or other job boards, so how do you find them?
Non competes, how to understand them and not underestimate their restrictions.
Training & Development has evolved but remains a necessity to employ growth and success. Understanding what your employees want and need in those areas and how investing in them has a direct correlation to employee retention.
TOP TALENT ADVOCATES REMAINS COMITTED TO PHILANTHROPIC EFFORTS. EACH GUEST IS ASKED TO SUGGEST ONE OF THREE NONPROFITS FOR OUR SUPPORT.
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[00:00:00] Richard: Welcome to Hiring Insights. The podcast that provides insight into the executive hiring process and experience, whether you are a job seeker, a people leader, a recruiter, an executive coach, or simply interested in talent, there is something here for you on the Hiring Insights. Today's episode is presented by Top Talent Advocates, where we advocate for executive and legal talent.
You can learn more about Top Talent Advocates, listen to other episodes, and hire great talent by visiting toptalentadvocates.com and clicking on podcast. Now here's your host for Hiring Insights, Mosah Fernandez Goodman.
[00:00:44] Mosah: Welcome to another episode of Hiring Insights. I'm joined today by Kristi Stepp, who's a partner with Sigred Solutions, a management recruiting and leadership advisory firm. Kristi has over 25 years of human resource experience in the automotive, healthcare, food and beverage, and workforce solutions industries.
She has broad international and multicultural experience. Prior to Sigred Solutions, Kristi served in strategic human resource roles at several leading global organizations, including General Motors, Kelly services, Pepsi-Cola and Volkswagen. Most recently, Kristi served as the global head of talent development at General Motors.
While at General Motors, Kristi had enterprise-wide development responsibility for over 65,000 employees, including 12,000 people leaders and 20,000 employees outside of North America. While at Kelly services, Kristi was based in Singapore and led all aspects of HR for the Asia Pacific region.
Welcome to the show Kristi thanks so much for joining us today. Would you tell us a little bit about yourself, maybe a little bit about your background professionally, and then we'll talk a little bit about who you work for and what you're doing.
[00:02:02] Kristi: Absolutely. So I am a partner in Sigred Solutions. We are a leadership advisory and search firm.
Our mission is to really work with employers, to help them find amazing talent and support that talent through the employee life cycle. So as employees come in, we want to set them up for success. And a lot of times as we're working with our clients, we find other ways to be able to support them.
What's great about the work that we do is it allows me to leverage my 25 years of HR experience in multinational companies. So I've always worked in human resources, primarily in operations roles, and often have the opportunity to do some of my dream work, which is employee engagement, leadership development, diversity, wide-scale organizational change. So all of those things in my career.
At one point I worked as the global head of talent development at General Motors. I lived in Singapore for three years and was responsible for the Asia Pacific region for Kelly services. And I also was the director of diversity at Volkswagen North America.
Those are the jobs that I loved. Even as I went into operational roles, I have the opportunity to take that org effectiveness work into operations, and I'm really, really proud of the experiences that I've had. But most of all, from the people that I've met over the years, who helped me to grow and to get to this point where I can take all of those experiences and leverage them and accompany that.
[00:03:52] Mosah: That’s incredible. Thank you. You do have a really broad set of experiences under your proverbial belt. And one of the ones that I want to just talk about for a second before we get into some more of the meat for today's show is a little bit more perspective about your international experience and your domestic.
As listeners spend the next chunk of time engaging in listening to today's episode, I want to make sure that they understand the experiences that you're bringing fully. So would you shed a little bit more light on, on some of the international experience that you've had? Because I think that's really important for our listeners to understand.
[00:04:30] Kristi: I always wanted it to live and work internationally. I have worked in organizations, however, that did not have HR as a core work. So the people who tended to get those assignments were people who did the core work, engineering, sales, other types of areas. But I always found a way to get some international experience even as I was sitting in the United States.
So I would volunteer. When I worked at Volkswagen, I had an opportunity to do quite a bit of travel in Germany, which was, was wonderful. I worked for a company that was headquartered in Japan, worked on quite a few international projects that way, too. And that was a good way to, I would say, dip my toe into international experience.
I will tell you however, living in another country, and having that experience both personally and professionally is life-changing because when you are out of the adventure of visiting and the delight of that type of work, and you're actually living you learn that you have to adjust yourself because you can't change a culture.
So just as we know individually, it takes quite a bit of work to change an organization. If you go into a country and you start to rub up against things that you're not used to, you have to adjust yourself. And I think what it does is it browns out any sharp edges. It helps you to have an appreciation for others empathy.
And I would say even from a professional standpoint to think differently about how work is done. I'll give you an example. I worked on a huge project when I was based in the United States from an organ effectiveness standpoint and rolled it out globally. Everyone said it was successful and when I went to live in Asia and started to visit some of the countries, they had not started to use some of the things that we talked about.
And I asked why, and they said, well, legally it doesn't work here or it doesn't fit culturally. And after learning why these things were not working in the countries, I had to go back and ask for modifications for something that I had already gotten credit for rolling out fully and successfully.
Those are the types of experiences that if I sat in a global role, only in the United States without digging deeper and understanding, I might not have ever known that some of those things were not successful, so I have grown significantly.
[00:07:24] Mosah: That's great. Thanks for sharing that. I think that's not only, important for our listeners to understand about your background, but also some leadership lessons in that.
So thank you for sharing. So I want to talk to you a little bit about search firms. I know that's not all that Sigred does. Certainly not all that you have done professionally. But let's start with, the most basic of questions is when should an organization hire a search firm? When does it make sense to engage a firm like.
[00:07:53] Kristi: I would say organizations engage our firms for a number of reasons. The first really is speed. Sometimes there is a need to find someone and by giving that work to us, they know that we're going to take it from beginning to end and move it very, very quickly, more quickly than they might be able to do inside.
Sometimes we work with clients and their HR department is stretched or they don't have that maturity yet. They might be growing or they might really be great at hiring hourly employees, perhaps employees who are individual contributors, but when it comes to management, they might need some extra support there.
So they give that to us. The third situation is really where sometimes there is no HR and there is a need to really be able to find somebody exceptional and bring them in. So what we do and what a lot of search firms do, is to take the time to do the search, to find out the key competencies for success, to understand the culture fit for that company.
And one of the things that we do in addition is to help with the first 90 to 120 days of a new employee's life and supporting them with some culture. We know what makes people fail so we just flip that around and we support them in being successful.
[00:09:28] Mosah: I think that's tremendous. And I don't know if, if Sigred is the only firm that does that in the country, but I think that's definitely a distinguishing characteristic.
So kudos to you for, for taking that strengths-based approach to onboarding talent. So, what are some other approaches that you find organizations taking when thinking about talent acquisition, what else works? Obviously, you'd love for all clients to pick up the phone and call, but what are some other things that organizations do to acquire talent?
Is it about growing talent internally? Is it about having robust internal recruiting efforts? What are some other things that you find works well for organizations?
[00:10:10] Kristi: When we're working with organizations and we have a great longer-term relationship a lot of times we like to start from within. It's hard to go out and advertise and look for new employees and give them a promise that people inside are not experiencing.
So understanding, you know, what are employees experiencing right now? What is the culture? A lot of organizations, especially now, talk a lot about their aspirational goals, their aspirational culture. And when you were looking outside to bring someone in and you're sharing that it can fill inauthentic to people inside the company.
So we work with organizations to help them understand how employees are feeling. We'll use an engagement survey. Sometimes companies don't have time for a full engagement survey. We'll do a poll survey, but we want to get a feeling for where employees are. There's a caution there though, because if you ask people their opinions and you don't give them any feedback, you would have been better off not asking at all.
So what we do is build a full communication plan in to say, you shared information with us, here's what we learned, here's what we're going to do from a strategic standpoint, from a corporate standpoint and here's what we're going to ask you to do. Because together we can become a better organization.
When you do that work and then concurrently start to look externally. It makes it better. So a lot of companies will make a promise and not be able to line that up with reality. We work behind the scenes to help organizations do that. And that is very, very important. Another piece that I think is very important is succession planning.
So if you know where your organization is going, and you know that you have individuals inside the organization who can fill other roles, thinking about that proactively is important. Some organizations have one person and they're lined up for every role in the organization when it comes to succession.
So if you ask there's three or four people, but you've got 10 roles that you're trying to fill.
[00:12:32] Mosah: So I'm going to ask you a question that might be a little more tactical. But if you could shed some light and help us sort of peek behind the curtain, if you might be able to walk us through the discrete steps, a recruiter or a headhunting firm, or a search firm, choose your term of art, whatever the discrete steps, those types of organizations go through from working with a hiring manager, through the onboarding of a candidate, just those big milestones of a search, because as a candidate and the people that I'm often working with.
There's not an understanding or an appreciation for that all too often. And I think the complexities of a searcher are often lost on those who are being searched for.
[00:13:15] Kristi: To launch a great search we really have to understand what the organization needs. We will start with the job description and often we'll have a larger conversation about the org chart, the organization.
How does this role fit? Who does it report to? Was it a replacement or is it new and what is the goal for this role in the future? Sometimes a job description has been around a really long time. It does not reflect what is needed. And if an organization is growing, you need to understand what does the person need to come in the door with?
And what will be needed of them as this role grows. We will take that information and develop competencies. So what are the key factors that this individual needs to be successful? A lot of times people think of technical type descriptors. We're focused more on the role and success. Does this person need to be able to be comfortable working in the gray.
Does this individual need to have a lot of detail in their work? Are they leading a very large team? What are the success factors that are in there? And that's how we build the competencies. From there we start to look for candidates and as we look, we are considering not just the technical, but also those pieces that give us an idea of whether this individual would fit in the organization.
So a lot of times we'll talk to someone who could be a great fit technically, but probably would not fit into the culture. So sometimes it's a very fast paced culture and we see someone who is very structured. And we know that that may not be a good fit and we give them that feedback and we continue to move forward.
All of that, we work behind the scenes to do, and at some point, we develop a slate of candidates. And we have those and we present them to our clients. That probably is probably five to eight people. And we will have information on all of those competencies that we share with them to say, here's who you have.
Often here are no, there's not a perfect person for a role. So we talk about here's the individual, and here are the strengths that are going to come in the door with, and here are the developmental areas, so they can make the best decision. From there we often train our clients for interviewing because there are legalities or ways of looking at candidates.
And we like to use behavioral interviewing. So we are looking for past evidence of what someone has done versus theoretically, what they might do. It's based on the premise that past performance predicts future performance. After we get to that point, we may use psychometrics or other types of assessments to look for fit, and we make sure that those have been looked for non-discrimination.
So we don't just use any tools. These are tools that have been tested to make sure that anyone who takes the test would not be impacted, but we only use that as a portion of what we've looked at. And then from there we will extend an offer.
[00:16:43] Mosah: And then you help them onboard.
[00:16:44] Kristi: Yes, we absolutely do. And I will say that that's something that most companies that we compete with do not do.
So we say, we know there's a lot of research out there that talks about failure rates and what causes leaders to fail. And a lot of time it is really trying to take what made them successful in the past and having blind spots and not being able to consider those things that they move into their new role.
The learning curve is high. They need to have early wins. They need to be clear on what success looks like. So we work first with the client to say, what does success look like in that period of time? And then we work with the client and coach them through that so that they can make sure that they get to what we call the breakeven point as quickly as possible in their roles.
There's been a lot of research over the years about recruiting and that research says that most people hate interviewing. They really don't enjoy the interview process, but they do it for their friends. So I need to hire, so, okay I'll jump on the interview process with you, but people find it very stressful and it is not something that they typically enjoy yet it's one of the most important things that you can do.
So one of the things we say is that we take the pain out of that search process by taking the things that are typically stressful out, we do it all behind the curtain. And then when we present people have a nice slate of candidates that they can look at hiring.
[00:18:29] Mosah: So Kristi, I'd like to spend a little bit of time sharing some of your insights and experience for candidates as they look at searching for their next role. Not everyone has the fortune of being on the radar screen of big search firms. Not everyone has had the career path that they necessarily initially set out to have.
Not everyone is happy in their current job for any number of reasons, supervisory, conflict, lack of market-based compensation. There are a number of factors that drive people to look. What advice would you give to a candidate to make it easy to be recruited or to get noticed by those seeking to hire.
[00:19:10] Kristi: For so many people, especially people who have been in their roles for a while, the landscape of recruiting has shifted significantly. I'll talk to people who have been in a company for a while, and now they're looking and they're wondering, why do I need a LinkedIn profile?
I take all this time to apply for a job and then to hear nothing. So, what I share with people is that you need to think about your network, the most important leverage you have is your network and your friends and colleagues who are super connectors. So if you apply to a job on LinkedIn and you see it and you think it's amazing, then you need to think about who, you know, at that company.
And if you don't know anyone who knows someone and work on getting your resume into someone's hands. Most times, even when we're doing very high-level searches, there's always a resume or two that comes through that we consider because it was a friend of a friend. Don't just rely on artificial intelligence to think that that's going to help you get a role, especially the higher you are in an organization.
So if you're looking at a C-suite role, you're probably going to work with some type of recruiter or go through a process that may not bring you to the top, even though you may be one of the best candidates for the role. So at a minimum you've got to have a LinkedIn picture. It should not have your cat or your kids or your whole family. It should look professional.
You should have at least some highlights of what you've done over your career. And in a little bit that gives some indication that you are not just focused on your job. So, what have you done that may be volunteering or something else? Doesn't have to be extra complex, but interesting enough.
So I would start there, but everything is not on one platform. And letting people know that you are looking helps a lot. So you may have to think about when I say super connectors, I'm thinking about the friend that you have, or the colleague that you have that always know someone. You need, I need to get my hair cut, oh, I've got three barbers. And you know, whoever that individual is, think of who your super connectors are and let them know I’m looking.
[00:21:55] Mosah: So let's talk a little bit about that, that notion of a super connector for a second. There are people that every one of us knows who are just that, and maybe we ourselves are that, but can you talk a little bit about how those super connectors need to be activated and the hustle that's required by a candidate when searching for a job?
Rarely is it, at least in my experience that someone decides that they want to find a job or change roles or whatever the case might be and instantly, or even sometimes within weeks or months, that recruiter calls that individual with the right opportunity. They’re very few people that have that experience.
So could you talk a little bit about the hustle or grit that's required in a search?
[00:22:43] Kristi: Absolutely. One of the things I think really helps is expectations. What will feel like a, a regular search for an organization can feel like an eternity for a candidate and especially for a results driven, successful executive.
So the process can be quite challenging overall. So preparing for that is very, very important. The other thing is you do need a resume. Some people have not prepared a resume and you don't just need a resume for looking for a job. You're going to be vetted for a board or other types of experiences.
A resume is important. So making sure that you have a resume that is updated, that really reflects metrics. So I'll see resumes a lot and there'll be very narrative storytelling, but they don't give me any indication that something successful was delivered. So I want to see percentages and numbers. I want to see something that you delivered.
[00:23:50] Mosah: That’s so interesting because getting back to your comment earlier about behavioral based questions, right? Many people, and if you're not, I think the listeners should Google the star methodology, right? S T A R, because that's one form of responding to behavioral based questions. And I can't tell you how many clients, the highest percentage as close to a hundred as possible, who, when they first start working with us, have the S the T and the A, but miss that R, and the R of course, is the results that you're referencing.
And that's often absent from a resume. That's probably the most important thing when, when a hiring manager or search firm is, is reviewing someone's information. So I'm really happy that you brought that up. Could you share a little bit more about how the process that you go through when you're looking for not just percentages and specific dollar amounts, but what that means by way of employment, because that's really why someone's getting hired is to achieve those results.
[00:24:52] Kristi: Especially in executive roles, there is a nervousness or a caution from many of our clients that they're going to get someone who is very likable and really does well in the interview, but is going to come on and not be able to deliver what they've talked about. So that's why we use the behavioral interview approach and we use the STAR model.
I actually add an extra R in there when I'm working with people too. Friends and family call me and they're like, okay, I'm ready for an interview. It's not just results, but also reflection. Because you can't just always tell the best story. Sometimes you're going to tell a story that's not that great.
You maybe didn't get the results you were looking for, but what did you learn about it? And the best interviewers that we've had follow the stars model, but tell it in a story where it makes you lean in and you want to know what happened in the situation. And that's why I tell them, you know, go through, google the STARs model, it’s very easy to think about: situation, task, action, result, reflection, but tell it in a story. Give us something. So when you walk away, they may not remember what question they asked, but they remember that you did something and it was compelling and it was informative.
[00:26:15] Mosah: So funny that you mentioned adding an extra R because I to add an extra R, but I put it at the front end, RSTAR.
So when someone asks one of our candidates who were working with or one of our clients, who's a candidate in a search of behavioral based question. I always say, start with the result, let people know why you're answering the question and where you're headed and then come back to it at the end. But I really liked the reflection portion because it does help contextualize it so that that's sage advice for our listeners.
So thank you, Kristi. So let's say a candidate is interested in contacting you. What happens when they send their resume into your database or send it through an email? What does that look like for you. Just says, hi, I'm a talented individual who has achieved results. help me find a new.
[00:27:05] Kristi: So our search firm is more of a boutique search firm.
So there are larger search firms. They're smaller search firms. We are boutique. So often we will receive a resume from someone, but we may not necessarily have a role that would fit them at that point. Depending on how the resume comes in, it either goes into our database, but once again, I'm talking about the network.
If it comes through a network, I will spend time talking to someone. So I will set up some time, ask them what they're looking for and see if I can connect them to other recruiters. I actually was able to help someone last year, who was referred to me, did not have a role that we were searching for, was able to connect her to some of my colleagues who were also in different search firms. And she was successful in finding another role.
So being able to connect, talk to people and not rely on just sending emails without any follow-up. Most people, if you ask them for time, they'll give it to you, but you have to ask.
[00:28:11] Mosah: That's great advice and beyond, you know, recruiting firms and search firms have a subset of the market, right? Obviously not every company or employer engages firms for searches.
What are some other approaches that you would suggest a candidate look to or lean on to help find their next role?
[00:28:30] Kristi: One of the things I tell people to do is to think about the work they're doing and the work they want to do and the type of company where they want to work.
So I'm here based in Michigan and there are individuals who will say I want to work in a large organization, but I don't want to move. What can we target? Well, let's look at what companies are headquartered in Michigan. What hump companies are headquartered within the area where you'd like to work? Are there organizations that might be in the region that would allow you to have some type of hybrid work? And then start to target them.
Who do you know proactively? Because maybe there's a role that that's there, that isn't with a search firm and isn't going to be posted. But you may end up being able to get your resume in front of someone. The other thing I really strongly suggest people do is what I call informational interviews. So find someone who's working in organization and say, I know you don't have a role right now, but I'd love to come over.
Talk to you a bit, tell you a little bit about my background and find out more about your organization at a minimum. You've made a network connection beyond that it could lead to a role.
[00:29:50] Mosah: So if you're an executive level candidate beginning your job search today, because you've either been let go, or you want a change for any multitude of reasons, what advice would you give to that candidates starting their search tomorrow?
[00:30:06] Kristi: I think the most important thing is to have a partner to support you. And that can come in many different forms, but I'm talking about a professional partner. When you are searching for an executive role, most of those roles are not going to be posted on LinkedIn. They're not going to be, even if they're in a search firm, you're not going to be able to know that they're there.
So you need to have some support and being able to find that. But also, I would say you need a partner to help keep you grounded through the process because if you have been employed and you've been employed in an executive role and you are used to a certain pace and delivery, the search for another role can be quite challenging.
So having someone to say, okay, let's think about what it is that you want to do. Let's explore that and let's see how we're going to target this and make sure that your metrics, because you need to have metrics for your job search. What does that look like? So you might say I'm going to have lunch with at least three people every week.
Or I'm going to make this many calls to individuals. I'm going to follow up. I'm going to reach out to my network and build it. Think about my super connectors. We talked about super connectors earlier. Who do you have in your network? Who knows everyone? And continuously let people know that you're looking, make sure that they have your resume.
If you hear about something follow up, that can be daunting all by yourself, especially if you're used to being in an organization where you have a lot of support. So having a partner is really important.
[00:31:58] Mosah: Candidates or clients come to us and begin working with us, who haven't searched for a while, who haven't been on the job market.
So once we help them with their tools and all of the materials that they need to search, the expectation is that they don't necessarily need to put in the same type of effort, or this experience is so different than what they'd gone through in the past, because they'd been recruited or they were at lower levels in an organization.
Can you give some advice to those folks who are entering a search maybe for the first time in quite some.
[00:32:33] Kristi: I always say to people that you have to work your search like a job. If you take it lightly, it will come through on the interview. All of the things that you would do to push for excellence in a corporate role in your executive role.
You need to think about what excellence looks like in your search. I can't tell you how many people I've interviewed I don't really need to do this part, or I already know. And you don't want to assume that you know, because you don't. When you have the opportunity to go in and interview, you want to know everything you can about the organization.
You want to have done your research. You don't want to just show up and feel like perhaps you were the pick of the litter and they should be happy to have you. You really need to go in with your best foot forward and show that you were really interested. That can be difficult for some executive roles and taking that into account, I believe one helps with humility.
A lot of times you want to make sure that humility is coming through in your interview, that authenticity,
[00:33:50] Mosah: In a genuine way. Right?
[00:33:52] Kristi: Absolutely. And that you, you're not just looking for the title that you care about the organization. So all of those pieces make it a little more difficult than I think sometimes people anticipate.
So getting those expectations ready to know that this is going to be hard work. You're going to be working it as hard as you have in your roles. And you're going to be in learning mode, which is more challenging than when you are fully competent and know what you're doing.
[00:34:27] Mosah: Kristi I'd like to spend a little bit of time talking about your clients. And of course, as a search firm, your clients are employers. Can you describe the process of scoping a search with a client? What you're going through on that.
[00:34:40] Kristi: There are certain clients that we have that have, I would say more HR maturity. Which means that we can sit together maybe in a couple hours and put together a very comprehensive outline of what they're looking for.
So we understand from a cultural standpoint, we understand what the competencies are. We understand what the role is in the moment and where it needs to go over time. There are other organizations we work with where we need to learn more. And in those cases, we will have stakeholder interviews. We'll say, who can we talk to and interview to understand what this role does?
What makes us successful and to really understand. And we will do what I call a 360 interview. So we'll look at who might this role report to who might be the peers who might report into it. And then we'll gather that to understand what we should be looking for. It really helps us. So we spent a lot of time in that scoping process because it helps us to go fast in every other part of the search.
When we know who we're looking for, we can do a phone screen and maybe talk to someone for 10, 15 minutes and think we have someone, but once we get into a full-blown interview of an hour or more looking through the questions, we know if there's a fit or not. So we're able to come back and present some really great candidates for our clients.
Some clients feel like, wow, that's a lot of effort. But at the end, they really appreciate it and they want us to help them in other areas.
[00:36:28] Mosah: Yeah so it's kind of one of those, the adage of go slow to go fast kind of thing.
[00:36:34] Kristi: Absolutely.
[00:36:36] Mosah: So can you share a little bit of insight into sort of the timing and length of a search that you might work on?
And there's probably a wide variety market conditions, timing of year, compensation, any number of things that contributed. But it might be helpful for those looking for jobs to understand what that spectrum of time could potentially be.
[00:36:55] Kristi: We like to gage about three months from first interview to actual hire.
Sometimes it moves much more quickly. Sometimes it takes a little longer. And we make sure that we take our time because sometimes for our clients, they needed someone yesterday. And having the right fit is really important because we want someone to come in and be successful.
So while we are taking our time upfront, once we get into that actual interview, sometimes we can have a slate of candidates within a couple of weeks. Now what typically slows down the process, and this is important from a candidate standpoint and from a client standpoint is getting people aligned to interview. So what will feel like an eternity to someone interviewing might not feel that slow for a client.
What we've seen with the move to video is we're able to move hiring processes much more quickly because it's easier to get the interviews in. With some of our clients, they want to add extra interviews in because why not? We can do it. We can get people on video, why not interview them? And that can stretch that process out too.
So we try to upfront identify who is going to be a part of the hiring team. Who's making the decisions and then being able to move forward that way. And we are usually able to get somebody placed from first interview to start date within about three months. And that includes, especially at an executive level, people need to give notice if they're in a role and often that can be up to a month or more.
[00:38:51] Mosah: So can you maybe share an experience either from your time, whether it be at General Motors or Kelly, or even in your current role where you really had to fight through some complexities of an arrangement. Um, so whether it be an executive's compensation package or a non-compete agreements, maybe some of those stickier situations that you've, that you've encountered, because it's not uncommon for executives to have pretty complex arrangements with employers.
I'm curious to know if you could share some, some experiences or lessons learned. I think most of the time it comes down to communication and trust with, with a future employer, but curious to get your thoughts.
[00:39:35] Kristi: Let's talk about non-compete. Cause I think those are one of the things that sometimes executives don't understand or underestimate, we ask very early on if someone has a non-compete and we like to understand what is in it.
Non-competes really don't work if they're not enforced. So companies need to enforce them. And often candidates are surprised when they are enforced. There are certain individuals, these are, I would say more the exception than the rule. Who have very specific experiences and an organization will be willing to maybe hire them in a separate role that is outside of their non-compete area to get them into the organization and move them later.
I've seen that rarely. That is not typically what I see. What I do see is individuals becoming one of our final candidates and not understanding how restrictive their non-competes are. So maybe they can work in that and do that work, but they cannot do it in the area where this job is located. So understanding that becomes very, very important.
And finding out early on, if there's any exceptions or waivers, sometimes organizations will do that, but you have to ask. And once again, communication is key. Sometimes people, for whatever reason, don't want to ask. It's better to ask and to be told no than not ask and to be in a situation where you can't start in a role that you really, really wanted.
[00:41:15] Mosah: So I'd like to segue for a moment to what you're looking for. Obviously, you need qualified candidates. They need to have the requisite experience and have achieved adequate if not stellar results in their areas of expertise. But what are some of the things that you're looking for and how do you identify the talent for that sort of it factor?
And then what are some of the red flags that you see when you're sourcing candidates?
[00:41:43] Kristi: One of the most important factors that I'm seeing with almost every client is having someone who is open to learning. Once certain individuals get to a point in their careers, maybe not intentionally, but they can give off this feeling that they, they have all the knowledge and there's not much more that they can learn. That can be misinterpreted and not be received well by clients.
So I often talk to candidates, especially if we've talked to them early on, about having a learning mindset. And when I coach clients who are successful, I have to talk to them very specifically around you have transferable skills, but they are not automatically going to work in this role that you're going into.
So you have to go in with a growth mindset with a learning mindset and listen, before you speak, consider what else has been done? Don't assume that your best idea is the best idea for the situation. How do you bring other people along? So we will ask and look for that in interviews and our clients are specifically looking for that.
And you can fake it and make up some stories and do great in your interview. But it's going to come through when you actually start in the role and we want people to be successful. When the best things you can do is to make yourself uncomfortable. Think about what is it that I don't know that I need to learn and keep yourself in an area where you're always learning something.
So you can have that humility and remember what it feels like not to know something.
[00:43:34] Mosah: That's great advice, tremendous advice, and a perfect segue actually, to training and development. So tell us a little bit more about your T&D experience you've worked at one of the largest companies in the world as a head of talent development.
So can you, can you share a little bit more about your experience in that area?
[00:43:56] Kristi: One of the biggest changes I think for training and development is the move away from classroom only. So when I started my career, there was a philosophy that everything had to be in a classroom and it needed to be facilitated in and people probably would not get value if they were not flown in, sitting together learning, and you could keep your eyes on them and have an engaged training experience.
Over the years with global financial crises and organizational challenges financially, I had to think differently and others in roles like mine had to think differently to say, how can we help people learn and grow yet, not fly them and have them sit into you know, in a classroom, how do we make that work?
And that's where this premise of blended learning has come in. Where you can watch a short video, you can get something and then come in and have an experience where you're looking more at application, behavior change, relationship building, accountability. So at this point, that is much of what I do from the, the leadership advisory part of our business is to record a short video about change. What has changed? Why is it important? Why should you care as a leader and then bring leaders into an experience that has them consider what they're living. How is that impacting your ability to lead? How is it impacting you as an individual?
Do you even understand why the organization is changing and how are you going to work through to be the best leader you can be and deliver on all the things that you're already needing to do in your role? That blended learning, that collaborative learning, we sometimes call it circle learning, where you get a small group of people who are learning at the same things.
And having a shared experience is really, I think, where we're going. You can still do classroom. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. But I think that we're sitting with blended learning for quite a while.
[00:46:16] Mosah: Really interesting commentary on, on the evolution of training and development and also about, I think maybe you're touching on a topic that's often referred to as some of the adult principles of learning when it comes to approaching people with different forms of learning, because not everyone learns in the same fashion.
Is that a safe assumption?
[00:46:36] Kristi: Oh, absolutely.
[00:46:38] Mosah: So one of the things that I think organizations and we talked about this a little bit earlier on the topic of the succession planning need to do is invest in training and development in order to work on retention. Right. Particularly with people staying in jobs for shorter and shorter periods of time and a greater volume and a velocity of turnover in organizations writ large.
I'm curious to know how you might've leveraged training and development during your time at General Motors and then specifically, you know, what does Sigred do today to help organizations work on retention? So that they don't have to call the other portion of your business and have you find people for them.
Um, training and development, I guess with respect to retention would be the question.
[00:47:18] Kristi: One of the things that I think retained people in many ways is the opportunity to learn and that the organization invested in them in what they are interested in learning. And that can show up in all different ways.
So of course, we use a platform that had lots of certifications you could go on and do self-pay certifications, and learn. There were also opportunities for people to learn in small groups and still classroom. There were still classroom opportunities, but more localized versus having in the past a lot of training departments had very large budgets for travel.
So a lot of that travel, you won't see as much, but still the face to face is valuable. The other thing that I've seen a lot of development happening through is through affinity groups. So organizations within a company, a group of people who have a shared interest, actually going to the organization, asking for funding and sponsoring different types of development in that way.
So that helps a lot. There is a big change in my opinion, from the types of development that people wanted earlier in my career. We used to talk about people wanting development to get the corner office. And for many organizations, there is no corner office, or it might be shared or whatever it is, it's different.
So there is a desire for many people to have depth and breadth, not just to be the most technically astute person, but also have EQ.
[00:49:10] Mosah: EQ is important and there are a number of other factors that are important to someone's training and development plan. Would you share a little bit more about that?
[00:49:18] Kristi: One of the things that we know is the higher individuals move in an organization into executive levels, the less technical competency drives success.
A lot of the success factors start to move into other areas, and those are sometimes more difficult for people to move into. So I'll give you an example. We can have someone who is a working director and may lead people, but also has opportunity to push her, you know, her sleeves up and do the work. When an individual was moved into that next level, often there is a feeling of loss.
I don't get to do the fun work anymore. My direct reports have to do it. And now I'm dealing with this strategy stuff and there's not really anything tangible. that I can look to, to say that I've done a great job today. When you're sitting, you've already been through that process, it's hard to remember how difficult that is yet.
If you can train people and have development to say, this is the journey we're putting on. You're going to feel uncomfortable. It's normal. You're going to need to let go of doing the work so that you can manage and lead and drive the strategy we need you to drive. Often setting those expectations, giving someone maybe a coach or a peer, a partner, a mentor in the organization to let them know what you're experiencing is normal in your, you are successful.
Success is measured differently. That helps with succession, it helps with retention. That’s where a lot of times people will leave an organization because they have a feeling of discomfort. And perhaps a feeling that they are going to fail. So perhaps I should leave before I fail. Where in reality all they are going through is a natural growth process and if they can just work through it, they will be successful on the other end.
[00:51:31] Mosah: Kristi one of the things, our candidates that we work with experience is sometimes, and it's more the exception than the rule that they know exactly what they want to achieve and they're on their way to getting to it. And they need a little bit of facilitation. Most of the time however, when a candidate or a client comes to us, they often don't know how to get started in their search or the prospect of looking for several months is incredibly daunting to them and they don't know where to begin.
I'd say that's probably more the case than the former scenario that I described. If you're an executive getting started for your search today, what would be some advice that you, given your years of experience might lend to that person?
[00:52:15] Kristi: I would start by saying, connect with an organization like Top Talent.
That would be the beginning, especially if you have been in an executive role for a while and you have not searched in a while. It is not just the technical support that you would receive. The looking at your resume. Having someone help you with interview skills. That's the easy part. The more important part is to help you as you go through the emotions and disappointments and successes in the search. Because you will have different feelings about your search process. You may think that you were the top candidate. You may not get a role. You may become the top candidate and be surprised and not be sure that this is the organization where you would fit.
You need to have a partner to be able to help you through that, especially at that executive level, because the decision you make is so important.
[00:53:24] Mosah: Kristi, thanks so much for being with us today. We really appreciate you taking the time and sharing your insights and wisdom with our listeners. I know they valued it and I know I valued it. So thank you again for taking the time. As we do on every episode, we support a nonprofit that is a particular point of passion for our guests as a small way of saying thank you.
And so I'm wondering if you might be willing to share with us what nonprofit we should be supporting?
[00:53:51] Kristi: Absolutely. I sit on the board of Focus Hope it is a nonprofit in the city of Detroit, and it has been in existence since 1968. I remember being a preteen and a teenager going to walk to support Focus Hope.
This organization is focused on overcoming racism, poverty, and injustice, and they do it in a very interesting way. They support early childhood education. They support food for seniors and they provide job training. So being able to support that organization, would not only make me really pleased, but also be able to impact a wide range of people and change lives in the city of Detroit.
[00:54:38] Mosah: Kristi thank you so much for joining us today. Can't tell you how appreciative we are of your time. A lot of our listeners who are interested in learning more about you and about Sigred Solutions to either engage you for services, pick your brain. What's the best way to get ahold of you?
[00:54:54] Kristi: They can go to our website, www.Sigredsolutions.com
They can email me kisti.stepp@Sigredsolutions.com or you can give us a call 313-474-1300.
[00:55:17] Mosah: Thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate having you on the show.
[00:55:20] Kristi: Wow. This has been an honor.
[00:55:23] Richard: Thank you for joining us on Hiring Insights. Remember, you can learn more about Top Talent Advocates and listen to other episodes by visiting toptalentadvocates.com and click on the Podcast.
You can also email us at tta@toptalentadvocates.com
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