So, as a change management speaker, let me relate a fake conversation between the hiring manager and the top candidate that might help put the quote above with a sense of proper context.
“You’ve done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.” -Ralph Marston, Self-improvement author
After an exhaustive search, the department head is convinced the candidate in front of them is the right one. The candidate sits down, smiles and pulls out a sheet of paper with 20 or so seemingly odd or invasive questions.
“With all due-respect and before we begin,” says the candidate, “I have several questions to ask you about the organization and my potential job in particular. If everything sounds promising and to my satisfaction, please feel free to ask any questions of me.”
I can promise as a Change Management Motivational Speaker who talks about workplace change that if you haven’t run into such a conversation as yet, it will happen. Guaranteed. How will you react? Will you be angry, turned-off, disgusted or be willing to listen and honestly respond?
In the change management year of 2023, please understand that the tables have turned. It is no longer asking a candidate “Are you the right person for my job,” so much as the candidate aking “Is this the right company for me to spend several years of my career and life?”
Be open
As a change management motivational speaker, I know that as greater emphasis has been placed on issues such as diversity, equity and inclusion; environmental record and carbon footprint; corporate governance and human rights issues, your organization is seen differently. Candidates, particularly Gen-Z and Millennials, will want to know your company’s track record on important issues.
Given questions around pressing social, environmental or DEI situations, how is your organization stacking up and is your organization facing serious shareholder, legal or workplace situations?
Times have changed, and unless your company is motivated to change with them, top candidates may move elsewhere. I might also add that if the organization has hoped that uncomfortable issues from the past, or even present, remain “hidden,” chances are they have already been found by your top candidates. So, why have they been hidden? What has the company done to correct the situation? It is a given that you will be asked.
In the past, an employee or potential employee who has asked serious and probing questions, was likely to lose the job or lose the possibility of being employed in the first place. Right now, candidates not employers are in the driver’s seat. They will ask, and you need to know the answer.
Back to the quote: Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive.
Isn’t it time corporations have a new way of looking at things? Don’t be frustrated as to why top candidates are keying-in on important topics; the real frustration should be directed at issues that have been long-past due in getting resolved.
Perhaps the biggest positive is that the questions are being asked.
To contact Mike Hourigan, Change Management Keynote Speaker, please call Mike today at (704) 875-3030 or fill out the form below.
