Life doesn't handout participation trophies and employers are fed up with a lack of work ethic. - NOW Hiring Heroes was built by Veterans through hard work and a passion to change the hiring mindset and promote a "Veteran First Mentality". To accomplish a change of this magnitude, we had to understand what core competencies employers identified as skills that they would not compromise on when hiring new employees. They provided us a good baseline of skill sets that their top performing employees possessed and that they felt led to successful employees within their organization. There were many variations of abilities or traits that they pointed out to us and all of them varied slightly depending on the industry but, for the most part, they were all fairly similar in nature. Here is what we found when talking to business owners and 'C' level executives in the areas we define as our niche industries:
Key traits of successful employees -
- Manufacturers - This industry requires a team that operates like a well oiled machine. Production personnel must communicate effectively and adapt quickly to operate at extremely high levels this industry demands. Time is money and they can't spare a second. If an applicant requires constant direction or is not able to multitask they'll never make it.
- Distributors - Our research found that companies that are in warehousing, transportation, logistics or any hub in the supply chain look for employees that have a combination of accuracy and efficiency that only a team of tremendously attentive and detail oriented personnel can accomplish. If an applicats sense of direction gets them lost in a brown paper bag and their attention to detail and/or ability to focus aren't consistent, hiring them would be setting themselves and the candidate up for failure.
- Engineers must posses the ability to take an idea and transform it into a structure, object, diagram or system that is either constructed, fabricated or executed in a very complex manner with precise and minute detail. Basically, if the candidate had trouble putting together their youngest child's rocking horse on Christmas morning because the directions were to complex for them to comprehend, They should rethink their career path.
- Industrial maintenance and repair requires an acute capacity to troubleshoot, diagnose, develop solutions and improvise with what's immediately accessible. Most often these repairs are extremely time sensitive to the operations of a companies primary mission and are typically performed in less than desirable conditions. If "lefty loosy, righty tighty" are an applicants primary thought before they change a light bulb, It is going to take more than someone pulling a couple strings to get them in the door of this highly skilled and specialized industry.
- Sales and Support - A sales force must be resilient when faced with rejection and confident in their abilities to perform under pressure. Additionally, all sales professionals must have exceptional communication skills and the aptitude to quickly identify a customers problem or need and then create an effective solution. Sales might not be the right fit if an applicant has never made a scene in a checkout line while begging Mom for a pack of gum. All we can say is "NO".. Do not apply, and if the fact that we just said "no" has discouraged them from pursuing their dream of a high earning sales career, then resiliency is not a trait they possess and they'll never make it without the ability to handle rejection.
Employers need good hard working people...
Okay.. We felt it necessary to make this a bit tongue and cheek to keep it interesting, however, a few of the decision makers we spoke with were very candid with their comments and we weren't too far off from their insights. The biggest issue they all faced that we didn't outline above is work ethic, or lack there of. 99% of the company executives we met with expressed their frustrations with lazy candidates and/or employees. The Executive Vice President of Human Resources for a large distribution company here locally elaborates on their experience..
"When we hire an employee it's because they left an impression that we were hiring a team player. Three weeks later we hear from their supervisor that they're doing the bare minimum to get a paycheck... It's frustrating how difficult it is to find people that want to work.
"This is our take on the information we gathered: The core competencies that we discovered from our experiences meeting and working with the decision makers, hiring managers and business owners in each of these industries aren't taught in a college classroom. These are intangible skills that are typically personality traits or they have become ingrained within a person to the point they're instinctual. This could be the result of their upbringing, parental guidance, culture or the product of a repetitive application of these competencies as either a survival tool, or under extreme levels of stress. A strong work ethic, reliability and putting forth your best effort is a product of structure and discipline. Being accountable for your actions or accepting the consequences of poor choices has not been reinforced and without these basic values in place the definition of hard work gets blurred by a sense of entitlement. It's not exclusive to the lower wage workforce either, but is definitely more prevalent in that area.
Our point is this... work ethic and the intangible abilities or personality traits outlined above in each of the respective industries define the very core competencies of nearly all Veterans regardless of branch. Lack of work ethic is not even a point of discussion in the Veteran Community. Discipline and structure are a way of life to those that have served and I can personally attest to how difficult it was to get accustomed to the absence of structure when I transitioned into the private sector. 0500 P.T. and then 0630 muster, 16 hour days 6 days a week and 8 month deployments for 10 years of your life will make you appreciate those that are still actively serving. These core competencies do not only pertain to those that have been exposed to combat situations, these competencies encompass the vast majority of Veterans because of the perpetual training regiment they are subjected to. To remain mission capable, active duty and reserve personnel are constantly training on rapid response and the precise execution of that response. The readiness of a unit or squadron is paramount in every branch of the military.
"When we hire an employee it's because they left an impression that we were hiring a team player. Three weeks later we hear from their supervisor that they're doing the bare minimum to get a paycheck... It's frustrating how difficult it is to find people that want to work.
"This is our take on the information we gathered: The core competencies that we discovered from our experiences meeting and working with the decision makers, hiring managers and business owners in each of these industries aren't taught in a college classroom. These are intangible skills that are typically personality traits or they have become ingrained within a person to the point they're instinctual. This could be the result of their upbringing, parental guidance, culture or the product of a repetitive application of these competencies as either a survival tool, or under extreme levels of stress. A strong work ethic, reliability and putting forth your best effort is a product of structure and discipline. Being accountable for your actions or accepting the consequences of poor choices has not been reinforced and without these basic values in place the definition of hard work gets blurred by a sense of entitlement. It's not exclusive to the lower wage workforce either, but is definitely more prevalent in that area.
Our point is this... work ethic and the intangible abilities or personality traits outlined above in each of the respective industries define the very core competencies of nearly all Veterans regardless of branch. Lack of work ethic is not even a point of discussion in the Veteran Community. Discipline and structure are a way of life to those that have served and I can personally attest to how difficult it was to get accustomed to the absence of structure when I transitioned into the private sector. 0500 P.T. and then 0630 muster, 16 hour days 6 days a week and 8 month deployments for 10 years of your life will make you appreciate those that are still actively serving. These core competencies do not only pertain to those that have been exposed to combat situations, these competencies encompass the vast majority of Veterans because of the perpetual training regiment they are subjected to. To remain mission capable, active duty and reserve personnel are constantly training on rapid response and the precise execution of that response. The readiness of a unit or squadron is paramount in every branch of the military.
(904) 800-6660
In our experience many employers that are struggling with the decision of hiring a four year college graduate or a veteran that served four years tend to hire the college graduate. The facts are this:
- Six Sigma and LEAN manufacturing processes can be taught.
- Creating strategies to improve accuracy and efficiency in the distribution chain through data driven analysis by way of complex spreadsheets... can be taught.
- Engineering and Designing a structure that can support excessive weight in a geographical location that requires detailed topographic foundation analysis prior to design.. can be taught. Very technical and difficult to learn but classes are available.
- Troubleshooting and repairing programmable logic controllers (PLCs) so that 3 miles of conveyor belts will come back online and return a distribution operation back to the 'on' position... can be taught.
- Creating new business revenue through taking a more consultative approach that focuses on listening to the clients needs, identifying solutions and educating them on their options so that you position yourself as a trusted adviser, not a pushy fast talking sales rep..... Can be taught.
RSS Feed