באוקטובר 2017 נסעתי לכנס HR Tech באמסטרדם. אחד הדברים החשובים שיצאתי איתם מהכנס היה הבטחה של ג'וש ברסין להתראיין לבלוג שלי. שאלתי אותו שאלות בכל מיני נושאים כמו שימור עובדים וגם שאלות אישיות על דברים שהוא אוהב לעשות. איש מדהים שממרום מעמדו ובלי היסוס נענה לבקשה שלי.

ג'וש ברסין, הוא אחד מהמומחים הגדולים בעולם בתחום משאבי האנוש, מייסד ומנכ"ל קבוצת המחקר ברסין, שעוסקת במחקר משאבי אנוש גלובליים.

Can you provide some practical tips for retaining good employees and strengthening employer-employee relationships?

• The simplest and most important thing for managers to do is listen. While we all have business plans, goals, and projects to complete, it’s important to listen to people and hear their personal desires, goals, and needs.
• If you can understand what each employee wants out of their career with your company you can best match their needs to that of the organization.
• I would also urge managers to be transparent, clear, and as inspirational as possible about what your team is trying to accomplish. Most people are very willing to roll up their sleeves and figure things out if they know where to focus and feel motivated toward the end goal.

How does the insight that retaining an employee is sometimes more important than hiring an employee find tangible expression in the “real world”?

It’s always important to think about “retention” of employees, because it forces management to understand what employees see as challenges and issues. Most employees have many suggestions about how to make the organization better – we just have to give them an opportunity to speak up.

The other thing to consider about retention is the high cost of replacing an employees.  As I describe in the following article, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20130816200159-131079-employee-retention-now-a-big-issue-why-the-tide-has-turned/ the cost of losing an employee is much higher than you realize. This is why it’s so important to assess fit, culture match, and expectations before you make a job offer.

What is the future of evaluation and screening institutes, regarding the processes some companies require job candidates to undergo?

This is an enormously important part of business, and the world of assessment is complex and changing rapidly.

There are many forms of assessment and screening: technical tests, behavioral tests, personality tests, cognitive tests, and various forms of “culture assessments.”  More than 60% of companies use some form of testing and its’ quite common (and recommended) for hiring managers to ask candidates to “test perform” what kind of work they will do on the job. We ask potential analysts, for example, to give us thoughtful presentations – to learn about how they think, how well they communicate, and how well they can visually display information.

That all said, the testing and assessment industry is being more data and AI driven every day. I know of more than a dozen vendors that are now using intelligent sourcing to scan candidates’ social profiles and job histories to give employers recommendations. It turns out you can learn a lot from someone based on where they’ve worked successfully, what kinds of developmental experiences they’ve had, and who they are connected with.

In addition, most companies have an enormous pool of “silver medal” candidates (those who didn’t get the offer) who can be mined to find great candidates. People who have applied to your company but been rejected are often excellent candidates for followon jobs.

Finally there is a trend away from GPA and college degree and pedigree toward more and more assessments of “fit” and “passions” and “purpose” to help find the right people.  Our latest talent acquisition research proves that the highest performing companies use these types of cultural assessment as a very high rate, and many are doing away with “college pedigree” as a knockout factor.  This is because more and more jobs require learning agility and social skills, not just technical skills.

Professionally speaking, what are the things you like to do?

• I am a voracious reader. I read everything I can get my hands on, including books, articles, magazines, blogs, you name it. I have a huge respect for all my peers, researchers, and HR leaders and managers around the world – so I am always trying to learn from them.
• I also spend a lot of time with vendors and technologists. They teach me a lot about innovative ideas, new technologies, and innovative solutions in the market. Plus I am a techie and I just love new technologies, algorithms, and data driven solutions.
• Finally, I go to lots of conferences and meet 1:1 with groups of people whenever I can.  Just talking with people about their issues and how they’re solving them teaches me, gives me perspective, and helps me be the “pattern matcher” I am as a professional.

Do you plan your career? Could you share the directions with us?

My career has been a series of random accidents, all of which led to where I am today.  I always tell people that you really cannot predict where your career will go – just find things that truly energize you, and your career will evolve.

I studied engineering early in my career because I loved math, science, and understanding how things work. Later I moved into sales and marketing because I always loved debate, argument, and using information to make better decisions. And I fell into technology jobs (at IBM, Sybase, and two startups) simply because I had a deep technical background.

I would also say that I was a bit of a “late bloomer.” For 20+ years I had a series of low level and mid-level positions in engineering, sales, support, product management, and marketing at several well run companies. I loved these jobs and always just jumped in to learn whatever I could.  Later as I became older I realized I had developed an enormous amount of experience and judgement in many areas of business.  When I was layed off in 2001 all this experience helped me to build a company of my own, which in itself was an enormous learning experience.

I would also mention that career planning never ends. Even now, at the age of 61, I think about “what I should do next.” I would say that the most enjoyable part of my career has been writing, expressing ideas in a way that teaches people, and analyzing information to understand what is going on. This “analyst” part of my personality continues to drive me, and I think it will drive my career for decades to come.  I have never been very motivated by money, and that has been a blessing – it has let me focus on the things I am truly good at, which in turn makes me happy.

When we met in Amsterdam, you said that you really enjoyed your visit to Israel. You met with HR professionals and entrepreneurs. What insights did you take away regarding the Israeli market?

There are many things about Israel that excite me. First of all I’m Jewish, so the whole ethos and history of Israel is inspiring and energizing for me. But beyond this, I believe Israel represents many of the practices and values I personally love: innovation, invention, open-mindedness, teamwork, technical prowess, and a sense of inclusion and willingness to listen. I grew up in a family where we debated everything, so I love being in a country where intellectual debate is highly valued.

I met many startup executives, VCs, and other leaders in Israel and left with an excitement to come back and do much more there

מבחינתי הראיון הזה הוא עוד נדבך בתהליך האישי שאני עוברת. לא לפחד ולהעז, כי אחרת הפוסט הזה לא היה נכתב. תודה ענקית לג'וש ברסין!

• תודה להדר פודה, מדלוייט, שעזרה בחיבור.