Setting the scene
The organisation works in 90 countries providing rental services to outdoor events. They have an impressive client list and are at the top of their industry. The HR Director’s job is to look after their offices across Europe. He describes how The McQuaig System™ has helped solve one particular problem and is addressing others.
The issue
‘I joined the organisation a year and a half ago and quickly identified a key issue. Our rental centre handles customers across the whole of Northern Europe. It is important to us and our customers as it takes orders, handles dispatch and sends out invoices.
It employed 65 people when I joined and we had a retention problem with staff turnover around 34%. With that level of change you simply can’t build a common culture, service standards and detailed knowledge. We had to solve it...and fast.’
The diagnosis
‘There’s rarely one cause – or one solution – for a people problem. But poor recruitment practice was the root cause as agencies were placing candidates after a twenty minute interview. Add in a problematic management structure and it was clear we had to move fast…’
Why did you choose The McQuaig System™
‘I was introduced to The McQuaig System™ in a previous role and have known Mike Edwards, a McQuaig Associate, for some years. Our culture is very reactive: if there’s a problem it must be solved quickly, not just talked about.
I know a number of competing products and McQuaig scores very well:
1. You can sell it internally very easily.
2. It is quick to use.
3. It is also relatively cheap but that doesn’t mean it’s shallow
4. You can talk to senior managers who are not HR trained and get the bare bones across.
5. It is technically good and outscores other tools on a cost/benefit analysis.
6. It is a system. It can be used in an integrated way across national boundaries and with different jobs for different purposes which are important here.’
The solution(s)
‘We used the McQuaig Job Survey® to build a role benchmark then stringently adhered to the profile when we were recruiting using the McQuaig Word Survey®. I can’t emphasise this too strongly: once you have a role benchmark profile you must stick to it. We checked this before any job offer was made.
We did the same thing to define a new management role and promote four people to head up teams. In other words, we use McQuaig to identify talent.
Once we had this structure in place we could build other things. Getting the right people is just the first step. We used the McQuaig Self Development Survey® to base some of our development work. We’ve also trained people across Europe to use the System: that’s another advantage – that it’s available in different languages.’
The results
‘We have a way to go but can say that our staff turnover is going to go below 10%. To quantify this even further, The McQuaig System™ has so far saved us £45,000 in the direct costs of wrong recruitment decisions, plus whatever financial effects stem from having the wrong person deal with our customers.
The team is very close-knit and we’ll be looking more closely at the performance statistics to see the effect this is having.’
Top Tips
1. ‘Once you have a job profile, stick to it and put in systems to monitor the results.
2. Recruitment is only a start: use the Self Development Survey® to maximise the effect of having the right people in the right job.
3. Using The McQuaig System™ internationally creates a common recruitment and promotion structure across multinational companies – with real opportunities for sharing best practice.
4. The McQuaig System ™is easy to sell in senior managers who want quick solutions.
5. A 20 minute recruitment interview can’t predict behaviour. You need something more stringent.’
0800 043 3950
http://www.holstgroup.co.uk/
