Today, companies are finding that one big drag on their bottom line is the problem of employee turnover. Whether it is a loss from the C-suite or the mailroom, people are not staying in their jobs the way they once did. More than ever human resources executive recruiters are helping businesses get and retain the talent they need. The influence human resources (HR) is having on the top level of businesses around the nation was reported on recently in Forbes. Daniel Chait, the founder of Greenhouse, a producer of software used by human resources executive recruiters, gave his take on the role HR is having on C-suites around the nation.
Chait recounts his story. As a programmer, he saw that there was a better way for him so to succeed than just trying to become at least 100 times better than the other programmers he worked with. He saw that he could go another way to increase the value he added for his work by hiring 100 other programmers who were great. That is when he went from being a programmer to being a recruiter. From there he became an HR executive. In this role, he was able to help the company he worked for by getting them the most talented people.
After that, Chait started his own company. Greenhouse is a quickly growing company. They employ hundreds of people and cater to thousands of clients. He views the main contribution he makes as the CEO of that company as being his ability to bring in talented people. He says he has worked hard to create a company culture where people are empowered and motivated to do their best work.
Chait notes that the CEOs of some of the largest companies in the United States started their careers in the HR department. They may not have been only human resources executive recruiters but they knew how to attract and keep the best people. These companies are General Motors, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Xerox. Typically, C-suite people came, not from HR, but from the sales, finance, or marketing departments. Now, that is changing. More and more companies are seeing the value of moving HR department personnel into higher levels of the business.
There are a few reasons for this. One only has to look at what happened in 2017 at NBC with Matt Lauer to see how important HR issues can be. The #MeToo movement was started because HR departments all over the nation were not living up to the expectations that employees had for them. The people in a company who are on the front line in the fight against bad behavior in the office.
Chait says he is part of a group of CEOs in New York City. Every month, they get together to go over the issues of the day. He says they do not always discuss finance or strategy but rather they talk about the issues that are really bothering them at the time. These issues are often how to stop employee turnover, how to motivate workers, and what things they can do to be better mentors.
Chait also points out that there is no daylight between a customer brand and a hiring brand. The way companies treat their people will change the way the business is viewed by consumers. What businesses need to do is create a more holistic brand for their business. Amazon may be the biggest company on the planet but their reputation took a hit when it was discovered that they treat their people terribly. More and more companies are seeing the importance of getting the right human resources executive recruiters.
Now the trend in business is to showcase how great they are to their workers. McDonald’s has been running a new ad campaign based solely on the way they treat their people. Over the holidays, Chevrolet began an ad referring to its workforce as “family.” For years, people have boycotted Walmart because of the way it was perceived as treating the people who work there. This has prompted them to change course and raise salaries and improve the way people in their workforce are treated. As the largest employer in the United States, this will have an impact.