Untitled Document

DHR seeks to align hiring practices with culture, innovation goals

With the department's culture and innovation goals, aligning hiring practices with performance goals is the next step in the right direction. By hiring constructive and innovative people, ITD is able to feed on the momentum of employee contributions right away, rather than having to train employees to contribute in areas that may not be their conventional work styles.

To that end, Brenda Williams, Chief Human Resource Officer, recently unveiled a "Hiring the Best Talent" class for supervisors, offering tips and techniques on how to identify candidates that align with our values and culture. The one-day course asks supervisors to evaluate the qualities of the best employees and the qualities of the worst employees, in order to begin seeking those top qualities in future candidates.

"Think of the traits that differentiate your best co-workers from the worst," explained Division of Human Resources Unit Supervisor David Nichols. "As you consider those traits, what did you emphasize? Initiative? Work ethic? Supports a team environment? Technical skills?"

"This class emphasizes the need to hire for cultural fit and engage with candidates in ways that make them feel welcome, comfortable, and able to be themselves," explained Nichols.

"When that happens, we learn more about the candidates and whether they are the right fit for the position and ITD."

The hiring announcements were also rewritten to generate enthusiasm and energy to attract the right people."What it really boils down to is a more effective process to help us make great hiring decisions," said Nichols. "For quite some time, supervisors have been shackled when hiring new employees by a process that was slow, rigid, rule-bound, and not as effective as it could be."

"We now have a hiring process that is flexible, incorporates creativity, and most of all trusts that our employees will design the right interview process, ask the right questions, set the right tone, be the right organizational representative, and make the right decisions for ITD's future workforce," he added.