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Category: coHired

Four Gaps to Avoid to Increase Trust

An4 Gaps to avoid to increase trustyone who has ridden the London Tubes will be all familiar with this phrase ,”Please mind the gap between the train and the platform.” The announcement is a constant reminder to beware of gaps, so that you don’t get tripped up or worse.

Gaps can be dangerous! And it’s a pretty safe bet that one of these four gaps are tripping you up.

Gap # 1 | Communication Gap
“But I told you that” is the thought that pops to our mind, “why didn’t they listen?”. We might of said it, or sent an email and made it abundantly clear. But just because we said it does not mean communication has happened. And if they didn’t understand us, as the communicator it’s our fault, not theirs!

At Agoge and coHired we value Compelling Communication. That means that our communication should compel people to take action. Compelling communication is hard, because it takes pre-thought, clarity and crafting. But without it communication is often lost.

Lastly, a big issue with the communication gap, is that any gap will be filled. Either by the other persons thoughts or other peoples conversations.

Gap # 2 | Statement / Fact Gap
We’ve all heard it before, someone makes a big strong statement that is simply not factual. But they say it so strongly that no-one wants to refute it. Avoid doing this ourselves by watching for the word ‘always’ and ask questions before making a statement.

Always: Watch for this word “always”. ‘He always…’, ‘I always’, ‘it has always been’. Always can lead to big gaps between statements and facts. And when you make strong statement it always often shuts people down, and stops the real detail and facts coming out.

Questions: Steven Covey said “Seek first to understand before being understood”, and there is so much power in that phrase. The best way to avoid being ‘that person’ is to ask a bunch of questions to really establish the facts before making the big statement.

Gap # 3 | Say Do Gap
Nothing affects our credibility more than saying we will do something, and then not doing it. For some people this gap is more like a chasm, and its generally avoided by…

Yes means Yes: “Let your Yes be Yes, and your No be No”. We get to choose to say ‘yes’, which means we also get to choose to say ‘no’. The irony for many people is when they are most busy they say yes because its easy to avoid the mental load of saying no. Sometimes it’s a great idea to pause the yes. ‘I don’t have the space right now, can you check back in a few days’.

Clarity: Once we say yes, be really clear with the person what we are saying yes to. What are e committing to and most importantly by when? If they expect it today, and we are thinking a week. Huge gap.

Capture it: I’m constantly blown away by how many people ‘trust’ their memories. If we say we are going to do something and we don’t write it down in a place we can trust (GTD). We are setting ourselves up to fail.

Ask for help: Often we have the best intentions and then we hit a roadblock and our execution stalls. Don’t let a say do gap arise because we aren’t prepared to ask for help. Often the best place to ask for help, is by starting person we agreed the action. It shows them we are working on it, but stuck.

Unsay it: Once we’ve said it does not mean it’s the final word on the matter. ‘Hey I know I said I could do this. But I simply don’t have the space for it, but here’s someone else who may be able to help.’

Gap #4 | Knowledge Gap
The knowledge gap can trip us up in 2 ways;

Your knowledge gap: We all hate a ‘know it all’, which is why it’s crazy that we so often think we need to have the answer. ‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing’, and we don’t have to know everything so stop pretending like we do. “I don’t know”, “I can’t recall’, “and I can go find out” responses are great to help make sure we get the knowledge we actually need.

Their knowledge gap: Sometimes we are the expert and the gap is theirs. Just because you know the answer does not mean you need to fill the gap. People with all the knowledge often end up being in the middle of the knowledge gap, which is helpful in the short term, but a disaster in the long term. If someone is asking for your knowledge, sometimes the best thing to do is to get them to fill the gap for themselves.

Why are these gaps so dangerous?

One word.

Trust.

When we allow the above gaps to form, people notice. And if the gap gets too big, you begin to get a bad reputation. When that happens their trust in you takes a massive hit, so maybe it’s time to go fill some gaps.

One talent children must have for jobs of the future.

The talent children must have for jobs of the future.In the past, most jobs were about manual labour. Back then strength and physicality won the day.

Currently, the good jobs use your mind. Your brain, your creativity and your ability to think set you apart. As knowledge workers, the company basically pays us for our brains.

Now, with Robots doing the manual work, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) doing the knowledge work faster than we can (without needing to sleep), what will the best jobs of the future be?

In the future, the best jobs will be about person to person, human to human connection.

As Robots and AI do their thing, the people who will be the most valuable are those who can connect, care, and help with a genuine authentic heart.

The future of work is the heart!

Recently after pitching coHired and was I told “You’re the only company who is using AI [in HR] who are actually putting ‘heart for people’ into what you do”. Which is not a surprise given our vision is ‘People Matter ∴ Do Good’ with a core value of ‘Love People’.

We believe that AI will have a huge impact on recruitment over the next 5 years. But we also believe that jobseekers want (and deserve) dignity. That only comes when the people in our company have not just brains (and they are incredibly smart), but more importantly heart.

If you want to know what to teach your kids to set them up for the future?

Teach them to love people.

10 great tips when applying for jobs online.

The future of jobs is changing and so is the way you apply for those jobs.

6 years ago (a lifetime in technology) I wrote 14 tips to stand out when applying for a job. Well the way we apply for jobs and big data is changing the whole job seeker experience so here’s my latest tips:

Help the machines10 great tips when applying for jobs online

Computers and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are now doing a lot more of the screening and recommendations to companies of who they should employ.

  1. Create your ‘Machine CV’ | In the olden days when people used to spend 10 seconds skim reading CV’s it was all about standing out. Now almost every platform scrapes your CV and converts it to text so that AI can work its magic (Seek, TradeMe, coHired and most recruitment technologies do it.) Sadly your beautifully crafted, multi-column CV with info-graphics is not that helpful to AI.  The Solution: Have a Machine CV;
    • A well formatted single column CV in Word format (which currently gets the best results)
    • AI loves data, so time to add back in some of those words you’ve been deleting over the last few years. Particularly around the experience and responsibilities you’ve had. It will help you rank higher.
    • Keep pictures and images to a minimum.
  2. Answer Questions Honestly | More organisational science is being mixed with AI in the form of questions that are asked. If you want a job you love, answer them honestly. If AI thinks you are someone different to who you are, it will recommend you for jobs that won’t suit you.
  3. Respond Quickly | AI will process your information as soon as it is completed, no more waiting for a human. The sooner you get the information in, the quicker you will pop to the top of the list.
  4. Reference Checks | Your old managers are time poor and more reference checks are being done electronically. It’s now important to have both their email address and phone numbers. And AI is pretty good at spotting if you have provided dodgy referees by looking at IP addresses and domain names.
  5. Video Interviews | Both automated and human video interviews will continue to increase. Be prepared for them by making sure you are in a quiet space free from distraction. If it’s a 1 on 1 video call, make sure you are logged in and ready to go 5 mins early, so that you know the technology is working and you start relaxed.

Take advantage of Technology

Companies are using technology like crazy. You can too.

  1. LinkedIn Marketing | Is an opportunity to market yourself and to reach past technology directly to hiring managers. It’s never been easier to find out who key people are in an organisation to reach out and find out more about jobs. But be warned, find a relevant person in a relevant location and connect and ask some great questions. Reaching out to the CEO of Microsoft is not likely to get a result.
  2. Social Media Privacy | Public in social media means public. I personally can’t be bothered looking at your Facebook page, but many recruiters do, and more often technology grabs that data. So make conscious decisions about what is public and private across your social accounts.
  3. Job Data Privacy | You also get to control what happens to your data on job boards like Seek, Indeed, and Trade Me Jobs. Review it often if you are actively hunting for work and remove permissions when you are not.

Stay Human

You are human. You are beautifully uniquely you. Make sure you take every opportunity to show that.

  1. Create your ‘Human CV’ | Yes I know, I told you to have a Machine CV, but eventually you will meet a human, so have a great well-presented CV that appeals to them. They are great for making an impact by email or at interviews or even as supporting docs on platforms.
  2. Personalise your application | Take the time to investigate the company you are applying to. And craft your application specifically for the role and advert. Always put your best foot forward. When a human reviews what AI is suggesting they notice if you have put in the effort and personalised for their role and company. That goes a long way to making an impression pre-interview.

Will machines completely replace humans in the recruitment process? Yes & No

Yes – Some big companies already have systems that fully automate the process.
No – Most companies will have a bunch of tools that help automate the process and real humans talking with real humans.

The big question: If a company dehumanizes me in the recruitment process, will they genuinely care about me as a human being when I get the job?

 


PS: Agoge and coHired are amazing places to work. We love technology and love people. Check us out!