Skills for Building Your Team

Recruiting Strategies to Create a Culture of Success

Dr. Kevin Kragenbrink

Today’s Agenda

Part 1: Recruiting Systems

The typical team development process

Rules for Success Focused Recruiting

Rules for Interviewing Systems

Part 2: Core Issues for Recruiting in the Outdoor Industry

Seasonal Workers

Judgment is the Key

Part 3: Q&A

How an organization selects, develops and manages

its employees is the single

greatest predictor of organization performance.

Some Common Mistakes

The Typical Process

Reactive Hiring

Measuring For Failure

Accepting Turnover

Rules for Success Focused Recruiting

Start with the Job Description

How do you define success?

How do you measure success?

Recruit to the Job and Your Culture

Match experience and credentials to the job.

Match attitudes and behaviors to your culture

Test both with behavioral interviewing

The Interview Is Key

CEO Rule:

“Candidates Will

Misrepresent Their

Past”

Rules for Interviewing

Use Behavioral Questioning

S Describe a Situation

T Describe a Task

A Tell me what Action you took

R Tell me the Results of your action

E What Evidence can you provide?

CEO Rule:

“Past behaviors are the

best predictors of

future

performance.”

Hiring Seasonal Staff

In the

Outdoor Industry

Your brand image

Morale of the organization

Overall quality of the products

Customer service

Bottom line results (NOI)

All employees have an influence on:

Don’t Make Hiring Seasonal

Staff a Crap Shoot

A successful business requires the alignment

of business culture, leadership practices

and

employee skills/ behavior.

Understanding Your Business Culture

Know Your Business Culture

Characteristics Control Collaboration Competence Cultivation

Defined By Driven short –term

goals

Harmony and

Cooperation

Consistent

challenge

Inspirited by

purpose to deliver

services or product

Values Consistent

performance and

reliable

Inclusivity Internal and

external

competition

Individual identity

with the

Organization

Environment Decisions come

from the top

Consensus and

harmony

Rewards

winners

Empowers people

Strengths Pragmatic and

realistic

Loyalty and

empathy

High

Performance and

Focused Strategy

Allow for growth

and

Develop human

potential

Weaknesses Limits innovation Lack of

accountability

Excessive

pressure

Egocentric

Excessive

emphasis on self-

expression

Matching Cultures and Behaviors

Control Collaboration Competence Cultivation

Follows the specific

job/role requirements

Follows directives

Doesn’t work well

independently

Good at performing

specific functions

competent in specific

skill set

Employees are

expected to comply

with decisions and

rules established by

higher authority

Team Player

Willing to multi-task

Sacrifices own agenda

for group goals

Generalist in skill

Harmony and

cooperation among

employees

Highly independent

Demonstrate

personality

Expert

Focused on being the

best

Organizational life is

intense, high-strung

with challenge and

performance

Believes in what the

Organization believes

Value driven

Seeks out growth and

change

Employees identify

deeply with the

Organization and

make it their own

Control Collaboration

Cultivation Competence

Chart your Staff

Each Culture can be effective if the

business strategies, leadership,

employee selection, staff development and

rewards systems

are aligned

Categories of Seasonal Staff

Support Non Technical –Back and front office,

logistical support

Technical-guides/instructors- Primarily responsible

for the care and safety of clients, and all decision-

making in the field

My focus is on technical staff

Hiring Criteria

Evaluate and select candidate based on :

1. Cultural fit

2. Core Competencies

3. Judgment

4. Personality

Core Competencies

1. General Requirements - candidates possess the

physical ability and knowledge to safely

manage clients in the environment.

2. Technical Skills – candidates are proficient in

the essential skills required to lead clients safely

in the activity.

Core competencies – should be measured in two ways:

Measures

1. General requirements

• Physical Fitness

• Experience with the equipment

• Knowledge of the terrain

• Local weather

• Environmental hazards

2. Technical skills – documented experience

• Lead class IV and V peak ascents

• Captain a raft over class III and higher rapids

Judgment Good judgment is:

• Having the experience and awareness to predict

an outcome to a situation.

• Making the right decision that leads to a

positive outcome given a set of circumstances.

“A leader with limited knowledge and superior judgment

is better than one with vast knowledge and little

judgment.”

Paul Petzoldt

Interviewing for Determining Sound Judgment

Case Method

Rafting Trip - A group of nine adults (male and female,

married and single) are proceeding down the Green River on a

multi-day paddling rafting trip in mid-summer. Among

participants there is a wide range of physical fitness, interest

and enthusiasm for the experience. One out-of-shape male is

complaining to the group about having to paddle long distances

and the un-comfortableness of camping and being outdoors. His

wife is the opposite -very fit, risk taker and an adventurist.

Among the singles from the start of the trip one male is paying

a great amount of attention to a very attractive female and she

does not welcome his advances. By Day three, the group is

starting to notice that a particular single male and female keep

disappearing during break and camp set-ups.

Backpacking – In the late morning of day one of a

backpacking trip in the Lewis and Clark National Forest, a 21

year old male is experiencing shortness of breath and an

irregular heartbeat. The group leader assumes that the young

man is out of shape. The group continues on and by the

afternoon the young man is lagging way behind with real

difficulty in breathing.

Canoeing - On a canoeing trip in the Southeastern United

States in July at 2:30 PM, a group is traveling down a river

about to enter a long, wide lake. The plan is to cross the six-

mile lake and camp for the night on the shore.

Interviewing Questions:

1. What is your appraisal of the situation?

2. What are your specific concerns?

3. What actions need to be taken?

“Judge a person by his questions

rather

than by his answers.”

Voltaire

Final Candidate Selection

1. Does the candidate fit and will he/she enhance the company

culture ?

2. Does the candidate have the required skills and experience to

safely lead clients?

3. Does the candidate have the maturity and judgment to

foresee potential hazards?

4. Does the candidate have the personality and ability to work

within guidelines

Next step: Invite the Candidate to your training programs

Summary Define Your Recruiting Systems

Job Descriptions that Define Success

Rules of engagement to set expectations

Behavioral interviewing to identify behavior

Clear communications to define next steps

Set Your Hiring Criteria

Ability (do they have the skills, resources, credentials, etc.)

Willingness (do they have the attitude, behaviors, culture, etc.)

Communicate Culture

Vision, Values, Mission

Non-Negotiables Go Beyond the Employee Manual

Lessons Learned

Take a minute to write down your lessons learned?

1.

2.

3.

4.

Thank you for participating in Today’s Workshop

For more information on the Estrada Strategies Online CEO Club, please contact me at kevin@estradastrategies.com or by phone at

865-804-1556