Month: April 2021

Lucky number 7!
Our seventh edition is out and ready to be shared with everyone.
This month we have with us Ángeles Madrigal, Partner of INAC Mexico.

Ángeles holds a Bachelor degree in Business Administration from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Ángeles is also qualified in organization and Re-engineering process,  and is Certified in Competences Interview Methodology by DDI, in SEL, Insights and Assessment as a Top Talent Evaluation Consultant.
She has 18 years of experience in Human Resources, and has occupied executive positions in Human Resources in Financial institutions, along with 10 years in headhunting companies in Recruitment and Selection of Top Executives.
Ángeles has worked with Corporate clients in the IT industry, Consumer Goods, Financial, Pharmaceutical and Services.

Ángeles is also the founder of Wo/Men[In], specialized in the strategic cycle of talent by integrating diversity and inclusion as transformational forces in organizations.

As you can see, there is a lot to know about Ángeles!

Why Executive Search and If you did not end up in Executive Search, what would you ended up choosing instead?

Executive Search is very special to me because it fills me up with its dynamism, each day is different. It gives me the opportunity to get to know different industries, areas and clients, that teach and contribute every day to my career. When it comes to Executives, they show me new perspectives, diversity of thoughts, the essence of the human being, how to achieve a positive influence in their careers. It is our mission to boost businesses and change lives in a positive way by providing many possibilities and making it an exciting career.
If I were not in Executive Search, I would probably look for something that would somehow be related with moving businesses through talent’s diversity and balancing them in a perfect equation.

Executive Search is all about meeting and establishing a connection with people. With so many years of experience, do you have any advice for the younger generation that is now starting to create their own path?

Yes, I do. I think one thing I have witnessed is that it is very important to think hard and long when it comes to a career movement. You should envision your goals in the medium term and build your path around that. Work with resilience and patience in order to consolidate your career.

In just one year the world has changed drastically. Businesses and people had to adapt rapidly and acquire skills that they didn’t had before. What do you believe are now the main skills needed to thrive in Executive Search career?

Strategic vision, self-reflectiveness, inclusive thinking and communication, transformational leadership and, above all, resilience and flexibility are very important ones.

In a business where it is still very dominated by men, how do you see the role of women in it? In what way do women add to this particular business?

Women are becoming more and more relevant in businesses and in this changing world, governed by VUCA environments (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous), gender equity is absolutely necessary.
It is proven that the sum of gender diversity is what makes organizations stronger and more resilient. It is documented that women are more likely to manage risk better and lead strongly in times of turbulence.
So, from what I can see and taken my experience, most businesses are focused in creating strategies to achieve a bigger balance regarding gender equity.

In your day-to-day life you end up meeting top tier executives and highly motivated professionals with an impeccable track record. Given the current circumstances, do you believe that we may be facing a shift in terms of what companies and organizations are looking for in a candidate?

Definitely. In this new reality, change is a constant and the new currency of change is talent. Organizations are looking for “breakthrough” profiles, highly focused on digital topics and with a very good balance between the experience of employees and customer experience. Leaders are sought out with more humanistic styles, more focused on the employee: caring about the results, but at the same time taking into consideration their talent needs and moments of emotional connection.

You have helped so many finding their dream job, do you feel that they have helped you find something in life as well?

Yes, definitely, always! Each and every interview, contact, or follow-up is an opportunity to learn something new. In fact, I really enjoy getting to know other ways of thinking, of solving problems or even of analyzing your stumbles. Being an Executive Search Consultant allowed me to be a better professional. I have a ritual: at the end of each interview, I simply thank the Executive for what they have taught me, I see each of these “sessions” as a Master Class.

INAC has been part of your life for so many years now. How has this “relationship” shaped your professional and personal path/growth? What has been, so far, the biggest life lesson you received?

INAC gives me the opportunity to have a global vision, to get in touch with extraordinary talent from all continents. I have learned a lot, but perhaps the most important thing is that no matter what culture, country, region, or continent, talent must always be valued. Through INAC I’m lucky to be able to meet great professionals with whom, regardless of their different ways of thinking, I end up sharing very similar values which allow us to trust and do business on a global level.

If you’ve attempted to measure your company culture, you know it can be a bit like herding cats. You can send out surveys to collect feedback, but the results rarely reflect the actual culture. However, new methods of data analysis are reshaping the way culture is measured. A recent article from Harvard Business Review (HBR) highlights the challenges of traditional methodologies and new approaches for assessing and measuring culture.

Per the article, feedback solicited from employees is too often unreliable, “The values and beliefs that people say are important to them, for example, are often not reflected in how they actually behave. Moreover, surveys provide static, or at best episodic, snapshots of organizations that are constantly evolving. And they’re limited by researchers’ tendency to assume that distinctive and idiosyncratic cultures can be neatly categorized into a few common types.”

Through the use of big data analytics, the new approach analyzed trace data in the language of various employee communications including emails, chat messages, and review sites. Analysis of the data shows how culture can impact their thoughts and behaviors at the office. “The studies focused on cultural fit versus adaptability, the pros and cons of fitting in, cognitive diversity, and the effects of diversity on organizational performance.” Below we take a brief look at the first two.

FIT VERSUS ADAPTABILITY

HR and executive teams look for culture fit when hiring, as they should. But too often the view is focused on how a candidate supports the values and norms or the company as they currently are. What is not taken into account is the candidate’s ability to adapt to the culture. To quickly learn and adopt cultural norms as they evolve over time. The study found, “Employees who could quickly adapt to cultural norms as they changed over time were more successful than employees who exhibited high cultural fit when first hired. These cultural “adapters” were better able to maintain fit when cultural norms changed or evolved, which is common in organizations operating in fast-moving, dynamic environments.”

PROS AND CONS OF FITTING IN

Another issue is taking a limited view on the types of candidates hired. It’s important not to only look for people who look like people you already have. Bringing in those with different ideas and perspectives can spark innovation and creative solutions. The watch out is that these types of hires can have trouble selling their ideas to their peers since they are outside of the box thinkers. According to the research, employees who didn’t have strong departmental networks but did have established social connections, “By building trusting social bonds with colleagues, they were able to overcome their outsider status and leverage their distinctiveness.”

For more details, we recommend reading the entire article. A few of the key takeaways from the study include looking for candidates who, at their core, align with the values and beliefs of current employees. Beyond that, they may think and look quite differently than current employees and that diversity is beneficial. Candidates should also demonstrate adaptability characteristics that help them successfully manage inevitable culture changes that happen over time. When considering cultural “misfits”, set them up for success by putting them in a position where they can utilize their social skills to engender trust and support.

Many of the tools that were used in the research are publicly available. Which comes with an important caveat, ethical considerations. Maintaining anonymity of data and employee confidentiality is a must. Misuse of the data can lead to general biases being brought to the surface, and provide a limited view of the communication impact on performance.

By Jon Gordon – INAC USA

In this ever changing World that we are now living in, and that is quickly evolving due to COVID-19 and climate change, sustainability is becoming increasingly more relevant and is more and more present in our lives.

One cannot talk about human resources management without linking it to sustainability, understanding the company’s commitment and responsibility as an absolute priority, with the creation of value, attraction and retention of talent as fundamental pillars for the organisation´s success.

Companies able to quickly adapt this new trend are the ones that will not only attract the biggest and best talents, but also the ones that will be able to retain them.
Nowadays, a significant number of candidates look for and evaluate companies for their sustainability project, and the same applies to companies, who also appreciate candidates that are inclined and committed to this topic.
However, most organizations fail to integrate sustainability into the performance of their human capital management systems.
Sustainability focuses much more on the impact that it has on the community of the organisation, rather than on the well-being of the employees. The way they are treated should become more integrated into regular human resource activities in organisations, and significantly influence the way they operate.

A company working towards sustainability does things differently.

The role of human resources in supporting corporate sustainability is very relevant and should ensure that it develops a sustainable approach to people management as part of the business strategy, providing employee wellbeing, health, safety, work-life balance, diversity and inclusion, gender diversity, good hiring and firing practices, fair remuneration, learning and growth, positive internal communication, open dialogue, and others. Sustainability starts at home.
The first role of human resources is to ensure that the company manages its employees in a sustainable way, meaning, that it takes responsibility for the impacts that the business may have on its employees.

From a recruiter’s point of view, it is our duty to convey to our candidates our client’s sustainability and to focus candidates on sustainable projects.

Perhaps, in recruitment interviews, we should always include questions on how to make the company more sustainable or their suggestions for the sector they are joining.

This can help us confirm if the candidate has thought about its future role as a driver of new initiatives and if sustainability is high on their list of priorities.

We can also advise our clients on how to be more sustainable when recruiting their future executives. Allow them to offer suggestions that may enable work to be easier and more oriented towards sustainability.

The pandemic led companies to evolve considerably in this regard and there has been a much more positive approach to this whole area, such as the ease of teleworking at a higher frequency than it was before COVID-19.

The ability to contribute to a potential candidate’s sustainability activities should be part of the selection process.

By Victoria Baselga – INAC Spain