Who is Sarah-Michelle Tayler? 

Sarah-Michelle is an HR expert with over 24 years of experience in Human Resources domain. She has been a generalist, recruiter, HRBP, SR. HRBP/Mgr., and played Talent Acquisition roles in industries such as retail, telecommunications, finance and healthcare. Sarah-Michelle have also been a life and business coach for over 20 years. She is a compassionate and experienced leader and a speaker, who speaks against domestic violence and motivates thousands of job seekers by delivering brilliant career advice.  

Podcast 

What is the Audio About? 

00:48 – 02:52 –  How different are things with HR in this pandemic, working with the employees and         senior management?  

02:53 – 04:28 –  How can managers acquire new skills to address this new scenario? 

04:50 – 06:01 –  How can companies identify their high potential employees? 

06:06 – 06:55 –  In the work from home era, can the high potential employees still stand out? 

07:06 – 08:10 –  Do you see any change in job seekers’ approach in getting a job? 

08:13 – 09:36 –  Sarah-Michelle’s advice to employees on how to show consistency in performance and how managers can track the performance of their teams. 

Amazing Insights on Employee Management and Engagement 

Question. What’s happening in the current scenario? In your experience, you had more than two decades of experience in the HR industry, how are things going to be now? How do HR personnel have to change their way they work with employees and the senior management? How are things going to be different right now? 

Sarah-Michelle: A lot of companies are asking right now because they’re having to pivot. This is a time that we haven’t had before. The companies need to be on the innovative cutting edge, to say, how do we get to yes, and what I mean by that is, in some industries, people will say, “Well, this person can’t work from home. That job is not able to be done at home,” for whatever reason and then when they bring that information to me, my job is to help solve that problem. And then I’ll say, “OK, well, what are the barriers and why that person can’t work from home? Is it because of a security thing or maybe we don’t have the right Internet capabilities or we don’t have the right secure Internet connections,” depending on the job that they’re doing, maybe it’s in the financial industry or something along those lines. Those are the things that, again, the company can figure out ways to get to yes. So, I would say that’s kind of the first initiative to look at is being innovative, and how can we do that while still keeping the business running. The second piece is, how do we get the managers to stay engaged with their employees while they’re home one for whether it’s on the performance side or is it on the retention side, or in some cases there are things that you were doing previously pre-covid that you can say, how can we make this our new normal and that’s what I mean by, if you were doing staff meetings or team meetings or one-on-ones with your employees, call and check in or send him a text, whatever their preferences are. So that way, they know, Okay, my supervisors are checking up on me but in a good way, not necessarily, am I performing right? Am I doing my job? That sort of thing.  

Question: How can manager acquire new skills to address the new scenario? Everyone is a newbie in this scenario. What is your suggestion? 

Sarah-Michelle: For every company, it is going to be different, but despite what level of support is that your employees need? I think that’s why companies can say, “Hey, how can we be innovative?” I had a company reach out, they said, “Hey, we have all these laptops that we’re not using.” And I said, “Well, then if you’re not going to have your employees be there, instead of just saying, hey we’re going to shut the business down, how about we utilized those laptops and send your employees home, so you can still keep your business running.” Then, the CEO was mind-blown, like why didn’t I think of that. And I’m like, exactly because this isn’t the time to stop your business. I mean, think of how many there’s gonna be a lot more businesses that are kind of come out of this, because other companies have shut themselves down right now. You have to say how can I continue to be on the forefront and make sure that my employees have the level of support that they need and is that level of support based on the tools and resources or is the level of support that engagement piece, but I don’t necessarily have particular like software or tools that I would recommend, but there are companies out there that can help you keep an eye on the performance of your employees. And if you want to let your employees know that you trust them and the only way to do that is to get on their level and ask “How can I support you? I want to support you. Do you have the right tools and resources? Are we meeting enough times? What kind of support do you need from me? 

Question: How companies can identify high potential employees?  

Sarah-Michelle: For high potential employees, it is going to be more difficult during this time, being everyone is working from home, how do you separate your team as one versus the other. One of the things that I would recommend is those ones that seek those challenges and say how can I make this better? If you were to walk up to their desk, you could see that they are not the Phone or not busy reading an email or whatever the case is right now, but now you don’t know. You can’t see that and so, sometimes people might feel like you’re kinda invading my privacy. So, one of the things I would say is, as a manager, you can say, “Hey, do you have a minute, can we chat? or call me when you get a minute.” So, it’s still touching base with that employee but also showing in a respectful way. But for those high-potential employees, I would say, those are the ones that are going to help you in problem solving or in the current challenges, they’re the ones that’re going to say, “Hey, what if we do this?” Look for those employees and listen to those ideas. And then, challenge them and say, “Hey, if we do this, what about XYZ?” I’m not saying to go with their idea but make sure that you listen to the voice of the employees that are bringing those ideas forward. 

Question: It is easy to find out the high-potential employees when they’re working from office. In the work from home era, can the high potential employees, the good-performing employees can still stand out? 

Sarah-Michelle: Yeah, it is easier when they’re not working from home but that’s where I say, the ones that are passionate about their job and they’re saying, “Hey why do we do it like this? Wouldn’t this way be easier?” Those are the ones that you want to look at. Those are the high potentials because they’re thinking ahead. Their forward thinking and saying, “Hey, here would be a better way to do it,” whether it saves time money or gives them more passion or makes them more self-fulfilled in the role. That tells you that’s a loyal employee. They’re willing to do whatever it takes. 

Question: Do you see any difference now, in terms of how candidates approach in getting a job? 

Sarah-Michelle: Yes, because we’ve got millions of people out of the job right now. So, if we go pre-covid, my coaching and level of support with candidates was helping them in how to do the resume and how to do the interview. But now, in the middle of covid, you got millions of people applying for the same positions and you got tracking systems really getting backed up because they’re really honing in on, one person can’t physically go through, say 800 resumes in a month, and where you got that many people applying for jobs because those who have been out of work for months they’re applying for anything and everything at this point of time. They’re desperate and so, sometimes I’ll coach to them and say hey let’s review to make sure that it is based on the job description, so that way we can pick it up from the ATS, so that you can make sure that your resume gets in there versus getting kicked out and not even getting an opportunity.  

Question: And now the final question, your advise to employees, now the work from home, what do you suggest to make sure that they keep up the performance, the consistency from which they have when they were in office and how to make sure that the manager knows about it even though they are not physically present in the same room. 

Sarah-Michelle: So, you know the best advice and guidance that I give to most of my clients today is, this is the time to make yourself more accessible to people I would say, continue to nurture your network. I think, that’s one of things people will fall back on, especially in time because, with Covid, you never know where you have packed my video. Say five months from now or five years from now. And especially more and more companies are not getting on board with as how do we get to yes and we are going to see a lot more companies continue to close their doors and you look for those high potential and passionate employees that’s going to say, how do we do this, we can still do it this way and still get the job done. Those are the ones you wanna keep. those are your bigger assets. You have to look for the ones that are willing to take the time for additional training or additional knowledge, and they’re the loyal folks. 

Hope you find the insights amazing. Practise them and improve collaboration and communication in the organization to sustain and thrive steadily.