CAREERS : SHIFTING GEARS : Mind Your Manners : ‘Me’ Decade Is Gone; Employees With Business Grace, Class Likely to Be Workplace Survivors
The era of the hotshot is over. Executive recruiters and other employment specialists say companies increasingly are looking for team players--and giving the brushoff to prima donnas--when they make hiring decisions these days. Employers’ attitudes have changed sharply from a few years ago, when companies put more emphasis on technical prowess and less on interpersonal skills.
“The ‘80s was a ‘me’ decade . . . There’s been a reaction to that. Those kinds of people may be brilliant, but one person can’t do everything,” said John A. Challenger, executive vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a Chicago-based firm that helps laid-off workers find jobs.
“Long gone are the days when (employers) just hired a hotshot and brought them aboard,” said Cecile V. Munoz, a Los Angeles consultant who advises businesses on employment issues. “My clients are trying to bring aboard people who mesh well and work together harmoniously.”
A main reason for the change is that so many companies are operating with lean staffs, the result of rounds of layoffs. These firms can no longer afford as many specialists or other employees who balk at performing tasks outside their normal duties. Instead, employment specialists say, firms want people who are willing to “pitch in.”
“They need to like change and to be adaptable,” said Sandra Young, co-owner of Womens Focus/Career Focus, a career development and job placement firm in Tustin. Further, such in-vogue management concepts as “total quality management” and “self-managed work teams” rely on extensive cooperation among peers in the workplace.
“With one bad apple, the whole thing is messed up,” Young said.
The emphasis on building a staff of team players comes at a time when, according to business etiquette mavens, interpersonal behavior at many workplaces is hitting a new low and rudeness is getting out of hand. “People have forgotten the basics that your mother taught you,” said Richard A. Moran, author of the hot-selling gift book, “Never Confuse a Memo with Reality.”
“People are so worried about their jobs that they avoid dealing with workplace etiquette issues with their bosses and co-workers,” he said.
However, some experts worry the current hiring mood may be leading to excesses. “Everyone is looking for individuals who will do more,” said Gary Kaplan, owner of a Pasadena executive recruiting firm. “It’s the whole issue of doing more with less. We’ve gone to a sweatshop mentality.”
In addition, Kaplan said, in the push for collegiality, some firms “are losing out on individuals who are strong-minded and opinionated, the type who take no prisoners.” As a result, he said, some firms are missing out on the most talented people.
Still, the experts acknowledge that so-called “people skills” are likely to remain crucial on the job. “Everyone is vulnerable these days,” Moran explained, and those who handle business situations with class and grace are likely to be the survivors.
One employer reflecting the trend is Provident Investment Counsel, a Pasadena-based firm that manages investments for pension funds and profit-sharing plans. Two years ago, Provident hired a psychologist to screen its job applicants for clerical positions. Among other things, the psychologist tested applicants to determine their general attitude toward work and their willingness to work with others, with the overall goal of gauging how compatible they would be with their prospective supervisors.
The results have been impressive. Provident has had no turnover among the roughly 30 clerical staffers it has hired since beginning its new approach, versus annual turnover of 15% or higher before, said Thad Brown, the firm’s senior vice president and chief financial officer.
“We’re still very much looking for people with the ability to think on their feet and people who can work on projects on their own. But we’re also looking for a situation where we won’t have to spend nine months working out personnel problems” after new hires are made, Brown said.
“We now end up with team players. We end up with people who are compatible with each other.” Before, he said, “We’d see one or two people in a department bring down their entire department because they were disgruntled.”
In hiring executives, too, companies have changed their priorities. “They’re looking for people who are natural leaders, who can build consensus and manage in a non-authoritarian manner,” said Kaplan, adding that many firms are looking for “people who are willing to make things happen themselves rather than direct someone else to make things happen.”
The emphasis on team players has been a boon to people such as Louis Rovner, a psychologist and head of the Woodland Hills consulting firm Employee Selection Services. He devised the test being successfully used by Provident to screen job applicants for compatibility with their prospective supervisors.
He said he designed the test after recognizing that in most cases, firings and resignations stem from “personality conflicts, even though that might not be the reason stated on paper. Somebody is just not getting along.”
