The entrepreneur Shawn Johal confided to Émilie Pelletier, in the program Vecteur H of which Isarta is a partner, his practices in talent management. In particular the dial created to categorize each employee, from promoter to detractor. Radical and iconoclastic.
Shawn Johal wears many hats: founder of Elevation Leaders, a consulting and business growth company, author of the book “The Happy Leader,” a leadership fable about transformation in business and in life, and co-founder of the lighting company DALS. In this capacity, he tells the story of how he manages and evaluates the talent in his organization in this human resources program.
The residential lighting company, which grew out of a buyout, had about 30 employees when, in 2013, Shawn Johal met a coach through the Scaling Up program. He realized then that his organization had a problem with culture and people.
We felt like it wasn’t fun to go to work for the most part. For example, we had two people in customer service who refused to answer the phone because they were not receptionists. There was really no team spirit,” says the man who was a finalist for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.
The 4 categories of employees
With his partner, he then created a dial to evaluate his talents according to four categories, based on one axis of values and another related to productivity:
- Promoters
These are the people who fully live the company’s values and are also excellent at their job. According to Shawn Johal, the ideal is to have at least 40% of them in the organization.
- Employees
They have the values but will not go beyond the expectations set. Which is fine.
- The underachievers
They don’t have the values and are not very productive. In times of labor shortage, we’ll accept them for lack of anything better… which is a mistake for me,” says the entrepreneur.
- The detractors
The last category is very pernicious: they are the hyper-productive people, very good at their work… but who do not have a good team spirit. Generally, they will be protected because of their results. The company doesn’t want to let them go… even though they are destroying the culture and are “a cancer to the organization”.
After having done this categorization work, Shawn Johal and his partner decided to change everything: in five years, 43 employees out of 50 left the firm! In this case, under-performers or detractors. This was done in order to change the atmosphere and to surround themselves with employees who share and follow the values of the organization.
Systematic recognition
These evaluations continue to take place on a quarterly basis, to ensure that there are always collaborators or promoters in the company.
Underperformers, they should be fired. Detractors, it’s extremely rare that they become promoters knowing that they will never become collaborators. This can be done through changes in management or in their personal lives… but you have to be careful because by keeping them, you can discourage promoters,” says Shawn Johal.
Johal, a former president of EO Montreal (Entrepreneurs’ Organization), also relies on systematic recognition of promoters. For example, with rewarding cards signed by colleagues and personalized gifts such as a bottle of wine.
Today, there is nothing more important than our employees. When you talk to team members, they don’t feel valued… and managers think they do! It’s not just about monetary recognition, it’s about valuing them,” says Johal.
According to him, there is not much point in creating a corporate social club. The most important thing is to provide the tools to be better, even outside of work, thanks, for example, to the provision of financial experts, physical or mental development, etc.
A very structured recruitment process
At the end of the interview, Shawn Johal reveals the DALS recruitment process, which is based on 10 steps. Here are the main ones:
- An attractive advertisement
As soon as the position is announced, two essential pieces of information are displayed: “What is the mission of the position?” (to highlight the contribution of the job to the company) and “What does success look like in 6 months and in 12 months? The answer to this last question is expressed in the future tense to project the candidate into the position and arouse motivation. For example: “In 12 months, you will have deployed a new customer relations system in the company”.
- A 15-minute first interview
Admittedly, the duration is short, but this is to be able to meet as many people as possible. 5 questions are then asked:
- What is your career aspiration?
- What are you good at professionally?
- What are you no longer interested in working at? (instead of the traditional “What are your biggest weaknesses?” whose answers alternate between “I work too much” or “I’m a perfectionist!”)
- When we call your 3 former bosses, what score out of 10 will they give you?
- Salary expectations
On this last point, Shawn Johal is radical: he does not want to put the salary range on the ad.
If they want to pay between $45-55,000 a year, imagine the case of an incredible person who wants $58,000 and therefore wouldn’t apply. It’s 100% certain that I would have paid them if they were excellent! Why limit yourself? I prefer to be surprised by the answers,” he says.
- A Zoom interview
A team interview with 4 other people
The condition: they must be promoters! Because they are the only ones who will recruit other promoters and it is also a way to protect the company culture.
- a functional test
- Reference and background checks
A real obstacle course. But this is the price to pay for building a strong corporate culture!
