The last thing you might expect to hear when walking into a presentation about how to inspire creativity from your employees is: “Tell your employees to think inside the box”…and yet, that’s pretty much the advice Disney’s business program consultant, Scott Milligan, had for the audience when he presented at SHRM 2010 in San Diego last month. 

“We tell our cast members to think INSIDE the box,” Milligan boasted to the audience of HR professionals during his presentation, “Disney’s Approach to Inspiring Creativity”. (“Cast members,” by the way, is Disney’s term for employees.) After all, he reasoned, how creative is it, really, to tell people to “think outside the box” anymore? (Finally, someone said it!)

The other surprising thing about this idea of “thinking inside the box” is that it seems awfully practical and structured for a company that prides itself on the very idealistic notions of making magic happen and dreams come true, etc…And yet, this structured approach works for Disney.

Thinking inside the box, Milligan said, provides companies guidance and direction, helps them avoid wasting resources and keeps everyone focused.  But what is the box? As Milligan explained it, the box is your company’s organizational identity – who you are or what you intend to be – and it encompasses four things:

• Your Customers – Who are they? What do they need from you?
• Your Vision – What do you want to be?
• Your Mission – What do you want to do?
• Your Essence – How do we want people to feel when they experience your product or service?

Find Your Essence
A lot of companies, Milligan believes, leave essence out of the equation – and that, he explained, is an unfortunate oversight, especially when it comes to recruiting: In order to find the best people, hiring managers and recruiters must understand their company’s essence in order to seek out and identify the very people who share that essence.

As an example, he cited how Disney makes it a goal to create happiness for people. Milligan then challenged the audience to find their own companies’ essence, and look to that when hiring employees. 

(When considering your company’s essence, it might help of it to think of it in terms of how blogger Derrick Daye defines essence: ”…the heart and soul of a brand – a brand’s fundamental nature or quality. Usually stated in two or three words, a brand’s essence is the one constant across product categories and throughout the world.”)

Structure, Not Confinement
Again, while you might think that a company that tells its employees to think inside the box would be fostering a culture of confinement, discouraging creative thinking by setting up rules and restrictions, the box model actually serves the opposite purpose for Disney – and it can do the same for others as well.

“Within that box, companies can expand their identity,” Milligan said, explaining how the box model has enabled Disney to expand its brand identity - from being merely about cartoons to also encompassing live action features and then expanding to theme parks, hotels and resorts and then even on to cruise lines – all while staying focused on the mission to enable “magic” to happen.

What do you think? Does your company think “inside the box” as well? Is essence something that you talk about or communicate at your company? How does it play into attracting and engaging employees?

“The only way to measure a candidate is to measure every single candidate with the same yardstick,” Nancy Newell, principal at Nth Degree Consulting told an audience during her panel “Beyond Behavioral Interviewing: Asking the RIGHT Questions, Evaluating the Answers,” at he annual Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) Conference in San Diego last month.

One of the major flaws with the interview process, Newell believes, is a lack of consistency.  Every candidate needs to be asked the same question – or as Newell put it, be measured by the same yardstick – otherwise, the evaluation process is meaningless. You can’t expect to properly evaluate candidates if you’re not holding them up to the same set of standards. Not that maintaining consistency is easy, she admits. There’s no “magic bullet” to getting the right answers from candidates and ensuring the right hire, Newell says. (On the contrary, it takes a lot of discipline and hard work); however, there are steps hiring managers can take to create a better, more consistent process and minimize hiring mistakes – which I went ahead and broke down into a simple Do’s and Don’t's list. Check it out…

DO conduct Behavioral Interviews. Behavioral interviewing is key to hiring, Newell believes, because it helps predict future success on the job by looking into past behavior.  Thus, questions should be shaped to look at previous behavior – not potential behavior. A question that begins with “Tell me about a time when…” for example, is much more predictive than “What would you do if…” which tends to lead candidates to say what they think you want to hear, rather than give a real-life example that provides insight into their skills, personality and work ethic.

DON’T go into the interview blind. It’s crucial that you have a clear idea of what you want your end result to look like. Before interviewing any candidate, consider the following questions:

• Why am I filling the job? (Are we growing, or are we replacing someone?)
• What’s missing on this team?
• What do our customers need, require and expect?
• Who’s the supervisor? What kind of person works best under this supervisor’s management style?
• What sort of person will fit best within this organizational culture?
• What skills am I willing to train on, and what skills do I need to hire for?

DO use the same measurement tool on the same candidate. Ask the same questions of every candidate.  The minute you stop using the same yardstick, the yardstick doesn’t measure anything. You can’t find your rock star that way. (Follow up questions can be different.) Your candidates are smarter, they’re savvier, and they’re going to challenge your skills as a recruiter.

DON’T tip your hand. Ask the questions first, then talk about the job and the company. Don’t lead them. What you say and when you say it matters. Explain what the interview process is going to look like.

DO get over your own biases. The time for evaluation comes later. The interview process is the time for gathering data. “Get out of your own way,” Newell says. “Get over your own biases, your own assumptions…If the industry equivalent of Kobe Bryant applies to your organization, and there’s a typo on his resume and you screen him because of that typo…your screening process is flawed.”  The same goes for writing someone off who doesn’t show up to an interview dressed in the way you might think is “proper.” “You never know where people are coming from…Maybe they’re coming from another job where the dress code is casual.” These minor details don’t necessarily reflect the type of employee this candidate will be.

DON’T be afraid to probe. Keep asking follow-up questions until you get a complete understanding of the situation. “Pull the thread,” Newell says. ”Make sure the behaviors they talk about are consistent.”

DO coach your candidate. Coach them to give you specifics on how they got those results. For example, ask something like, “I’m looking for a time when you demonstrated really good customer service.”

DON’T waste your time. Don’t ask questions candidates are going to lie to you about. Questions like, “Are you planning on staying in the area?” or “Can you do (blank)?” tell candidates what you want to hear. Asking big, broad questions will generate more telling, honest answers. For example, a question like, “Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult co-worker,” enables the candidate to tell you what they think a difficult co-worker looks like and how they handle adversity.

DO train everyone involved in the interview process. Not only is it important that everyone is on the same page, and they understand the reason behind the questions they’re asking, especially when it comes to asking follow-up questions.

DON’T be afraid to rephrase a question. When you really want to probe, Newell suggests taking a question and turning it negative, which can give added insight. For example, instead of asking, “Tell me about a time when you accomplished something,” ask, “When did something not go well?” You’ll see not only how people handle adversity but also what, to them, constitutes a problem.

DO create a score card by which to evaluate candidates. Incorporate the critical success factors of your ideal candidate. Think about what’s most important to success in that job, within the company, and then develop a score card based on that information. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to score it.”

Going to the 2010 SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition in San Diego?  We’ve got 5 reasons for you to visit CareerBuilder Booth #1419 while you’re there:

1. To pick up your free report on talent compensation…which you have until June 18 to register for by going to www.careerbuilder.com/shrm2010/report. (Did we mention it’s worth $150? No? Well, it’s worth $150. Just a little fyi…)
2. To see presentations on topics that you get to pick. That’s right: You have from now until June 20 to visit www.careerbuilder.com/shrm2010/vote and select up to three topics that you’re most interested in learning about. CareerBuilder is creating its presentation schedule around your interests, and is choosing its presentation topics based on audience vote…Check back after the 21^st to see the finalized schedule – or simply stop by booth 1419 during conference breaks.
3. We’re throwing a birthday party! On Monday, June 28, CareerBuilder celebrates the one year anniversary of our Applicant Experience service – and everyone’s invited to join us.  Stop by the booth between noon and 2 p.m. for free food and drinks!
4. To speak with our recruitment experts about ways to better your recruitment process. Our recruitment experts will be on hand to answer questions and discuss ways to help you meet your recruitment related goals, solve your most baffling talent questions or simply make your life easier overall.
5. (More) free stuff. Who needs another conference T-shirt? You do! (But trust us..these aren’t your mother’s conference T-shirts…) As a token of our appreciation for visiting us at booth 1419, we’re giving away some great door prizes – so don’t miss out!

Want to let others know you’ll be visiting us at SHRM? RSVP on Facebook.

DOWNLOAD a free one-day expo pass, compliments of SHRM.

Can’t Make It to SHRM This Year? Follow us on Twitter (#CBSHRM10) for real-time updates on all the conference action – and check back here for daily recaps from the conference room floor.

For more information on what we have in store for SHRM 2010, visit www.careerbuilder.com/shrm2010 or if you have specific questions, feel free to leave it in the comments section below!