Retooling for 2003
By David Lewis
Reprinted from the Norwalk Hour
1/20/03
In this economy it's not likely that many local businesses are adding
to headcount. Expansion usually comes as a result of an up tick in
business, which clearly for most is not happening. The other stimulus
that forces us to run a help-wanted is when someone resigns or is
terminated. Again, status quo rains, with most content with their
jobs, especially with few opportunities to consider in the market,
and most business owners more than content to stay with their present
team. That all being said you must consider how you are going to
improve your team and thereby improve the results your business delivers.
Think about your entire organization, ranking each person top to
bottom. Now ask yourself if you could have better performers to replace
those who made the bottom of your list, would you? Most of us would
say yes without a thought. Then why are so many businesses hanging
onto individuals that could be replaced by someone who delivers results,
who shows pride in their work, and who truly cares?
The challenge is always to build a better mousetrap. In your organization,
in a stagnant economy, you have to make things happen, even when
it comes to the makeup of your staff. To that end I'd like to offer
up some ideas for consideration, designed to help you develop the
best team possible to drive your organization's success.
Conduct performance appraisals on all your employees. Ideally have
these done using a formal process, including forms and the appropriate
training for your managers in the art of completing them and communicating
them. By putting a stake in the ground now you will have set the
benchmark for the year ahead.
Look for the bottom 10%. Get a good solid
understanding of what is lacking in their performance, asking whether
or not the weaknesses identified are truly addressable. While many
performance failures can be addressed by direct management of those
issues, some are tantamount to asking someone to physically be
taller. You can't ask someone to be taller and expect that they
will physically grow tomorrow…or
ever. The same is true of seeking a poor performer to alter what
may be the essence of their being.
When you reach the point where you have decided to make the change
and hire a new person, consider all the factors that could play a
role in your effort to secure new talent. If volume is what you are
looking for then run a general ad and watch the email/fax/mailbox
light up. Most of us don't want volume. We want quality. We want
talent. We want skills. We want people hungry for an opportunity.
If you execute the hiring process on your own be sure to be very
specific as to your needs, as well as your requirements. Be direct.
Use the web, selecting locally oriented sites. Be verbose. Your words
no longer cost you on a per line basis, as is the case with the Help
Wanted section of the local paper. If you are seeking a very specific
type of talent then save your self the time and do something most
do not think of as cost-effective: use an employment agency. They
have great talent and bring immense value to the table that more
than pays for the fee they charge.
If you maintain status quo in the makeup of your organization it
is more than likely that your firm's success will stagnate. We all
could use a spark to get things going. A shuffling of the deck can
bring in some cards into your hand of higher value, while also sparking
the performance of the cards you chose to hold onto.
