March 2010: Why would I want to work for you?
How do your employees see you and your business?
How do they talk about you and your business to their family, friends and networks?
Would they recommend your business as a great place to work?
Creating a great workplace where your employees want to come to work is a factor that you really need to consider if you want to recruit and retain key talent to enhance business performance.
Businesses are often great at selling themselves to their customers, but often fail when it comes to selling themselves to the current team and prospective employees.
An emerging trend is for businesses to develop an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to more effectively sell your business as a leading employer.
An Employee Value Proposition as the name suggests is a way of selling your business to current and prospective employees.
Value can include a range of things from the tangible personal items such as salary, incentives, learning & development opportunities, mobile phones; through to shared items such as coffee machines, break areas, social evenings; and can encompass core behaviours such as honesty & team work. It will vary significantly from business to business.
To make it an effective proposition, the EVP needs to be more than a piece of paper which is dragged out when recruiting or during annual business planning. It needs to be owned by everyone in the business and it needs to evolve as the business changes and grows. Creating a meaningful EVP sounds like a real challenge and a failure to take up this opportunity can limit your ability to attract and retain the best, but with the right support this can be achieved.
April 2010: Selling the reality, not just the dream.
Do you feel that you are able to effectively communicate your value as an employer to a potential candidate?
You may be capable of delivering this message however; employers often see their value quite differently to their employees. Ask yourself - would your employees describe your value proposition in the same terms as you? If you answered 'yes' then congratulations you have achieved something that very few businesses can accomplish. If you answered 'no' or 'unsure' then you are not alone and you should make yourself aware of the potential implications of this disconnect.
The existence of a value proposition is a positive first step in differentiating your business as an employer however, discontent often arises where there is a mismatch between the pitch and the reality. We have all heard cases of being sold a Rolls Royce only to get a lemon, perhaps you have been a victim? The employment relationship is no different, except there are much higher stakes.. I have seen cases where candidates have been told about the wonderful workplace they will be entering with great development opportunities and a positive team spirit only to find themselves in a dead end role where the extent of the development opportunities involves watching peers do the job (often each with their own conflicting approach) and being surrounded by toxic individuals who are also bitter about being sold a 'dud'.
Beware... discontented employees can be toxic to your workplace and can impact on other team members, they can bad mouth you to their family and friends and even worse your clients. You can prevent this from happening by laying the right foundations for the culture you want to achieve and by being honest about where your business is placed in achieving this vision.
May 2010: Organisational Structure = the foundation for business growth.
Do you have a clear picture of the roles in your current organisational structure? Do you know what roles you will need to have in your business in order to achieve your future vision?
You may think that an organisational structure is a very simple thing and in some businesses it may be very clear, with clear positions and reporting lines. However, from time to time, managers within a business may have very different views on the organisational structure of the organisation. I have seen different reporting lines, different role titles and even the same employee listed in different divisions. If the managers of the business can’t agree on the structure, how are the employees able to get the job done in the way that it is expected of them?
An effective organisational structure is important because it;
- Focuses the business on role requirements rather than on individuals
- Creates clear career paths and reporting lines (who do I manage and who manages me?) to support the attraction and retention of key talent
- Establishes position descriptions with a clear focus on what needs to be achieved as well as an outline of the skill requirements to help match the most appropriate individuals to roles
- Provides each individual with a clear set of accountabilities and performance expectations in order to do their job well
What is the potential impact of getting it wrong?
- People are recruited based on personality and/ or skill that may not meet medium to long term business requirements
- Individuals are focusing on tasks that do not match their skills and knowledge
- When individuals are responsible for everything but accountable for nothing, work ‘falls through the cracks’
- Turn-over of key talent because they are not aware of their career options
- Poor performance due to a lack of role clarity
- Limited awareness of skill requirements for roles lead to ad hoc training and development
June 2010: Develop me, develop you....
The more successful organisations have a culture where learning and development is central to the way they run their business.
Knowledge sharing is paramount, ranging from individuals sharing their learning experiences to a centralised knowledge repository where information and case studies can be shared for the longer term. Some workplaces have a ‘knowledge is power culture’ which can erode the benefits of team work and can lead to key person liabilities. This attitude is often driven by what gets rewarded – if you reward those with the ‘know how’ and not recognise individuals who share their knowledge feely you risk building a ‘dog eat dog’ culture which is not good for business.
Structured frameworks are central to maintaining a learning and development focus. Often, individual development plans are prepared and reviewed as part of the performance management process. This also allows for learning and development to be discussed as part of the informal discussions that take place through out the year.
Providing structure around learning and development allows businesses to manage any costs associated with training throughout the year. These costs may be financial, but can also relate to the time allocated for participation in or providing this training.
I own my future
While a structured framework is good for keeping learning and development on the radar, a true learning and development culture has participants who actively own their own development.
This means that individuals come to the table with ideas on how to develop themselves and suggest a mix of self-directed and formal learning programs. Self-directed learning could include reading key materials, conducting an independent research project, or running training for others within the business. For those that are truly passionate about self-improvement they may even suggest participation in activities outside normal working hours to boost their skills such as Toastmasters, evening TAFE courses or weekend conferences on industry matters.
One of the biggest barriers sited by individuals for not pursing their own educational goals is that they ‘don’t have time’. As business owners you can remove this excuse by allocating a percentage of time that you expect they should spend on self-development. In addition, you need to monitor their workloads carefully, providing additional assistance where required to free up their time. These important steps make your talk about being a learning and development culture a reality.
Do as I do
Leading by example sets an important message to your team. It shows them that you are open to new ideas and are willing to challenge yourself to grow and develop as a person. Everyone should participate as everyone has room for improvement.
July 2010: Recruitment begins before the search…..
What are you looking for?
Before you can start to actively attract candidates to your business you need to be very clear about the type of role you need to recruit for. What does your business need? This can be determined via a clearly defined vision, organisational structure and subsequently designing roles required to ‘get the job done’. Having a clear vision for the future and a defined business structure is one of the things that potential candidates look for in a prospective employer. Is this business going places? Do they have their stuff together? Are they intending on being around in the future?
A good position description defines the core role purpose, core accountabilities, key activities as well as the success criteria associated with these. In addition, this document defines the knowledge, skills and experience required to do the job which can aid in screening for suitable candidates.
Some businesses, in conjunction to a position description have developed role competencies to better define their requirements around areas such as communication, knowledge sharing & teamwork. The rationale behind this approach is to articulate the differences in behaviours and skills for the various roles in the business ie A Secretary will have different communication requirements to the CEO.
Even if you are not in a position to develop role competencies, you still need to also be clear about these types of ,strong>behavioural attributes you are looking for in a potential candidate. A prospective employee may be able to do the tasks provided but do they execute them in a way that supports the culture you want to have in the business? How do they communicate with others? How do they handle difficult customer situations? Are they able to think creatively to solve problems? Defining these attributes will help you determine the questions you need to ask during the interview process.
August 2010: Work 'Falling Through the Cracks'
During May 2010, PeopleSelect surveyed a number of businesses in the Liverpool/ Macarthur region to understand the ‘people’ issues that they were facing. The most commonly sited issue raised by survey respondents around concerns that they have experienced or are currently experiencing in their business centred on work ‘falling through the cracks’.
What does this mean and what causes this issue?
Having work fall through the cracks means that work that should get done in your organisation isn’t. It isn’t getting done well or isn’t getting done at all. The implications of this problem can range from client needs not being met resulting in a loss of business and / or reputational issues; individual employees not performing to their optimal level leading to inefficiencies and motivational issues; as well as your business not achieving targets for growth.
There are a number of reasons why this may be the case. Some of the more common explanations for this phenomenon are as follows:
- Roles are not clearly defined and individuals do not know who is accountable for key activities. Some organisations may have areas of accountability where multiple roles are seen to be responsible often resulting in variable standards; work being repeated unnecessarily; or work missed as everyone thinks someone else will do it. In other cases, areas of accountability may have no clearly defined owner and the work typically ‘falls off the radar’.
- Processes are not mapped out across the business and hand-over points are not clear. Where do the responsibilities for one role end and another begin around key processes? Ie Initials sales, servicing and on-going support of clients.
- Changes in technology, systems and processes without the adequate level of communication, support and up-skilling. It is not uncommon for employees to site not knowing about a change or not knowing how to use a new system as the reason for not getting something done.
- Shifts in organisational strategy and priorities may also result in this occurring, the goal posts shift and the attention of individuals move with this change or does not change from the old strategy resulting in some areas of responsibility being inadvertently left behind.
- There is no role established in the business to manage key issues i.e marketing tasks are undertaken by multiple people in some organisations leading to issues around lines of accountability and ownership resulting in work ‘falling through the cracks’. Structurally it may make sense to consolidate all marketing activities into one role. This role may be a stand alone position or may have other broad accountability areas.
- Issues with individual performance that may stem from a number of causes:
- Poor hiring decisions have resulted in an individual/s who are not performing the role as required.
- The skills are there to support the work getting done, failure to establish development plans and monitor skills needed to get the job done to the agreed standard can result in work ‘falling through the cracks’.
- Managers are not actively managing individual performance where work is not getting done; in some cases they may complete the work for the offending individual/s rather than having ‘the conversation’ about under performance.
- There is no structured performance management system or not the right performance management framework is in place. This can lead to issues around timing for discussing a failure to complete work or results in the performance management discussion being about topics other than activities that are not getting completed.
- A poorly designed incentive program can also result in shifts in individual performance. What gets rewarded gets done so a focus on financials only may cause individuals to neglect other tasks that they are accountable for.
- Individuals may lack motivation and fail to get the job done. A common reason for this lack of motivation comes from limited awareness of the importance of their role in helping the business achieve it’s longer term goals. Being clear about the vision of the organisation and then sharing this with employees can encourage a more thorough approach to performing in the role.
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