Many organizations have been carrying extra employees for years – employees who continued to show up each day without adding a level of value commensurate with their pay and benefits.
The recession forced virtually all organizations to reduce their spending. And in today’s intellectual and service workplace, most of these expense reductions related to manpower. Thanks to the recession, most organizations have now seen they can get more done with fewer of the right employees, than more of the wrong employees. Great lesson.
Getting more done with less is not about overwhelming employees by adding the responsibilities of laid off employees to surviving employees. Rather, it is about understanding employees talents, strengths and passions and realigning employees to roles that use these to make a more significant difference. Studies continue to support that employees who are engaged (intrinsically and emotionally connected – they are good at what the job requires and like doing it), out perform all others. They are more creative, more focused and more interested in their work. The result is greater performance. This requires a greater attention to “fit.” Fit determines the “right employee.” Right employees get more done.
So to get more done with less:
1. Define the talents, strengths, skills and experience needed in each role.
2. Realign existing talent to roles that match and need their attributes.
3. Hire those positions for which you do not currently have the right people.
4. When interviewing, use talent-based questions (workplace situational questioning) to assess candidates’ talents and assess their responses and fit.
5. Clearly define performance expectations and allow employees greater freedom in achieving expectations.
6. Provide recurring feedback to encourage employees to perform.
We are in the new “normal.” The recession showed us we can get the work done with fewer of the right people, keep costs down and improve profitability. Did the recession change how you hire and who is on your team?
Please forward this to someone who can benefit from it, and contact me to show you how to get the right people in the right roles to build your A-Team.
employee engagement, feedback, hire the right employee, job interview, right employee, talents
This entry was posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 11:02 am and is filed under For Managers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
