3 Ways to Help Employees Want to Do More than Just Show Up At Work

February 19, 2012 -- 4:47 pm

Average performance – there seems to be an epidemic of it. Average service, average work, average thinking. What happened to all the great employees?

The great employees are here, hiding under average performance in jobs that don’t make sense for them. Nothing can turn a great employee into an average one more than putting that employee into a job that does not use his particularly talents, strengths and passions. Employees who aren’t (intrinsically) good at the job, and like doing it, will never be more than average in the job. So management has a role in creating average or exceptional performers.

Consider these three ways to help get employees into the right job and to raise their performance – so they do more than just show up, looking to collect a paycheck:

1. Define the performance success attributes (abilities) needed in the job to be successful; use these attributes to source the right people. Knowing the profile of success attributes needed to be successful in each job clearly defines the profile of a “good fit” employee. This allows for improved sourcing of candidates resulting in a more significant and meaningful talent pipeline by job.
2. Redevelop the interview process to be behavioral- or talent-based. Phrase your questions around the success behaviors needed in the job, coupled with your real life environment. For example if you are looking to assess a candidate’s abilities in building rapport with a customer, you may ask the following question that affects both the behaviors needed in your actual workplace: “In our workplace, it is not unusual to have customers waiting for service and on phone at the same moment. How do you handle this situation where both phone and live clients feel valued and the behaviors you need to prove exist Use real life environments in your questions to assess candidate fit. These will be the most telling ways to determine if the candidate will show up and be both good at what the job needs done and interested enough to do it well.
3. Set “non-average” performance expectations for each employee. Sometimes the reason employees do average is we don’t tell them that we expect something more than average. Be clear about the performance standard in the organization – and its focus on greatness and exceptional performance. Setting clear high expectations makes sense for employees who are well hired into roles that need what they do best. Miss steps 1 and 2 and you’ll not be able to do step 3. You can’t ask people who excel in one thing to step up and stand out in something that is not part of the abilities, passions or strengths.

Great employees don’t just show up – they are aligned to the right role, constantly trained, clear about their expectations and focus on “exceptional” over average.

Transforming human capital into financial capital requires understanding what behaviors and abilities drive performance in each role, how to determine if a candidate has the right combination of abilities, and what level of daily performance is expected.

For more information, go to www.WorkFiredUp.com and click products for the step by step performance guide, Fire Up! Your Employees and Smoke Your Competition.

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Tell It Like it Is

February 11, 2012 -- 2:56 pm

We have been interviewing for several new roles at my company. We have a different attitude than most about hiring – we lay our cards out on the table – we ask the candidate to do the same – so both sides have the facts to assess whether the opportunity is truly the right fit. No games. No surprises.

As we explain this process to our candidates, they look at us in disbelief. Few companies share what really happens in the workplace in the workday. Fewer companies are honest about the expectations, challenges and opportunities of the role. And we win candidates in right away with our process. We set the stage that we base all decisions on learning and using the facts.

Sure, there is more to it – we first use a talent matrix to create a talent and skill profile for the role. We use this to craft our job descriptions and ads – we are up front and honest about the core abilities needed to be successful in the job. We require candidates to take a talent assessment and we use talent-based interview questions to determine whether the required talents and skills exist in the candidates we consider. It’s a logical and very effective process.

Here’s the point. We tell it like it is; there are no surprises when a candidate starts with us. This set the stage for a powerful relationship between the candidate, management and the organization. Candidates know we are straight with them and that we have the same expectation of them. And if they make it through our process, they then know that we expect the same behavior – to tell it like it is – as they encounter the things in their jobs.

Employees who feel they are lied to or are given only half of the truth, disengage quickly from companies. And with the contact power of social networks, this information quickly gets around. Better the world know you for your honesty, integrity and accuracy than for your inaccuracy and untrue embellishments.

We tell it like it is when it comes to performance expectations. Every employee knows what he needs to do.

We tell it like it is with our core values – what behaviors we expect and insist on in the workplace.

We tell it like it is with our customer service expectations – what “done right” is and how to build customer loyalty.

We have found that we can’t be successful basing any part of our business on smoke and mirrors – from hiring to daily employee performance. We need (and insist) that our employees (and management) tell it like it is. Otherwise, how can any of us consistently determine the best response?

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A New Year’s Letter to Employees: Be Better

January 2, 2012 -- 12:19 pm

With the start of a new year, I thought I would draft a letter to use with your employees – a way to challenge them to be better in all that they do in 2012. If you like it, please use it (or edit it as you wish). I find this is also a good message to share with family. Have a happy and successful New Year.

Dear Employees,

Your manager

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Fit Happens

October 29, 2011 -- 11:09 pm

Marie was hired into a customer service role for a large international distributor. Her responsibility, in addition to doing the daily service tasks, was to provide “consistently exceptional service.” Based on her robust resume of previous work experience, the company expected great results. Marie failed.

Marie consistently lost her temper with customers who did not know how to order, had questions or required a second explanation of a product solution. She did not accommodate any changes to how she provided service – no personal touch – all customers were dealt with in the same efficient, but impersonal, manner. As Marie openly said, “I don’t really like people – but I’ll deal with them to get the job done.” Quite a first impression for a customer.

Marie may have been a great person (I’m sure her parents love her), but she is a misfit for this role; the role needed certain consistent behaviors that were not part of her core abilities. Fit didn’t happen.

Time after time I see organizations relying on candidates’ past skills or experience as the exclusive method for hiring. And though there may be mandatory role skill requirements, it is critical to also assess a candidate’s “fit” for the role – what the talents, strengths and passions are to be successful in the role.

Regardless of what our parents may have told us, we are not great at everything. But we are great at some things. When we discover these personal areas of greatness, we then can assess our world – what roles need what we do best – and can find our fit. Fit happens.

I find there are two primary problems in recruiting today’s A-level talent:
1. The organization does not clearly define the core abilities needed to be successful in the role,
2. Job seekers do not know themselves well enough to know their unique talents, strengths and passions.

Hiring managers must better define the required attributes in each role, and state them in their sourcing process. They must also require job seekers to spend time discovering and articulating their unique abilities. Only then can the two sides meet in the middle for a meaningful process committed to finding the right person for the right job. Then, fit happens.

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Keep Learning Or You’re Behind

October 4, 2011 -- 5:16 am

So many employees are behind in the first moment of their workday. They are caught in workplaces that have cultures that do the same things over and over, regardless of how their environments change; they don’t commit to regularly challenging employees to constantly learn, rethink their jobs and value, and try new things. They are stuck living yesterday’s workday over and over.

In a period of exponential change, the most successful organizations are flexible and opportunity-focused; they empower their employees to constantly learn, involve them in new tasks/responsibilities and require them to try new things.

These organizations constantly gather new ideas, perspectives and opportunities – the key to developing a responsive and successful performance strategy. The more today’s managers help employees learn, grow and try new things, the more they encourage more robust employee thinking which is critical to sustainable company results.

I come from a large Italian family. Being both a large family, and Italian, we rarely went out for dinner (there were too many of us and besides, our food at home was terrific). However, I do remember one time when we went out to a smorgasbord – a buffet. My siblings and I descended on the amazing food tables and started to fill our plates. Dad called us back to our table, took our large plates away and gave us small plates instead. We were then instructed to follow him two times around the food tables – not taking anything – we were just to see what was available. The third time around we could help ourselves to small portions of things we had never tried before. He promised that if we did this, we would discover at least one new favorite food – we would change the way we think. He was right. I discovered artichoke hearts – and still love them today.

The point? Great managers constantly guide their employees to “walk around the company table” and let their employees explore and try things – through both formal learning and on-the-job learning. This expands not only what employees know, but it encourages broader and more strategic employee thinking – employees find areas of greater abilities, develop greater skills and bring stronger performance to the organization.

Additionally, an organization focused on constantly growing and educating its employees significantly influences employee loyalty. And the key to a powerful, high-performing organization is a stable, consistent and free-thinking workforce.

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