Employee Engagement

As business owners, we ALL worry about having enough capital to run our businesses. Most of us immediately think of financial capital. Without cash, we are out of business. However, I suggest that the most important capital we contend with is the human capital of business!

Why “Human Capital”? 
It is clearly the most complicated component is talent acquisition and talent management. In fact, once our companies grow and we solve the cash situation, the people factor remains. Furthermore, it’s the human capital part of our businesses which interacts with our customers on a daily basis. What is more important than that?!
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Jim Collins in his book “Good To Great” stated companies having the best culture and most engaged employees have the highest market value.  These two factors almost always result in higher profits and fewer headaches in running our businesses.

I have always believed the following when it comes to running companies:

If I want HIGHER SALES and PROFITS, what will differentiate my company from my competitors will be:

• UNFORGETTABLE CUSTOMER SERVICE: the type that customers talk about and benchmark their other vendors against!

o This type of service is delivered by…ENGAGED EMPLOYEES who deliver SUPERIOR JOB PERFORMANCE.   

o Remember that how you treat employees is how they will treat your customers. It is a simple rule that works.  

o Therefore, you need to make sure employees FIT THE JOB and the CULTURE of your company.  Most of us do not spend enough time in this area.   This should happen during the hiring cycle.

Next week, I’m going to talk to you about the hiring cycle and what is involved in human resource planning so………..stay tuned!

Any port in a storm.  This economy is a "perfect storm" that will drive the future of hiring, and I'm focused on finding the best tools, from pre employment testing to EEO Reporting.  The arms race is back on, and we'll be reporting from the battleground for you.

The economy is affecting hiring in surprising ways. At a time where the volume of hiring is slowing, each hire becomes more crucial.  Before the downturn, there was a problem with people not telling the truth in the hiring process. Now, it gets worse.

As unemployment numbers start heading up, the pressure on screening and hiring systems increases.  Advanced applicant tracking and assessment tools that apply "LEAN HR" are part of the modern Human Resources software suite.  These tools are the first line of defense for an organization trying to maintain their "employer of choice" status.  Good human resource planning requires good support tools.

Admit it - the arms race of the hiring process had kind of slowed down.  Now, the race is speeding up again because of the combined forces of a slowing economy pushing unemployment up and organizations properly focused on building a high performing work force. 

Organizations must use proper talent aquisition to produce job fit, employee engagement, and great job performance.  At the same time, they must use whatever advanced tools they can find to keep applicants out of the process that are not sharing their true values and attitudes, and are simply trying to get inside an organization - any organization - and are willing to say whatever it takes to get there.

So, the arms race is on.  Let's keep a step ahead....I'm looking for links to good blogs and sites that might help - share them if you have them!

Reading the newspaper (yes, actually the paper version...) it became clear that all of the business stories were focused on financial metrics.  They seem to have forgotten that no matter what, you HAVE to know your people….

Fact: As your organization changes shape and direction, the selection and motivation and management of staff make all of the difference in building a high performance culture.  If you have to restructure, change shape or downsize, knowing your people is equally important.

The only question that remains is, how do you do it?  Assessments?  Talent Management?  Employee Engagement?

As an extrovert, I hate this point, but you have to get better at listening...and you have to pay attention for the smaller details.  Those details can come from watching, from listening, and from building metrics that matter into the management process.

I'm doing some significant research on current metrics - and how to apply them early in the hiring cycle so that job fit is more likely.  Any advice on what metrics you are using will be welcome in this forum...

So, there we were.  A room of senior human resources people and recruiters, all discussing the issues of metrics, assessment, job fit, human capital measurement, and measuring performance.  In short, most of the important issues facing staffing today.  We were all having fun, and it seemed everyone in the room agreed on the main points of the discussion.

 

Then, there was a magical moment about halfway through where everything stopped and the world suddenly became more complex .  Objective feedback appeared that we were not expecting.

 

It had begun simply enough, with a discussion of how assessment tools might be applied to measure job fit, leading to the secondary ability of measuring engagement.  Fine so far.  We had all agreed that leading edge indicators were superior to trailing edge indicators, and the challenge was figuring out leading edge indicators that made sense.  My point was that most people in the room were measuring turnover, a trailing indicator because the individuals that are a part of it had already left the organization when they were measured.  On the surface, employee engagement seemed to be a better metric because it was a measurement of people who were still a part of the organization, and therefore a leading edge metric. 

 

I asked for further input, and got it.  A woman leaning against the back corner quietly asked “Isn’t it true that high performing people would challenge the system more than mediocre people, and therefore high performing people would score worse on engagement metrics?”  Well.  Interesting.  Most people in the room leaned back from their note taking, thoughtfully started chewing on their pens, and nodded in agreement.  The discussion immediately took an unexpected turn, and several audience members have volunteered to give me more data on the subject.

 

To me, the most important point was not that high performers may score differently on engagement assessments.  The most important point is that we must always keep feedback loops in place, to make sure that what we think we’re measuring is actually reflected in real life. 

 

It is human nature to see the world through the filter of what we already know.  For our work in measuring human capital and applying modern assessment tools to human resources, we must always remember to keep objective the backboards in place to keep us on target. 

 

Simply put, I hope this blog can be a part of your personal feedback loop and keep you on target. I look forward to the challenge.