07.22.21
Do you have a People-Related Hiring Strategy?
This can be an intimidating phrase… but essentially it would include things like how you will determine what roles are needed in your company, how you will fill them, the type of people who you are looking for, how you will onboard, train and develop them, identify and equip leaders at all levels, how you will put together high functioning teams, and much, much more. Without this part of your strategy defined, it can be a challenge to determine if and where any gaps may exist as well as standing in the way of achieving your desired results. I want to touch on a few of the things that could be standing in these gaps and go undetected.
Filling Gaps in a Hiring Strategy
My experience has been that a significant amount of costs incurred in business are either directly or indirectly ‘People Related’. Some of these costs are obvious, such as Wages and Benefits, and some not so obvious. For example, costs associated with employee attrition and the cost of employees not fully engaged in their jobs. These may not have their own line on the Profit & Loss statement, but can significantly impact whether desired results are achieved, which in turn does affect the bottom line. Given the overall magnitude of people-related costs in your organization, it seems to make good business sense to also have a specific strategy around the people side of your business and spend time measuring their effectiveness.
Forces of Disengagement
As an example, there are likely significant correlations between the level of emotional commitment your employees have towards your organization’s vision and strategy, and their level of energy put towards achieving them. Put another way, are there any forces of disengagement standing in the way of maximizing productivity and retention? We have seen firsthand how employee disengagement can creep into an organization in four specific areas: (1) fit to their job (2) relationship with their manager (3) fit on the team as a whole (4) how they feel about the organization overall, specifically the culture.
Having a strategy and process to ensure the maximum alignment of new hire candidates to roles can help minimize disengagement in their job. Utilizing the right assessments can help leaders become more self-aware and improve employees’ relationships with their managers. Taking time to create high-functioning teams and ensuring the right people are included and they are crystal clear on their team mission can improve working relationships across the organization. Taking time to identify why employees enjoy and are proud working for you, or where there may be possible issues in these areas will help you improve the employee experience overall.
To marginalize these forces of disengagement, you need to be able to identify and measure them. Otherwise, you are guessing, hoping and likely missing out on opportunities to make necessary adjustments towards achieving desired business strategies and results.
Consult with a Predictive Index Consultant
As part of your people strategy, I would encourage you to consider ways, tools and resources available to you to measure and identify how emotionally committed your employees are to the vision and mission. These will also help you measure the potential impact they have towards achieving your desired results and where any of the noted areas of disengagement may be present. If you need assistance in measuring these types of key aspects of your business and your people related strategy, reach out to one of our consultants at PI Midlantic.