HUMAN RESOURCES
Nurturing your employees will protect your most valuable asset
Organizations have only two assets — people and money.
Money buys the equipment, the inventory and the facilities.
Employers spend considerable time managing the money of the
organization. They budget it, forecast it, analyze it, report
it, invest it and account for it.
But where is the corollary effort regarding people? Where is
the attention to training and developing skills and critical
performance management? In the majority of organizations,
thoughtful attention to planning, training, coaching,
developing and rewarding employees often is relegated to the
last item on a long list by supervisors who already have a full
plate of their own work.
Ostensibly, employees are hired because they are the best
qualified for the position. Looking at the actions of employers
however, it would be possible to reach a different conclusion.
Employees are often not asked for opinions. They are not given
the right to voice concerns about direction or processes.
Information to employees is often scant and/or tardy. There is
little transparency or information sharing because it is
assumed that the employees won’t care or don’t need
to know. It appears that effort is made to hire capable
individuals but, once hired, they are treated as though they
can’t be trusted to think or act in a responsible
fashion.
Jennifer Jarratt of Coates and Jarratt, a futurist firm in
Washington, D.C., says, “Human capital is the largest
resource organizations do not own.” Every morning
employees get up and make an employment decision. They decide
whether they are going to continue to work for their current
organization. In some cases, they decide that they’re
not, and abandon their job. In other cases, they come to work,
but are so disengaged that they spend their time doing
everything but work.
A study conducted by the Gallup organization about 20 months
ago found that 71% of employees were spending two hours in a
workday surfing the Internet, making personal calls or running
personal errands. Another study by Salary.com in August 2006
found that 17% of employees were actually sabotaging the
employers’ efforts by deliberately irritating and driving
away customers.
It doesn’t take a human resource professional to
understand that people matter, or to do something about
it. Finding ways to connect to your workforce is one of
the most important ways of retaining your most valuable asset.
Here are some ways to accomplish that:
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Share more information, not
less. Tell emp-loyees about organizational goals and
challenges. Employees understand that there are good and bad
times and will appreciate knowing the current state of
business.
-
Ask employees for their
opinions. Be clear that they aren’t making the
decision, but let them know their opinions matter.
-
Create a “we”
organization. Employees can be invested in the success
of the enterprise, just like managers and owners are. By
referring to it as “us” or “we,” you
acknowledge their connection and create an environment where
everyone cares about the outcomes.
-
Plan for the future.
What can employees look forward to? What additional
responsibilities could be on the horizon? Working toward
something is far better than just working.
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Have fun! Laughter,
camaraderie, and personal contact let people build
relationships with one another. Those relationships can
create a “stickiness” that retains staff.
The Gallup study summary says: “The success of your
organization doesn’t depend on your understanding of
economics or organizational development or marketing. It
depends, quite simply, on your understanding of psychology: how
each individual employee connects with your company; how each
individual employee connects with your customers.”
Anthropologist Margaret Mead said it this way: “Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever
has.” Change “citizens” to
“employees” and the statement would be just as
true.
Imagine if a small group of employees could be that powerful,
think how outcome altering it would be if every employee shared
the same passion for excellence.
— Judy Clark, CEO, HR
Answers
jclark@hranswers.com
