Gas prices are up. The economy is down. And many businesses are fearful as their needle inches toward “E”: They are dragging out hiring decisions, making purchases based on price versus quality and cutting costs perceived to be expendable.
Yet reactionary, short-term cost reductions can be like putting off replacing that worn-out oil filter on your car — it starts to erode performance at every mile. Any good mechanic will tell you that now is exactly the time for a tune-up. So consider the following opportunities for your businesses as we speed forward.
Recruit and hire the best. There is no better time to assemble the “A” team. Business has gotten tougher, and your company needs to toughen up, too. Make an organizational decision to attract and retain top performers only!
The mix of your performers can actually change over time with a strategy that improves the odds that great people will be attracted to your company and will want to stay. If you expect to compete in this new world, then you must ensure that your work force is talented, excited and passionate.
Average and poor performers are not driving your company today, nor will they be the backbone of your organizational success in the future. Take the steps now to start expanding the population of better-than-average employees in your work force and squeeze out the deadwood. This is no longer an idealistic concept; it has become a business necessity.
Top performers are more productive, creative and entrepreneurial. They will save your organization money, identify new markets, products and services and help you seize opportunities that surround all of us each day.
Go after top talent. Once you make the decision to focus on acquiring top talent at all levels, finding it becomes your next challenge.
Advertising for top performers in the newspaper is a crapshoot. If you find a great performer from a paper ad, I would suggest you play the lottery and hope your luck continues.
Talent acquisition must be directed using a well-conceived portfolio approach of electronic media and direct sourcing of talented individuals. In addition, developing and maintaining an online career center is a must — for any size business. Regardless of the generation, top performers today check out opportunities via the Web and professional networking. Make no mistake, talented employees are judging your company online these days — if your Web site does not scream “employer of choice” most talented candidates will move on to another company’s site and not return to yours. Online career centers are inexpensive, easy to maintain and position your organization very well in cyberspace.
Raise the bar. Concurrent with top talent acquisition and retention initiatives, it’s time to set a new level of job expectations across the organization.
Ensure that the new corporate vision is incredibly well communicated, understood and discussed. Provide opportunities for even the poorest performer to shape up and join the team. All employees should meet with their managers to discuss individual job and performance expectations. Your current top performers will love the new direction and the average and below-average performers will resist — too bad. It’s time to move on and move forward. This is not only a case for corporate survival but also for corporate success.
Buy for ROI. Quality purchases that affect the attraction and retention of top performers is essential. Top people expect you to maintain and enhance the quality of their work life and work conditions.
Provide your employees the tools they need to excel. “You get what you pay for” still holds true today, and your better employees know when you are buying on the cheap.
Break some rules. Take a look at your employee handbook. Chances are you may have some policies that are pretty archaic. Concepts such as a probationary period and listing in your bereavement-leave policy, which relatives that employees can receive paid time off to mourn, really do not have a place in 2008 and beyond — especially for high achievers.
Top performers don’t like punitive rules and red tape; they want the freedom to manage their day-to-day activities like adults. If you let them, the results will be impressive.
Talk it up. This is exactly the time for CEOs and management teams to get out of their offices. Spend time with the people who are driving organizational success.
Ask them what’s working and what’s not. Find out why they came to your company and why they are staying. Find out what else they need to be more successful individually and in your company. The feedback you receive will be better than any advice you will receive from a management consultant, at a considerably lower hourly rate.
The time is now. You may look back at this period one day as the “good old days” — the time when your organization changed direction, focused on great people driving your organizational success and supporting their endeavors.
Your organization has that same opportunity today. It may be a time when we all seek ways to conserve, but it is hardly the time to conserve your organization’s energy in staying directed and excelling. The results of a successful top talent acquisition and retention initiative can be a “real gas.” Fill ’er up.