<\/p>\n
This is the third installment of a series on developing an \u201cengaged\u201d workforce . . . that is, a workforce that energetically supports your company and its goals.<\/p>\n
In the first installment, we talked about the importance of clearly communicating the company\u2019s mission, vision, values, and culture.\u00a0 Essentially, those four things (with apologies to business guru Jim Collins) describe the bus we\u2019re on . . . a metaphor for your company.\u00a0 They tell us what the bus does, where it\u2019s going, and how the people on it (your employees) are expected to behave.<\/p>\n
In the second installment, we talked about the vital role leadership plays as you strive to have your workforce internalize and embrace your mission, vision, values, and culture.<\/p>\n
Now we want to talk about how to put the people on your bus into the right seats.\u00a0 That is, how do we position people so that they are able to do what they do best, and do the things they are most passionate about?\u00a0 After all, if the object is to develop an \u201cengaged\u201d workforce, what better way to do it than have people coming to work each day to do something they enjoy and are excited about doing?\u00a0 For more on this, please read below.<\/p>\n
Put the right people on the bus, then put them in the right seats.<\/strong> Research shows only 20% of employees report that they have an opportunity to do what they do best every day.\u00a0 This research is validated by many employees spread over many companies in many industries and in many countries.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a fluke, it\u2019s real.\u00a0 So what does that say about the other 80%?\u00a0 Well, they may be on the right bus in the sense that they are a good \u201cfit\u201d for the company\u2019s mission, vision, values, and culture, but clearly, they are not seated where their work can have the most impact.\u00a0 And while the 80% may do their work competently, how much more productive, creative, and energetic would they be if they were doing something that takes advantage of their best talents and that they really enjoy doing?<\/p>\n So how have we gotten so upside down with the vast majority of our employees placed in jobs they don\u2019t particularly care about?\u00a0 Lots of ways.\u00a0 Hiring managers may not screen applicants as carefully as they should, or maybe they\u2019re so desperate to fill a job that they\u2019ll accept anyone who has a pulse and can fog a mirror.\u00a0 From an employee\u2019s vantage point, he or she may take a job that is less than an optimal fit with his or her talents because it does provide a paycheck, or because the company has a good benefits package, or because it\u2019s close to home.<\/p>\n OK, so for whatever reason, most of the people on our bus are in seats that are not ideally suited for them.\u00a0 What do we do about it?\u00a0 In the short term, probably not much.\u00a0 Obviously, we can\u2019t fire 80% of our workforce and hope to replace them (quickly) with people who have real talents for the jobs we have available. If we\u2019re lucky, we may be able to shuffle the deck a bit and put at least a few people into jobs that are right for them.\u00a0 But in most cases, getting the right people in the right seats will be a long term, evolutionary process.<\/p>\n I would argue that there\u2019s a difference between a talent and a skill.\u00a0 A talent is a natural gift about which we are passionate and have developed to a high level over time.\u00a0 A skill is something that can be learned and practiced with a certain amount of proficiency.\u00a0 For instance, consider a bookkeeper who has a real talent for financial analysis . . . loves to dive into financial statements looking for inconsistencies, anomalies, or trends.\u00a0 Sure, he or she has the skill to enter all the debits and credits correctly and produce an accurate financial statement, but that\u2019s not where the talent lies, nor the passion.\u00a0 For the most part, when we\u2019re hiring, we do a pretty good job of identifying the skills an applicant would bring to the job.\u00a0 Not so the talents.<\/p>\n So the key here is to do a better job of incorporating talents into our position descriptions, and into our screening and interviewing processes.\u00a0 If we do that, and do it well, we will gradually put more of our people into the right seats.\u00a0\u00a0 Will we ever have 100% of our people in the right seats?\u00a0 Not likely.\u00a0 But each person we do put in the right seat has the potential to be a game changer for us, and the more people we have in the right seats, the more \u201cengaged\u201d our workforce will become.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the third installment of a series on developing an \u201cengaged\u201d workforce . . . that is, a workforce that energetically supports your company and its goals. In the first installment, we talked about the importance of clearly communicating the company\u2019s mission, vision, values, and culture.\u00a0 Essentially, those four things (with apologies to business<\/p>\n
\nGet your workforce engaged! (103)<\/p>\n