by Diana Southall | Aug 26, 2014 | culture, job fit, performance
The following is a version of a conversation I have regularly with clients:
Client: “We really need some help with our sales process. Some of our bids require hours of preparation and document gathering. Our estimator needed extra help as he uses all his time to get vendor estimates and compute the final price. So he had Mary take over the non-pricing part of the bid.”
Diana: “So how did that work?”
Client: “Well, Mary started well, but the day before the bid she seems frazzled and needed the estimator to help her finish the packet.”
Diana: “So did you win the work?”
Client: “No, the bid was disqualified because it was missing two important documents.”
Diana: “Was there a list of all requirements in the bid package?”
Client: “Yup- right in the first two pages, there was a checklist of every required items.”
Diana: “Okay, we have two areas to concentrate.
First, you might want to talk about process improvement—what could be done better for the next bid. (For example, one person is responsible to double-check everything is there 2 days before the bid is due.)
I would suggest you get those involved in the bid process in a room and outline and clarify the ideal process and timeline, and then assign responsibility.”
The second area- Do you see a trend in Mary’s performance in planning of projects and detail orientation? Is she normally prepared with every item needed, well in advance of a deadline? Does she “future pace” what is coming next, reaching out to others to get what she needs to do her part of the project?
Or do you see the frantic last minute dash to pull something together at the last minute, and then something is usually forgotten?”
This is a function of job fit, some people are comfortable working in the moment, and do not typically focus on the future requirements. Some people have the opposite work habits- they setup checklists, verify that the list is complete and double check everything.
Planning and organizing is a competency—a soft skill that is based on our consistent personality traits, and can be somewhat refined and developed. (And you can assess for this in the hiring process with a basic personality assessment).
If you step back and evaluate the trend of someone’s work habits, you will likely see a clear pattern of planning and organizing behaviors and results.
If Mary has not demonstrated a strong competency in planning and organizing, the solution is to give those tasks with someone else who has a stronger competency in this area (higher job fit). And then find short term and less detailed and crucial tasks that are a better job fit for Mary (increase her job fit).
Training and systems are most effective if someone already has the competency/ job fit in that area.
Want to learn more?
Find out how about how to identify the three main reasons someone isn’t keeping up (gap in ability, motivation or values) in our webinar “Evaluating Your Current Team for Job Fit.”
See our current webinar schedule and register here: People Plan Webinars
Image Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
by Diana Southall | Mar 14, 2014 | coaching, job fit, performance
I have always been an advocate for finding and rewarding a great employee. As the People consultant who I worked with years ago was fond of saying, “it’s never the wrong time to hire the right person.”
And I have examples from personal experience in my family business and at clients who found that the right person can make a huge impact on the work environment, productivity, sales and ultimately profit.
But I want to share an astounding story related recently by a woman entrepreneur who is in one of my business groups.
For months, she was frustrated with the results of the manager in her production operation.
Her business coach continued to advise her to recruit and select another manager, but as we all know, recruiting and selection is TIME CONSUMING. And you worry that the person you finally hire may not be any better than the person you have. And then you have to spend time training the new person…. And the list goes on, so we stall and don’t go looking for the Ideal.
At some point she decided that maybe she would at least look for another candidate, so created a profile of the ideal candidate (Lesson 1– do this before recruiting so that you are attracting the Ideal Candidate).
Then she made a list of the job performance results she really needed, key skills and competencies of an ideal production manager. She said that when she systematically wrote this out, it was not what she was originally thought she needed! (Lesson 2– by systematic and clear about your Ideal Candidate.)
Then she placed a local advertisement describing the ideal candidate and the very detailed position requirements and results.
Who applied?- an applicant who was working at a similar larger production facility that had just closed. She interviewed this candidate and found out that he had the industry skills and knowledge, but more importantly management and leadership skills. After a thorough selection process, she was confident this candidate had a good probability of being an A player. (Lesson 3– Validate, don’t just take someone’s word for their capabilities after one interview.)
Fast forward one month after he started to this business results:
- the crew increased from 55% productivity (plus overtime to get orders out) to 100% productivity with no overtime
- the process was running so smoothly the backlog of 2 weeks to get orders shipped dropped to 2 days
- because she was able to contact customers (instead of putting out fires in the production and shipping area) she sold 64% more sales that month!
And how much more did she pay this new manager? The same as the prior one. Even if he wanted 15% more base pay —would he have been worth it? (Did I mention 64% more sales?)
Lesson 4– So you say you don’t have time to find an A player, and you can’t afford one? What would 10% more productivity or sales do for your profit this year?
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
by Diana Southall | Feb 4, 2014 | action plans, job fit, performance
I remember a vivid scene from the movie “Master and Commander” when the captain (Russell Crowe) decided to leave a sailor overboard, instead of saving the crew member but endangering the whole ship. <PS A great movie about leadership, and reminded me of the Hornblower series I read as a nerdy kid.>
Luckily our business is not life or death, and this is a tough decision that you will not have to make.
However, when you choose to keep onboard the crew members who are “dragging down” the team, you are essentially slowing or sinking your ship.
So consider—if everyone fell overboard, who would you “save” and why? (This is sometimes call the lifeboat drill.)
Now you have two lists—one to save (your best performers and solid citizens) and your list of the ones you would leave behind.
Before I get irate comments—let me be clear I am not advocating “throwing someone overboard” as a solution.
What I am suggesting is that you take each person that was on the “leave behind” list and do four important things:
- Systematically and objectively identify this person’s strengths and improvement areas
- Consider how the strengths can be re-deployed into another set of tasks or role
- Create a list of crucial and immediate changes required
- Meet with this employee to discuss 1-3 and create a plan to bring this person back on the crew list
Almost all of your low performance employees can be improved with a combination of change in role and expectations.
You can learn more about how to identify the three main reasons someone isn’t keeping up (gap in ability, motivation or values) in our webinar “Evaluating Your Current Team for Job Fit.”
See our current webinar schedule here: People Plan Webinars
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
by Diana Southall | Jan 21, 2014 | job fit, Video
by Diana Southall | Jan 20, 2014 | culture, job fit, performance
As your business grows beyond just a single owner in the role of general manager, you begin to build team of managers and senior professionals.
You find people who are willing to come onboard and help you build the business, and they are committed and loyal and hardworking. They came to work for your company for a paycheck but ultimately they would like to share in the success of the organization. Or perhaps you have a profit sharing/ bonus/ incentive plan that you offer now.
Many organizations design plans with the intention of rewarding key people with more than base pay, and every possible type of plan can emerge as a result.
As Dr. Phil has been known to say “how is that working for you?”
Here are 8 questions to ask about how you are compensating your key employees (count how many you can answer with “yes”):
- Do managers know exactly what they need to do this year to achieve the business goals (do they have a dashboard or scorecard)?
- Do managers know what the reward will be if they hit the results on their scorecard? (For example, if they achieve the goals exactly, what will they earn?)
- Is there a significant individual component to incentive compensation?
- Does the current reward structure emphasize long-term (5+ years) results/ metrics (more than just annual ones)?
- Have you gathered official data in the last 18 months to check if current base pay and annual incentive is “market competitive”?
- What is the perception of your compensation including incentives—is there a meaningful reward for exceptional results? Is it considered “fair”?
- How have you designed a plan that uses the different levers (base pay, short term incentive, long term incentive and benefits) for the highest value to employees, the best alignment with company goals, and the lowest post tax payroll cost?
- Have you built any mechanism to use compensation for future plans- owner retirement and/or ownership transition?
If you answered YES to at least 5 of those questions, I would suggest you have a well designed and possibly effective “pay for performance” program for your key employees.
If you only answered yes to a few or several answers are “sort of” you are not alone— we work with many very successful small companies that have outgrown their rewards programs and are challenged with each of these issues. (Some are $50 to $500 million in revenue!).
The good news that you can leverage the impact of an effective Total Rewards program, and this will align compensation with business results and be designed for future growth.
Email us to find out about our systematic 5 phase design process that customizes a solution for your unique needs, and can be ready in about 6 months.
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
by Diana Southall | Jan 15, 2014 | job fit, performance
Fill in the names of your current team members based on a quick overall rating of their performance and (your perception) of their engagement level/ commitment to the job.
Some examples:
- Bob is one of your top performers and he goes the extra mile to take care of your clients, and is a good team player, has a positive attitude, and demonstrates and verbalizes his desire to help the company succeed:
- Rating : performance = exceeds, commitment = high
- Sue is a new hire who is struggling to excel, but she still has a positive attitude about learning and is making an effort to work you to learn her job role and tasks
- Rating: performance = needs development, commitment = high
- Joe has been with your company 20 years, he comes to work on time but his performance is barely meeting expectations and he is falling behind on learning new skills and equipment in his area. He is know for his lackluster attitude and attempts to avoid taking responsibility or accountability for his work.
- Rating: performance = needs development, commitment = low
- Liz is a top sales person with your firm and her performance has exceeded expectations, she does a great job and takes care of the customer and seems motivated to earn her bonus. While her attitude is not negative, she tends to be more focused on her own results and less concerned with teamwork or how her work impacts others. She tends to avoid social activities or interactions with her co-workers and makes comments that suggest she is not concerned about how the overall company succeeds, just as long as she makes her sales quota.
- Rating: performance- exceeds, commitment- low
|
Commitment: |
Needs development
|
Meets performance expectations
|
Exceeds expectation
|
| High
Commitment |
Sue
|
|
Bob
|
| Medium
Commitment |
|
|
|
| Low
Commitment |
Joe
|
|
Liz
|
Each employee “type” has a related action plan process:
- Risk for termination– Joe
- Solution: Performance Improvement Action Plan
- Retention Risk— Liz
- Solution: Engagement Action Plan
- Loyal but unqualified— Sue
- Solution: Job Fit Evaluation
- High Potential – Bob
- Solution: High Potential Development Plan
You can learn about these in detail in our free video course — Sign up here
