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Who do you talk to?
Many of you reading this will be running businesses, or parts of, whether they are your own or not. This means that you have many things to deal with on a day to day basis plus trying to do the long-term thinking needed to lead and run the business....
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Getting and Keeping Good People
As the competition for talented people picks up, forward
thinking managers need to assess how they are positioned to keep
their good people and attract some more.
Get the basics right People who have choices, and good people
normally do, look for certain features in their employer. It
continues to amaze us as we visit different businesses how
little attention is paid to some of the basics in the work
place.
Why would someone put up with poor pay, disinterested
management, run down physical surroundings, poor equipment and
sub standard recreation facilities (and by this we mean
something as basic as a lunch room and tea and coffee!) if they
had a choice.
Those are just the basics. To really compete, you need more.
A professional team People who have a choice want to belong to a
business that is going somewhere. A place where their work
matters and they know it makes a contribution and they are
recognised for it.
They also want to work somewhere that fits their values, is
clear on what is expected from its people and is professional in
its approach to managing them.
You need to have a vision and plans to get there. You then have
to communicate these to your people and get them excited. You
need to define your values, or core competencies, and involve
people in acquiring them. This way they will then feel they are
on a team of like minded professionals doing worthwhile work.
Rewards are important Of course rewards are important, but this
does not mean paying the highest salary. A fair and consistent
way of recognising people's performance financially and non
financially is a key tool in keeping people on board. Having a
fair and competitive pay system linked to individual performance
is a
start. Throw out those awards - you need to exceed their
provisions.
You also need to have a process for doing this so you don't just
end up paying more to attract new people as you are losing old
ones.
On top of the financial rewards, interesting work, challenge, a
sense of achievement and recognition go a long way to motivating
people. After a reasonable level pay is achieved, these are the
real motivators. And these can often be provided at very little
cost.
Give them room to grow Probably one of the key factors for
attracting and retaining good people is providing room and
support for them to grow and develop. This means different
things to different people. Training on the latest version of
the accounting software may be exciting for one person whereas
working along side the Marketing Director learning about
strategic planning may be what someone else wants.
Making sure these actions are identified, in line with business
needs and carried out requires some effort. But it is a good
investment - both in business knowledge and in keeping people
and continually improving their performance and satisfaction
levels.
To check how you are doing in these areas, use the Diagnostic
Tool at the website shown below. It will take about ten minutes
to complete and will provide you with a graphical display of
your rating plus a written report you can then use for input to
your plans.
About the author:
Paul Phillips is a Director of Horizon Management Group, a
consulting firm which assists businesses manage their people
more effectively. With over 30 years experience in HR he has
worked in a number of overseas locations and is now based in
Australia. www.horizonmg.com
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