Don’t Let the Good Ones Get Away! 05/01/2012
Posted by chris.hipple in Engagement, Leadership Development, Retention.add a comment
You invest significant resources in hiring, training and managing your workforce. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) estimates that the total cost to replace an employee can range from 90% to 200% of the employee’s annual salary. This number may seem huge, but when you add up the direct costs of replacing the employee and paying out accrued leave, and add in the indirect costs of lowered productivity, lost opportunities, increased costs and lower morale, it makes it clear that holding on to your employees makes financial sense.
So why do employees leave their jobs? This may be surprising, but it’s generally not for more money. SHRM suggests that most employees leave to get away from something they don’t like in their current job. A poor supervisor, difficult co-workers, unfair treatment, lack of advancement opportunities and dysfunctional systems top the list of things employees are eager to leave behind.
Beverly Kay and Sharon Jordan-Evans have written a terrific resource for leaders who want to hold on to their best employees: Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay. They outline 26 engagement strategies (one for every letter of the alphabet) that really work. Some of our favorites include:
- ASK people what would keep them, what they find engaging about theiir jobs and how you can help them succeed.
- JERK . Don’t be one. The Saratoga Institute estimates after analyzing over 60,000 exit interviews that 80% of employee turnover is related to an unsatisfactory relationship with the boss.
- TRUTH. Tell it. Give honest feedback about their work. Share information about the organization. Ask them for their honest opinion – even about you.
Why do you think people leave your organization? What might you do to help the good ones stay?
Role of the Month: Supervisor 04/09/2012
Posted by chris.hipple in Leadership Development, Role of the Month, Skills Assessment.add a comment
As the Competency Company, we’ve worked with dozens of organizations to identify the knowledge, skills and abilities that lead to success in hundreds of roles. In this series we’ll focus on a new role that’s critical to small and mid-sized businesses everywhere. This month: the supervisor.
There probably isn’t any job in your organization more critical than the supervisor of the employees whose work directly serves the customer. But too often, it’s the best worker that gets promoted and then flounders and fails – bringing everyone around down in the process. In addition to higher levels of functional and technical skills that are required of employees on the team, here are some of the common competencies needed for the supervisor’s role:
Self-Management If the key function of a supervisor is to get results through others, no one will get too far in managing others unless he or she can manage their own behavior. Even more than the employees whose work they oversee, supervisors must be able to keep their emotions and personal bias in check, drive for results, and engage in creative problem solving.
Business Acumen They need to be able to demonstrate knowledge of the industry and the organization. Supervisors must also be able to focus on organizational objectives above his/her personal interests in order to be sure the team is aligned.
Business Communication Supervisors need greater communication skills than the general employee population. They need to be able to influence others, write well, conduct meetings, and make presentations.
Relationship Management Communication, team management, conflict resolution and many other interpersonal skills are necessary for the supervisor to lead others.
WebMentor Skills, Avilar’s competency assessment software, comes preloaded with over 90 job roles common to small businesses. A skills assessment helps to identify each employee’s most critical skill gaps, and employees are be able to choose from hundreds of online courses and other learning resources to create an online development plan.
For information, contact sales@avilar.com.
To train or not to train: Analyzing performance problems 03/12/2012
Posted by chris.hipple in performance improvement, Training.add a comment
At our heart, Avilar has always been proud of our ability to provide custom training solutions. But we know that many times, training isn’t the answer when an individual, team or a whole organization is experiencing performance problems.
One of the most helpful tools I’ve ever seen to help an organizational leader diagnose and solve performance problems has been developed by Robert Mager and is described in detail in the book he wrote with Peter Pipe: Analyzing Performance Problems. In it, a series of questions helps you walk through a performance issue to determine the best course of action. We’ve summarized a few of them here:
1. What’s going on, how important is it, and is it worth fixing? First you need a crystal clear picture of the gap between what you want and what you’re getting. Perhaps deadlines aren’t being met, quality is declining or customer complaints are increasing. Before assuming you know what’s causing the problem i and getting to work to solve it, weigh the possible benefits of solving the problem against potential costs to create a dollar limit for what you’re willing to spend on a solution.
2. Is there a knowledge or skill gap? This is frequently the case, but not always – and it may not be the only cause for the problem. A skills assessment of some kind (our WebMentor Skills for example!) can pinpoint exactly where the knowledge and skill gaps are. However, if an employee could perform as required if his or her life depended on it, the problem may lie elsewhere, and the following two questions might lead to the answer.
3. Is poor performance being rewarded? Of course, no manager would intentionally reward performance they don’t like, but it happens all the time. For example, one employee may skip key steps in order to leave for the day on time, while another slows down and drags things out in order to be offered overtime.
4. Is good performance being punished? Are there unintended bad things that happen to people who do good work? Are they asked to do more and more without recognition or additional compensation? Do the best performers get stuck without opportunities to grow? The manager doesn’t control all the consequences of a behavior, but a good one will understand the balance of consequences and ensure that good performance is more rewarding than poor performance.
5. Are there obstacles to performance? Are the resources employees work with reliable and functional or are they unsuitable or out-of-date? Are your systems aligned with your processes, or are they held together with chickenwire and duct tape? Do the disparate teams that need to coordinate efforts work like a well-oiled machine, or from silos?
We highly recommend the book (use the link below to buy). And there are other resources available on Mager’s website at http://www.cepworldwide.com.
Key talent issues in the SMB 02/23/2012
Posted by chris.hipple in Introduction.add a comment
Most of the SMBs we work with have two main objectives: Financial stability and growth. And like any organization, the collective, coordinated efforts of its employees are the key factor in achieving them.
We often talk about talent management as an organizational process designed to attract, manage, develop, motivate and retain key people in order to create a high-performance, sustainable organization that meets its business targets. At Avilar, we think this is too important to be left to the big guys. In fact based on our experiences, we’re guessing that your talent needs are quite similar to those of larger organizations.
- You need to find and hire the right people in the first place. Finding the right fit is often a challenge for untrained managers who base hiring decisions on “gut feel.”
- You need to manage the performance of employees so their efforts are aligned with your mission, strategy and goals, and so that you can move or remove the people who aren’t pulling their weight.
- You need to train and develop your people so their skills remain up-to-date.
- You need to keep people engaged and committed so that you retain the best.
- You need ways to make sure your business is sustainable through change and growth.
In the coming weeks, we’ll explore each of these talent areas in a bit more detail.
Meanwhile, what talent issues are keeping you up at night?
Welcome to Big Talent, Small Business 02/16/2012
Posted by chris.hipple in Introduction.add a comment
At Avilar, we work with all kinds of people and organizations – entrepreneurs, hospitals, banks, nonprofits, government and military agencies. 
While their needs are diverse and our products and services are tailored for each one, our focus is the same across the board. We help leaders understand how to maximize what we call “talent” – the knowledge, skills and discipline demonstrated by the people in their workforce – so they can get results.
Many of our most satisfying business relationships are with small and mid-sized growing businesses – often called SMBs. Here are the top three reasons why:
- Everyone’s close to the customer. Each employee can connect to the mission and can feel a direct responsibility for the success of the company.
- Time, money and energy are critical resources and there’s little room for any waste.
- Each person matters. Employees typically need a wide range of skills on the job, and even small improvements in individual skill and performance can make a large impact on revenue.
So that’s why we decided to start a blog focused on the talent needs of the SMB, hence Big Talent, Small Business. We’ve been in the industry for over 15 years and have lots of ideas and experience to share. But we certainly don’t have all the answers. We’d love to hear from you, the small business professional, so please, feel free to comment on any post. Let’s make this an ongoing conversation! What are the top 3 reasons you like working in a small business?
