Every business today is seeking automation of some kind but the people providing these solutions need to be effective and maintain high levels of performance. With modernization and automation in IT and Engineering domains, the role of many employees may seem like it is diminishing but in fact, recognizing the role of the people critical to these tasks is more important today than ever before.
I worked in a corporate setup upon a time and the companies I worked for strived hard to build the best systems. But, they failed at execution because they never focused on any kind of solid employee development. In essence they lost out on hiring and retaining the best talent pool due to various reasons.
Yesterday, I read this article with allegations from disgruntled former employees of a popular Indian startup 'Swiggy' against the ongoing mismanagement and mistreatment by the company towards it's vendors and employees. I would have dismissed it off as a load of crap if I didn't know people who had friends working there. I also have my own past experiences to reflect upon from my past formal employments.
People are the biggest asset for any company. If your employees are well nurtured it's likely they are going to stick with you for the long haul. Today, employee retention is the biggest challenge and in most emerging markets, several startups work like a sweatshop, round the clock, pushing their employees towards a complete burnout.
Scaling up any business requires tremendous input of working capital and human resources. If you have managed to find yourself with a solid team of people working towards realizing your vision for your company, then it's doubly important that you don't let trivial matters such as nationalities, geo-locations (in-case of a distributed team) and budgets come in the way of hiring the right talent. Because, these skilled employees could very well start turning your vision into reality from Day 1 of being hired.
Over the years I've been part of many professional teams. I've also built and led teams from the ground up, for my past employers and in my business. Now, I'm looking at scaling up a part of my small business once again that requires me to hire the right talent pool. So I'm at a juncture where I will once again be practicing what I preach.
Benefits of Investing In The Right People!
- Developing an underperforming employee to rise up to his/her full potential gives the employer the advantage in the market against similar positions in rival companies where no such benefits exist.
- This is because, loyal employees are unlikely to quit. On the job training and skill building ensures makes an employee feel important and they are less likely to leave the job for another.
- This culture of employee development and investing in human capital will sustain the company through it's high and low phases as loyal people generally stick around and work harder in times of crisis.
- This leads to a higher reputation for the company as a top place to work, where people are hired on merit, trained and encouraged to perform better at their job through positive reinforcement.
- It creates a culture where good people are likely to bring in similarly good people into the organization. People who are willing to better themselves and their skill sets by working for your company are the people you want to hire and retain.
Creating a Talent Pool
Highly motivated team members who work without need for constant supervision generally also make the ideal team-lead or managers. They are able to delegate their work efficiently and ensure their team remains engaged at work. Often it so happens that employees get bored and sloppy at their work, resulting in jobs that take an hour to completed, take twice as long!
Ensuring your upper and middle management keep your employees engaged at their work through interesting training programs, coaching, willingness to answer questions is very important and that is likely to create an environment of high productivity and learning.
Hiring is an expensive process and high employee retention generally leads to greater savings and a good bottomline. When you are looking towards the future and building a great team, you will need the right people to execute your decisions for you. People who can adapt to the constant industry changes, meet customer needs effectively, and deliver on expectations usually make the cut in the long run.
It may not always be possible to promote people from within without hiring an external source but often times, well trained employees are better suited for a promotion than an outside who has to learn the ropes before delivering results.
You will need to be able to meet these challenges with an effective leadership to sustain a rapid growth.
No Shortcuts
- Be grateful to your team as well as your customers. Regular appreciation of your team members for the work they do will result in a highly motivated and inspired team.
- You can forget building a lasting business if you cannot be accountable for your employees and treat them with care.
- No matter how good you are, there is always someone better. You need to accept disruptive changes and evolve with the changing business environment.
- Encourage discipline around team meetings and ensure everyone makes it on time.
- Don't lie to yourself, your investors or your employees about the progress of the company.
- Shake things up, constantly stress test your processes to ensure there's constant growth and improvement. Most entrepreneurial ventures succeed and grow because of this and even major companies follow these methods to succeed.
Note to Employees
- There is no space for any mediocrity in a fast paced, growth focused environment, where employers lead the way through positive reinforcement and great work-life balance.
- Employees who take their job or their employers for granted often find themselves sent out of the door.
- 50% accomplishment of targets set is still 50% work that still needs to be completed. Don't be satisfied with job half done and always ensure your professional goals are met or exceeded.
- You have to perform to expectations when the environment for work is conducive to high productivity level. Because there is no room for excuses when you are being paid to do your job.
Many employees often consider delivering mediocre levels of performance as something acceptable. This often plagues majority of the low-mid level workforce in most organizations but don't let this engulf you or you will miss out on great opportunities to rise up.
My participation on Steemit has been an interesting social experiment and case study because ever since I've been on the platform. I've had the opportunity to work with some great minds behind the scenes, and the level of professionalism and dedication I've witnessed from the members of these projects is unlike anything I've seen before.
If you are a business owner it would be wise to remember these words:
You can build the best systems in the world, but without the right people to run it, they will all fail sooner or later!**
I welcome your thoughts on the subject matter. There are many business owners here on Steemit and I would love to know what you have to say on this topic.
If you like my work kindly resteem it to your friends. You may also continue reading my recent posts which might interest you:
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