Blog
Increasing Human Capital Efficiency
Are you in denial about the employee efficiency of your company?
Not long ago I asked the owner of a mid-sized business what the company experienced in the way of employee efficiency and turnover. He quickly replied that they didn’t have a problem. I was a bit skeptical because of the statistics on both issues but you have to understand that this owner is a very careful guy, treats his employees well and believes what he hears from his management team. (I think they believe it as well)
As the months have gone by I have been able to observe both employee efficiency and turnover at one of their numerous locations. My conclusion? – There is a problem – Numerous problems.
Although I’ve experienced a cheerful and conscientious staff that works hard at maintaining corporate standards and practices I have also observed . . .
Numerous turnovers
Poor communication practices
Multi-tasking by mid-management resulting in missed queues and work build up
Mid-management spread very thin – often managing two sites at a time, struggling to keep their teams at full numbers and well trained
Inconsistent practices from one facility to another
The business looks to be running well from the perspective of the casual observer but I believe they are functioning well below their potential. There are a number of highly loyal employees that are the ones that really ‘hold the ship together’. (This begs the question as to the benefit/contribution derived from the other employees.)
My point is simply that even good intelligent executives who have a noble work ethic and faithful employees can be blind to what’s really happening and missing out on tremendous potential.
It requires a commitment to occasionally take a good, hard and honest look at what’s going on and being willing to admit that there just might be some Human Capital Efficiency issues even in the best of companies.
Then it necessitates taking the next steps of . . .
- ‘Auditing’ your staff to discover each person’s innate hardwiring
- Discover the innate hardwiring that each position requires and
- Match those with the innate hardwiring of each employee.
This will lay the foundation for incredible growth and ROI beyond what you’ve thought possible.
Address ‘The Pain’ . . . To Optimize the Coaching Partnership
Whether you’re an Executive considering coaching for your organization or an Executive Coach establishing a partnership with a client, you need to address ‘The Pain’
As an Executive Coach I have certain protocols, practices, assessments and strategies that I like to use with my clients. Each of these is designed to bring clarity and success to the client and their business. I work hard at picking and choosing what I bring to the table based on what I believe the client needs. That awareness comes as part of our ‘upfront’ discussion – but that discussion can’t just be centered on a general sense that it would be good for the company to have a coaching partnership. In order to choose the right ‘tools’ and strategies and in order to have a strong and effective partnership, both the client and the coach have to be aware of ‘The Pain’.
Although I’m a believer in the ‘adage’ that ‘If it works, don’t fix it’ I’m also a firm believer in the fact that often we don’t realize that with a little ‘tweaking’ in key areas our systems could be far more productive – for both the coach and the client.
That’s why I believe that one of the first things that must happen ‘up front’ is the discovery of the ‘Pain’ we’re experiencing. Yes – it’s absolutely critical to understand a client’s goals, objectives and values. However, if our goal is to create a successful partnership, see powerful forward movement and strong optimization there must be a significant discussion designed to discover what ‘roadblocks’ or ‘pain points’ are in place and keeping us from fully meeting and exceeding our vision and dreams for the corporation.
As a coach, I know that roadblocks exist – it doesn’t matter how effective we think our organization is, it’s a statistical fact that we’re most likely running at about 35% Human Capital Efficiency – at least at some level in the organization. So the question becomes – ‘What if we were able to turn that figure around and raise that level to 70 or 80% HCE?’ – That’s addressing the Pain! – That’s moving forward! –That’s significant ROI!
That’s the discussion we need to have up front so that when we begin looking at protocols, strategies and assessments we aren’t wasting time and money. It’s a powerful part of the ‘thinking and strategizing’ partnership between the coach and the client.
“People don’t buy coaching, they buy results!”
Executive Coaches should be in an ongoing process of reviewing and refining their service effectiveness. The key is not what I’m putting into it but what is the client getting out of it. It’s too easy in our fast paced culture to slip into complacency regarding what we are offering to our clients. It’s nice to have clients but if we are in it for the right reasons our #1 goal will be to make sure the client gets the results they are hoping for.
The process requires that we intentionally examine all aspects of our service to see that we are providing the results the client is after. Recently a colleague shared this thought, “People don’t buy coaching, they buy results”.
- A good coach isn’t out to ‘sell’ coaching. A good coach is out to see that the client gets the results they had hoped for (and more). Coaching is a powerful tool that can change a company virtually overnight when guided by a careful and skilled coach.
- A good coach will seek to understand the culture. They will spend enough time to gain an objective sense of what’s really happening.
- A good coach will help the client establish clear, measurable and specific goals for the coaching process that are in line with the organizations desired outcomes.
- A good coach will guide the client in developing clear initiatives to accomplish, both personally and corporately.
- A good coach will stay on top of the process so that the client doesn’t lose sight of their set initiatives. This is the work of a coach – keeping the client focused, on track and moving forward.
- A good coach will stay involved with the client – almost becoming part of The Team.
When we have concluded the coaching initiative or contract, the client should be able to say without hesitation that they got ‘more’ than they had thought possible from having us on the team – that the coaching experience truly did enable them to ‘keep their vision and dreams alive!’.
Optimizing Coorporate Team Results
Beyond the ‘Brick Wall’
All too often, executives and other team leaders come up against the proverbial ‘brick wall’ in trying to get team members to think and perform in line with what they’re paid for.
We give them clear expectations; we spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars, getting them the best training for our business and their specific job, we have monthly recognition meetings, we have ‘write ups’ and disciplinary procedures and we even withhold their performance increases.
Some of us even have one on one ‘heart to hearts’ and small group problem solving sessions. The performance picks up for a few weeks after each of these ‘events’ but most of the time it’s not long before we’re right back to the same ‘brick wall’.
The sad thing is that this pattern can go on for years and costs the company tremendous amounts of money and leaves the work environment in a continual state of uncertainty and executives and managers spending inordinate amounts of time putting out personnel ‘fires’ and retraining employees -which really isn’t what we’re getting paid for either.
The problem is that we’re never going to get the results we want until we change our tactics and address our people on a much deeper level.
When we focus on adding skills, procedures and discipline we’re focusing on the surface issues and we’ll never see the results we want over the long haul. The ‘touch point’ for real change and employee productivity is to address the unique hard wiring of our employees. This goes to the core motivational drivers of the individual. Once we are address the situation at this level, the employee will get on board virtually overnight. This allows us all to get ‘beyond the brick wall’ and get on with what we’re really being paid for.
Corporate Assessment Savvy
Most of us use assessments to help us understand ourselves and those we are working with. Most employers use one or more assessments in their hiring processes.
But are you getting the most out of your investment as an individual or a corporation? Many assessments are costly in the time it takes for the employee or prospective employee to take as well as the time and money it takes to train your HR personnel to interpret and interview around the assessment. Then there is the cost of the assessment itself – some are as much as $200 – $300 each.
Ask the right questions about your assessments –
Some of the most critical questions are . . .
- What are we really getting out of our investment? Usually you get a general picture of the person’s personality which is a product of his/her nurture, experience and training not a true picture of their core hard wiring.
- Does the assessment assure that we will be matching the person to the job and allow us to put the right person in the right seat a majority of the time?
- Is the assessment highly subjective (a long set of scenario based questions)? These types of questions are so subjective they allow for a broad range of ‘honest’ answers that make the person look great for just about any job?
- Is the assessment highly objective, being void of subjective scenarios?
- Is the assessment actually measuring what is critical for us to know in order to make a strong / positive hire that will guarantee a ‘fit’ for both the person and the company?
- Is it possible to use the assessment to evaluate and clarify every position in the company? This would allow you to match the person with the position with a high degree of accuracy.
These are important questions and millions of dollars and hours are spent trying to make good placements that honor both the individual and the company. Sadly, statistics show that turnover and employee satisfaction are issues that cost corporations of all sizes incredible amounts of time and money. (Not to mention the accelerated ageing of HR directors and department heads.)
Assessments that tell you ‘what a person should be’ are interesting but seldom helpful. The reason is because within any field or business there are numerous ‘types’ of individuals needed to make the team ‘work’. If you look at a car or a plane or even a human body, at first glance they seem to be a singular unit but we know that they are all made up of unique and specialized ‘parts’ and that when one of those parts is in the wrong place our not working efficiently it affects the productivity of the whole unit. It’s the same with a business.
What should your assessment tell you?
Bottom line is that a good assessment will reveal ‘who’ a person is. It will measure the ‘Innate Core Hard-wiring’ of an individual because it’s at that level that a person has to ‘fit’ the job and culture. We miss the mark when we hire on the basis of anything else and that costs us incredible amounts of time, money and corporate upheaval.
Understanding the unique ‘unchanging’ core hard-wiring of the individual is what will allow the business to place them in the right place doing the right thing.
At ExecuChart™ we use the powerful Core Values Index™. We are able to assess your entire workforce as well as your prospective hires so that you have the right people, in the right place, doing the right things and actually staying there and enjoying it.
Contact me at bob@execuchart.com
Culture- the overlooked factor in successful hiring
This week I was talking with the manager of an athletic club. The organization has four large and successful facilities. Recently one of the managers moved on and that left a ‘hole’ in the staff of four managers – one for each club.
At this time the three remaining managers are rotating into the vacated position and they are evaluating and processing the way things are done and trying new ideas. It’s been helpful and encouraging but when I asked how the ‘search’ was going for a replacement, after the usual discussion of qualifications, he mentioned the issue of ‘culture’.
What they have experienced over the years is what I call one of the ‘Overlooked Factors’ in successful hiring. They have come to realize that it is critical that new hires, especially those in leadership and management, fit not only with the skills and experiences and what we call the ‘innate hard-wiring’ requirements for the job, but that they are a good fit ‘culturally’.
Culture reflects the values and principles of the founders . . .
Every organization has its culture that is developed over the years and usually reflects the values and principles of the founders. If an employee doesn’t understand and embrace those values and principles it doesn’t really matter how technically qualified they are, they won’t fit in. This is true for people who have done the exact same job in a business in the same field. The Job Descriptions can be identical but if the culture is not the same the person will have significant difficulty fitting in and being satisfied. Most will eventually disrupt or fail or leave.
‘Teaching’ Culture . . .
There is a caveat here though. There are those that can be ‘taught’ the culture. The issue here becomes one of their ‘innate hardwiring’. Are they learners? Is the leadership committed to spending the time and effort to instill the values and principles that have made the business what it is? Occasionally these two concepts come together but it is seldom.
Some clues to Cultural success . . .
Recognize the power of culture in business.
Recognize that your company has a unique culture.
Learn to articulate what’s unique about your culture.
Be sure you understand the unique ‘innate hardwiring’ of each potential hire.
Understand what innate characteristics will enhance the willingness to learn and which will resist it.
Discuss your cultural values with each potential hire.
Optimizing Corporate Change . . .
We are living in a world where change is happening so fast we hardly have time to learn one system or app before the next one is on the market. One expensive/high-end piece of equipment or product can literally be out of date in less than 6 months. These changes are often costly to make and we have to learn how to integrate them in a matter of days.
CHANGE TAKES A TOLL . . .
But this environment of constant change takes its toll on more than our budgets. It is increasingly more difficult on the hearts and minds of our employees. Employers are seeing increasing rates of turnover and each turnover has far more cost attached to it than an empty seat to be filled. There has been a great deal of time and money spent to recruit, interview and then bring the employee up to speed regarding the culture of the company. There has been more time spent trying to help the employee fit his or her job description and then a good deal of time making changes to the job description so that the employee can finally settle in. Once those adjustments have been made there are two or three other employees who have to make adjustments to cover what’s left over. Often the employee is still unsettled and leaves without warning and we start the cycle all over again. There has got to be a better way!
In his national best seller Managing Transitions, consultant and author William Bridges brings some powerful principles to light for us to consider. He recognizes that adjusting to change and doing it quickly has to be an integral part of any organization. In regard to the employee he states . . .
. . . “employees in today’s organizations must do more than follow orders. People have to think for themselves, function effectively without close supervision, be creative, and go the extra mile for the customer. People have to bring their hearts and minds to work.”
Bridges goes on to give us insight into the dynamics of change and turns our focus to the period of time he calls the transition. His insights are critical but he makes the assumption that our employees are all capable of responding to transition and change in the same way. Even in the above quote he assumes that all our employees can come to the point where they can be creative and function effectively without close supervision.
At another point he states that at a certain point in the transition process, (what he calls ‘the neutral zone’), a company and the individual will either ‘compromise or lose a great opportunity’ if they aren’t ‘creative and develop into what they need to become and renew themselves’.
OPTIMIZE YOUR EMPLOYEES UNIQUENESS . . .
I believe Bridges is only partially correct. He is correct in thinking that “the company” needs to be creative and develop into what they need to become and renew themselves. But to put that kind of pressure on the individual employee is unrealistic and can result in the loss of good people from the team.
Current research has shown that each employee has a unique set of “Core Motivational Drivers” that must be understood and honored by the employer in order to bring the employee into a position where they can be a player as the company enters into that time of creative development and redefines itself.
These “Core Motivational Drivers” are unique and unchanging which means for example, to expect an employee who has very little creative ability to suddenly become creative because the company has to become creative is unrealistic and unwise.
OPTIMIZE PERSONAL SUCCESS TO OPTIMIZE CORPORATE CHANGE . . .
Lynn Taylor puts it this way in his book, “The Core Values Handbook” . . .
To the degree that a persons work is not aligned with their core motivational drivers, he will either: fail, disrupt the situation, force a change or leave.
It goes back to Maslow’s premise that each individual has a unique unchanging set of characteristics.
Regarding his book, PEAK, Chip Conley states . . .
œI attempted to bring Maslow’s conclusions and prescriptions for implementation into business organizations in the twenty-first century. It is my profound belief that by paying attention to man’s search for meaning and the impact of that personal pursuit of success, a great deal of momentum is added to business and personal lives.
The optimization of personal and corporate success is what we are all about at ExecuChart.
Our Vision
To see individuals and corporations achieve their highest and best level of relationship and productivity.