Viva La Revolution! The 5 C’s To Recruit, Engage And Retain In A Post Industrial World

By Author: Kim786
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Viva La Revolution! The war for talent is over and talent has won. And the companies who don’t recognise this and significantly change the structures and processes they use to hire and retain staff will lose. Not only will they lose human capital. They are also in danger of losing everything from market share to their status as a going concern.

How has talent won? Look at the demographics. There have simply are not been enough people born over the last 20 – 30 years to take the place of those Baby Boomers who are now beginning to retire in significant numbers.

This, along with technology and globalisation combine to create a skills shortage, culminating in a predicted number of unfilled jobs to reach millions to tens of millions (depending upon the country) by 2020.

So how do both talent and companies win? By joining Post Industrial Revolution Revolution.

What is the Post Industrial Revolution Revolution?

First a look back. The Industrial Revolution brought about new ways of managing the labour force. Both Blue and White Collar workers carried out very specific, repetitive ...
... tasks in exchange for wages.

White Collar Workers may have traded brain instead of brawn for their paycheck, but the typical office was run much like the factory floor, with designated start and stop times, prescribed breaks, very detailed job descriptions and little room for creativity and innovation.

This worked well for 200 years. But the 1960’s ushered in the Post Industrial Revolution, an age characterised by non-tangible yet valuable services heavily reliant on technology and dependent on innovation and creativity.

Fortunately, technology and globalisation have automated or outsourced most mundane, repetitive tasks, freeing our staff up to do the more innovative and strategic work required in the Post Industrial Age - which our staff relishes. Unfortunately, the structures and processes that most companies use to manage their staff still harken back to the Industrial era.

Do you see the disconnect?

And this is costing our companies millions of dollars per year. Both in increased employee turnover and in lost productivity from up to 80% of our work force being dis-engaged.

What is the solution? A Post Industrial Revolution!

How to Stage a Post Industrial Revolution Revolution

The ‘Five C’s’ of a Post Industrial Revolution workplace are:

•Hire Correctly
•Classify and manage appropriately
•Compensate fairly
•Use Currencies of Choice to structure a Commercially Autonomous work environment
•Communicate with FOCUS

Below is a summary of each of these practices.

Hire Correctly

The key to hiring the right people is to base your decisions 80% on cultural fit and 20% on skills fit. Skills can be taught, but attitudes, work style and values cannot.

It’s also essential for hiring managers to learn how to interview effectively, and in a way that gives you the information needed to make good hiring decisions. Because unlike the stock market, when it comes to potential job candidates, past performance is indicative of future results. Proper interview questions should be answered with past examples of how the candidate actually dealt with a scenario, which can later be reference checked.

Classify and manage appropriately

The first step to managing your Critical People is to determine who they are. Critical People can be obvious - the real superstars who consistently under-promise and over-deliver. They can also be the not-so-obvious “sleepers”: those quiet achievers, or the ones who hold a great deal of corporate knowledge.

These are the people you should be spending 80% of your time with. Unfortunately, most managers spend that amount of time with their ‘Squeaky Wheels’. These underperformers and demotivators should instead be dealt with quickly by training, motivating or moving them.

Not only does this help your most productive staff become even more productive and valuable to you as a manager, it also frees up your time and reduces your stress levels.

Compensate fairly

Remuneration and incentives can be tricky, but a number of studies conclude that it doesn’t have to be. Ultimately, employees need to feel as though they are paid fairly, consistently and in a manner they can rely on. Full stop.

Currencies of choice

Once someone feels they are being paid adequately, companies can then use the “currencies of choice” most valued by the workforce. Daniel Pink, researcher and author of Drive, says these are:
•Autonomy – the ability to direct your own work
•Mastery – the ability to master what you’re good at, and
•Purpose - the opportunity to do meaningful work

Communicate with FOCUS

FOCUS is an acronym that describes best practice leadership communication. It stands for Frequency, Job Objectives, Career Development, Underlying Motivators and Strengths.

Frequency. Most companies sit down formally with their staff only once or twice per year for the dreaded performance reviews. Increasing formal communication to at least once per month and informal communication to weekly, if not daily will significantly increase employee engagement and company productivity.

But it’s not just the frequency of communication that’s important. It’s also the content.

Communication between staff and managers should revolve around the following:
•Job Objectives - what are they responsible for doing and how are they meeting their KPI’s?
•Career development - both a vertical career path as well as horizontal learning and development opportunities,
•Underlying motivators of autonomy, mastery and purpose, and
•Strengths – those innate abilities that make them unique and make them good at what they do.

Structure communication around deliverables and then offer coaching, advice, assistance and resources for their career development, underlying motivators and strengths and you will truly have an engaged and productive workforce.

Making it happen

The process of changing the way you hire and manage people may seem daunting at first, but experience shows that taking this step by step, you can make significant changes within 6 - 12 months. The result will be a lifetime of more engaged, happier and more productive staff as well as more free time, less stress and better job satisfaction for yourself as a manager.

Kim Seeling Smith is a Sydney based, international consultant on Employee Recruitment, Engagement and Retention as well as Career Management after originally training as a CPA and Management Consultant with KPMG and spending 15 years as a recruiter in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Kim is a co-author (along with Brian Tracy and others) of the book 101 Great Ways to Enhance Your Career available on Amazon.com. www.KimSeelingSmith.com

Please feel free to use this article in whole or in part as long as you quote the author and reference www.KimSeelingSmith.com.