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Hiring, Firing and Retention ... Build Great Teams!

10 Tips For Companies That Truly Value The Impact Of Their People

Hiring quote by David OgilvieBusinesses will often talk about the importance of their people, they will say things like "Our people are our greatest asset", or "It's our people that make the difference" and similar statements. The thing is that very often companies operate very differently than you might expect from reading their values statements. They keep low performers. They have people with attitude problems. They fail to retain the "high flyers". They demotivate their staff. They will make classic business errors, that will come back to haunt them. "Let us cultivate our garden." Voltaire In the knowledge economy it really IS the people that make the difference. So every company needs to find the best people, train the best people and retain the best people if they really want to become, or even to remain as, a great company. Here are 10 Tips for Companies Who REALLY Believe Their Values Statements about People:
  1. Hire slow, fire fast is old school... you need to GRAB talent when you find it.
  2. The global competition for talent is heating up, you need to have a plan for finding your talent.
  3. The people in the staffing industry are the professionals, whose core business is finding talent... use them.
  4. Develop and enhance your hiring process to be efficient (fast), complete and attractive for talent.
  5. Invest in your people. Continuous learning should be a joint employer/employee commitment.
  6. Do not accept under performance. Under performers hurt your brand and belie your commitment to having great people.
  7. Make your people accountable... if they are who you need them to be, they will step up.
  8. Always be willing to upgrade. People are responsible for their own destiny, if you have under-performers and you can replace them with top performers the positive impact can be huge!
  9. Get rid of the "disturbers"! No one needs the "drama people", the "negative influencers" or the "toxic employees" ... even if they are top performers! Everyone is happy when they leave.
  10. Develop a culture that attracts great talent and nurtures them through their careers and you are well on your way to being a great company.
I DO NOT advocate a "cut throat" environment that eliminates the bottom x% of staff. I DO advocate an environment that expects a certain level of performance, that is willing to invest in people to help them get there but is quick to recognize when people are in the wrong place. "You put together the best team that you can with the players you've got, and replace those who aren't good enough." Robert Crandall People are in the wrong place for many reasons, it could be the "Peter principle" at play, they might have lost their motivation for the job, they might just not be good at the job. Whatever the reason it does nobody any favors to keep under-performing people doing a job. "There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody, by spending his money somewhere else." Sam Walton ----------------------------------------------- Kevin Dee is founder of Eagle (a Professional Staffing Company) Want to know where Canada's hot jobs are? Visit the Eagle Job Centre! Have you tried Eagle's (very cost effective) VirtualRecruiter service? -----------------------------------------------