Getting it right is like striking gold!
Getting it right is like striking gold!
Some executives in the mining industry still don’t get this. Well it needs to be said that they are looking more and more like dinosaurs - big old .....and sometimes wise looking, but often slow moving and sometime heartless, waiting for the next ice-age to ruin their business!
I read a terrific article recently from the “great place to work institute”. They previewed two companies that had won awards for the 2007 “Best small to medium companies to work for in America.” One company mines and the manufactures silica sand and other aggregates. The other company is what we would call an EPCM company that deals with construction of commercial buildings. The full article can be found via the “Great Place To Work Institute”. www.greatplacetowork.com
In summary both companies promote and live, the imperative that “our people are our priority”
It’s now undeniable that the biggest threat to your business success going forward is your ability to attract and retain the right people. If you’re interested in tackling this threat head-on
then consider how you might integrate some of these ideals into your company.
Ownership – in 10 years will companies be looking at their staff and realising that “equity is king?” I suspect so. In terms of financial rewards, tt used to be cash when to came to retaining key people but the best and smartest people are all quite capable of going out and starting their own small business. So as the competition for Talent continues to intensify, the smart companies will be designing employee equity programs that present viable alternative to the employee quiting to do their own thing. The challenge here though is that the program has to deliver something meaning-full.
Collaboration – competition is what you do with people outside your company’s walls. Any businesses that continues to believe that internal competition is a core plank on which to build motivation is doomed. Business is tough, really tough – using some of your available reserves of emotional energy fighting amongst yourselves, makes no sense.
Trust – as the concept of open and continuous feedback, continues to develop, people must feel that the environment they are in is SAFE. They need to feel OK to give an opinion without fear of being made to look silly.
Learning – finding new staff, training and inducting them and then (often demoralising-ly) doing it all again as you lose them represents a massive cost. Despite all this, this wasted money is just the tip of the iceberg. The BIG issue is the opportunity loss that results for key executives who have to divert resources that would otherwise be spent creating new opportunities or developing new projects. This issue will sink some companies.
Learning – gives people a sense of personal progress.
Personal progress – increases promotion from within.
Promotion from within – saves on external recruitment and re-training and
It demonstrates to junior staff that there is a “pathway”.
Learning directly reduces the more costly external hires.
Balance – if you have someone coming in to work every day at 5.30am and going home at 6.30pm, as a boss, the worse thing you can be doing is putting them up on a pedestal for a hero award. Some people need to be taught how to “get a life” and ensure they are working so to live, not living to work.
Is all of this easy? No way!
Is any of it short term? On masse no way - these are medium term programs!
But it IS the way of the future... and I would encourage you to do the easier things tomorrow, but also make plans to start on the others, as early in the New Year as you can find someone to help you!
It will pay.