When it comes to hiring the right people, many companies falter. In fact, a recent study conducted by the international consulting firm Deloitte found that 34 percent of business executives indicated their human resources departments and talent management departments were performing at minimum capabilities, or worse. How can you attract and retain top talent and create a productive and performance driven work culture?
1. Know Who to Hire
Finding the right person to fill a particular position requires you to look both at soft and hard skills. It is important to have a clear understanding of the level of competence, capability, and capacity you are looking for in a new hire. In a small business, you need someone who is organized, flexible, resourceful, and a self-starter since they may need to drive their own deadlines and take on a variety of tasks and functions. You want to consider your organization’s values and goals to identify how you can best fill a role. We consider the following traits:
- Character – People need to be trustworthy and share your organization’s values and beliefs. They should possess a high level of integrity.
- Creativity – Creative thinking skills are becoming more and more valuable in the workplace – whether for brainstorming or branding.
- Communication skills – Relationships thrive with the right communication. You want someone who can communicate effectively with your staff and clients.
- Coach-ability – Employees should be interested in personal and professional development. You want people on your team who can take feedback and learn from mistakes.
- Collaborative – The ability to work effectively with others is of the utmost importance in a team environment.
- Client-focused – Your employees need to understand the value of your clients and committed to service excellence.
2. Focus on Development
Once you’ve identified your ideal applicant, you now have the chance to curate his or her professional development and encourage personal growth. Training and development is an important part of retaining top talent and of the utmost importance if you want to create a sustainable business. Develop an approach that balances individual and team training and engages staff individually in development programs that take their, as well as your, goals into account. With this approach, your workforce will appreciate the effort you make to improve their skills and create an actionable career path.
3. Measure ROA
At The Covenant Group, we facilitate a unique process – the ROA Process – to help you identify the responsibilities, objectives, and activities of each role inside your organization in order to improve the productivity of your team, drive results, and achieve your overall goals. This tool is very useful for actively identifying your employees’ capabilities and allows the organization as a whole to understand what role each team member plays and how resources are allocated. Developing responsibility charts opens up communication between multiple levels and departments with the objective of reducing ambiguity and dysfunction in the workplace. How? If each stakeholder knows what’s expected, there’s a diminished likelihood that employees will perform duplicate work or that a specific function will be ignored altogether. The ROA also facilitates dialogue around career development objectives, helping employees articulate their professional development goals and establish a realistic timeline for them to seize opportunities to grow.
To learn more about The Covenant Group’s ROA process, email us.
