Your business is not just about your products or the services you offer. Its long-term success depends on the people that work hard to bring your business goals and activities to fruition.
The most successful companies are those that value their staff and what they bring to the table. Conversely, businesses that regard employees as disposable and interchangeable often suffer high turnover rates and are doomed to mediocrity or worse.
Finding the right people for the job
So, who are the right people anyway? Well clearly they are the ones whose skill-sets, experience and potential are ideally matched to the role they will perform, but there’s something more than that. The right people are the ones who believe in your company, its products and what it is trying to do in both the short and long term.
They are the people who will approach their job with dedication and passion through good times and bad times; the people who have respect for the structures and established practices of the business but aren’t afraid to think for themselves and innovate where possible.
Training and experience can help people to shape themselves and develop their skills in the workplace, but it can never turn an assortment of bad eggs into a good omelette. Therefore it’s essential to hire the right people from the start, and this takes effort and dedication.
Applications and CVs are good for painting an initial picture of a job applicant and getting an idea of what experience they have, but it is the interview process where you really get to know what they’re all about.
Therefore, to find the right people, you must invest time and effort in developing a process for determining who will carry the company forward and who will hold it back.
Attracting and keeping hold of star players
It’s important to remember, though, it’s not all about the applicant. In order to hire the right people, you must attract them to work for you. The best way to do this is by fostering a working culture which is based on respect, and treats each worker as a unique individual rather than a payroll number.
The best people want to be part of something. They want the chance to excel in their career and fulfil their potential, but they also want to feel as though they are part of a team, a concerted effort towards greatness. These are the people who will stick with your company through thick and thin, rejecting opportunities to jump ship when things are less rosy or they get a better offer.
If you want people to work hard and care about the company, it stands to reason that you should be loyal to them in return and reward them appropriately. Promotion prospects, structured pay-rises, bonuses and other perks all have an important part to play in not only persuading the right people to come and work for you, but enticing them to stay for the long haul.
