There are many components that can be included in your overall business strategy. Along with departments like IT, Sales & Marketing, Development, Operations and Finance, your people management strategy must also be a key player.
So what do you expect from your employees? How will they help you reach your organizations goals? Is everyone meeting expectations? Do you have the right people in the right positions to keep your business moving forward? How do your employees make the greatest impact in your organization?
Here are 5 people management strategies to incorporate in your organizations business strategy:
Recruitment & Selection: It all starts with hiring the right person for the job. It is critical to understand what positions you will need in your organization in the year to come. While you cannot predict all of your needs, a staffing forecast can help you in proper planning for organizational growth.
Once you have outlined the positions you will need to fill then you will need a targeted recruiting plan which includes identifying responsibilities, knowledge, skills, core competencies and cultural fit for your ideal employee. Use creative recruiting sources to target that individual including social media as an outlet to find top talent. An interview process that allows you the company and the candidate to learn as much about each other is important to making sure it is a good fit.
Training & Development: Your employees are your greatest asset. Continual development of your team is important, whether succession planning or planning for growth. Use your people management strategy to identify high potential leaders and employees identifying training opportunities to enhance their performance. You should also incorporate annual compliance training, tuition reimbursement options, and a company reading list.
This is a great time to determine if these programs will be internal by using consultants & internal subject matter experts or external through seminars or continuing education. A great training and development plan does not have to break the bank. A carefully thought out and well executed plan can contribute to the overall success of the company without breaking the bank.
Performance Management: The measurement of each person’s performance is necessary to ensure that your team is meeting expectations. It also allows for feedback, gives your employees opportunities to improve and also addressing performance issues when an employee is not meeting expectations. Some people prefer to leave performance management to the annual evaluation. I recommend a yearlong performance management process that not only rewards high performers and manage problem performers but also ties compensation increases and bonuses to individual and company performance.
As you map out the coming year, include not only the annual performance evaluation but also a more frequent check in with employees. If you have problem performers then put them on an Individual Development Plan and monitor them more frequently. It is an unfortunate part of performance management, but it you have a problem performer who has been given the opportunity and tools to improve and has not then this person probably is not a good fit. Don’t let problem performers linger too long; it could drain the rest of your team and create problems among your employees.
Employee Engagement: The best way to have your finger on the pulse of your team is to measure their satisfaction. Now this is a tricky endeavor to take on. When conducting an employee satisfaction survey you want to first make sure the questions are carefully crafted to get insights on the topics that you find critical to your organization. Once you have created the survey then you should give your employees an anonymous way to provide their feedback so they feel comfortable being honest about their feelings. This may open them up to providing candidate feedback so it is important to properly handle the feedback.
Once you have the feedback it should be put into a deliverable form so the leadership team can begin synthesizing the data, conducting feedback session with their employees and finally putting together an action plan to address top dissatisfiers. Share the results along with the action plan with your team and most importantly execute the plan. Incorporate year round activities to keep morale high and continue to address dissastifiers and celebrate the things that employees love about their jobs.
Rewards & Recognition: Demonstrating your employees value and showing your appreciation for the contributions that they make to the company can go a long way in boosting morale and having a happy workplace. This is important for many reasons. One thing to note is that studies have shown that happy employees are more productive, they are more engaged and they provide a higher level of service to your customers. A study from the University of Missouri has found that companies that attend to employee satisfaction can improve internal moral, prevent turnover, and enhance customer satisfaction — including repurchase intentions. (Source)
Your reward and recognition program similar to training and development does not have to cost you a lot of money. Plan out the things that you want to celebrate or reward and frequency. A manager may get an allotment small dollar amount gift cards for on the spot recognition. Acknowledging anniversaries and birthdays can also be incorporated. Fun Fridays, refreshments in the break room, end of year bonuses are just a few examples. This is a great place to be creative, have fun and most importantly say thank you!
This is the time of year that I begin to discuss these topics within our organization and challenge you to do the same in yours. The aforementioned are all suggestions but each company is going to have plan elements unique to their organization and budget. Regardless of what components make up a successful people management strategy for your company it is going to be critical to your organization’s success that you incorporate a people management strategy into your overall business strategy
