Getting the Most out of your Employees!

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR CORE EMPLOYEES

It has been made absolutely clear to all of us that a successful talent management program is the number one demand faced by senior management. This is not only true today, but good talent management will be more difficult in tomorrow’s workplace. The competitive pressures of globalization, outsourcing, the aging workforce, demographic shifts, generational differences and work/life balance issues will only become greater.

We are spending more of our time and energy addressing this issue. We develop succession planning systems for our high-potential employees to better identify and plan for their growth and development. We are quicker to terminate or shuffle those employees who are not performing well to make room for our up-and-comers. Indeed, our high-potential and poor employees take up most of our effort in managing personnel.

High potential employees or “A” players demand and receive constant attention. Their concerns about career growth and promotion, performance feedback, and their seemingly constant demand to be noticed is a time-consuming experience for bosses and HR. Many bosses initially find mentoring A players to be satisfying, because most of them are top players themselves. Bosses see a lot of those attributes which made themselves successful in this group of employees. Given the pressure on their time, they often decide to focus their mentoring on the employees who will benefit them and the company the most.

Because of legal ramifications, management and HR also have to devote a lot of effort and care to handling poor performing or “C” employees. Behind the scenes performance discussions, making sure that solid documentation exists, conducting appropriate counseling sessions and the actual termination are draining. Moreover, filling any vacancy and the ramp up time that goes with it also take a considerable amount of energy and time.

Some studies estimate that bosses and HR can spend up to 75% of their time that is not devoted to administrative duties dealing with A and C employees. Yet these two groups of employees usually make up only about 30% of the workforce with A’s consisting of about 20% and C’s 10%. Employee problems seem to gravitate among these categories of employees. In fact, how often have we seen new bosses get “rid of the bad managers/employees and replace them with the excellent ones” and consider their reorganization efforts all but done?

No wonder executives and HR personnel can’t give the third unit of employees the time and attention that is needed. Yet these “B” employees usually constitute about 70% of all company personnel. Their development and mentoring often go wanting. An occasional structured training or formalized course usually makes up their formal training. There is not enough transitional or cross training assignments to give B employees since companies have to run leaner because of global competition. The few ones that do exist go to the A players. And bosses and HR do not have the time, energy or inclination to devote to mentoring these middle level employees.

Yet we often forget that this middle group of employees brings several important advantages with them. B employees are generally not as outwardly demanding of time and attention as are other personnel. These solid citizens differ from the A group in that they tend to pursue organizational goals over personal ones because they value stability both for themselves and for the company. Because they are not promoted as quickly, they build up a greater degree of institutional knowledge which makes them more valuable in times of organizational transitions. And because of this greater degree of stability, they are able to take a longer-term perspective to situations and problems.

IT IS NOT AN OVERSTATEMENT TO SAY THAT B PLAYERS ARE THE HEART AND SOUL OF ANY ORGANIZATION. IF THEY ARE MEDIOCRE, THE COMPANY WILL BE MEDIOCRE. IF THEY ARE HIGH PERFORMERS, THE FIRM WILL BE ONE AS WELL. THE A GROUP WILL NEVER MAKE UP FOR THE MARGINAL PERFORMANCE OF A GROUP THAT CONSTITUTES 70% OF THE WORKFORCE.

Yet this core group often exhibits a greater patience with career advancement and development such that managers often overlook them. Given the constant demands of the other two groups, administrative tasks and planning/strategic requirements, bosses and HR will always be hard pressed to provide the B group with the resources that are needed. There often does not seem to be enough time, money, energy and opportunity to ensure their careful and systematic development into excellent performers. This core group of employees will not be provided with the same level of job rotation, individualized coaching and customized structural training that high-potential employees receive.

Yet, turnover among this core group of employees is rising. Companies are struggling to retain enough B level professionals to service existing clients, let alone acquire new ones. B professionals, like those in the A group see themselves as free agents, and stay only until a better offer comes along. One of the biggest reasons why the core employees leave is dissatisfaction with their development. They do not believe that their company really cares enough about them to make appropriate investments, especially when they see what the high potential employees receive.

Constructive steps can be taken to minimize this problem. A critical component is to offer core employees some meaningful level of one-on-one mentoring/coaching and customized training to meet their individualized developmental needs. It is important that these efforts are seen as being relevant to the employees’ current challenges and probable future work assignments. The coaching and structured training has to be tailored to the uniqueness of the role that the B employee must play in the success of the company: one that is critical even though none will likely be promoted to executive management. Mid-level skills and competencies must be stressed in a manner that does not come across as canned or off-the-shelf.