Everybody wants an exceptional workforce. We all want our organisations to be capable of delivering spectacular results, but how do we achieve that? Well, it’s not simple. To truly excel, your organisation needs to integrate good practices across its entirety.
Although there’s no easy way to describe every practice, and it varies between organisations, I do have a few tips which might help you along the way. The list is not exhaustive, but it’s a great place to start:
1. Understand Your Reward Strategy
One of the primary things that leads to an exceptional workforce is exceptional people. And while there are a great many things that help attract and retain the right people, perhaps the most effective is your reward strategy.
Reward strategies are not something I can explain in a few hundred words, but I’ll point out the basic things you should consider. Think about whether you lag or lead the market salary, but not just at the point of hire. Think about how you lag or lead the market salary one, two or five years after an employee is hired.
Some positions and organisations benefit from a reasonable attrition rate, and (to a degree) you can use a policy that lags the market after hire to increase that attrition. Conversely a policy that leads the market after hire works to retain staff and reduce attrition.
Some other important aspects of reward strategies to consider are performance based pay, and employee benefits. These commonly overlooked factors can have a huge impact on workforce performance.
2. Turn Your Unskilled Workers Into Skilled Workers
In a recent article I wrote about making unskilled workers the coal face of your organisational improvement effort. The idea is simple. In most organisations there are a great number of staff that are “dead weight”. I don’t mean that in a mean or condescending way, just that they perform base level tasks, but aren’t called on (or even allowed) to contribute anything else. Instead of a large number of that type of worker, increase the autonomy of those positions and make them responsible for improving the processes.
Sure, it might cost you more, but rather than positions representing “dead weight”, you’ll have positions which are most valuable to your organisation. A great example of this can be seem in the television show “Undercover Boss”. Quite often, unskilled staff have a great deal of solutions and improvements to their immediate work area. After all, they have the most knowledge in their area.
3. Invest in a Succession Planning System
If you spend a great deal of time and money attracting and retaining exceptional staff, it also makes sense to plan for their eventual departure. Even the most dedicated employee will leave your organisation eventually, and when they do, you want to ensure somebody is ready to step in.
Succession planning may not be something you want to do for every position, but you should consider it for every management position within your organisation. It takes considerable time and preparation to develop managers, even at the front line level.
Depending on your organisation, you might find succession planning is useful for professional positions, such as engineers and accountants. This is particularly helpful in areas of skill shortage. It provides you a way to develop your own staff, and be prepared for the future.
4. Make Your Staff Accountable
There are too many organisations in which staff are not accountable for their actions or performance. They can meander along, performing duties however they choose, with relatively little consequence. In that type of environment, the individual work ethic can be the most powerful driver of personal performance.
Instead, make your staff fully accountable for work and results under their direct control. Make it clear to all staff that they are accountable, and the boundaries of that accountability. Don’t forget to performance manage them based on that accountability, or it will all be for naught.
This doesn’t apply only to managers, nor only to front line staff. Every position within your organisation has to be accountable for something. If the position has no accountabilities, ask yourself why it really exists.
5. Empower the Workers
If you intend to make your staff accountable, as I mentioned above, it’s only fair that you empower them. I know it’s a horrible cliché, and I tend to avoid it, but in this case it fits.
Think about a staff member who may be accountable for quality of widgets he or she produces. The employee has identified an issue with the manufacturing process, but is not permitted to change the process. It’s not appropriate for the member to be fully accountable, because they are not fully empowered to ensure the result.
Wherever you can, empower your workers to the maximum extent. Don’t be afraid that they won’t perform or will make poor choices. Sure, it might happen, but mistakes lead to improvement and you’ll benefit from an engaged and empowered workforce.
Do you have tips for improving the performance of your workforce? What works for you? Feel free to contact me and let me know, or leave me a comment below.