Time for a Recession Review of Employees' Skills and Abilities?
Adversity provides opportunity, and certainly the business climate has seen its share of adversity in 2009. Back in May we talked about tips to counter employee anxiety. Now we’re taking that advice a step further and suggesting that you take advantage of the opportunities provided by the economic crisis to refocus on the skills and abilities of your key leaders and most successful employees. Ask them which of the skills that have made them successful thus far best fit the current economic climate? Which do not?
Then, make sure that your talent management strategy fits both your organizational strategy and the strengths of your key people. Only when you know the types of skills that strategically align with your organization’s style can you take action to upgrade employees’ job skills to fit the current economic environment.
Strategic styles. There are three organizational strategic styles, according to Edward L. Gubman, author of The Talent Solution:
- Product-based organizations. These are the innovative, leading-edge companies; they remove barriers to creativity.
- Operations-based organizations. These companies provide consistent service and reliable products. Advancement is performance-driven, and the organizations have a lot of structure and often many rules.
- Customer-based organizations. Relationships are very important to these companies. Employees are encouraged to solve problems and feel good about doing so.
Align your employees’ job skills with the organizational strategy. The key to the taking advantage of the right employee skills is to identify and support people whose skills and abilities fit very well into the company's particular management style. This is true because each strategic style has an impact on the character of the company; each style demands different things from its employees through the culture, the competencies needed to succeed, or the commitment it requires from them.
- Product-based organization employees. These employees are risk-takers who are flexible and who can handle constant change. You'll want a diverse employee pool, but you won't have to worry about whether the employees will get along. Hire for smart. Less organizational structure is required; a more fluid structure seems to work. Look for and encourage autonomy, flexibility, creativity, and risk-taking. HR should stay in the background.
- Operations-based organization employees. This is a very stable culture where levels of control and well-defined processes are needed for efficiency. Within that culture there is a team orientation, so employees need to be able to work within structure yet also within a team environment.
- Customer-based organization employees. This culture requires that employees have good communication skills, a tolerance for ambiguity and be always available to help. Employees must have a very deep commitment to the customer-service orientation.
HR should work to bring alignment between strategy and people As such, HR needs to develop an appropriate workforce strategy for the particular kind of business, and identify and nurture the skills and abilities that support the organization’s strategy.
- In product-based companies, HR must seek out individuals who are highly intelligent, creative, self-aware, and self motivated. The strategic role of HR is to remove barriers to creativity and create a flexible environment in which risk-taking can thrive.
- Operations-based companies excel if they have charismatic leaders to motivate the team. In addition to identifying charismatic leaders, you want to nurture employees who have the capacity to self-regulate, who are trustworthy and who conscientiously take responsibility for performance. Also important are good group working skills: Being good at working with others leads to building key relationships, working with others toward shared goals and creating team capabilities.
- Customer-based organizations need people with a service mindset. You may not hire the best customer service employees, but you can develop them and teach them the company values and socialize them. Look for and develop empathy: Being aware of the feelings, needs and concerns of others improves understanding others and better serving customer needs. Rely on values to shape the culture and its message. Promote service as the highest order of activity.
Source: Adapted from CCH HR Practices Guide ¶280 and ¶674, a product of Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
<p>HR works to bring alignment between strategy and people. Turn this economic crisis into opportunities for refocusing on the skills and abilities of your key leaders and most successful employees.</p>
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