Recap from blog 1
Consider this
You are a small to medium enterprise (SME) and an employee you hired 12 months ago is not working out. You have made that difficult decision and will need to let them go.
You ask yourself: What happened? They were so perfect at interview and in the first 3 months. Conversations since then have been particularly challenging. How did I miss this?
Does this scenario sound familiar? Have you been here before? Verity Consulting is here to help you make sense of the potential points of failure along the employment lifecycle.
Some food for thought as you reflect upon your own people management challenges.
There are 4 points at which the above scenario could have been avoided.
- Pre-employment
- Employment and Onboarding
- Managing and Developing Employees
- Employment Separation
Another area of the employment lifecycle that can be a source of people management challenge is in Managing and Developing Employees
Employees respond to feedback. In the absence of feedback or validation of their performance, particularly in the early phase of an employees may feel insecure in their roles.
Providing feedback is not the old-style formats of time-consuming templated performance reviews. These are no longer appropriate to be conducted annually. Feedback needs to be regular, agile and is most effective when given as close as possible to the employee performing an action or task that warrants feedback.
Gone are the days of the annual performance appraisal reviews. Given the pace at which SMEs now operate, there is no place for weeks of time spent labouring over performance appraisal reviews that deliver little value or benefit to either the business or the employee. They are clunky; were not effective in the past and definitely not a solution for lean businesses responding to rapid change on a quarterly basis.
Tip: Create a rhythm for communication and feedback. Feedback is a process – not a form. Don’t overbake it. Build it in – rather than bolt it on the side. Investment in your human capital (your employees) deserves the same level of attention as the investment in your physical and financial capital.
Portfolio creep — As businesses grow, be clear about new role accountabilities and expectations for employees. Ensure agreement is reached.
Invest time in development discussions – employees invest about 40 hours of their time to help grow your business. Employee loyalty can be difficult to manage. Critical to retention of good staff is a sense of value and being satisfied there is sufficient ‘what’s in it for me’. Plan for professional development of staff. Professional development can take many forms— experience, exposure and education (in this order). Give them experience – let them lead a piece of work. Give them exposure – allow them to shadow managers if they aspire to become a manager. Send them to conferences or training courses- if capability uplift is required.
For advice on a managing and developing employees successfully, contact Verity Consulting
Join us next week for Part 4 of our 4 blog series
