Employee Management for the 21st Century

The world of work is evolving faster than anyone could have imagined a generation ago…and probably more dramatically than those of us immersed in it even realize. The amount of knowledge doubles every five years. This knowledge-based economy presents many challenges to include finding, placing and retaining the best people.

In the past, an organization’s value was in hard goods. Value could be measured in inventory and equipment – which is easy to control, easy to measure and easy to identify. And when an employee left you knew your equipment was still bolted to the factory floor.

Employee Retention

If an employee leaves today, you’ve lost something. But, what have you lost? You can think about it in terms of titles: manager, sales person, executive, receptionist, machinist, and floor supervisor. Titles don’t serve much purpose except to perhaps give heading to the list of tasks that an employee performs in your particular organization. One organization’s administrative assistant might be another organization’s manager.

The next challenge comes when filling an open position. Is the person a good match for the organization? How do they fit into the organization and their job in specific? Are they suited to the position? Is there an advancement track they can follow? Will they bring value to the organization?

Perhaps the bigger challenge comes in retaining the talent you already have. Turnover is costly so it’s crucial for us to keep the good people in our organizations.

A recent Business Week article indicates the cost of losing a typical worker at $50,000.

Why Employees Leave

Why do people leave? In a recent HR practitioner session it was noted that many people said they were leaving for increased compensation, better benefits, or stock options. But after further evaluation many indicated that even though the benefits and salary were better they didn’t really want to leave. Many times they felt like they had to leave because they were not compatible with their boss or there was no plan (training, mentoring and coaching) for advancement in the old organization.

Additionally, studies indicate that within 12 months, 35% of new hires will leave the company due to dissatisfaction with company mentoring procedures and another 41% leave because they are dissatisfied with the company’s training. It turns out that training, coaching, and mentoring is far more important than we traditionally give them credit for especially when calculating costs and ROI.

We are embarking on the development of the last great frontier for gaining a competitive edge-the human brain. This is why the Emotional Intelligence (EQ) movement has gained such momentum. One of the best ways to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage is to help people better understand and manage their own emotions as well as understand the emotions of others (EQ). This single factor can contribute up to 85% of a person’s success.

COREMAP Tool

There is now a scientifically backed tool that provides a more up-to date approach to job fit and Emotional Intelligence. The COREMAP profile provides employers the tools that can accurately identify an individual’s true nature leading to increased job fit and ultimately retention.

Fact: The CORE instrument has a proven track record for identifying how employees perceive themselves, how they are currently functioning and how effectively they are using both reported and unreported personality/behavior traits.
Significance: 86% of the time, a person’s self perception does not align with reality making it difficult to determine whether a business owner is hiring the right person for the job based on what the recruit is reporting on a typical assessment. CORE reveals their true nature, including their unreported performance attributes, so hiring smart is easy.

COREMAP FAQs

Fact: CORE is the only multi-dimensional assessment to accurately measure an entrepreneur’s, an employee’s, and a recruit’s emotional quotient (EQ) level.

Significance: EQ is the number one predictor of success – 85% – so identifying the typical EQ levels can be exceptionally helpful.

Fact: A recent Herman Trends Report noted that 50-80% of workers are in jobs for which their personality and interests really aren’t well matched. In fact, eight out of 10 employees are miscast. Understandably, they feel they have never had the chance to reveal the best of themselves. Well-placed and well-trained employees are as much as 400% more effective (productive) than those who are not.
Significance: COREMAP’s ability to identify specific attributes that predict success for particular jobs makes it easy to match a particular person with the job (role) best suited for them. Clearly, this has a significant impact on operational productivity and enterprise profitability.

Fact: Wrong choices regularly cost organizations millions of dollars on employees who walk out because they are disengaged, under-performing, and/or placed in the wrong job.
Significance: CORE assures smart hiring choices that can save millions of dollars and protect the foundational DNA (Emotional Intelligence) of employees to insure a greater probability for job fit and satisfaction.

C. Mahalingam, Senior VP-HR, Symphony Services Corporation shares in an interview, “Just two years ago it was critical to have satisfied employees, today it is imperative to have happy employees, who love their jobs.” Elaborating he adds, “studies have revealed that globally only 20 per cent of the employees in an organization are actively engaged and the remaining 80 per cent are either disengaged or not engaged”.

So what will create engagement? People remain engaged when they’re satisfied and experience open communication and trust with their immediate supervisors. They excel when they believe that they’ve got longer-term opportunities available to them and are valued and respected for who they are and what they do well.

What is your organization doing to increase your employee’s emotional intelligence? Continuous learning and development is critical in today’s world. If you don’t enable learning and development opportunities for employees, those with the greatest potential will find someone who does.

Questions?

Contact Marc Schwartz at SpectraComm.