January 16, 2017
To succeed in business, it is important for us to identify what our assets are and capitalise on them, and one of our most crucial assets is human resources.
The costs of losing valuable people in the company is more than monetary. It is thus very urgent for us to continuously make sure that our workforce is satisfied, motivated, and interested in their work. Otherwise we run the risk of losing talented and loyal employees whose contribution to the company cannot be measured. But how do we do this?
Finding out the basics
Most people believe that financial rewards are enough to make employees stay but more and more studies and historical data show that the intangibles – the feeling of importance, the relationships in the workplace, and feedback – have more weight than mere monetary compensation. With this in mind, we have to develop programs aimed at addressing the concerns of our employees. But first we need to understand what these concerns are.
Using the skills matrix
It is a good starting point for managing employees working at building worker engagement and enthusiasm in order to learn about them. Using a skills matrix is one way to do this. A skills matrix is a grid or table that clearly and visibly illustrates the skills and competence of each individual employee. It is useful when designing skills training and enhancement programs that would best complement the skill sets the team already has. When we use a skills matrix, we are able to assess what the worker’s job description requires, what he already knows, and what aspects need improvement. That way, we can create programs that are truly useful and important to the workers. The training, then, will not be a futile investment of time, money, and effort for both the company and the participants. We can draw up a competency framework and capacity planner that will yield real value.
Of course, we also have to find out certain things about their personalities such as their background, preferences, and other personal information that may be useful when deciding what approach to take during the implementation of training and enhancement programs. For example, if most of our employers and have children, the anecdotes and examples during the program may sometimes be related to family life. People are engaged when we tell them things of significance to them and learning about our employees’ personal lives is the only way we can begin touching base with them.
Employee engagement is a worthwhile endeavour because it builds the foundation of a strong company with workers willing to go the extra mile to get the job done. For us to expect our employees to accord the company with much affection, enthusiasm, and importance, we must also show that they are regarded with equal importance by the company. Thus, it must be a life-long pursuit of the company to engage the help of solutions like Ability6, for the interests of our greatest assets – our people!