By Dan Simmons
Do you know who’s on your ‘Go-Ahead’ Team? Over the last 5 years, consumer habits have been required to change, and corporate changes have been made necessary. Government is re-engineering itself and so is, quite possibly, society. Progress will not look familiar.
I cannot possibly know what it will look like for you, but I am certain that you will need to determine what it will look like and determine it soon, if you haven’t already. The most important component in adapting to the post-recession economy will be the strength and innovation of your team.
Evaluate your Team
Many organizations have slimmed down by letting go extraneous staff and retaining only those employees who were necessary to keep operations afloat. Now you’ll need to determine if those employees are the right individuals to propel business forward. If not, you’ll need to define what characteristics their replacements should have, and exactly what results they must be able to achieve.
- Determine your goals and the specific staff required to accomplish the goals. Assume you don’t have any staff members yet and are starting from scratch.
- Determine whether your team members can achieve the goals in their current positions.
- Consider whether any of them could be given additional responsibility because they have shown both the potential and interest?
- Ask yourself this question of each person on your team: “If I didn’t have them on my team in their current role, would I hire them for it?” If not, now is the time for change.
- Finally, re-assign, transfer or terminate anyone who can’t help propel your business into the future. Today’s satisfactory performance simply won’t cut it in tomorrow’s business climate. Get the wrong people ‘off the bus’ and position those who remain into the right seats.
Retain the Worthy
Make no mistake, there will be hiring activity during the rest of 2011 and in 2012. However, it won’t be those individuals who aspire to mediocrity. Instead, only top performers will be hired. Now is the time to think about retention. How will you retain the worthy?
The economy is improving and organizations are starting to re-group and recruit top performers. I can tell this from the activity at my desk and among my peers. Where do you think these top performers are going to come from? Most likely, they are not coming from the ranks of the unemployed. They are going to be recruited from the top ranks of similar organizations: perhaps yours!
That means your top talent will be getting calls from companies who are hiring or recruiters representing them. You need to keep your top performers happy or you’ll lose the wrong team members. I’m making recruiting calls to top performers for great jobs every day, and I have an increasing workload. The same is true of my peers. You’d be sadly mistaken to believe that your top people are happy simply to have a job. That ship has sailed.
Recruit the Best
I believe the next six months will be a prime time to recruit top talent and savvy leaders will invest while they can find bargains. During unstable economic times, people don’t like to take risks and often remain in what they consider safe jobs. However, the light is shining at the end of the tunnel. Top performers are looking to work for organizations that have a solid plan, enthusiasm, and the resources required to achieve success into the future. Not every organization fits that criteria, yet every group has a top performer. Many of these individuals are now confident enough in the economy to make a job change, and the number of those who are confident will increase as the economy improves. Strike while the iron is hot.
These individuals are looking for well-defined challenges, inspired leaders, financially stable organizations, and the opportunity to achieve new heights. Define what you have to offer and get ready to hire. With each upgrade of your staff, your goals become easier to achieve.
Daniel C. Simmons is a Certified Personnel Consultant who has been recruiting since 1991. Dan has won over twenty awards in the last decade with the Top Echelon Network, America’s leading placement network including Placer of the Year in 2009 & 2010.
Frequently Dan also is a recruiter trainer and has been featured at various Top Echelon Conventions and online as a speaker for various webinars. He has also been published in The Fordyce Letter the recruiting industry’s #1 magazine.
Is Your Company Looking for Great Candidates? Contact Dan Today!
