I think that in a down economy, the true culture of an organization reveals itself. I've come to the conclusion that an organization has two choices when the going gets rough. 1.) Everyone takes an every man for him/herself mentality and it becomes survival of the fittest (and luckiest); or 2.) The organization buckles down as one and prepares itself for the upswing. As a consultant, I could say that some organizations do a hybrid of both. But for the sake of discussion, let's deal in absolutes.
A wise partner said to me - before the recession hit - that when the economy picks up, we're going to have a severe shortage of people and everyone will be working double and triple time. This turned out to be true.
The same wise partner then told me that we are going to start ramping up quickly to meet anticipated demand, and because our "average" performers were let go and would not want to come back to us and our higher performers are disgruntled and will leave - we'll end up having a quality problem down the road. I have a gut feeling that this will turn out to be true as well.
Because we are all working double and triple time, the first thing that goes out the window is focusing on the development of the people we currently have. Nobody has time to invest time into a person or coach that person. As a result, people have to figure out how to manage others by example and through trial and error. I will say that this is probably not the best way to learn. Yes - Captain Obvious is in the building.
Making a long story short, retaining people comes down to one thing after all is said and done. It comes down to actually taking an interest in the people you work with. Don't view them as a contribution to managed revenue or someone you can use to do something you don't want to do. View them as highly talented people that will some day pay your pension or be your future client. It's easy to lose sight of that as you are chasing sales and utilization and griping about how raises sucked and bonuses barely paid your gas for the week. So take the time to act like a job is about the people you work with and not what you just do. And see if that actually makes a positive impact.
A wise partner said to me - before the recession hit - that when the economy picks up, we're going to have a severe shortage of people and everyone will be working double and triple time. This turned out to be true.
The same wise partner then told me that we are going to start ramping up quickly to meet anticipated demand, and because our "average" performers were let go and would not want to come back to us and our higher performers are disgruntled and will leave - we'll end up having a quality problem down the road. I have a gut feeling that this will turn out to be true as well.
Because we are all working double and triple time, the first thing that goes out the window is focusing on the development of the people we currently have. Nobody has time to invest time into a person or coach that person. As a result, people have to figure out how to manage others by example and through trial and error. I will say that this is probably not the best way to learn. Yes - Captain Obvious is in the building.
Making a long story short, retaining people comes down to one thing after all is said and done. It comes down to actually taking an interest in the people you work with. Don't view them as a contribution to managed revenue or someone you can use to do something you don't want to do. View them as highly talented people that will some day pay your pension or be your future client. It's easy to lose sight of that as you are chasing sales and utilization and griping about how raises sucked and bonuses barely paid your gas for the week. So take the time to act like a job is about the people you work with and not what you just do. And see if that actually makes a positive impact.
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