“Employees are a Company’s greatest asset – they’re your competitive advantage.” – Anne M. Mulcahy
While businesses seek to maintain competitive advantage, they may be failing to maximise the potential of their most valuable resource: their employees. This comes down to one key question – do you see you employees as assets or as an expense and liability?
How many businesses could be successful without people? The answer is obvious: none. People are necessary to the success of any business, yet many Managers view their people as liabilities rather than assets.
While most Managers know how valuable their employees are to the success of their business, especially their top employees, they often invest very little in them. Instead, they strive to see how much they can get out of them with as little investment as possible. In an era of short-term decision making, businesses quickly forget the contributions made by their employees and bonds of loyalty have been broken.
Many companies treat their employees as yet another expense and what do most companies do with expenses? They try to reduce them every way possible; keep wages as low as possible; no training that is not necessary; make do with outdated equipment; produce more with less.
If you look at what is happening in the workplace today, a recent Gallup Report shows that less than one-third of employees are engaged at work, more than half are not engaged in their jobs and nearly one-fifth of employees are actively disengaged. That is a long way from the optimum of people feeling valued.
Employees are assets. An employee’s knowledge, attitude and skills provide an organisation with its key points of differentiation. Treating employees as assets means an employer invests to develop and maintain the skills of those employees. They provide generous training allowances and work with their employees to choose courses and programs that not only benefit the company, they also develop the value of the person as a whole.
As a Manager or business owner, one of your top priorities should be the continuous development of your employees as assets. This involves focusing on three areas:
- Your employees should be assigned to roles that maximise their strengths.People are unique. They each bring different capabilities to your business. Businesses that leverage the unique capabilities of their employees have a much higher overall capability than those that do not.
- Invest in employee training and development. High performing businesses offer training and education opportunities to their employees. Set minimum training requirements and help them identify training areas that would enable them to be more effective. Without ongoing training and education, employees fall behind on industry and management best practices.
- Coach your employees. Coaching has emerged as a management approach that replaces many management practices that were prevalent just ten to twenty years ago. Coaching is much more effective than telling or directing. Coaching gets at root issues that prevent employees from reaching their potential. It promotes deep understanding. Managers who coach their employees see faster employee development and overall higher performance.
To ensure your business operates at its peak potential, ensure your employees operate at theirs. Invest in them. Ensure they are in optimal roles. Offer training and education appropriate to their needs and position. Coach them toward best practices and principles that reinforce their training and on-the job learning.
Imagine what your business could accomplish with everyone in the same boat actively rowing in the same direction. Employees who feel valued gladly will compete in the race, overtake the competition, cross the finish line first and end up on the winner’s podium.
For more ways to optimise your business, contact me on 1800 CLOUDFORCE.
