Trim Staff and Nurture Your Employees Carefully

As I look at companies around me-thriving and struggling and talk to employees - current and laid off, it is clear that now more than ever there is a need for businesses to take an in depth look at the individuals they have on staff and to nurture the employees they hope will bring them success. The survey below illustrates just how important it is to focus on employee development. The people who are hired or retained now aren't going anywhere voluntarily. Yet, as companies continue to trim personnel the remaining staff members are more insecure than ever and view the organization with less trust and confidence. Money and time spent on staff development pays for itself exponentially by making sure the right employees are in the right jobs and keeping them focused and energized. Do not allow the remaining employees to wither on the vine or be so paralyzed by lack of assurance that they can't help pull you forward.

I met with a gentleman today who was recently laid off from a company where he'd spent many years climbing the ranks. He was promoted again and again due to seniority, eventually being promoted to a position that was uninspiring to him and due to the economy, a position that would be trimmed. Considering this person's wealth of experience, passion for the company and his relationships within the industry perhaps it would have been a better to demote him to a job at which he'd previously excelled and enjoyed at lesser pay. We'll never know. The company in question did not take the time to look at their employees in relation to their capabilities and characteristics versus their job titles. By using a valid assessment tool to analyze the employees' cognitive and behavioral characteristics and match them to jobs using proven "Job Match Patterns" an employer can improve their chances of selecting a high performer among current employees by over 50% .

As employers trim payroll it is more important than ever that they really know their employees. Staff members should be retained or terminated based on their potential produce at superior level in the jobs they are about to perform. It is vital that leaders retain the workers that can stretch themselves to pull our companies through difficult times. Leanness requires greater efficiency and a need to integrate a larger variety of job skills into fewer positions. Effective staff realignment requires more insight into the innate qualities of the players than most managers posses. 

POP QUIZ! 

Where did we go wrong?

That's the question Judith M. Bardwick asks and answers in, One Foot Out the Door: How to Combat the Psychological Recession that's Alienating Employees and Hurting American Business.

But, unlike so many writers who point out flaws in human behavior and psyche, Bardwick offers help. Perhaps this is why so many take her words as constructive criticism and why One Foot Out the Door earned a coveted award from Library Journal as a Best Business Book for 2007.

So what is a psychological recession anyway, and why should organizations care? In Bardwick's view, the two words describe an "emotional state in which people feel extremely vulnerable to economic hardship." This brings about a "dour view" of both current times and the future and "reinforces…perception of the world as a risky place in which they have little or no control." This anxiety plus the feeling of worker powerlessness are a "poisonous mix," the author notes.

Managers should care because if workers expect the worst, they don't perform well. And if workers are not performing, the pressure on an organization's financial health can be devastating – as in companies where only 25 percent of workers are engaged in their jobs. Could that be your business? the Gallup Poll says that is American business.

Bardwick uses both history and research to present the facts of how the economic climate used to be, how it is today and what brought us here. She points out how costly it can be to support bad management. For managers who care, she provides the steps to regaining success. One key to the kingdom is getting rid of the fear that makes for a toxic business climate today. No small task, but crucial to an organization's survival. Others are:

• Customizing working conditions and rewards for individual employees (virtually banishing "one-size-fits-all" solutions)
• Hiring people whose competencies and priorities best fit the organization

Bardwick also authored Danger in the Comfort Zone and Psychology of Women. Based in California, she is a speaker, consultant, researcher, and writer on psychological aspects of people at work.

"A Psychological Recession is not just an idea; it is a real phenomenon with real consequences, all of them bad," Dr. Bardwick says. "When people are scared and depressed for a long time, despair and fear replace confidence and optimism. In the larger economic picture, it is really dangerous that a psychological recession characterizes most people's views and moods when two-thirds of our gross domestic product is based on consumer spending, which is profoundly affected by consumer confidence."

ABOUT THE BOOK

One Foot Out the Door: How to Combat
the Psychological Recession that's
Alienating Employees and Hurting
American Business

Author: Judith M. Bardwick
240 pages
Publisher: AMACOM
ISBN-13: 978-0814480588