Recently a manager said to me in passing, ‘You say you create effective
employees don’t you?’ I replied, ‘Yes I do’. ‘Well’, he said, ‘I need a few of
them. Where can I get them?’ I wish that life was only that easy, that I could
create effective employees with a stroke of my wand and a spell out the world
of Harry Potter. Unfortunately it isn’t that easy, you need to find and nurture
effective employees. But effective and efficient employees are worth their
weight in gold.
To explain both concepts simply:
‘Efficiency is doing
things right, while effectiveness is doing the right things.’
I would consider that creating effective employees is one of the important
deliverables of human resources. Creating effective and efficient employees
adds value to the human resource function.
It starts with the search and recruitment of good employees. By this I mean
having a clear description of what kind of people you need, what knowledge they
require for their position and what competencies are necessary to be
successful. Then of course you need to look in the rights direction when you
are searching for employees. You will be more successful if you look for
certain employees in different ways. Then you have to select employees by using
a competence based interview technique.
Through using the right recruitment techniques you will hire better
employees.
This doesn’t end our quest for effective employees’ it is only the start
of it. Next the manager needs to induce and train the employee into the company
to ensure that the new employee understands what is expected of him, how the
company operates and its culture of the company. Furthermore the employee needs
to understand how the teams work in the company, how he fits into his team and
what his team expects from him. After the induction and training the new
employee needs to be regularly reviewed and helped to meet the company
standards. However if after several attempts the new employee fails to meet the
company standards it is better to end the employment in the probation period.
This is a difficult decision for both manager and employee. Difficult for the
employee because he would have lost a job which he hoped would be there for life.
It is difficult for the manager because their investment in the new employee is
lost.
After a successful start to the employment the company needs to ensure
that the employee is regularly trained regarding the requirements of the job
and the company. Again any changes in the organisation and position need to be
discussed and understood to become effective. The company will have regular
reviews with the employee and he will receive constructive feedback on how he
is doing. High achievers need to be rewarded and underachievers need to be
tackled.
To really create effective employees, the manager needs to engage with
the employees. This means to keep talking with the employee and find out how
the employee gets on in his job and where he needs support. There needs to be
regular communication about what both sides expect from each other what the
employee expects from the company and his colleagues and what his colleagues
and company expect from him. There needs to be a balance between employee
remuneration and the capacity of the company to pay. Any misunderstandings
between employee and manager need to be resolved as quickly as possible.
As you can see it is difficult to create effective and efficient
employees but the reward of creating a cohort of them is extremely valuable for
any company.
Your Human Resources department should be able to deliver the required
instruments and outcomes in order for your company to be able to create
effective employees. Your HR people should be able to deliver excellent
recruitment tools, ways to objectively review people, induce and train staff
members, knowledge on how to engage staff members, how to handle company
communication, advise managers and employees on how to perform their jobs and
how to handle underperformers and find solutions for them.
