Work is changing - Imagine what you can accomplish when every person on your team is engaged and thriving! - Business Results
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Work is changing – Imagine what you can accomplish when every person on your team is engaged and thriving!

Work is changing – Imagine what you can accomplish when every person on your team is engaged and thriving!

The top two biggest concerns I’m hearing from clients are 1) hiring people in a time with a smaller workforce participation rate, (It was 66.7% in Jan 2002, down to 62.4% Jan 2023) and 2) keeping people. Remember, people “fire a boss”. Don’t let your managers inadvertently drive people away. If you haven’t yet, consider running a 360 assessment of your managers and leaders, and/or an employee engagement survey to diagnose employee retention disruptions before they get out of hand.

Imagine what you can accomplish when every person on your team is engaged and thriving!

There are a few things to keep in mind. The first is pay. You can potentially be competing against your direct competitors for talent as well as companies in other industries. (For example, a warehouse worker getting a job in retail or a nurse moving from a clinical setting to home care). Remember that if you have remote workers or work that can be done from anywhere, those folks have the entire country to choose from where and for whom they want to work.

The next is work/life balance. Most people want work-life balance. What does that mean? Well, as an example, don’t email or call people when they are “off the clock”. The action of sending an email at 10p when you are getting a few things done screams to the employees receiving those missives that they need to be “on call” all the time. Actions speak louder than words. Also, look at your schedules. Can you offer people who only want part-time work a flexible part-time schedule? For those who want a nontraditional working schedule, do you have the ability to offer full-time flexible schedules such as a 5a to 1p shift or 11a to 7p?

Finally, you need career pathing and career development, even if you don’t move people to higher level roles in your organization. The best time to train people on management skills is before you promote them. Anyone anywhere in your organization can benefit from communication training, cross training, or team building and trust skills. Along with this, reinforce that your company and your managers care about your people and emphasize your culture values. Your employees want to know their work has purpose. Again, actions speak louder than words.

Job Descriptions Before and After

For those focused on hiring, once you have an ideal job model, weave behavioral language into your job description to help attract candidates. Here’s a portion of a recent Before and After where I helped rewrite the job description.

BEFORE

Ensure distribution and customer management and further expansion of sales activities in territory. Determine ways in which our company can help our customers grow.

• Collaborate with senior executives to create a sales and marketing plan to establish and execute sales targets for the region

• Network within the region to develop new leads and create and maintain customer relationships

• Oversee the regional dealers

• Create quotations and sales orders with required information

• Visit current and potential customers’ facilities to learn their businesses and recommend products

AFTER

Independently ensure successful distribution and customer management while competitively expanding sales activities in territory. Determine creative and practical ways in which we can help our customers grow.

• Positively collaborate with senior executives to create a winning sales and marketing plan to establish and execute sales targets for the region

• Persuasively create new connections within the region by networking to develop new leads, and maintain customer relationships

• Oversee the regional dealers including goal setting, coaching, and practical performance management planning

• Create quotations and sales orders with required information and be able to fluently and articulately communicate the information with many different types of buyers and clients

• Frequently visit current and potential customers’ facilities to learn their businesses and recommend products

To read more about job description before and after, here’s a recent article I wrote posted on the Rural Builder website.