LEARNING TO PICK THE RIGHT PEOPLE
It has become an acceptable cliché that people are our greatest resource but what are we doing to make this matter in our work places?
Learning to pick the right people for the right job is one of the most important activities that any effective leader performs. In fact, a lot of success and progress depend upon this responsible task.
Some of us seem to have a knack for picking the right people for the right job whereas some of us are hasty and are not able to perform this responsibility with care. Actually, it is much more than a knack because it takes careful analysis of a variety of aspects such as job requirement, the people available, the work environment, the ability to blend with the mission statement of the organization and the depth of qualities and qualifications of the applicants. Plus of course a large dose of our own imagination and foresight.
The first step obviously is a careful analysis of the job itself. What abilities are required? What kind of personality or temperament is needed? How essential is the previous experience? What kind of person you can imagine doing this job well? And Why this particular person and not any body else?
Next step is to see what candidates do you have available? How do their abilities and personalities fit the requirements? If you are unsure of their abilities, is there any way you can test to find out? Could any of them meet the requirement if given some special training?
Sometimes it becomes obvious that none of the available candidates could rightfully fill the job or the bill. That is where foresight comes into picture. It should have been used a long time ago to foresee and avoid such a predicament.
No one can put the right person in the right job unless the right person is available and that is why a forward-looking manager tries to anticipate how a department might grow and develop. Such a person thinks about finding and developing the kind of people who will be needed next month or next year. This is our long term or forward planning technique.
It pays to think about tomorrow’s needs as well as today’s. How will your present subordinates fit into the picture then? What training and experience will they need to be ready to move along? Do they have the necessary potential?
We should know our people. If people do an excellent job in their present assignments, find out what else they can do. Test their capabilities with other assignments. Discover their strengths and weaknesses and abilities and opportunities. That way, when the time comes to consider them for another job, you will be able to make an intelligent decision. The people will be trained and ready to perform as you want them to.
The fact that someone is doing well in a present job is no guarantee that another position will be handled equally as well. It depends upon whether the capabilities of the person match the requirements of that particular job.
Therefore, leaders with the knack for picking the right people make a point of studying both the capabilities of the person as well as the requirements of the jobs at hand.
I can still recollect the good old days when a person was simply thrown into a job and allowed to sink or swim but a lot of water has passed under and over this bridge. It was an expensive procedure even then but the modern recruitment procedures are even most costly. Hence, a lot more care and caution has to be put in place.
Today, with good people as hard to find as they are, needless failures are even more costly. If there is anything that might be done to help a new person succeed, it is well worth the time and effort of everyone involved.
Trouble may start before new people are even on the payroll. When they are being offered jobs, they are treated as they are really somebody. An effort is usually made to impress them; they get attention and the position is presented to them in the best possible light. Is it any wonder, then, that they show up on the job with high expectation?
If their first few days do not live up to what they expected, their morale may be affected before they have hardly started. A big build-up leads to a big letdown if people treat them as if they are part of the woodwork once they are on board.
I know that intelligent HR leaders, no matter how busy, do not handle new recruitments haphazardly. They give new people personal attention. They schedule time to orient or induct them and they plan what jobs these new people can handle during those critical first days.
It is natural for new employees to have anxieties. Will they like the job? Will they be able to handle it well? Where do they start? How will they get along with others? Will there be much chance for them to get ahead? So encouraging new employees to ask questions and talk about some of these issues always helps to reassure them.
Not the least important is to make sure they have enough to do because nothing is more frustrating to people full of energy and enthusiasm for a brand new job than to sit and twiddle their thumbs, or have to kill time while pretending to be busy. A good manager therefore, can get them up to speed a lot faster by giving them challenging assignments right from the start.
It is very important to follow their progress and show continued concern by checking every now and then on how they are making out. The best way to maintain their interest in the job is to maintain your interest in them.