Staffing critical to success

How many times have you heard or read the statement, "people are our most important asset?" I am willing to bet that almost everyone who works or has worked in an organization has been subjected to that phrase. Sometimes it has a ring of truth and sometimes, more often than not, it is a meaningless statement, made by a senior leader, designed to assure everyone that they are an important part of the organization effort. In reality, people often get less attention than they deserve. This is not a column about paying attention to people. It is, however, about how you make the people in your organization central to your success by putting meaning behind the "people are our most important asset" saying. The Corporate Strategy In any meaningful planning process, the organization starts by identifying the corporate strategy. The strategy may include developing or renewing products or services; entering new or emerging markets; coping or taking advantage of new technologies or enhancing key processes. These are things that management has direct control over and can affect by their decisions and actions. Key People Practices Where strategy implementation often falls off the rails is in the failure to align and realign key people practices with the strategy. Imagine trying to develop new products without talented and creative designers. Or worse, just as you are poised to enter a new market, several of your key employees defect to the competition because they felt that they would be more valued over there. Imagine if you will, trying to recruit key talent for a new technology initiative and finding that your compensation system does not allow for paying outside your current range or including a bonus in the compensation arrangement. Think about trying to enter a new market with no one who has knowledge of that market. To paraphrase the old real estate saying, there are only three things to remember in strategic implementation, "alignment, alignment and alignment." Again, management can control this process. Creating Needed Competencies Once the key people practices are aligned, its time to create the competencies, individual, team and organizational that will provide the connection between strategy and results. Excellent people, with the right skills, in the right environment, focused on the right tasks will move the organization forward like nothing else can. Management can encourage excellence, set the right environment and ensure the skills are in place to succeed. This is a matter of influencing the organization to deliver results. Producing Positive Performance A solid corporate strategy, an aligned organization with the needed competencies, is a recipe for success. The name of the game is to achieve the corporate strategy and produce positive performance outcomes or results. Results can come in the form of growth of the business, acquisition of a competitor, generating profits or increasing market share. Some companies value growth, some value market share and every company values profitability. Management has no real direct control over these elements, only influence. Evaluate and Refine the Strategy The fifth and last part of the cycle is to re-visit the strategy and compare the actual results with the business plan. The idea is to test out reality against the plan, valuing and rewarding achievements in relation to it and discovering what did not work and what needs to be changed in subsequent plans. The strategy can then be refined to reflect current reality and a re-forecasted future. While strategic planning looks to a three- to five-year horizon, the process of planning is an annual one so that adjustments and fine-tuning of the plan can be made without the plan becoming irrelevant. It's easy to see that without strong leadership and a highly skilled workforce, no plan, however elegant would ever get implemented. David Bratton is an independent management consultant and president of Bratton Consulting Inc. in London. He can be contacted at (519) 679-2774 or by e-mail: David Bratton. His column appears every other week. Source: Business Monday. June 21, 2004:"Staffing critical to success" By David Bratton, Special to the Free Press