Checklist
Effective way of Managing Staff
Corporate
chief executives frequently ask how well their business is
doing at managing, and leading its staff. It’s a tough
question to answer without any guidelines to follow.
What
do you do to get some answers? Well, you can go out on the
shop or office floor and randomly ask employees what they
think? Many people are too shy or wary to “tell it like
it is” and so you won’t get very far using this
approach to information gathering.
Or,
perhaps you do an attitude survey to determine the answer
to the question. This is a good way to gather information
but falls short of getting a clear and meaningful response
from employees and does little to involve the leadership team
in really understanding what’s going on.
There
are lots of ways of gathering information from the grassroots of
your organization. The trouble is it’s hard to determine whether
the answers you get really represent the current reality as seen
by the staff.
One
sure way to gather information in what I call a low-threat, high-impact
way is to develop a checklist of the kinds of questions you think
are relevant to your situation. The questions should be ones that
will prove helpful to you when you plan new programs and initiatives
to develop your staff
The
checklist I have included in this column should provoke lots of
thought and can be used to stimulate a wide-ranging and interesting
discussion. The questions will help you to identify the key human
resource issues and challenges facing your organization.
Use
the questions to consult with lots of different people in your organization.
By discussing the questions and getting input from several levels
and functions, you can piece together a very accurate picture of
“how things are around here”. That information can be
used to advantage in improving the effectiveness and efficiency
of your staff and in making your organization a great place to work.
The
whole idea of such an exercise is to begin to explore and consider
a new approach to people management that can improve your business
performance, to the benefit of all the stakeholders, you, your staff,
your customers and your various other constituents.
A
Checklist for Action
Consider
exploring the following areas by asking yourself and others:
•
Do people consider this a good place to work?
• Do we have any chronic employee relations issues or
problems that refuse to go away?
• Do we have a means of resolving employee grievances
quickly and effectively?
• Do we have too much employee turnover? If so, why
is that happening?
• Are our customers complaining about the quality of
our products or services?
• Is it evident that our people take pride in their
work and in being a member of our organization?
• Are there parts of our organization that just seem
to fight with each other all the time?
• Do we have career paths for ambitious and talented
employees?
• Are our people dissatisfied with pay and other working
conditions?
• Is everyone clear about their job and how it fits
with others?
• Is it possible for people to clearly understand how
well they are doing or are there no clear performance measures? |
There are certainly lots of other questions you could add to the
list. However, if you do not know if any of the above are applicable
to your organization or if you are currently ignoring these and
other people issues, you may have an organization that functions
well below its potential. In this day and age where competition
is a constant reminder of the need to find better ways of doing
things, an organization that is not functioning at or above its
true potential can find itself in deep trouble.
Self-knowledge
is the first step on the journey to self-improvement. By finding
out the answers to this question, you have taken that critical first
step on the road to success.
