In a rapidly transforming business landscape, HR Management challenges along with Organisational Health elements continue to evolve, and suitable solutions need to be continuously defined in order to remain competitive and succeed in global markets.
Business leaders certainly acknowledge the important link between organisational health (culture), its employees and business performance.
However most simply focus on performance management to reach the company’s vision, strategies and turnover targets, totally ignoring the risks that unengaged employees hold over the business.
An organisation’s health and performance effectiveness will thus depend on innovative approaches in mitigating risks such as:
- Talent management
- Workforce retention and engagement
Taking a brief look at these two critical factors:
Talent management
Talent management is an organisation’s commitment to recruit (source, attract, select) train, develop, retain, the most talented employees available in the job market, and to promote, reward and move them through the organisation.
Research done on the value of talent management consistently uncovers benefits in critical economic areas: revenue, customer satisfaction, quality, productivity, cost, cycle time, market capitalisation, business value and reputation.
The mindset of a more personal HR approach seeks not only to hire the most qualified and valuable employees, but also to put a strong emphasis on performance, potential and retention.
Current employee performance within a specific job, serves as a standard evaluation measurement tool of the profitability of an employee. Effective talent management, however, also seeks to focus on an employee’s future performance if given the proper development of skills, coaching, mentoring and increased responsibility.
An organisation needs distinctive behavioural profiling and assessment solutions in order to improve and enhance overall work performance and productivity of the individual and/or team at any level in the organisation.
Unique and 21st century profiling tools accurately measure how people process and use information – thus knowing their thinking preferences and Driving Dynamics like the Reality Check AssessmentsTM Conducted by Training Excellence.
These preferences and driving Dynamics are indicative of how successful and efficient an individual or team will be in their productivity and performance in the workplace.
This can be used very effectively to improve recruitment and selection activities or enhance current performance of existing individuals and/or teams.
These solutions are used to guide organisations, leaders, coaches and team managers with:
- Individual profiling and coaching
- Team behavioural profiling, development and coaching
- Recruitment and selection
- Organisational, culture and team surveys
- Leadership and team cohesion
- Coaching
What is the difference between coaching and Mentoring?
Simply put coaching is about growing the person, the business owner, from the inside out. Coaching helps you to determine goals that match your highest potential, create a realistic plan to achieve those goals, discover how you self-sabotage your business, and be accountable for achieving goals within a planned time frame. While your coach might offer you insight and advice, the primary purpose of coaching is to empower YOU to learn how to create the business of your dreams.
Mentoring brings the expertise of the consultant expertise into the mix. A mentor offers information, advice, brainstorming and training. I like to say that a Mentor Tells and a Coach Asks or guides. Look for a someone who has achieved what you want to achieve, someone who is willing to share all their knowledge, wisdom and practical tips with you.
Let’s work with an example:
Say that you are working on your task plan for next month. A coach might ask you, “What tasks do you need to complete in the next month in order to achieve your monthly goals?” encouraging you to set your own priorities.
A Mentor might say, “Here are some of the tasks you need to consider for the next month in order to achieve your monthly goals,” offering advice based on experience.
A coach-mentor does both.
How do I know if I need coaching, Mentoring/Consulting, or both?
You need a coach if you want help:
- organizing your thoughts
- creating a practical and effective plan
- prioritize goals and tasks
- being more accountable for following through on tasks
- maintaining high motivation even in the face of difficulties
- understanding how you sabotage your efforts (and figuring out what to do about this self-sabotage)
You need a Mentor if you want:
- the advice and experience of someone who is successfully self-employed
- to understand the basics of business planning and marketing
- to learn business and marketing skills in a rapid fashion
- to find ways to manage and follow-up on your business success
If you want help in both areas, you need both coaching and consulting.
Personally, I strongly encourage my clients to use THE services as both a Business coach and consulting Mentoring which is the best of both worlds.
Workforce engagement and retention
Effective management practices ensure that employees remain with the company and produce quality work. If not properly managed, developed or valued, or being engaged properly, key employees investigate the prospect of better career opportunities in other organisations.
Data emerging from the annual Deloitte Best Company to Work For Survey suggests that, what employers regard as important is typically not what employees are most concerned about.
Every enterprise must thus reconcile three propositions:
- All business problems are people problems – and people’s problems are also the business’ problems
- What we don’t know about employees will control performance and production results, and success of business teams
Unless appropriate action is taken to correctly identify and address any dissatisfaction, will result in a spike in employee turnover. First to go, will be superior talent, top performers, and future leaders who have skills that are transferable and in high demand.
Unfortunately, most organisations still focus on organisational health (culture), employee engagement and performance management as independent and separate initiatives, not understanding how deeply interrelated they are.
Organisations may set objectives and KPIs, manage execution, and look at metrics to measure and motivate performance and see whether progress is being made and outcomes are being achieved.
But if employees aren’t engaged, there’s very little likelihood of them achieving company objectives no matter how good management systems are. The Gallop Studies estimates:
- Disengaged employees are expensive. You are paying a 100% salary, but you are not getting 100% output
- On average, 17.2% of your workforce will be disengaged. Once they get to this point, they’re looking for their next opportunity.
- It’s rarely about money. Most often it’s about they WHY! Why they are spending their time at this company. Without understanding the why, they’re not vested in performing at their peak.
- Not knowing the WHY, will cost you 34% of an employee’s annual salary.
Understanding and acknowledging employees play a crucial role in motivating employees to deliver their utmost best. This helps managers understand their needs, expectations and what drives or motivates them.
Building organisational health, through fostering high employee engagement, and focusing on performance management, is in essence an ecosystem that must be focused on as a whole in order to ultimately achieve high performance and ROI.
Peter Drucker says, “You cannot manage what you have not measured”.
More about Hawa Charfaray:
Hawa Charfaray is the CEO & Founder of Training Excellence Africa & The Middle East and CEO Orbrix Dubai. She is a renowned International Corporate Trainer, Motivational Global Speaker and Business Executive Coach.
Hawa has invested in changing lives through her many years of experience as a corporate wellness practitioner, an NLP practitioner, Life Coach, Language and Behavior (LAB) Profile Practitioner, Inventory, Work Attitude and Motivation (iWAM) practitioner, Ecometric practitioner, Hypnotherapy Practitioner and Timeline Practitioner. She is both honored and inspired to be nominated by the recognized bodies In her profile. She says “We cannot become ourselves by ourselves. We need to go out of our way to support each other. We need to be mirrored, emulated and celebrated, as who you are truly does make a difference – Become Consciously Purposeful in Your Life as a leader!”