Investing in your employees

So you’ve heard about how tough it is to find good employees and you’ve made the decision to spend a few bucks on employee engagement to keep your people from looking elsewhere. Nice! There’s no shortage of Business or HR Consultants offering their expertise in this matter and you just know you’ll realise a great return on investment, right? Before you hand over your company credit card to that smiling Consultant, maybe have a think about smart ways of investing in your employees.

In our experience, employees typically fit into one of four broad categories:

1. The Climber

Interested in career progression within your business, including those who seek to move from their current role with you into another. Think the Administration person who’s interested the moving across to the Sales side of your operation, for example.

1. The Soldier

Happy to stay where they are with you; not interested in career progression. Think the Warehouse guy who’s been there for years: turns up on time every day, does a good job and heads off home each day to his “real” interests: family/footy/cars…you get the picture. Don’t dismiss this group: soldiers are the backbone of your team…often less visible and frequently underrated as a genuine business asset.

1. The Transient

Looking for something elsewhere; needs a job so sticks with you until something better comes along.

1. The Undecided

Hasn’t figured out their plan yet: could stay, might go.

So why is all this relevant?

It’s relevant because different people have different priorities regarding work. For some, it’s career. For others, work is simply a means to an end. Others still are seeing work/life balance…the list goes on. And these priorities and motivators can change throughout our life. Smarter investing in your employees means taking this into account.

Some suggest you invest in staff just as much as you invest in other aspects of your business. No lack of logic with this suggestion; many employers invest time and money in engagement and professional development programs with the good intention that employees will feel more valued and therefore more likely to stay with their business. Oftentimes this investment takes the form of a Consultant selling you a “one size fits all” engagement model based on the assumption that people all want the same thing. But they don’t. So your well intentioned engagement spend fails to provide the return you’re seeking. Solution?

Figure out what your each of your employees really value and tailor your engagement and professional development strategy around your findings. Sometimes this might seem a little challenging but there are ways. And Bare Bones Consulting can help.

Is investing in your employees an exact science? Of course not… we’re taking about people: rarely does every person fit neatly into a category or classification. We offer today’s opinion simply as a framework to think of things in a different way. At Bare Bones Consulting we’re like that. Bit left of centre. Just like your business.

Like the way we think? Call us today for a chat. And get some more free tips and techniques on getting the best from your people at the Bare Bones Consulting LinkedIn page.