Korero iti
We believe that an organization which treats it's employees as mature reasoning adults can expect them to behave that way.
We also believe that when people fall help them up, but when they continue to fall no matter what help you offer, then you owe it to the rest of your people to address this, that is being tika and pono!
After the haka, this is probably the best known piece of the Maori language.
As an organisation, do you talk about your people being your most important asset? If you don't then there is little point in your reading further. If you do, then you are also likely to have experienced one or more of the following situations:You are convinced that an employee could be doing more but you have not been able to do anything about it?You put up with poor attendance, timekeeping, attitude, etc. because you thought you had to? You ask someone to do something to be told "that is not in my job description" and refuse?
Do you put up with this, and other counterproductive behaviour, because you believe that you have little choice because you can't "fire" people, or if you do they will "sue" you and it will cost you a lot of money? Do you put up with it because you believe that this is the best way to treat your "most important asset"? Well it is costing you time, productivity, and a lot of money, right now. These types of disengaged people cost the American economy an estimated $300 billion dollars per year, so they have to be costing you!
Is this the best way to manage your most important asset, ignoring it until it goes away or you get "fed up" and just explode? If your company car only did 30km per hour (top speed) and used 4 litres of fuel travelling that distance, I am pretty sure you would be trying to improve its performance by getting it to a specialist (Auto Technician) as soon as possible. The same for your IT systems which you spend $1000's per year on to either maintain or improve its performance, and yet these are not your "most important asset".
By your people we also mean everyone in your organisation, which in some instances includes a Board. If the Board is regularly having input into the day to day operations of the organisation, then they are also underperforming, because at best they are duplicating effort, and at worst they are impeding growth and development by insisting that they are right and therefore must have the final decision in all matters. This is often despite the fact that they only meet monthly for about three hours, and a substantial part of that meeting is probably going to have focussed on the minutes of the last meeting because someone missed it and wants the whole discussion leading up to a decision to be repeated before they will agree. Ask yourself this question, would you employ any one of your Board members? If the answer is no, then how come they get to have the final say on critical business matters?
So why is it that you tend to treat your "most important asset" differently to those other assets you have? Surely any asset which underperforms needs to be brought up to an acceptable level of performance, or be replaced. What can we do to help your "most important assets" perform? We can help you:
• Develop clear descriptions of the various roles in your organisation by involving those that do the work in the process.
• Develop some clear and affordable remuneration and rewards structures that will be easily understood and accepted by your people as being "fair".
• Develop processes to regularly review how well people are doing against agreed objectives, and systems to assist them where they are experiencing difficulty in meeting these. We call these meetings feedback meetings not performance management, or appraisal meetings, because we respect the fact that we are dealing with adult people.
• Have a process whereby people who choose not to participate fully in the work of the organisation, have this brought to their attention, and be given the opportunity and encouragement to do so; and
• If this does not work, have a process to move the individual on with the minimum of fuss and damage to the organisation.
All of these interventions are as important for your governing body (Board) as they are for your staff. If you doubt us apply the bullet points above to your Board as a "reality" check.