How do you tell great employees from good employees so HR can identify, hire and retain them without wasting additional resources?
‘For it is the willingness of people to give of themselves over and above the demands of their job that distinguishes the great from the merely adequate organisation,” wrote Peter Drucker (November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005) in his book The Practice of Management.
From the person whom BusinessWeek describes as “the man who invented management”, the insight he gives organisations in today’s competitive world enables them to use great employees to distinguish themselves from their competitors. Who are these great employees? How do you identify, hire and retain great employees with a willingness to give themselves over and above the demands of their jobs?
Let’s take a look at the characteristics of a great employee and how these characteristics can be identified and cultivated while they are on the job.
Passion: An intense emotion that drives performance and pride. Great employees are filled with passion for the work they do. They are not out to make a living, but to make a positive difference!
How do you spot a passionate employee? Signs of enthusiasm could be an indication of passion. Let them talk about their profession or projects and listen out for the details. Some candidates may exaggerate their passion with animated speech or hand movements, so listen for depth in their experience. A passionate employee will relentlessly pursue activities related to the object of their passion, so ask about their leisure hobbies and areas of self-improvement.
Purpose: Gives the employee a channel for the passion, and helps them realise the reason why they are hired is to make their employer successful. They have a genuine desire to help the business succeed – therefore they are persistent in their pursuits.
A purposeful candidate has clear goals and objectives, as well as the know-how to achieve their goals. Ask about their life goals and plans. Be aware of candidates who have clear goals, but not the know-how of achieving these goals, so pay attention to past achievements and how those were achieved.
The candidate’s goal should be something that the organisation can provide, otherwise frustrations and disappointments will arise quickly. Find out about their purpose in the job they are pursuing or want to pursue and decide if that is aligned to your organisational goals.
Positive attitudes: The candidate’s attitude can be infectious – and a great employee has such a positive attitude that infects others positively while a negative employee would be like a rotten apple causing more damage to the morale.
The interviewer can assess the attitude of the candidate by listening for the candidate’s view of situations or incidents and their response. Observe the candidate’s body language for confidence or tension while they relate their work experiences.
A positive attitude is often seen in happy people who remain calm and patient under pressure. They also tend to take positive steps to keep healthy and look good. A person with negative attitude may become emotional or agitated under a stressful situation and may look distressed even under normal circumstances. So look out for that healthy glow when interviewing a candidate.
People skills: Great employees have great people skills and can be a good team player or leader. Most jobs require people to work together, serve clients or face suppliers. A person who understands and enjoys interaction with people will be a better employee than one who behaves like a hermit.
Ask the candidate questions about the projects they have done and observe how they discuss their interaction with others, how they intervene to resolve issues or move things forward. Also, watch for eye contact and other body language that might reveal more of how the candidate really thinks or feels.
Plan: Great candidates have the ability to organise themselves, including time management of their workload and organising project timelines accurately for timely completion of tasks and work. Good self-organisation includes punctuality, and a person who goes beyond and above the demands of the job tends to be early at work.
These five Ps are just a few attributes to consider when identifying a great employee to recruit or to retain. Now we’ll consider how great employees can be retained in your organisation and be a value-add to the business.
Respect for boss: A great employee becomes mediocre if there is no respect for the boss. While the boss has to earn the respect, a great employee would respect the boss for being in the position of authority. Having an appropriate amount of respect towards the boss allows the great employee to continue performing the job well.
In some cases, the boss may be a valuable staff member to the company, and yet he or she is unable to inspire the great employee to perform above potential. In this case, HR may have to intervene with communication sessions and training programmes to improve the relationship between the two parties. Or if all else fails, consider transferring one party to another team or business unit in order for both to thrive in the company.
Reward excellence: Recognise employees who go above and beyond the demands of the job immediately and publicly. Reward excellent behavior to create a culture of excellent performance.
First, establish a framework on what excellent behavior is and train managers to recognise it immediately and publicly with sincerity. An immediate expression of sincere gratitude is often well-received, and an occasional lunch treat or team outing is another way of recognising excellent performance. Managers can also connect with their high-performing employees on a personal level to let them know that they are not just a number.
Most people don’t work to their full potential unless they know their efforts are appreciated, and the world is full of under-appreciated, over-worked employees looking out for a new job. So keep employees happy with a great rewards programme.
Recruitment list
Keep your feelers out in the industry and constantly identify superstars whom you would like to recruit, and work on establishing and building a relationship with them. Alternatively, you can identify the attributes of these superstars and look for ways to cultivate similar qualities in your existing team.
Finally, in order to attract and retain great employees, it’s important for companies to be consistent if they want to be a great employer.
Case Study: Uncovering tourism ambassadors
When Singapore was named as the host for APEC 2009, Singapore Tourism Board tasked PeopleSearch to identify and recruit 1,400 volunteers to be hospitality ambassadors. The project kicked off with a team of consultants who had a clear understanding of the purpose of these hospitality ambassadors.
The challenges in this recruitment project was not in the huge number of volunteers to be recruited and trained within the short time frame of six weeks, but the short-listing criteria set by the client. The primary role of hospitality ambassadors is to welcome and assist a foreign visitor to Singapore who may be an APEC delegate, so the client required these volunteers to have a few attributes. The volunteers needed to be quick thinkers and problem solvers with great people skills as there were long hours of standing, working late into the night and possibly unusual situations such as changes to schedules or unanticipated new developments to handle during the event.
Furthermore, another recruitment challenge was that the volunteers were not paid a salary but thankfully many of them were willing to apply for annual leave from current employers to be part of this global event. In the short span of recruitment and training time, volunteers serving as hospitality ambassadors for areas such as meetings, social functions and transportation were professional and had a positive attitude which contributed to the event’s success. “On many occasions, the team went beyond the call of duty to ensure that the volunteers were well taken care of and that gaps in deployment were filled as quickly as possible,” said the Singapore Tourism Board.
