How SMEs can hire and manage talent (II)
- Details
- Category: SME toolkit
- Written by with Bridget Olotu
- Hits: 575
What I’ve succeeded in doing in the first part of this article is to nudge SME owners to make their enterprises attractive to the engagement and employment of talents. It is to make them employers of choice in spite of their small size and budget because these days what distinguishes organisations is not their sheer physical size but the quality of the human resources they command. Those who boast more of talents in their employment are those who, other things being equal, can effectively compete in today’s adversarial business environment.
One, SME owners must endeavour to create a conducive business environment in their organisations. It is one thing to attract talents to your enterprise; it is another thing to manage them well. Everyone wants to work in an atmosphere tinged with love, understanding, professionalism, lack of fear, free of mistrust, violence and intimidation. You must carry out an environmental audit of your business regularly to gauge the prevailing temperature and condition in place and to adjust accordingly. Tied to this, there is need for mutual respect in the workplace between management and staff. Psychologists have discovered that every human being wants to be loved, appreciated and respected. Hence when the employer appreciates and respects his/her employees, this creates the right bonding capable of facilitating trust, cooperation and mutual support within the workplace.Two, create an organisational culture that can promote both organisational as well as individual growth and progress. Your culture must support excellence, merit, hard work, performance and the same culture must eschew ethnicity, parochialism, politics, partiality, mediocrity and all vices in the workplace.
Three, create a climate of trust. You must believe in the abilities and competencies of your workforce. If not, you can’t get the best out of them. In the first place, you wouldn’t have employed them if you didn’t find them suitable for the various roles they’d be playing in your organisation. Of course, if you later discover that an employee is unsuitable for the role he/she was employed for, the person could be redeployed to another role or could be retrained on/for the job. But in the last resort, if he/she still fails in their performance, you could let them go. On the other hand, where the employer proves competent, is hard working and committed to corporate goals, he/she should earn the trust of the business owner.
Four, talents can be managed well when assignments are delegated to them. However, such assignments must carry some level of authority and resources to match the assigned task.
Five, it is also important to believe in your workforce. Don’t work with someone whom you doubt his/her abilities. It is imperative you work with someone whom you believe can be useful to the business, driving it to achieve its organisational objectives. Even though talents like to work alone, the modern workplace demands a lot of team work and team interaction. Therefore, creating a business that supports team work will help to aggregate the strengths of your talents and focus these strengths on the attainments of organisational goals.
Six, you need to invest in your talents. Expose them to the best management/practices there are, update their skills and competencies and help them further personal and career goals even as they work to foster the objectives of your enterprise. You can send them on courses outside the firm or conduct on-the-job training to improve their capacity.
Seven, as much as the employer can, the workplace must be characterised in a greater measure by a participatory or democratic leadership style that carries staff along on the decisions and plans of management. When talented staff are consulted on issues affecting the workplace, business strategy and plans, they readily support management’s decision and this reduces or eliminates resistance to change programmes within the organisation.
Lastly, it is important to say that within the workplace, there’d always be conflict between staff as long as they interact. Promoting quick conflict management or resolution in the workplace should be the goal of management because a peaceful and cooperative workplace will engender rapid realisation of corporate goals, eliminate loss of man-hours, employee mistrust and resistance and other very difficult circumstances.
Therefore, SMEs can hire and manage talents within their organisations just as large corporations do when they create a conducive business environment; create a climate that promotes organisational and individual growth; create a climate of trust; delegate assignments to them; believe in the workforce; invest in their talents; carry staff along, and promote conflict management/resolution measures in the workplace.
Aminiya
How SMEs can hire and manage talent (II)
Category: SME toolkit Written by with Bridget Olotu Hits: 575
What I’ve succeeded in doing in the first part of this article is to nudge SME owners to make their enterprises attractive to the engagement and employment of talents. It is to make them employers of choice in spite of their small size and budget because these days what distinguishes organisations is not their sheer physical size but the quality of the human resources they command. Those who boast more of talents in their employment are those who, other things being equal, can effectively compete in today’s adversarial business environment.
One, SME owners must endeavour to create a conducive business environment in their organisations. It is one thing to attract talents to your enterprise; it is another thing to manage them well. Everyone wants to work in an atmosphere tinged with love, understanding, professionalism, lack of fear, free of mistrust, violence and intimidation. You must carry out an environmental audit of your business regularly to gauge the prevailing temperature and condition in place and to adjust accordingly. Tied to this, there is need for mutual respect in the workplace between management and staff. Psychologists have discovered that every human being wants to be loved, appreciated and respected. Hence when the employer appreciates and respects his/her employees, this creates the right bonding capable of facilitating trust, cooperation and mutual support within the workplace.Two, create an organisational culture that can promote both organisational as well as individual growth and progress. Your culture must support excellence, merit, hard work, performance and the same culture must eschew ethnicity, parochialism, politics, partiality, mediocrity and all vices in the workplace.
Three, create a climate of trust. You must believe in the abilities and competencies of your workforce. If not, you can’t get the best out of them. In the first place, you wouldn’t have employed them if you didn’t find them suitable for the various roles they’d be playing in your organisation. Of course, if you later discover that an employee is unsuitable for the role he/she was employed for, the person could be redeployed to another role or could be retrained on/for the job. But in the last resort, if he/she still fails in their performance, you could let them go. On the other hand, where the employer proves competent, is hard working and committed to corporate goals, he/she should earn the trust of the business owner.
Four, talents can be managed well when assignments are delegated to them. However, such assignments must carry some level of authority and resources to match the assigned task.
Five, it is also important to believe in your workforce. Don’t work with someone whom you doubt his/her abilities. It is imperative you work with someone whom you believe can be useful to the business, driving it to achieve its organisational objectives. Even though talents like to work alone, the modern workplace demands a lot of team work and team interaction. Therefore, creating a business that supports team work will help to aggregate the strengths of your talents and focus these strengths on the attainments of organisational goals.
Six, you need to invest in your talents. Expose them to the best management/practices there are, update their skills and competencies and help them further personal and career goals even as they work to foster the objectives of your enterprise. You can send them on courses outside the firm or conduct on-the-job training to improve their capacity.
Seven, as much as the employer can, the workplace must be characterised in a greater measure by a participatory or democratic leadership style that carries staff along on the decisions and plans of management. When talented staff are consulted on issues affecting the workplace, business strategy and plans, they readily support management’s decision and this reduces or eliminates resistance to change programmes within the organisation.
Lastly, it is important to say that within the workplace, there’d always be conflict between staff as long as they interact. Promoting quick conflict management or resolution in the workplace should be the goal of management because a peaceful and cooperative workplace will engender rapid realisation of corporate goals, eliminate loss of man-hours, employee mistrust and resistance and other very difficult circumstances.
Therefore, SMEs can hire and manage talents within their organisations just as large corporations do when they create a conducive business environment; create a climate that promotes organisational and individual growth; create a climate of trust; delegate assignments to them; believe in the workforce; invest in their talents; carry staff along, and promote conflict management/resolution measures in the workplace.