Are you an information technology or professional services firm who wants to enhance performance with zero investment? John Brandt shares three magic bullets that properly applied to your firm can increase your performance immediately. Unbelievable? I've summarized them here with my comments:
Find the right workers qualified and motivated to work. Seek employees with strong ethics and a willingness to serve the customer. Use a formal hiring/recruiting program to extract talent from hiring pools rather than waiting for it to arrive. Better people make a company, start with a strong foundation that gives buyers what they want.
Train them repeatedly on areas important to company success. Require minimum proficiency levels and the training to reach them. Train individuals for specific objectives, like improving a process or solving a problem that is interrupting results. By doing this, you'll face tough competition with smarter workers.
Stay out of the way letting them direct their own efforts. Set guidelines at the management level, not rules that limit the adoption of your own best practices. Use clear performance measures that guide efforts toward business objectives. With decisions about customer service on the front line, people will use the training you have provided to do whats best for all involved.
These magic bullets do no good if you don't load them into your management team and fire them into your company process. You can enhance performance in all areas of your company with these magic bullets. What actions will you take today in employee selection, training, and management philosophy to produce the results you desire?