As COVID-19 ran roughshod over our economy, tens of thousands of businesses were forced to close forever while others implemented layoffs and furloughs as a survival strategy.
In short, the American job market has been decimated by the global pandemic!
I understand the rationale of terminating employees as a last ditch effort to reduce costs to keep businesses afloat. HOWEVER, there are many options that visionary, compassionate leaders can and DO pursue instead of treating their people like disposable “assets” to be discarded.
Instead of layoffs, consider the following more creative, compassionate, and financially rewarding alternatives:
* Re-assign your people to new roles;
* Rotate staff between Departments and leverage cross-training;
* Allow 2 or more employees to job share one job;
* Empower your people to “own” their work;
* Pivot your entire business model;
* Enlist your employees as “Brand Ambassadors” by pursuing volunteer work and community engagement to forge powerful relationships with community stakeholders;
* Reward, recognize, coach, mentor, engage, train your employees;
* Find each person’s skills that they are not using in their current role, and rearchitect their work to enable them to leverage those skills; and
* Encourage your people to come up with new ideas for products/services, identify process improvements, and achieve operational efficiency.
These are only a few ideas you can implement IMMEDIATELY to avoid laying off your greatest competitive advantage. The possibilities of untapping employee potential are nearly limitless.
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People are NOT assets! They aren’t living photocopiers with limbs that depreciate over time, until you find it expedient to replace them. Heck no! Your people are the ONLY lasting competitive advantage you have. THEY are your Unique Value Proposition, your Point of Differentiation.
BUT, how do you know you have the right people in the right positions, doing work they are most capable of and passionate about?
You hired your employees to fill job vacancies, and as such recruited people who possessed a specific set of skills, background, and qualifications to perform a specific set of tasks and do the job. Right?
But…how are you leveraging ALL of their OTHER skills, education, training, certifications so they are empowered to “own” their work? Are you giving them control over how they do their work, when they do it, where they do it, and who they work with to achieve greatness? Otherwise, what’s the point? Why did you hire them?
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I have developed a training program to teach you and your people how to conduct a human capital audit. I work with organizations to help them identify ALL of the skills their people possess but are NOT actively using in their current roles.
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Then I show them how to re-architect their employee’s work in order to maximize their potential and increase their performance and productivity. This leads to increased employee retention, higher job satisfaction, more active engagement, proactive client relationship management, and…enhanced financial performance.
What do you think about finding and unleashing employee untapped potential to survive and thrive in 2021?