Are you proud of your workforce? Could they do better? Of course, none
of us are perfect. So, how do we get from our present state to the new improved
desired state? Would you believe the federal government can help? The National
Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the U.S. Department of
Commerce, manages the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. Their mission is
to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness and to that end they
publish a book detailing criteria for performance excellence. It can be
obtained free by calling (301) 975-2036 or by emailing baldrige@nist.gov.
Category 5, Workforce Focus,
provides some excellent food for thought.
The first element is to engage
the workforce to enthusiastically perform to their highest level. First and
foremost is to ensure good information flow, up, down, and across the
organization. Keep people informed. Empower them to make changes needed. In
order to do that, they must be adequately trained and trusted. That means get
to know them and work with them.
People need to have meaningful work, which provides them with
satisfaction of doing something worthwhile. The work must be enjoyable and provide
opportunities to take pride in the outcome. The work should be aligned with the
workers personal values.
The next element is to develop
the workforce. The people must be enabled to do excellent work. Good
professional training is always a necessity for good performance but one of the
first budgets to be cut in periods of belt tightening is always training.
Worker-training-worker is not the answer as can be demonstrated by the old game
of whispering something into the ear of a string of people and asking them to
pass it on to the next person. What comes out at the end has little relevance
to what was whispered to the first person. Similar distortions occur with the
worker-training-worker concept.
With the rapid advancements happening in the world today, people need to
be continually learning. It can happen inside or outside the organization,
in-person or distant, or by mentoring. How the learning takes place doesn’t
really matter as long as learning is constant. Individuals should be counseled
to identify their next position and training and education provided to prepare
them.
The third element of workforce effectiveness is management. Clear
direction of the desired outcome of the work must always be remembered. There
are two parts to communication, sending and receiving. Using two of our senses
is also key to communication, whenever possible, provide written form and oral
explanation. The manager needs to practice active listening and to reinforce
desired behavior with positive feedback. Trust and respect is absolutely
essential, up, down, and across the organization so it needs to always be on
the mind of the manager.
The managers’ main role is to innovate and improve capable processes
that enable the workforce to take pride and satisfaction in their work. The
workers role is to do the best they can within those processes.
By constantly focusing on improving engagement, development, and
management, a more productive, happier, and satisfied workforce will result.
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