The trend of employers having to deal with a declining performance in the workplace seems to be intensifying according to recent research by The Kabachnick Group. Here are some of our latest discoveries:

• 92% of employers tell us their company fails to deal effectively with poor performers.
• 54% of employees leaving a company do so because of having to deal with disengaged co-workers.
• 78% of managers tell us their greatest challenge is “managing today’s workers.”

What’s an employer to do? Here are a few of our recommendations: (more…)

Assessing current employees can increase retention and spark engagement.  Consider these questions:

1. Is the employee using her natural skills?
2. What is her productivity level compared with her potential?
3. How is the team’s productivity?
4. Should this employee be counseled to consider work in a different environment?
5. Should the employee be repositioned or reclassified?
6. Is the employee ready for new responsibilities?
7. What can her direct supervisor do to increase her job satisfaction?

“Only through dedicated work does a man fulfill himself.”
– William S. Carlson

As customers, we have been “served” by people who quit but never left. As employees, we have been managed by bosses who stopped managing, but managed to stay. As managers, we have managed people who physically attend, but mentally pretend. We call them—disengaged workers—a deadly virus that’s spreading throughout American business.

Survey after survey reveals that the number one issue facing business today is finding and retaining talented employees. Nationally, employee turnover averages 12 percent each year, a challenge that is costing millions. Yet retention is not a cure for turnover. Retaining a disengaged employee is actually far worse than letting him go—regardless of how valuable he once was.
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You will never get peak performance from someone who doesn’t have the beliefs and values that match the job.  Beliefs and values dictate how people interact with the world.  When a person’s values align well with the values important to the job and are recognized and rewarded by the organization, the outcome is high performance.  Beliefs and values cannot be imposed.  They are fundamental human qualities that are as individual as fingerprints and that enable you to align people with the right positions for them.

“Strong beliefs win strong men, and then make them stronger.”
Walter Bagehot

Behaviors tell us how a person will go about doing her work, while values and attitudes help us pinpoint the reasons why she will perform well and remain engaged. However, if we do not know what the job requires, how can we match a person to the position? This is precisely where most businesses make their first mistake. They focus on the type of person they want in the job rather than the type of work the job requires. They shouldn’t be focusing on the type of person they wanted, but on what the job required in terms of skills, behaviors, values and attributes.

Many companies go through this grueling process every day with no thought as to why turnover continues and why training produces few results. Some companies actually study and assess their top performers to benchmark the qualities needed in new hires. The problem with this system, however, is that one company’s top performer is another’s mediocre performer. That’s why people who are very successful at one company sometimes crash and burn at another. Conversely, some people will fail at one firm, and become superstars at another.

Do you know your behaviors and values – your employees’?

Email: performance@kabachnick.com.

Behaviors tell us how a person will go about doing her work, while values and attitudes help us pinpoint the reasons why she will perform well and remain engaged. However, if we do not know what the job requires, how can we match a person to the position? This is precisely where most businesses make their first mistake. They focus on the type of person they want in the job rather than the type of work the job requires. They shouldn’t be focusing on the type of person they wanted, but on what the job required in terms of skills, behaviors, values and attributes.

(more…)