Can you type’ your employees?
Determining who’s adaptable, and who’s not
The ever-changing work environment in the ’90s has been a major source of employee stress and a significant threat to the emotional well-being of employees as individuals and the employee population as a whole.
While change is unavoidable, some employees are more adaptable to change than others; knowing who these employees are, and how to help those who are less adaptable, can help ensure a healthier employee population in a company whose culture is undergoing significant change. What’s more, it will help ensure your company’s future success.
"No strategy will ever succeed if the people are unwilling or unable to implement it," says David Hofrichter, a vice president of The Hay Group, a worldwide management consulting firm in Philadelphia. "Too many companies have focused on implementing strategy and ignored the basic concept of whether they have the right people to make it work."
Superstars and Recalcitrants
While every employee is an individual, many of the people who work in your company fall into four major groups — Superstars, Open-minders, Skeptics, or Recalcitrants — according to The Hay Group. Knowing more about the composition of your employee population, and how they fit into those categories, can give you invaluable insight into whether they will readily adapt to a changing work environment, and whether morale can be maintained through significant shifts in corporate culture.
The following is an outline of those four categories, and how to approach employees within each group.
1. Superstars. These people have internalized the company’s vision and have the right behaviors and competencies for success. They create value and leverage themselves and others’ talents. Set these employees up as an example of what your company can be:
• Do whatever it takes to retain them.
• Reward their exceptional talent handsomely.
2. Open-minders: Even though some of these employees may have underperformed in the past because of poor skills or weak competencies, they are ready to align themselves with the new culture and are eager to be part of the plan. With development, they will be contributors. The recommended strategies:
• They are worth investing in; get them trained fast.
• Educate them to improve their competencies.
• Bring in coaching and competency evaluation to help them identify and improve their weaknesses.
• Reward them well when they improve.
• Spend your development dollars here to get the most payoff.
3. Skeptics. These employees perform well, but they are doubtful about changes being touted from top management and have taken a "wait and see" attitude. Their ability to deliver results is clear; they need to learn how to do it in new ways. Many times, those are the people who get results, but have a lot of "dead bodies" in the course of the process. This is the critical employee group. About one-half will see the light, want to change, and will become Superstars. The rest will move into the Recalcitrants. The recommended strategies:
• Start by identifying which individuals are worth developing.
• Provide them with mentoring and coaching.
• Tie rewards to changes in behaviors and attitudes.
• Be clear about what your expectations are.
4. Recalcitrants. These employees have performed adequately — or even well — in the past, but they are entrenched in the way things have been done and are likely to resist, or even sabotage, change efforts. In most organizations, this group represents about 15% of employees. The recommended strategies:
• These people are not worth developing or retaining; show them the door as soon as possible.
• Trying to "save" them will send the wrong message to the rest of your employees.
• Find new people who are behaviorally and emotionally in sync with the desired corporate culture.
"The new reality is to shape your strategy around the key assets you have," Hofrichter says. "Treat [employees] all the same at your peril."
[For further information, contact: David Hofrichter, The Hay Group, 100 Penn Square East, The Wanamaker Building, Philadelphia, PA 19107-3388. Telephone: (215) 861-2000.Fax: (215) 861-2111. Web site: www.haygroup.com.]
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