Renee West from Luxor and Excalibur Hotel once said, “You can have the best strategy and the best building in the world, but if you don’t have the hearts and minds of the people who work with you, none of it comes to life.”
We probably don’t need to tell you that your employees are essential to your company’s success. The right employees will help propel your company forward as you scale. The wrong employees will constantly create new obstacles for you to overcome along the way. But there is another layer that many forget.
You can have the best employees and still experience constant problems if you don’t manage them properly. But how do you know if you just have the wrong employees or if your talent management is the problem?
The following are five signs that you are dealing with a talent management issue in your organization.
1. You are constantly redoing the work you delegate to employees
If you are delegating tasks but find you end up doing or redoing the work yourself anyway, it’s a clear sign that changes are necessary.
Before placing the blame on your employee, take a minute to look at yourself and your delegation process. Are you providing employees with the information and resources they need to be successful? Are you providing them with the authority to make the necessary decisions? Or are you trying to maintain full control while expecting them to do the work?
If you know that you are properly delegating the tasks, it’s time to look at your employees. Do you have the right employees in the right position? Are you trying to hang onto an employee who isn’t qualified for the position? Or maybe your employee needs additional training and support to increase the quality of their work.
Action Step: Evaluate your delegation process and employee performance to determine where the errors are beginning and then make a plan to correct it for the future.
2. You don’t have an onboarding process in place for new hires
Many entrepreneurs start out in business as solopreneurs. You are the one doing all the work in the business. But as the business grows, you reach the point where you can’t continue to grow unless you hire someone to help. Many entrepreneurs hire quickly out of desperation without taking the time to create a hiring or onboarding process.
Then, every time they add new employees, it feels like they are reinventing the wheel, trying to remember what steps to follow when hiring and training employees.
If you have employees in your company and don’t have an onboarding process written and documented, it’s time to get one in place. If you don’t have employees but want your company to grow and scale in the future, it’s important to get a process in place now before you need it. Doing so will make the hiring and onboarding process easier for you in the future and provide consistency between employees.
Action Step: Write out what your ideal hiring and onboarding process would look like. Think about previous hires you’ve made, along with steps you would like to include to make it easier for employees to get up and running with the company.
3. Employees are unhappy
Negative employees can be a sign of low employee morale due to poor talent management. However, it’s not always easy to determine the cause of employee attitudes. Stress, anxiety, and burnout are high among employees right now, but it’s not purely work-related. For example, one study from this spring found that 72% of employees are stressed about their finances. Inflation is causing problems for people, and it’s unrealistic to expect that this stress won’t impact their work performance and attitude.
If you notice a trend that employee attitudes are declining, it’s an indication of a problem. Take time to look for the root cause of the problem. Talk to your employees to see what you can learn. It may be that the expectations of their job are too high or that there is a toxic manager. It could also be that there are one or two negative employees who are spreading their attitudes to others. Or, it may be that life is difficult right now, and employees are struggling on a personal level.
Action Step: Once you know the root cause of employee unhappiness, you can create a plan to begin addressing it. The best next step will vary based on the cause. If your employees are struggling personally, providing workplace wellness training or an employee financial literacy program could help. But you may discover that there are changes that need to be made within the staff and/or job expectations.
4. There are no documented plans for performance reviews or feedback
Do your employees ask for raises, and you aren’t really sure how to answer? Have you never provided employee performance reviews? Do your employees want feedback, but you are too busy to get to them?
As a leader of a growing business, it’s crucial that you have documented processes in place for employee feedback and performance reviews. Staying on top of these areas helps you have a clear view of how your employees are really doing so you can make adjustments as needed. It also allows employees to receive regular feedback, allowing them to make adjustments and improvements as needed.
Employees will quickly grow frustrated if they only hear from you when there is a problem and don’t receive positive feedback. They will also become frustrated if they don’t know if they can expect to get an annual raise or not.
Action Step: If you don’t have a process for providing routine feedback and regular performance reviews, take time to write a process and implement it.
5. There are processes and systems in place, but they aren’t being followed
Your systems and processes are only helpful if you and other managers are following them. It doesn’t matter how many well-laid-out plans you have for talent acquisition, management, and retention if no one knows about them. If you have multiple managers within your organization, it’s essential that everyone is using and following the systems and processes you have in place.
Action Step: Create a process for checking in with department managers and leaders to ensure your processes and systems are being implemented across the board.
Want help figuring out how to improve talent management?
SPEARity provides multiple coaching options, from group business coaching to one-on-one leadership coaching. Our coaches can help assess your business and determine what steps are essential for you to take as you work on scaling your company. Start exploring your best business coaching options today.
