[Source: RVBusiness, 01.2014 | Keywords: Human Resources, Job Performance]
We have noticed that most dealerships are lacking a capability critical to its ongoing success. The absence of this capability results in inefficiency, low productivity, poor attitudes, de-motivation and frustrated employees and managers. Recent research indicates only one third of all employees are “engaged” in their work. This missing factor is the ability to identify and measure the six factors that truly drive employee performance. This is a puzzle that is unsolved by most managers. And, like a puzzle, even if you have all the pieces, it still needs to be assembled in the right way to achieve your desired result!
Many managers are not able to consistently hire the right people for the right jobs. Organizations of all sizes struggle to effectively “fit” employees to jobs. To better understand and predict good job fit, managers need to learn how to profile jobs using six key factors: three types of motivations and three types of capabilities. Once you know what motivations and capabilities the job requires, you can measure these same factors in your job candidates to improve your chances of achieving job satisfaction for them and high performance for your business.
Motivation Factor #1: Personal Style
The preferences and core personality attributes of a person have a significant impact on how a person naturally performs a job. For example, all human beings have a preference for either work that is more task-focused, or for work that is more people-focused. Understanding which focus a job requires and how closely the candidate fits are critical. People are also naturally inclined to be either faster-paced or slower-paced, and can instinctively fit certain types of jobs better than others. If a person is a poor fit for their job, they can use as much as three to five times more physical and emotional energy to get that job done. This additional expenditure of energy can often be tied to burnout.
Motivation Factor #2: Personal Values
One’s personal values drive what they believe is right versus wrong and good versus bad. One easy way to easily identify values is by thinking about a person’s overall focus – most people can be identified as either more “me” focused or more “we” focused. There are jobs for both types of values focus in your dealership, but it’s important to have a values fit in your company’s key jobs. For example, key leadership roles often require the “we” focus that creates all-win solutions between people and work groups in the business. Personal values are a critical component of matching the person with a job, and there are simple and effective assessments that can identify the personal values for any job candidate.
Motivation Factor #3: Personal Interests
The personal interests of a person are the “type” of work about which they are most passionate, and they also help identify the type of job that leads to long-term fulfillment. This factor alone can determine whether a tech or salesperson will effectively make the transition to a supervisory or management position.
One common area where we see this misunderstood factor have an impact is with a strong front-line employee being considered for a management role. For example, most effective salespeople enjoy an environment with lots of opportunities for relating with people, and they are highly interested in the dollars and cents of selling (relational and economic work interests are usually identified as important for sales jobs). However, sales managers usually work much less with the customers on the front-line, and instead they are often responsible for the financial results of the department as well as for establishing and managing effective processes (economic and routines work interests). Promoting your high-performing salesperson to sales manager (if the sales manager job “fit” is not good for the person) is often likely to result in less job satisfaction – and often lower performance – for that person and your dealership.
Factor #4: Job-Specific Capabilities
These capabilities are unique to a job or industry. Examples include industry knowledge, technical skills and experience. This is the single most commonly-used factor for making hiring decisions, often because it is the easiest to assess in an interview. But while it is important for some positions, it is often the least accurate predictor of future performance among these six motivations and capabilities.
Factor #5: Transferable Capabilities
These competencies cross departments, industries and jobs. Some examples are problem-solving, communications, creativity and process management. If a person is good at problem-solving in one job, it is highly likely they will “transfer” that with them to a new job. Transferable Capabilities typically become more critical as a job becomes more complex.
Factor #6: Adaptability
Adaptability is rapidly becoming one of the most important predictors of success. Adaptability is the person’s ability to be willing (flexible) and able (versatile) to respond to new or changing circumstances.
As Peter Drucker once said, “The ability to make good decisions regarding people represents one of the last reliable sources of competitive advantage, since very few organizations are very good at it.”
How good is your dealership at placing the right people in the right jobs?