Are Your Employees a Liability or an Asset?

When it comes to structuring your business for future success, how you define the roles within your organization will be key. Some CEO professional development consultants argue that your employees can serve to be your company’s greatest liability if you do not invest the time to determine your company’ trajectory and plan your recruitment, hiring, and training accordingly. Here are a few proven ways to ensure your company is primed for future success and you can effectively leverage your employees to be your company’s greatest asset.

#1 – Define the present and future roles within your organization

Your company will only be as successful as the business model it is built on. If you are unclear of your mission or your ultimate vision for your business, then knowing who to hire and when will be a challenge. To ensure your employees are an asset to your company, you must first define the roles that you need. It is an important exercise to consider both those roles that represent an immediate need as well as the roles that may evolve as your business reaches certain growth milestones. Knowing where your needs are now and into the future will give you a clear path to finding the right people at the right time.

#2 – Assign people to roles that fit their skills

All too often, and especially when your company’s roles are not well defined, you may promote or hire people for roles that are not well suited for them. This can be true when you experience high growth times and do not have enough employees to meet your demand. Having a hiring plan in place to help you begin sourcing for qualified applicants 6 months to a year in advance can be a great way to ensure you have ample time to find the right people for the specific roles you need to fill. When you have the wrong people in the wrong roles, you risk losing crucial momentum within your company. If at all possible, avoid “rush hiring”. You always want to have contingency plans in place and be aware of what roles may be coming available as far in advance as possible.

#3 – Be clear on what each role is expected to achieve

How often do you communicate performance expectations? Every employee should know what standards they are expected to meet as well as the rewards (and consequences) for not meeting them. Accountability is an important part of managing your employees and ensuring that they are able to produce in their given roles. When you have clearly defined roles within your organization, you can tie every company milestone to the work needed to be done by each individual role. The more you can communicate how your employees work feeds into the overall success (or failure) of the company, the more ownership you start to create.

Simply put, your employees should be one of, if not your company’s, greatest assets. However, in order to have this be true, you must put in the work now to define the roles within your organization, find the right people for the right roles, and be clear on your expectations.

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