Your employees are the lifeblood of your company. The success of the business depends on their ability to perform their jobs well, bringing their talent, creativity, and hard work to bear on each project or task. When you’re seeking to fuel company growth, one of the first actions you take is evaluating talent needs in order to find new workers that can meet the demands of your business. But have you stopped to consider whether bringing on new people is the right move? Are there pools of talent waiting to be tapped among the employees you already have on the payroll?
Most employees do not currently invest 100% of their talent and creativity into their jobs. Liz Wiseman recently explained in an article written for the Harvard Business Review that “diminishing” managers, or those who tend to focus only on self-generated ideas rather than those generated by the people around them, utilize less than half of the abilities and intelligence of their employees. Before you protest that you aren’t such a manager, consider this: Wiseman also reported that the average executive manager makes use of only 66% of the talents, creativity, and abilities of their staff. Couple that with the fact that under-used employees tend to feel frustrated in their jobs, and you have either a royal disaster or a golden opportunity.
Training your managers to become “multipliers” (another Wiseman term) teaches them to draw out the abilities of those around them rather than stifling them. In other words, make use of the capabilities your employees already bring to the table before you call a recruiting agency. The benefits? Your employees will work harder while feeling more satisfied in their positions. You’ll also build a reputation as a desirable place to work, so that when you are ready to hire, finding the right person won’t be difficult.
There is undisputed value in bringing new talent into the company, especially when a fresh perspective, unique skills, or specific training, education, and experience are essential to the position. And sometimes, the employees you have really are operating at full capacity and can’t meet any additional demands. When you’re ready to hire new blood, make sure the integration process is seamless so that new employees immediately feel connected, valued, and part of the team.