Found The Right People.
Can You Keep Them?

By Allyn Cutts, President
Cutts Group, llc

A recent survey conducted by a major benefits firm reports that 78% of all US companies list their most critical concern as "Employee Retention." Okay, you didn't need me to tell you this. You're experiencing it first hand. Well, are you aware of some of the real costs involved when you lose an employee?

To begin with, the average company invests from $10,000 to $107, 320 in the hiring of a single employee. This includes recruitment, advertising, training and administrative overheads. If that person leaves, she takes with her not only your initial investment, but also valuable knowledge, talent and perhaps even customers.

Even worse, finding and replacing good employees steals time and energy away from other projects and tasks, including retaining and nurturing the remaining staff. There are also hidden costs and lost opportunities impossible to measure.

It's easy to see why retaining good employees is critical to your company's success. If you don't have effective strategies for finding and keeping good people-- at every level-you may be in trouble. The time to implement strong programs is now.

Can You Stop
The Revolving Door?

You hire them, you train them, they move on.

To stop the revolving door, you must first understand why employees leave. One significant factor is tension or stress created by conflicts between the natural behavioral style of the individual and the behavioral style required by the job.

Sometimes there is conflict between the core values and attitudes held by the individual and those required by the job. In either case, things just don't "fit." It's the square peg in a round hole syndrome.

Almost always, the employee has the appropriate talent and ability --backed up by solid experience-- to perform the elements of the task well. If not, you wouldn't have hired them in the first place. Right?

It's the manner the talent and ability are applied-the how of approaching the problems, people, pace and procedures that determines the level of performance.

It's the gap between how the person behaves and the behavior that is required that can frustrate employees and have them cleaning out their desks and heading for the door.

Research by Harvard University shows that 80 percent of all turnovers are due to hiring mistakes. And these "mistakes" almost always reflect on conflicts between a person's behavioral style and the style required by the company and the job.

Human Behavioral Styles

Understanding human behavior is essential for business success. Many diagnostic and assessment systems that identify and assess human behavioral styles are based on the groundbreaking research of noted pioneer behaviorist, William Moulton Marston.

Just as the modern day discovery of DNA cracked the genetic code, Marston's findings unlocked behavioral codes. His finding present a reliable "DNA" for how we do what we do. In his research, he identified four stimuli that are universal. People the world over respond in specific ways to four categories that can be most simply defined as:

• Problems
• People
• Pace
• Procedures

The way we respond to these four "P"s provides important clues to our innate "type" or "behavioral style." Marston measured the degree of response to these four essential "P"s and observed four "types" of behavior:

• Dominance - the drive to overcome opposing forces
  
  
• Influence - the attempt to sway the opinions of others and form alliances
  
  
• Steadiness - the ability to maintain a consistent pace at any activity level. Persistence.
  
  
• Compliance - the willingness to comply with rules and traditions

Everyone demonstrates some degree of each of these four types of behavior. However, the degree to which we consistently exhibit each type, signals our natural, or preferred behavioral style.

How we respond creates patterns of behavior that define our natural tendencies, making it easier to predict how we'll behave in the future under diverse circumstances or specific conditions.

For example, a person who exhibits high "I" tendencies will likely be a good team player. High "I"'s are people, rather than task oriented, so make good negotiators and easily inspire or motivate others.

.... and Job Styles

In a corresponding way, every job, or task, has inherent requirements for specific behaviors as well as specific values and attitudes. Some jobs demand the decisive, quick action of a high "D" personality. Others jobs require critical thinking and slower processing.

"There are as many job "types" as there are people "types," according to Allyn Cutts, founder of the Cutts Group, a coaching and consulting firm. "Our extensive research and benchmark data identifies 384 variations of individual performance styles. There are at least as many behavioral requirements for jobs. The trick is making the right match. "

When a person is hired to do a job that matches the natural behaviors he or she brings to the job, it's easier to focus full energy on completing the job. This heightens enjoyment and increases job "satisfaction."

On the other hand, when a person assumes a job that demands behaviors markedly different than the individual's natural responses, that doesn't mean the individual cannot do the job. It simply means some adjustments and adaptations must be made.

People can, and do, compensate for their natural "style." But battling against natural style can expend enormous amounts of energy, taking valuable time away from the tasks at hand, sometimes even before the job begins.

You can easily see how stress levels rise to the point that there's little energy-or enthusiasm-left over to complete the job.

An example might be a person who needs a lot of information before beginning a project who's placed in a challenging position that requires fast execution with little data or input.

Or an extroverted, risk-taking person placed in a position that requires little interaction with others and offers only predictable routine, when that person thrives on risk-taking and exciting challenges.

Whenever there's a mismatch between employee and job, it's the employee who must adapt-or leave. The job is neutral. It doesn't care if the employee is happy or not.

Sometimes, the attempt to adjust can be so stressful that problems overflow into other areas of a person's life, and may even affect health. It always affects your bottom line.

Protect Your Profitability

Industry experts estimate that your company's turnover rate can be reduced by 70 percent simply by hiring individuals who "fit" the job. Researchers in every industry point to the direct correlation between employee retention and increased profitability.

When you keep good people you save money -and you make money through increased productivity; increased ROI for recruiting, hiring and training and accrued knowledge. In fact, one international business consultant states that human capital is the only investment with the possibility for producing infinite returns.

Are your investments in "human capital" paying off? If you're losing good employees or having to fire new employees for poor performance, it's time to assess your systems and procedures.

With the right systems and procedures in place, you can save thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of dollars otherwise lost in the revolving door of hiring and training.

The Right Professional Tools

"The right tools for specific stages of hiring, training, motivating, coaching and retaining employees can play a significant role in the success of any organization," according to Cutts. "Utilizing comprehensive, proven effective systems, like the advanced systems we make available through Proper People Placement (is the surest way to ensure success in finding and retaining the right people for every job. Hiring the right person for the right job every time, is the fasted path to top performance for every employee, and every department. "

What Are You Waiting For?

Even with such compelling evidence for the effectiveness of systems like Proper People Placement, many companies, especially smaller businesses, delay the decision to invest in third-part consulting or systems.

"Delaying is an expensive mistake," according to Cutts. "A single mismatched employee can snarl traffic on a multitude of important projects and generate resentment and dissatisfaction throughout the team. In a small company, the stakes are even higher. One stressed out, dissatisfied employee with a small company can disrupt everyone's work patterns and may even injure a company's reputation as well as the profit margins."

Using systems that provide valid, detailed diagnostic and assessment tools is the simplest, surest way to find the right person with the right "fit" for each job.

In a recent poll, more than 50% of the employees who are unhappy with their job say their relationship with a manager is to blame.

Proper People Placement (PPP) is a comprehensive system that utilizes the most advanced, accurate and in-depth diagnostic, assessment and measurement procedures and tools available. For more information, contact the Cutts Group at (800) 482-7280, or (610) 437-4106 outside the U.S. and Canada or visit us on the web at http://www.cuttsgroup.com.

The Cutts Group partners with clients who are committed to continuous growth. We provide the organizational development, team building, employee selection, executive coaching, and sales training resources our clients demand for measurable results and return on investment. Satisfaction and investment are always guaranteed, always.