Do the people who work for you have the competencies and intrinsic nature to actually do the work you need them to do?
Job Needs + Employee’s Intrinsic Strengths = Optimum Performance
| “We don’t hire people and tell them to act happy, we hire happy people." |
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From a hotel advertisement. |
If you need strong customer service, are your employees intrinsically motivated by, and capable of, consistently delivering good customer service?
The simple quote, “We don’t hire people and tell them to act happy, we hire happy people.” makes so much sense. Hire the people who are naturally predisposed to doing what you need them to do and you get optimum performance.
Instead of trying to teach someone to be happy or empathetic or detail-oriented or a strategic thinker, hire someone who is naturally oriented toward the skill and attribute you need.
Marcus Buckingham, in his latest book, The One Thing You Need To Know…About Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Success states that great managers play chess, not checkers. Like the game of chess, you must know what each player can do. As you know the exact strength of each player, you can capitalize on that strength by placing them in positions that allow them to give you optimum performance.
Buckingham advises, “Capitalizing on each person’s uniqueness saves you time. Even the most talented employees are not perfectly well-rounded. The inefficient manager is one who fights against those imperfections and tries to eradicate them.”
If you have an employee who is not performing optimally, and you want to keep them with your company, you have two options:
- Determine that person’s strongest attributes, motivators and style, and move them to a role where they can and will be successful.
- Determine that person’s strongest attributes, motivators and style, and re-arrange the current role so that his strengths are used more readily. In addition, help the employee specifically develop the areas that are key to the success of the job.
In a national survey conducted in June, 2004, we worked with employers who used our online system to benchmark the competencies, rewards/culture and behaviors that are necessary for optimum performance.
Clients use position benchmarks to:
- Write the job descriptions and job ads
- Guide the interview process
- Measure each candidate’s competency in each area, via online assessment
- Create new hire performance folios, development plans
- Manage performance of employees
The roles we benchmarked were: Supervisor, Technical Professional, CEO, Outside Sales and Customer Service.
The Technical Professional benchmark is provided here for you. We’ve included a short description of each area determined in the survey as important for optimum performance. We’ve also included one interview question for each important factor. These industry benchmarks do not take in account your specific culture and position, but could be useful in guiding your hiring efforts.
Industry Benchmark: Technical Professional
(Total of 37 factors measured in this report, 11 shown here.)
Top 7 Attributes for Optimum Performance in Technical Position Benchmark.
Measure: Will the individual do the job?
This looks at the "engine" of the individual and provides a true measure of the individual's strengths, ability and capacity.
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1
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Self Management
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The ability to prioritize and complete tasks in order to deliver desired outcome within allotted time frames. Interview Question: Give me a specific example of a project that you were responsible for organizing form beginning to end. How did you go about it? How did you deal with changes that arose? How did you ensure that the project stayed on track? What was the final outcome? What did you learn from this experience? Look For: Ability to prioritize; control over time and their reactions. Alarm: Blaming others; heavy expressions of overwhelm. |
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2
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Results Orientation
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The ability to identify actions necessary to complete tasks and obtain results. Interview Question: Give me an example of a project that you completed and the outcome. Please give me the most essential components of that project that played the biggest role in its completion. Look For: Focus; on-budget; on-time; excitement about the results; enjoyment of the impact of the result. Alarm: Evidence of tension and frustration about the results needed. |
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3
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Problem Solving
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The ability to identify key components of a problem to formulate a solution or solutions. Interview Question: Give me an example of a problem you solved at work and describe ho you went about solving it. Look For: Ability to pool together numerous resources; Ability to look at all aspects of the problem. A rich, hard to resolve situation. Alarm: No process; getting stuck; easy problem. |
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4
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Personal Accountability
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A measure of capacity to be answerable for personal actions. Interview Question: What is the worst business decision you ever made? What made it worse? Look For: Focus on correcting the problem; taking responsibility for his/her part. Alarm: Placing blame; making excuses. |
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5
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Continuous Learning
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The ability to take personal responsibility and action toward learning and implementing new ideas, methods and technologies. Interview Question: Describe for me how you’ve invested in your own professional growth in the last 12 months. Look For: Initiative; strong drive to meet goals; enjoyment of the learning. Alarm: A short list or no list. |
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6
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Teamwork
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The ability to cooperate with others to meet objectives. Interview Question: What in your opinion is the most important thing to always remember when you are on a team? What is the worst mistake a person on a team can make? Look For: Valuing others perspectives and strengths; emphasis on communication and sharing of time and resources. Alarm: My way is the only way perspective; "teams make me crazy"; big emphasis on the mistakes in teams. |
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7
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Customer Focus
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A commitment to customer satisfaction. Interview Question: Give me an example of a time when you knew the customer was wrong but you had to accommodate their wishes. How did you handle it? What did you say? What did you do? How did you feel about it? Look For: Ability to read and understand the customer's perspective; emotional control; evidence of solutions found and win/win. Alarm: Shallow understanding of the customer's perspective; stereotyping of others. |
Top 2 Rewards/Motivators/Culture for Optimal Performance in Technical Position Benchmark
Measure: Why will the individual do the job?
This looks at what the job will reward. Match this with what motivates and energizes and individual, and you'll get optimum performance.
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1
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Theoretical
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Rewards those who value knowledge for knowledge’s sake, continuing education and intellectual growth. Interview Question: How comfortable are you in taking the time, energy and effort required to master a subject or topic you currently know very little about? How about one in which you have very little interest? Look For: Interest in learning ANY topic; true excitement about gaining knowledge and being an expert. Alarm: Resistance to studying subjects of little interest. |
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2
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Traditional/Regulatory
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Rewards those who value traditions inherent in social structure, rules, regulations and principles. Interview Question: Tell me about ‘rules’. Give me an example of a rule that you have relative to your work. Where did you learn that rule? How rigid is it? Look For: High energy and belief in rules, traditions and systems; appreciation for organizational structure. Alarm: "I make the rules up along the way." |
Top 2 Behaviors for Optimal Performance in Technical Position Benchmark
Measure: How will the individual do the job?
This looks at the kind of personality and personal style best suited to the position..
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1
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Organized Workplace
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This job’s success depends on systems and procedures, its successful performance is tied to careful organization of activities, tasks and projects that require accuracy. Record keeping and planning are essential components of the job. Interview Question: Tell me about jobs you have had that required diligent record keeping and systematic planning. Describe the job. Describe your level of satisfaction with that job. What was your level of success? Look For: A solid process and eagerness in sharing the details of the process with you. Alarm: "Record keeping stresses me out."; no detailed process.
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2
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Analysis of Data
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The job deals with a large number of details. It requires that details, data and facts are analyzed and challenged prior to making decisions and that important decision-making data is maintained accurately for repeated examination as required. Interview Question: How do you organize details for recall and use? What system do you use? Would you ever consider yourself to be careless with details? Why do you say that? Look For: Solid system of analysis; specific examples of detail orientation. Alarm: Expressing frustration with the amount of details. |
This Benchmark is based on a National Survey and from that perspective serves a template for what the job of Technical Professional needs for success.
As it is with everything in life, being exact and clear about what you want is the key to getting exactly what you want. If you want optimum performance you have to have a clear vision and a way to measure to that vision. You then have to communicate and manage what you’ve measured.
Job Benchmark
