Why is it important to retain existing workforce? To upskill? To motivate?
Do we really think our employees are our biggest asset and not liabilities?
So why are they considered to be fixed cost, when customers are on top?
They say it’s cheaper to keep existing customers because of the high cost of acquiring new ones.
So why are we quick to demote, fire, and outsource the people behind our products and services?
Do we hold top leaders accountable for not taking the employees along the change journey?
Top management drives change, but they are terrible with execution. Employees must continue with the old while trying to implement the new. They run out of hours and motivation. There is no clear cut over plan. Top management must make tough decisions to cut away the past before embarking on the future. No wonder corporates sit with too many and too expensive legacy people, processes, and technologies.
I have worked for great companies with awesome people. I have seen excellent strategies that cost millions to develop turn into total waste. Without execution, all changes become sunk costs. Because execution cannot be outsourced to management consultants and smart algorithms. Because they aren’t built to drive change. That’s why they chose to work for management consulting companies. Codes work on a set of predefined logic.
Change is messy! People are even messier. Change must stem from within. Operations must come for the change ride while not dropping any glass balls.
Who drives internal change? Existing employees. Especially the people at the lowest level facing our customers everyday. Do they have the skills, knowledge and motivation to execute on the change? Do they have the support and air time with top management? Do they understand where and how they fit in? Do they know what they are supposed to do? And stop doing?
The answer is a fat no!
I agree with Ben Horowitz on the need to make effective and relevant in-house training mandatory. To cease hiring the new until existing employees have been given a chance.
Why? The cost of retrenchment is too high. It takes the best of the best at least one month to learn their new job. And probably six months to understand the new business. Time is not to be wasted. Customers will not wait for us. They will simply choose another product or service provider.
Because it we are not making sense, we are not making money. No customer, no company.
Article link below.
https://www.businessinsider.com/why-its-crucial-to-train-your-employees-2010-5?IR=T