HR’s Vital Role in the Time, Talent, and Energy of Employees
“Too many companies are living in yesterday’s world. They are seeking competitive advantage through traditional methods, and they aren’t finding it. As a result hey are missing their main opportunity for boosting performance and outstripping competitors.”
With these opening words of their new book, Time, Talent, Energy, Bain consultants Michael Mankins and Eric Garton launch a combination manifesto and manual urging companies to stop focusing on acquiring and managing the principal scarce resource of the past — capital — and instead focus on acquiring and managing the scarce resources that truly make a competitive difference today: the time, talent and energy of our best people.
Most productivity books are focused on the individual. However, Mankins and Garton have a different message: “It’s not your employees’ fault that they are not as productive as they could or should be; it’s your organization’s fault.”
Unlike capital, which is easier to locate and access than ever before, Mankins’ and Gortons’ research shows that the time, talent and energy of leaders and employees are becoming more scarce. To be successful, companies must ensure that their people are the most effective they can be — that is, that they use their time wisely and that they pour their talent and their energy the organization.
However, most organizations don’t actually know where they invest their collective time, even though the tools are available to answer that question today. As a result, that scarce resource, time, is often squandered unintentionally, or not put to its highest value and best use, which is the test that leaders apply for things like financial capital. Therefore, applying the same principle for resource allocation to time will maximize and organizations time effectively, which in turn impact their productivity.
On the issue of talent, the authors describe how companies should find and develop what they call the “difference makers” and deploy all-star teams.
Employee engagement and inspiration can make an organization more effective. Research suggests that an employee who is satisfied with his or her work is 40% more productive than an unsatisfied one. But an engaged employee is 44% more productive than a satisfied worker, and an employee who feels inspired at work is nearly 125% more productive than a satisfied one. In short, an organization would need about two- and- a- quarter satisfied employees to produce as much as a single inspired worker.
However, the key to fostering inspired talent is deployment. In their study, there was hardly any difference in the number of star players between top companies and regular companies. The difference was they were deployed in the best companies on strategically important tasks rather than evenly across the firm’s functions.
The consultants urge leaders to be more thoughtful, assigning these “difference makers” to roles where they truly can make a difference, as Apple, Google, Tesla and other top companies do.
You also want to improve your ability to find these A players and the best way to do that is to have A players handle the hiring – not outside consultants and not B players, who may be challenged by the top talent they scout.
Managing energy requires a focus on employee inspiration and not just engagement.
Finally, focus on increasing the discretionary energy that people bring to their work. As previously stated, engaged employees are 75% more productive than satisfied employees. But even more significantly, inspired employees are 125% more productive than satisfied employees.
So you don’t just want to engage employees; you want to inspire them. And that will occur when their personal mission and ambition is aligned with the company’s mission and ambition.
Toms Shoes has inspired employees because, for every pair they sell, the company gives a pair to somebody in need. We may not have the same mantra as Tom Shoes at hand but we can try to help employees see their individual link to corporate goals, give them more autonomy and manage personally.
Understanding your direct reports personal ambitions and goals will help place them in a position where they can work out their passions in a way that drive the company to even greater success.
Overall, time, talent and energy are the key to success in any organization. To find out where your organization may have room for growth, you could start by asking questions that challenge these three areas.
