What do your customers value about your talent?

This month I was listening to a podcast about talent and leadership development.  As business owners we should bi-annually be reviewing a nine block talent organizational chart. (If you are not completing a nine block organizational chart review, call me or email me, we can set up a time to have a discussion around this important business assignment to strategic workforce planning.)  If your Organization is reviewing its nine block regularly, congrats that is awesome!   However, today I want the focus to be what do your paying customers/stakeholders think about the talent you are hiring?  Are you seeing the customer’s voice in the value your talent is adding back to your Organization?

Your company’s hiring decisions have a factor on how successful the business will be.  A strong detailed definition of the wants and needs of the talent essentials is imperative for each position which is hired within your Organization. (Clarity can help to solve these recruiting challenges and have definitive templates to help your organization find “A” talent. Clarity can provide analytical benchmarks to ensure the recruiting team is meeting their business objectives. Call me for more information!) But…there is always a BUT, has your organization ever thought about what the paying customers love about your talent? In my own personal experience in the B2B world, I would call 5 to 10 customers a month and ask them a few questions about how my employees where performing in their daily work. Not to take up too much time of my customer’s day, I would limit my questions to 3-5 minutes.  I would keep my questions simple by asking;

• Is my employee professional when they arrive at your business/home?
• When you call into our business does our employee help to satisfy your product needs, and does our employee have the ability to answer questions you might have about our businesses products/services?
• Does my team add value to your business by being a good business partner to meet your business’s needs?
• Do you see areas of improvement in which my employees can help to strengthen our business partnership?

By just a few simple questions you can see if your Organization’s talent is adding value to your products and services. If you get positive responses to the questions above, your business recruiting team is doing a job well done in identifying “A” talent which will have a ROI back to your business.  If you get responses not so great, it gives the Organization a chance to go back and find out what the employee talent is missing.  Having customer conversations also gives the management team an opportunity to go and have a conversation with the employee to ensure their work is aligned with the organization’s mission statement.

Find a way to measure your customer value. (Without meaningful, measureable metrics, a business cannot improve.  Clarity can help with brainstorming metrics to measure talent for sustainable ROI.) Remember, talent is 66% of your business costs.  It is important to ensure your team is creating customer value outside of your 4 walls, and the employees are always performing to the business objectives.

Clarity’s human resource solutions are tailored based on individual client needs that are designed to deliver day-to-day efficiencies as well as long-term strategic benefit through improved HR management.