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Investing in People – A company’s largest investment!

If you take Jim Collins’ word for it and believe that great companies first ask who getting the right people on the bus, then you place a large value on people.  I agree with Jim that people are a company’s largest investment.

I served as the head of Human Resources for a publicly traded company during 2001 and 2002.  During which time I spent the majority of my time fixing policy errors, hiring mistakes, compensation issues and other abuses of my predecessors.  I learned a lot about people management during my stint with the company and have assembled a list of talent management “MUST DOs” :

  • It is not “HR” it is Talent Management (start by placing the right adjectives on it)
  • Talent management is every managers responsibility not just three clerks in a corner.
  • Discussing people or the team is always a priority – building a great team is the same as building a great company.
  • When the team comes to you and tells you one member does not fit – they don’t PERIOD!
  • Invest in the talent – training is to people as repairs and maintenance are to plant and equipment – you certainly oil machines – so to do you need to “oil” your talent.
  • All salaries do not have to equal but they do have to be equitable.  You better be able to justify salary differences.
  • Bonuses must be tied to two things – first company performance and then and only then to individual performance.  It does no good to award personal performance if the company is failing. – The extra credit part of this is that I actually believe that client performance should be first but that is another topic.
  • The head of Talent Management must sit on the executive team.
  • Once a year for feedback is not acceptable.  Feedback must be given every single day!  Great coaches are constantly giving feedback during the game.  Why don’t managers? They were never taught to give direct constant feedback.
One last point – If you can tie a team member’s strengths, dreams, desires, or development goals to that of the company’s then you will create alignment that will yield great outcomes.
Talent Management must be raised as a priority as it is your largest investment.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 6:46 am and is filed under Start up Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Investing in People – A company’s largest investment!”

  1. Kylie Batt Says:
    May 13th, 2010 at 9:36 am

    да, это точно……..

     I agree with Jim that people are a company’s largest investment. I served as the head of Human Resources for a publicly traded company during […….

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