Looking for effective employees? All you have to do is to define
your company culture first and then match your employee recruitment efforts
with it.
According to James J Lynn, consulting psychologist and president
of Lynn & Associates, a management consulting company which focuses on business
planning, sales force development and productivity and quality improvement, at
a cultural level and a driving force level, there are four core types of
organizations.
-
The product company
-
The customer company
-
The process company
-
The confused company
THE
PRODUCT COMPANY
As you drive into the parking lot of the product company, you get
your first clues about the company's focus. You drive up by the entrance and
see reserved parking spots near the door for the president and vice president.
You find visitor parking 200 yards away, over by the dumpster. As you enter the
sparse and frugally furnished lobby, you talk to the receptionist through a
glass window that protects her from visitors. On the way to your appointment,
you notice that the halls are full of pictures of the company's products and
employees. You get a sense that this organization is more internally focused
than externally focused.
You have arrived at a product company. Organizations that focus on
products/services have a lot of activity going on. The people seem to be very
smart and creative. They even team up to develop and launch new products.
Product managers are key people here; they are champions for their products,
and they fight for resources with other product managers. The driving force
here is products (or services), period. If the company raises a million
dollars, the first question managers ask each other is, "What products should
we invest in?" Of course, customers are important here -- after all, the
company needs customers to buy its products. However, when a customer asks for
something a little different or extra, the company tends to see this customer
as annoying and overly demanding.
The defining characteristic for a product company is that products
and services come first, and customers come second.
THE
CUSTOMER COMPANY
As you approach the customer company (a hotel, for instance), the
doorman glances at your luggage tag and says, "Welcome, Dr. Lynn, to the Le
Meridian." At the check-in you are offered a glass of iced tea and a warm towel
so you can clean up after an arduous trip. Later that night, you comment to the
bartender that the dessert tray in the dining room looks tempting. He replies,
"Let me have the tray brought in so you can look at the choices."
Everything at this hotel seems to be focused on the guest.
Customer companies are focused on their customers' wants and needs. The
employees in the customer company tend to be other-oriented instead of
self-oriented. They anticipate their customers' needs. Employees are trained to
treat each customer as the customer wants to be treated.
Sure, customer companies have products and services to sell, but
customers come first, and products second.
THE
PROCESS COMPANY
As you drive up to a process company, the first thing you notice
is how familiar the company looks. You could be in any of its branches anywhere
in the world and the company looks the same. This type of company offers a good
product or service for a low price, which means a great value for the customer.
Don't expect a lot of fancy options and extras from the process company. What
you see is what you get.
The employees in the process company are no-nonsense types. They
like the structure and predictability of their work. They look for ways to do
things more efficiently. Process improvement and lower costs are the focus.
Process companies like to have a lot of customers. They think in terms of
market share.
THE
CONFUSED COMPANY
The intentions of the confused company are good. These companies
want to do a good job and please everyone. They want to handle the special
requests, and also deliver the lowest costs with the best possible customer
service. The problem with the confused company is that it isn't focused. It
lacks a clear identity.
Consequently, the employees in the confused company aren't sure
what to do. Should special customer requests be a low priority, or should
employees go out of their way to fulfill these requests? The problem is that
some employees ignore special requests, and others say, "It will be my
pleasure." This results in confused customers. Sometimes customers are
accommodated, and other times they're ignored.
THE
RIGHT PERSON FOR THE RIGHT CULTURE
"Once you understand the four kinds of companies with their
respective cultures, you can apply the concept to hiring," explains Lynn.
Happy, productive employees are basically that way because they are working in
the right company for them. At the very core of the hiring process is the whole
question of cultural fit. If companies did a better job of identifying their
cultures, they would do a better job of recruiting and hiring people who would
thrive in their environment.
Dr Lynn outlines a "simple four-step formula for making hires that
will succeed -- and they'll succeed because cultural fit is taken into
consideration first.
-
Identify your company's culture. Are you basically a product,
customer, process or confused company? This step is the hardest because you may
have to tell the emperor that he has no clothes. If you have a confused
company, do some strategic thinking to get focused.
-
Profile the position you're seeking to fill. Create a position
description for the job. Identify both the job skills and "soft skills" needed
for the position. Build your cultural traits into the profile.
-
Create a structured interview guide. Develop questions to ask
candidates based on your profile. Remember, the best predictor of future
performance is past behavior. Ask questions about what candidates have done,
not about their opinions or feelings. Include questions, tests or simulations
that reflect your company's culture (for example, dealing with an angry
customer, or figuring out how to lower the cost of a product/service).
-
Hire the candidate who fits your culture and has the skills. Use
your knowledge of your culture to make the best hire. You can always teach a
smart employee a new software application, but you can't make a zebra out of a
leopard.
In summary, there are four kinds of companies and four kinds of
employees. The most successful companies intuitively match their employee
recruitment efforts to their culture. These effective companies align employee
behavior, skills and values with the culture of the company
|
Home
Dhirendra R