The Pursuit of Excellence: Finding Employees that add value

The corporate world is full of smart people. People who go to an office everyday trading their time for income. Smart people who deliver the best they can during the short time they have at work, only to do it all over again the next day.

People often look to their own personal lives in order to add value. "Need to go home to take care of my kids", "Need to get through today, so I can get home", "Gotta make this weekend special", "I wonder where we should go after work," these are some thoughts most people have throughout the work day.

Corporate Executives/Companies, on the other hand, often think throughout the day "How can we increase revenue ?", "Should we add more staff to complete this project?", "Are there more people needing our services?", "How do our customers feel about us?", "how can we do better?" Executives are people too, they think about the personal thoughts just like anyone, but also have a focused mind towards success and growth.

Employees who add value are simply people who think about and execute the best interests of the company without much direction to do so. These employees often tie their personal goals with the company goals. Now this doesn't mean that the companies goals take more importance over personal goals, it means connecting the two, so as to achieve excellence in all that you do.

This leads to a question most companies have: How do we find the right resource who adds value in all aspects of life?

In order to find the right resource, it is important to understand the softer skills the candidate has before he/she becomes an employee. Companies often focus on hard skills, but end up unsatisfied because of the lack of soft skills. Soft skills means, communication skills, continuous development, going above and beyond the 'job requirement' to get things done. Employees who have an 'ownership' mentality in all they do often are the most successful.

Think of this like a basketball sports team. When you have a player even if he is on the bench, you want to make sure he has the ability to step into a full time role, and the team still function fully with no issue. With time this bench player may become a full time player, and help you win a championship. So its vital that all players subscribe to the philosophy of excellence.

The Philosophy of Excellence is nothing more than the burning desire internal to the person to succeed, to add value, to master their trade. Many employees lack this often because the employees may not be a right fit for that, or because the company does not provide this type of environment.

Creating a value add, excellence focused workplace starts with recruiting the right people. Screening the candidates for soft skills and hard skills is vital. Often from the first phone call you can determine if the candidate has the temperament, problem solving skills, excellence minded nature to thrive to the environment. Many candidates, even junior candidates or interns, have a willingness to learn this, these candidates should be considered for such roles, and given a chance to succeed and thrive.

During the interview process, companies can ask questions to determine how candidates solve problems, problems that may not be involved in their day to day work, but rather reviewing how they solve those real life situations which may occur as the talent progresses through the company.

Continuous development of an employee is vital. While managers may not understand this value, and the business requirements are so fast paced that this takes a back burner, this is vital. Employees can be developed by a one day workshop on critical thinking/ideas, conflict resolution, and personal reading and development.

What is the opportunity cost of a 'non value add' resource? These resources often are like hired guns, come in complete the work and leave, however the remaining staff has a reduced morale seeing these resources leave.

Furthermore, it just takes one bad egg to change a culture. Often the mindset or philosophy of the candidates to change a company or division from value add to 'just getting by.'

Make it a point to invest in teaching/training your resources in soft skills. Acquire the right resources with value add/leadership skills through strategic partnerships with firms dedicated to resource excellence, or through a strong screening process. Look to create a mentor-ship/excellence focused work place. Most importantly, give every employee a chance to become a value add resource.

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