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In business, what’s the bigger problem: attracting new talent or retaining new talent?
It is equally difficult to attract good staff as it is to retain them because what most employers miss is that it requires energy and effort on both sides – employer and employee – to keep good staff actively engaged in your business.
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Why would someone want to give you their time – their most valuable asset?
First and foremost, your business needs to be able to articulate:
• A vision – where do you wish to go?
• A mission statement – what will you do to get there?
If you are unable to answer those questions, then why would someone want to work for you?
It is only then that you can build a team – attract talent, if you wish. A team has many roles to fill if it is to achieve its overall vision. Australia didn’t win the Asian Cup with 11 Tim Cahills. Every single member of the team needs to understand their role, be able to fill multiple roles if required, and be prepared to balance their personal wishes with the needs of the team.
Finding your team – your new talent – is definitely a challenge.
Most employers put excess effort into finding great staff but fail to keep them engaged, stretched, challenged, and growing inside their roles and the business.
Harvard Business Review recently wrote that in today’s world, it is more important to find willing, intelligent people with potential and challenge them, than to find someone with ready-made skills.
Once an employee (in particular the smart, adaptive people Harvard Business Review talks of) becomes good at their role and it becomes easy, they end up searching outside for challenges to expand themselves.
In this rapidly changing world, I want people in my team who acknowledge that they don’t know the answers but are willing to learn and adapt.
As a personal reflection, one of the most important things I have done to contribute to my success as a business owner was to study a degree in business – it gave me a framework. I also continue to read widely stories of successful and failed business owners.
A successful business owner will have their heart and mind in the right place, balancing his or her own needs with the team and its members. They will make mistakes along the way, but will mostly get it right.
As soon as one is too old to listen – too old to learn – one is too old.
Alan Heath, principal, Mortgage Choice Brisbane CBD
Alan Heath is the owner and principal of Mortgage Choice Brisbane CBD. Originally joining Mortgage Choice as a franchisee in 1998, Alan has owned (with his wife Leeanne Scott) franchises in Adelaide, Darwin, Gold Coast and most currently, North Sydney and Brisbane CBD. They have also owned a business in retail confectionary.
Alan’s awards include being named Franchise (service) of the Year (Franchise Council of SA), Mortgage Choice’s Franchise of the Year (twice), and the MFAA’s National Award Winner (six-plus staff).
You can find this and other material here or download his app in the App Store, “Ask Alan”.
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