How to Build and Retain Top-Quality Teams

Many business owners do not truly appreciate the value that superior team members can provide their business. Owners will work to fill a vacant position without giving careful consideration to its roles and responsibilities. Typically, they also do not think about what characteristics would be ideal for that position.

The tendency is to post a position as soon as it is vacant without giving much thought to ideal characteristics and potential responsibilities. Owners often tell me that they don’t have time to analyze the job requirements – they know the technical skills required but not personal traits such as integrity, good communication skills, being a team player, and being a strong decision maker. They’re trying to find a clone of the recently departed employee.

In their book “Leading Organizations, Scott Keller and Mary Meaney highlight a study by Human Resource Management Associates (HRMA) found that high performers are 400% more productive than average employees. Those results suggest that a team of top-quality employees will complete their work four times faster than a team of average employees given the same assignment.

A McKinsey & Company study examined the correlation between the complexity of a job and its productivity gains. For “very highly complex jobs such as software developers, information managers,” the productivity gain was 800% more than the work of an average employee. That same study found that even for the simplest jobs, the gain in productivity was 50%.

Let’s say you have two teams assigned to complete a simple, 100-day project. The first team, comprised of five average employees, takes the allotted 100 days. According to HRMA and McKinsey & Company’s findings, the second team of top-grade employees would finish the project in 75 days. For a highly complex job, the first team would take 100 days, while the team of top-grade employees would complete the project in 12.5 days.

Consider the impact on your company’s net income. Yes, as a business owner, you would have to pay the top-grade employees more than the average employees. But the superior team would be able to complete more jobs while getting to market faster than your competitors. Don’t let the higher compensation requirements of a highly qualified candidate scare you away from them without fully considering what additional work that employee would enable you to acquire.

Finding and retaining top talent must be a top priority, even for the most visionary and revolutionary of leaders. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, said that business owners should go after the cream of the crop: “A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players”. Jim Collins, author of the best-selling book Good to Great, said, “The single biggest constraint on the success of my organization is the ability to get and to hang on to enough of the right people.”

As you reflect on your current team, how would you rate their performance? How often have you had to correct a team member’s work or respond to a customer complaint related to the performance of a team member? Consider how much easier and enjoyable your life could be with a superior team...less need for oversight means more time to focus on growing your business. You could have more time for leisure time with family and friends. Your customers would be better satisfied with your team members and business. (A happy customer can lead to great reviews, repeat business, and referrals!). Your responsibilities as a business owner could evolve from being more hands-on to letting your team run the organization. How nice would that be?

Here’s a story about the power of hiring top-quality team members. I once coached a business owner who, after ten years, was ready to take his company to the next level. His average annual revenue had plateaued at about $1.7 million. This business owner needed to hire a salesperson – but not just any salesperson. He needed a rock star. After a three-month search, he found and hired a top-grade salesperson. Next year, his annual revenue jumped 48%. A year after that, his gross income hit the $4.8 million mark. The business owner continues to add more rockstar employees to his team, and his company continues to prosper.

CONCLUSION?

You can’t expect an “OK” (defined as someone who can just get the job done) job candidate to deliver superior results, unless you spend time training and coaching them up. This is an excellent strategy only if you, or a highly qualitied employee on your team, has the time to devote to training the new candidate. This strategy of hiring good and training up is a valid strategy but only if done correctly. You get what you put in.

So, if you don’t have the time to thoroughly train a new employee, then don’t hire a candidate you think is OK versus outstanding. Consider the lift an outstanding employee will enable you to achieve and base your compensation accordingly.

Consider a compensation package that’s a combination of salary and commission to provide upside for their outstanding work.

I specialize in working with business owners to build superior teams. Give me a call (404.444.1836) or click on the button below schedule a no-cost recruiting hiring strategy conversation. I’ll be happy to share some ideas and strategies with you.