|
Fit, Functionality and Fitness
I've been working with a company the last couple of months and we've set up the office processes to create a productive environment. The owner is ready to hire someone full time now and he asked me to get the ball rolling.
Fit: My first question to him was, "What is his vision of the right fit of an employee?" We used a personality profile assessment to help identify the fit of the ideal person for his office. Assessing behavioral traits improved the hiring success rate to 38%. When both thinking abilities and behavioral traits are assessed, the right fit is hired 54% of the time.
Functionality: Additionally, we have been setting up systems so that this long time solopreneur could collaborate with his team that includes now his new hire office administrator, a sales liaison, and several field personnel. The systems we put in place included:
- The iPEP workspace, which is a web based document management system to organize their physical filing system and integrate scanned documents.
- Microsoft Exchange to eliminate double entry with email by integrating systems on Outlook for his new team of five.
- Contact management system set up by scanning business cards into Outlook and sharing the contacts with the entire staff.
You can think about your own areas where you may be double processing, such as the integration of invoicing system with Outlook (right now my client is still using MS word for invoicing). I know! How archaic! What about your systems? Are you still doing things the way you were doing them 5 years ago, 10 years ago, or just always!
I'm not a miracle worker, and I know that everyone is ready for change in their own time. Some functionality may have made sense 20 years ago, but today you can synchronize systems and be more functional. (Coincidentally, just this week, I was on my National Speakers Association monthly consultants call and Laura Stack was our professional expert speaking on exactly this topic. We productivity experts are all on the same page!)
 Fitness: When you have systems in place and the right person, you can stay in shape. Like any fitness program, it takes a personal commitment at first, then daily maintenance, and a functional routine that works for you and is flexible enough so it can be maintained over time.
Imagine a fit, functional, and healthy work environment! It'll do your business good!
| 
No I haven't switched professions to professional training. Although if you were reading my blog, you'll know that I went to a fitness trainer last week while I was visiting Wilmington, North Carolina. And oh my gosh, it was great, although, I was sore for a few days! Not good timing, as I helped my brother over the Memorial Day weekend move into his new house in Jacksonville, North Carolina. We literally moved a ton of junk out of the house. We have the dump receipt to prove the weight. Man, I hurt everywhere! I'm happy to be home and back to ... work?
On Wednesday, June 3, 2009, Barbara Hemphill and Andrea Anderson will personally introduce you to the iPEP in a FREE 1 hour webinar at: 9AM PST/10AM MST/11AM CST/12PM EST
Anne McGurty is CEO of Strategize & Organize, a company devoted to training individual's to be more effective with the tools and resources to be productive in their work environment.
