Value Fit Most
Value Fit Most
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Finding the Right Fit Between Organization Values and Employee Values – 5 Useful Steps
Consider this scenario. You have some very talented employees. They possess all the right knowledge, skills, and abilities. However, after a while, they become less cooperative, less productive, and less interested in working for your organization. Question: What could be the problem? Answer: Perhaps there is poor fit between these employees and your organization.
If you read any of the mounds of research on people-organization fit, you will find that this happens all too often. Companies hire great employees who either leave or become less great. The literature tells you to make sure that you use the hiring process to identify employees whose values are similar to your organization's.
Since you are looking for the right fit, then starting with the hiring process is critical. But this does not always happen "before" employees are hired. So what can you do to create a better fit or uncover the right fit "after" employees are hired? Try these 5 Steps:
Step 1: Review your organization's vision, mission, and/or values statements. If you don't have all three, use whatever you have. Look at behaviors, actions, promises, and intentions. What does this information tell you about the following?
• The delivery of products and services
• The quality of products and services
• The treatment of employees
• The treatment of customers
Step 2: Identify the adaptive characteristics and personality traits that are important to your organization. What kind of attitude, perspective, outlook, or mindset is necessary to succeed in your organization? Consider things like:
• Being self-motivated and self-directed
• Being helpful and cooperative
• Being able to handle work and people pressures
• Being persistent and persevering
Step 3: Identify the performance outcomes that are necessary to successfully complete tasks. Here, focus on HOW employees must perform in order to make positive contributions. The focus is not on skills because you can have highly skilled employees who don't produce positive results. So think about what you need employees to do with their skills. For example, your employees might need to:
• Meet delivery deadlines
• Produce high-quality products
• Deliver services promptly
• Resolve problems quickly
Step 4: Use the items in Steps 1, 2, and 3 to find the "fit" between your employees and your organization. Your organization needs certain things to be successful. And your employees have certain things. Your goal at this step is to find a match between the two. To do this, ask the following questions:
• What are the similarities between what my organization needs to fulfill its vision, mission, and/or values AND what my employees have?
• What are the similarities between the adaptive characteristics and personality traits my organization needs AND what my employees have?
• What are the similarities between the performance outcomes my organization needs AND what my employees deliver?
Step 5: Use the information in Step 4 as part of your ongoing communication strategy with employees. Whether you are having a formal meeting or an informal chat, highlight the specific areas where there is match between what you value and what your employees value. Sometimes it's not that the "fit" isn't right; it's that the "fit" hasn't been highlighted.
Finding The Right "Fit" Is Good Management Policy
If you look at the above steps, you will see that this approach can be used as a general strategy to motivate employees and to improve performance. So finding the right fit, between what your employees value and what your organization values, is just good management policy. You are letting employees know that there is a match between what your organization needs and what they have. So you are saying, "We both believe in the same things and we both want the same things."
These 5 Steps allow you to find this match "before" employees are hired, or "after." If before hiring, use this information to formulate some interview questions. It could help ensure that you hire the right person for the right job. If after hiring, create an employee-organization fit profile for all your employees. It could help you combat lackluster performance or reduce turnover. In either case, these steps are just another tool you can use to motivate employees and encourage positive contributions.
About the Author
Dr. Barbara Brown trains, writes, and consults on strategies to enhance and improve workplace performance.
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