Changing rules of employee engagement

The ways we engage with talent has undergone revolutionary changes in the last decade or so – but we still continue to do three big mistakes.

1.     Past performance is not indicative of future results is often written as investment advisory. While all organizations continue to do significant investment in human capital, the interviewer mostly focus on the past performance to ‘fit’ the candidate into the position. I am not saying that the interviewer should not review the past experience, but how much time does he devote in aligning the candidates aspirations and expectations with the role’s KRA’s. Asking questions like ‘how will manage failure in this new role’ highlights fitment suitability.

2.     Soft skills was always important and the need has grown exponentially. Mainly driven by the global business dynamics but accelerated due to the pandemic. Our resources are spending increasing hours doing online meetings. All meetings involve some amount of knowledge sharing, negotiation and business decision-making. Resources have been used to doing these interactions in person. I have seen senior resources struggling to drive consensus in global online meetings. If a senior resource has not tried such an interaction earlier, we should take care of not exposing the person to such discussions. He can obviously learn – but let us not try to pit a square peg in a round hole.

3.     Aspiration vs capabilities should be evaluated. I personally feel that aspiration always hold a better card for success in the long run. If the person has the aspiration he can definitely pick up the building blocks required for his success. Hence we should not look at the capabilities which are listed in the person’s resume. Let’s dig deep and understand the ‘purpose’!

Note: Views are personal