If you were the boss, would you hire yourself?

The question was posed recently at a public workshop, and the responses were a bit startling.

Half the people in attendance, who worked for a variety of companies, said they wouldn’t hire themselves.

One person said she was always late. Another said he didn’t work hard enough. A third only did what he was told to do, and nothing more.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
Human resources specialist Katharine Bondy works with companies seeking high performance.

“It was quite amazing,” says Katharine Bondy, a principal with Western Leadership Centre Inc., which offers the workshops at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

Bondy was facilitating the first module in a package of seven sessions called Positive Impact. The workshop is designed to teach people how to be “The Person Successful Companies Fight to Keep.”

The modules were developed in response to a survey of 1,000 companies that were asked: beyond technical skills, why would you choose to promote one person over another?

The top reason cited for picking one employee over another was attitude, says Bondy, because positive attitude is strongly linked to job performance.

Other key factors that employers said influenced their decisions are: personal accountability, balance between work and life (i.e., not showing up to work exhausted), ability to change, ability to use time wisely, communication skills and the ability to assume leadership roles regardless of job title.

With the sampling of responses at the chamber workshop, there appears to be room for improvement.

“Every company I’ve talked to has said: ‘We need good people, and we can’t find them,’ ” says Bondy.

“And they say that because they can’t find good people, the success and growth of their company is limited.”

How did we end up with a labour force where employees wouldn’t hire themselves?

In many cases, the organization is at fault.

It’s created a culture where initiative, accountability and loyalty are stifled, says Bondy.

A human-resources consultant in Calgary for 15 years, she works with companies that want to change from a traditional work culture to one she calls high performance.

During her career, she has developed training programs to help companies utilize their people more effectively. Just over a year ago she supplemented her experience by forming a relationship with 360 Solutions, a U.S. company marketing a comprehensive “change” program.

Since teaming with 360 Solutions, Bondy has worked with nine local companies, ranging in size from 40 employees to 480. The firms are diverse, but common threads run throughout.

For example:

* Owners and senior managers don’t know how their companies work. One business had 231 different ways of handling a telephone order that led to huge costs in time, strain within the company, and, more importantly, frustration for the customer.

* Some senior managers who have worked their way up in an organization and been there a long time don’t know how to manage from the balcony. Senior managers interfere in the ways middle managers make decisions and lead their teams. After a while, middle managers quit making decisions because they don’t know who to listen to. * Everybody is trying hard to make a difference, but the culture and processes aren’t in place to allow it to happen. * Everybody is looking for good individuals who are committed to the company.

Says Bondy: “It doesn’t matter what organization we’ve gone into, there is a shortage of people who are committed to the company.”

She explains that her role is to help companies create an environment where employees feel valued, empowered and part of the organization.

She points to a report prepared by 360 Solutions and The Centre for Organizational Design that cites dozens of companies that have improved productivity 10 times over by changing their work culture.

However, while studies prove that workers who feel valued are a direct link to increased productivity, many companies aren’t prepared to change.

Many owners won’t give up their traditional “command and control” role and delegate decision making, says Bondy. And there are always the detractors in every company who oppose change.

“Some companies may not be ready, may never be ready (to change), but they will fall away,” she says. “Their best people will leave for organizations where they will have more opportunity.”

If an organization wants to change, Bondy says a complete makeover is a 36-month process, if the company works at it constantly. Her job is to assess what’s not working, look at the causes and determine the changes required.

The problems aren’t always obvious. For example, one company wasn’t convinced it needed to change even though it was having productivity problems, “always hitting a wall,” she says.

Further review discovered the company had one category of unhappy workers. The group was made up of males with 10 years of experience or more.

“The company didn’t feel it had to invest in them because they were considered lifers,” she explains. “The happiest group was the executive team, followed by people who had been there one to four years.”

Bondy showed the company how to bring the disaffected group back into the fold, and explained their value.

Re-earning their trust and loyalty was crucial because many of the males were in middle management with the ability to influence the productivity, performance and satisfaction of many people in the company.

She sees dozens of toxic situations that can severely affect a company. “I’ve seen many instances where a super worker turns into a supervisor and that person for seven or eight months goes in and controls everything.”

The situation becomes difficult for everyone. People lose enthusiasm, feel undervalued and employee turnover becomes a real problem.

But companies that have created a high performance model don’t suffer those severe problems, she says.

There is support for all concerned, open communication and people understand their part in the business.

In today’s competitive times, what kind of an employee would you want?

Someone who feels essential to the company and will go the extra mile?

Or someone who just doesn’t care?