The fundamental change of the professionals talent market, preferences and values among talents and the way we conduct our work create incredible opportunities. It’s our conviction that there’s so much more potential when a group shares a joint mission. When each and everyone is comfortable to be the best versions of themselves a culture is created that aims for excellence. That’s much more powerful than the best strategies or the most elaborate of spreadsheets.
This is something we at Spintop engage in every day with our portfolio companies. We don’t have all the answers or blueprints yet. But we love to learn and develop how we do things, by sharing and discussing. Our insight is this, so far. The starting point is the professionals talent market.
There is a massive shortage of talent. Dedicated, smart and forward thinking co-workers are difficult to attract. The gap is more than a million people just in Europe, according to various sources. So, the talents will pick you, you will not select them.
The talents seek stimulating tasks, good professional development and adequate compensation. But these are just qualifiers. They also seek purpose and passion. They want to be part of something bigger, reach true impact and build a better society for tomorrow.
And they seek flexibility and balance to deliver the very best when working. For most professionals it is the WHAT that matters, the results, not WHEN or WHERE.
The fundamental change of the professionals talent market, preferences and values among talents and the way we conduct our work create incredible opportunities. In order to lay the foundation for a successful company you should focus on finding and attracting talent and building a high performance organization.
Finding and attracting talent
Address 100% of the talent pool rather than 10%
Most people are not actively considering a new job at any given point in time. Communicating with the 90% not actively looking for something new, increases chances to find the most suitable people for your team.
ALL communication is communication with the talent market
Communication is global and highly transparent. Remember that you are always communicating with the talent market, regardless if you’re in a sales meeting, handling a customer service request or going through the audit of the annual accounts.
Communicate your purpose, with passion
Talents want to know the purpose of a job and an organization, not only the job description. And remember, this is true for all parts of your business. Your customers and business partners are the same people. Who you are and what you stand for are as important as the product or service you offer.
Building a high performance organization
It all starts with Values and Culture
Values and culture are living things. They can’t only be printed on a poster on the wall, they need to be talked about, discussed and sometimes challenged. Values and culture that makes people comfortable and secure, ensures creativity and helps people to be the best version of themselves.
Deliver on flexibility in space and time
Gathering co-workers in the same office became a historical concept when digital collaboration and production developed to be the new normal. Now it’s essential to ensure that flexibility in space and time doesn’t lead to inefficient processes. Therefore it’s important to ensure that great relationships and social bonds between colleagues and teams can grow even when the workplace is more than one physical space. A traditional office space at a central location or in a business park may fit into the puzzle, but with a very different role.
Take the remote and hybrid setup all the way
To make a remote and hybrid set-up work well, you have to take it all the way. This is our conclusion, after digesting the know-hows and hands-on experiences shared by people that are a lot smarter and more experienced on the subject than we are. If it’s only half done there will be confusion and friction. But if you strive towards the principles of transparency, empowerment and flexibility a little more than initially would seem natural, you can bridge the lack of physical presence with inclusion and openness.
If you succeed and attract a great team that work well together you’re on the right track. At the end of the day, it is the collective power of people on a passionate mission towards a noble purpose that will make the difference and win in the long run. And build a better tomorrow.
We’d love to hear your thoughts, drop us an e-mail or comment on our LinkedIn!
Sources: The Remote Lab; Adway
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash