Put Your People's Untapped Talents to Work For Your Organization's Success.

In nearly EVERY organization that I have worked for or consulted with, most employees have tremendous skills that AREN'T being utilized.

Here's why...

Nearly every organization hires its people to accomplish a set of pre-defined tasks associated with a job vacancy. They then force their employees to fit into the role defined by the job description.

However, if you look at every employee in your organization's core competencies, you will find that there are many untapped talents that each possesses that are not being used.

Rather than allow these skills to lie dormant, why not redesign their job to take advantage of the depth and breadth of background they possess through their: prior work experience, training ,education, language proficiency, customer service, cultural diversity, volunteer work, hobbies, interests, and passions.

The employee will feel more engaged which will make them feel happier and thus...MORE PRODUCTIVE! That will build a more loyal workforce, increase your employee retention rates, and reduce the significant recruiting costs associated with filling vacancies when people leave.

The beauty is, it only takes minutes to implement such a strategy - call it a HUMAN CAPITAL AUDIT.

Here is how you accomplish this...have every employee's manager sit with each employee and list the employee's primary roles and responsibilities for their current job in one column.

In the column to the right, list all of their top competencies. Then they should decide together which competencies are currently being used (you will be surprised how few of your people's collective top skills are being leveraged.) Then you design an action plan to begin integrating their most relevant skills into their job.

Assign a time-frame to begin using each unused skill. List any contingencies or barriers that will prevent them from accomplishing this in the agreed to time-frame.

Once you conduct this human capital audit for all your people, your organization will begin benefiting immediately from the unleashed talents that your people start leveraging in their day to day jobs.

In today's challenging business climate, the key to your organization's competitive advantage and long-term success is right under your nose...in your people.

Here's to your continued success in 2011!