The Term Job Sculpting to Keep Your Employees

The best way to keep your top employees is to know them better than they know themselves. Use this knowledge to create the career of their dreams, and they’ll stick to your company like glue. The new term for this is called Job Sculpting.

The concept of Job Sculpting as defined by career experts, Timothy Butler and James Waldroop, in the Harvard Business Review, is that good people will stay only in jobs that “fit their deeply embedded life interests, that is their long-held emotionally driven passions.”

To adopt this strategy, spend a lot of effort listening to your company stars. For each one of them, try to identify what life interests are dominant with them, and then offer them the assignments that satisfy this interest. It may mean simply adding another assignment to the existing responsibilities, or it may mean switching one set of tasks to another employee. It may even require moving your star employee to a different position altogether.

To learn what kind of interests you’re looking and listening for, use these 8 identifiable areas:

1. Application of technology.
2. Quantitative analysis ability.
3. Theory development and conceptual thinking.
4. Creative production.
5. Counseling and mentoring.
6. Managing people and relationships.
7. Enterprise control.
8. Influence through language and ideas.

If you have a top employee who has been working in the area of customer service, but lately seems dissatisfied, after talking with him/her you might learn they would rather be dealing with the vendors. Your star might be just the answer you’re looking for to find that latest innovative product that could be added to your stock (conceptual thinking), and employee B would rather interact with the customers. By a simple switch of responsibilities, you have two happy employees that feel they’re now contributing to your business and not just putting in time for a paycheck.

It’s always more cost effective for the business, and better for employee morale to keep your existing employees happy with their careers. It takes a toll on your business when you have to fill an empty employee spot with a newcomer who has to be trained in the way your company functions.

Time is money, and time used to train a brand new employee is the highest cost of doing business. However, the time spent by you to find out what will keep your top producers happy to be working for you – is the best investment you can make in your business.

How To Turn A Job Loss Into A Job Improvement

Losing your job or becoming unemployed deals a gut-wrenching blow. Your first thoughts will probably be, “What am I going to do now? How will I be able to survive?” Then while you’re focused on those concerns, you may detect a change in mood. Not the sadness you might have expected. Worse. For some who find themselves unexpectedly out of the work force, despair overwhelms them. Is it any wonder? How are you supposed to deal with the mortgage or rent that’s due? The food and utility bills?

First, if you find those feelings of despair are overwhelming you, be sure to go and see your doctor right away. Don’t put it off, telling yourself it’s not important. Consult with medical professionals as soon as possible. Looking after yourself and your emotional health is the ONLY issue that should matter in the big picture. You have to have your health if you want to get back on track.

Once you make sure your physical and emotional health are sound, you’ll be ready to look ahead. Hopefully there’s a severance package from your former employer or unemployment insurance to tide you over until you secure another job. For the fortunate, they’re able to find a suitable job quite quickly. Not everyone is that lucky!

And some of your friends may say “There’s a better opportunity just waiting for you!” This may well turn out to be true but right now, hearing those cliches only causes you to feel unkindly toward the speaker. Yes, there are many who lose one job and then find something even better. Hopefully, it WILL happen for you. But at the present you just want work!

Steps to take after job loss

1. Network. Talk to everybody you make contact with. Forget being bashful. Talk. Explain your situation. Have cards made up that list your contact numbers. Give them out to everyone you talk with. You’ll never know when the most unlikely person will know someone who knows someone…

2. Have resume updated. If you feel your resume isn’t good enough, search for local employment agencies. Take advantage of all services they offer. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much help you’ll be given, when you appreciate the opportunities that are offered to you.

3. Join job-finding clubs. Social contact with others going through the same thing is crucial. You might get valuable knowledge from their social network that you wouldn’t have found out about any other way.

4. Look into upgrading. Learning new skills or refreshing present abilities never hurt anyone! There are many good quality courses available through the internet. The internet is a life-saver for the unemployed. You’ll learn about ideas you hadn’t heard of before. You can post your resume online. You can look for employers wanting to hire someone just like you!

5. Consider a new trend called “Homeshoring”. Companies are hiring employees, IT specialists, customer service reps, virtual agents, etc. who prefer to work at home. Real companies, with names you’d recognize, are turning away from outsourcing in foreign countries and are now offering Americans legitimate work from home employee positions.

Losing your livelihood can be really hard to take. To overcome one of life’s whammies, you must become active in your search for new employment. It truly is a job in itself. With this positive attitude and looking after your health, what seemed like devastation, could actually become a new beginning!