by Kenneth Burnett

Created on: July 03, 2007

The single greatest key to having outstanding employees begins with the selection process. However keeping those employees and making them truly great will require much more. Regardless of the industry or category a business falls in, it's leaders must possess excellent people management skills to make that business thrive. While most anyone would agree strong leadership is essential to business growth, equally so is the hard work and dedication of it employees.

The selection process is critical as many companies know hiring the wrong individual can be costly, and often times more damaging than not filling the position at all. That is time and energy wasted by the company in training, and benefits, not mention any further turnover due to damaged morale among the other team members. This is why many companies utilize vigorous pre employment background checks, and assessment testing and placement. This is usually followed by multiple interviews, and structured interview guides to help both the hiring manager and the candidate keep on track. All of which are very useful tools to ensure you have made a sound hiring decision.

Secondly the new hire enters training. In order for this to be successful the trainee will have to work in an environment that is both challenging and supportive. Clear expectations will have to be set throughout training in order for the employee to yield the very best result possible. The very best trainers have a great understanding of training techniques and hold the trainee accountable for his progress every step of the way, with the new hires success as the priority.

Lastly and equally as important as the selection process a successful company has managers who will further the employees development and care about their success. It is important to remember that what ever you do to get the employee (and results), you must continue to do in order to retain them (and keep the results).

Following are a few tips on how to effectively manage people.

1) Set clear expectations from the beginning. Make certain the employee understands what is expected of them, and how they are to complete tasks. This reinforces responsibility, and makes holding the employee accountable much easier.
2) Always use "behavior," or "action" based statement when praising or correcting an employee. Focus on exactly what the employee "did" to warrant the praise or correction. Example: "Fantastic job with period end inventory. You had the reports in on time, everything was accurate

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