Symptoms That Your Workforce May Need to be Remodeled

This post was originally published by PSMJ Resources, Inc.

Professionals in the architecture, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) industries spend a significant amount of time designing and building things for clients. When our primary focus is on providing services and products to clients, we can miss the opportunity to reflect on our own operation.

Optimizing performance, increasing profitability, and being more efficient are only a few examples of initiatives that are swallowed up by daily operations. Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling, who wrote “The 4 Disciplines of Execution”, commonly refer to this as the “whirlwind.” They describe the whirlwind as “the massive amount of energy that’s necessary just to keep your operation going on a day-to-day basis; and, ironically, it’s also the thing that makes it so hard to execute anything new.”

As I meet and collaborate with leaders in the A/E/C industry, I have seen at least one, and often several, of the following symptoms within most firms:

• Don’t understand or leverage the strengths of the workforce.
• Don’t have the right person in the right role or the right person on the bus.
• Managers who were great employees but unsuccessful as a team leader.
• Workforce behaviors that need to change.
• Lack of performance by an individual, team, or department.
• Projects that never seem to get off the ground.
• Reward systems that don’t drive results.
• Low employee morale or engagement.
• Large number of employees nearing retirement age.

These symptoms, if left untreated, can destroy a company’s sustained competitive advantage and in extreme cases can lead to the demise of an organization. If you recognize one or more of the symptoms above in your organization, it may be time to invest in some remodeling.

Designing Your Workforce

Any remodeling project requires a significant amount of energy, time, resources, and equipment. Before jumping in, it’s important to understand the needs, pains, problems, and enhancements that will serve as the project’s focal points. To some, the fun begins when the imagination takes over and starts to brainstorm and analyze possible solutions or ideas. It may make sense to pick one department or division to use when you create and test your workforce prototype. This will allow for improvements and a redesign to take place before expanding to the entire company. A company’s purpose, mission, values, and vision are the foundation of the design process and should guide the decision-making process. Business life cycle status, industry trends, and utilization of technology can significantly influence the type of workforce needed. The lead time needed for the design process will vary from one company to another, and when done right the transition to the build process should be smooth.

Building Your Workforce

It’s hard to fight the urge to talk about specific employees and current positions during the design process; however, it is critical that specific employee discussions wait until the building process. Several things should take place during the building process, including assessing current staff, confirming the right person for the right role, establishing training/development plans, implementing a process to leverage strengths, and determining if staffing changes are required. This building process will position an organization for the future, whether it is for significant growth or to sustain competitive advantage in the marketplace.