People Changes: Problems or Positive Potential?

Businesses grow based on the energy, ideas, creativity and dedication of their people. Finding and retaining the best possible fit of people to jobs is among the top priorities of every business leader. However, changes happen. People changes, that is. Now they happen more frequently than ever, driven by a multitude of reasons in our volatile workplace, including:

• People are moving from one job to another within the company for career advancement.
• People are leaving companies for better opportunities elsewhere.
• People are being fired or downsized.
• People are relocating to another state or nation.
• People are becoming disgruntled and quitting.
• People are retiring from the workplace.
• People changes are further accelerated by the workforce's growing acceptance of multiple job changes as "normal and desirable." But for whatever reason people leave their jobs, they leave holes in the organization that must be dealt with effectively.
• People changes can be approached as problems.

When they are perceived as problems, businesses seek to "plug the holes" in an urgent, cursory manner. An under- qualified or over-qualified person (who may or may not be successful) will be quickly recruited to step in to avoid losing momentum.

Or, businesses may permanently reallocate tasks and duties to the missing person's coworkers who are already overloaded with their own work. A habit of handling people changes in these manners risks making everyone's job either unsatisfying or humanly unachievable, and can lead to increased levels of people changes.

Many successful companies have developed the discipline of working through people changes with positive potential in focus. They see change as part of a continually recurring opportunity to rethink, redefine, reposition, and reinforce jobs that are left open.

When people changes inevitably occur, the process they follow to move forward quickly and successfully can be guided by questions such as:

1. Who are the stakeholders in our company whose successes are affected by this change?

2. Including their input as a group, what do they consider the top 5 reasons the job (left open) exists?

3. Do any of our other jobs overlap with those top 5 reasons? If so, how? What are three "measurable accountabilities" that the job is responsible to achieve for continued business success?

Peopleconnect’s Recruiters provide a full service high tech executive search connecting outstanding candidates with wonderful clients. Providing contingency search and contract recruitment solutions to clients. Peopleconnect’s New York recruiter will help you in finding the right people in New York.