Guest Post

How well do you know what your staff are capable of? I mean this in the nicest way, but often when staff are recruited, it’s for a particular role. You then slot them into that niche and away they go.

But what else can they bring to the table? One very successful company made a point, once their staff had settled in, of taking them out to coffee. The chat would then cover previous jobs, hobbies, experiences (very important), and whatever else the employee wanted to offer up.

This would then be followed up with a questionnaire about their capabilities, what they enjoyed, their aspirations – anything that fired them up or may be of future use.

At first glance, not all the answers are relevant, but give it time. For example – one employee, now in the corporate world, was hiding a previous career long, long ago as a stand up comic. Totally irrelevant, you might think. Or is it? His astute employer called him in to help the chairman work on his nerves and presentation skills. It cost the company nothing (as opposed to around £1k per day with a ‘professional’), and the guy had a great couple of days away from his desk.

You never really know who you’re working with, unless you ask. Here are a few suggestions of how you can utilise people’s skills AND/OR experiences:

Experience With Children

These people may be helpful and patient with trainees or juniors. Consider setting up a mentoring scheme and using their skills this way.

Language Skills

Got a keen linguist in the office? If you deal with foreign clients, they may be able to help. Anything from a language workshop on the basics for when you have foreign visitors, through to full-on interpretation services.

Artistic Skills/Interior Design Skills

Mary may be sitting behind a computer all week, but at weekends she’s attending art courses and producing masterpieces. Get her to paint something bright for the office (rather than pay a gallery or art service). Or ask her to come up with ideas to improve the office surroundings.

Training

Maybe one or several of your staff have been on lots of training courses beforehand and have ideas to share. It wouldn’t necessarily form part of your official training programme, but it would be a very useful experience for them to share their skills in the right areas with others. One design company used their art director to put together a crib sheet for everyone using a design package as part of their work. He was always on hand to ask, but for the everyday basics it saved both him and the other workers many hours per week.

The ideas are endless, but until you find out what they can do, you won’t be able to put any of it to use. Get to work designing a questionnaire and see what benefits can be had.

This post is by Ruth from Rivo Software, a  provider of incident management software and risk assessment software helping businesses manage risk and compliance.

Photo Courtesy Of k gibbons