The concept of workforce management follows the precept of three “rights”—the right people, the right place, the right time. Conventional wisdom states that having the right people with the right skills assigned to the right tasks at the right time makes for workplace efficiency, the desired results, and happy clients. But, is this right?
Armin Trost, Ph.D., begs to differ with this human resources mantra: “I find this viewpoint to be extremely dangerous.” His reason: the people who do not work in human resources do not have the same questions. They focus more on the details of the next project, work-life balance, what contributions to which they are obligated for corporate success, skills development, and tasks they’d prefer to do. Applicants, he says, wonder why they should work for a specific company, the status of their applications, and what sacrifices the new company will require if they are indeed hired. In short, says Trost, “A focus on ‘the right people in the right place at the right time’ inevitable results in more attention being given to the company’s requirements rather than the employees.”
Industry gurus and thought leaders such as Oleg Vishnepolsky remind businesses that business runs on people. In a world increasingly driven by technology, the needs of human beings to be treated as thinking, feeling people become easy to overlook when their employers move them like interchangeable cogs and gears in a machine. That, of course, builds resentment which yields all sorts of costly consequences for companies.
The irony is that the company’s requirements must be met in order to operate. Financial Times notes that “the opportunities being created by all this change cannot be converted into real business value unless organizations have the right people in the right place at the right time.” Once again focusing on human resources departments with an exhortation to move away from reliance upon best practices and direct their efforts toward building a staff with the skills and knowledge to do the company’s work. That effort may include shifting people to positions better fitting their interests and talents, investing in employee training to bring their skills up to speed, and hiring new people who can bring needed skills onboard right away.
According to The Hartford, workforce management’s focus on the three “rights” relies upon standard objectives: definition of work roles and responsibilities, identification of staffing levels, and allocation of business resources. In less scholarly terms, ICMI states that this means understanding what you have and deciding what’s important. Once you achieve that, match what you have to what’s important and find the gaps. There will be gaps. Fill them. ICMI also warns that as business evolves and technology changes, the process of definition, identification, and allocation must continue: “Performance optimization should be a continuous journey and not a standalone initiative.”
Beyond workplace management, Forbes notes the tremendous results that arise from the right people being in the right place at the right time. They summarize the story of REBBL Tea, which arose from the efforts of an “impressive group of 50 technology, social capital, and financial professionals” who set their creativity and minds to mitigating human trafficking through socioeconomic influence. That influence resulted in a locally sourced tea company that invests its profits back into the region where the product was sourced: Peru, India, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe.
The Heggen Group helps businesses prioritize what they need, match existing staff to those needs, and figure out the best way to fill the discrepancies where staff and need do not match. Contact Jayne Heggen, CEO, for more information.
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