Your people are your greatest asset.

This may be a cliché, it may even be one which is overused but have you ever stopped to think what it means in practice.  After all, your assets are things which you use to make the business work or to represent the worth of the business but should you really put people in the same category as machinery, cash reserves or even goodwill? 

Well no you shouldn’t because without your people quite frankly the rest wouldn’t exist, the business wouldn’t exist.  When we talk about people being your greatest asset it’s somewhat akin to saying that water is fairly important for life; we may not appreciate it as much as we should, but without it we would die.

Quite simply, with engaged employees on your side not only does the business run smoothly but you also get great customer service, a great reputation, efficient cost management and the potential for innovation to deliver market leading solutions. And by building engagement, by building on your employees strengths you can help your people to become intrapreneurs, each of them taking a proprietary interest in the success of the business.

So how do you build on your employees’ strengths, surely hiring for cultural fit (bringing on board only those you believe will add something to the business) is sufficient? Well, no it isn’t. Yes, hiring for cultural fit is a great start but when you have attracted great people, they deserve the best in return from you. And that starts by recognising that each one of them is an individual and by helping each one of them to learn and to make the most of their strengths.

Self-managed engagement and training programs

This is where technology can really come to your aid. Self managed engagement programs can help employees to take control of their own destiny, whilst blended learning enables people to take advantage of training as and when they need it rather than at times which are preset by the company. This doesn’t mean that you throw formal training programs out of the window, after all a group learning session may well be required when you introduce new technology or new processes to the organisation, but it does mean that you also offer a suite of flexible learning resources which can be taken up as required.

In truth, there is nothing new about flexible learning programs. In fact, a colleague remembers back in the early 80s being given access on an as and when needed basis to bite -sized modules in order to improve their knowledge of computer spreadsheets and analysis. Spending the odd few minutes whenever they could spare it ensured that their workflow remained up-to-date as they built up their knowledge base.

But whilst there is nothing new in blended learning, what is new is the way in which organisations are really starting to appreciate the fact that helping people to build on their own strengths measurably strengthens the organisation.  Your people are your greatest asset is not simply a cliché, it is a recognition of the wealth of talent, of innovation and of reputation which people can bring to your business success.