Strategy developed – all aboard, the implementation can begin! … Part 8

Post 8:

The company itself does not have the competence to determine the competencies required by the changed strategy.

What does ‘good’ look like? How do you recognize a gifted sales person, if you previously had rather conservative sales people? How can I judge whether the digital marketing talent really can deliver what it promises?

Sometimes it is difficult to discover the required competencies. The cooperation of the personnel department with the superiors who are looking for new employees often focuses on different kinds of candidates. Instead of analyzing exactly what kinds of skills are required, a process of elimination is used: If someone is so very different from the other employees, he will probably be the right person.

This means that if the people making the decisions to employ someone do not have the necessary skills to recognize and analyze the missing competencies, the targeted staffing of a position will be very difficult. This begins with how potential candidates are addressed. Does it make sense to look for a new employee for social marketing by means of a newspaper ad? Can you find a Creative Director through structured interviews? Is an Assessment Center or Personality Test that has been used for the last 25 years still the best way to find new competencies?

It is recommended that you first establish the competencies to properly address the skills being looked for and to attract attention to yourself, and then get to know and evaluate them. Maybe a new communication channel is required, either through different media or through the choice of a different HR office. And: The issue as to how to integrate completely new skills into the company without breaking down existing structures must be dealt with in detail. It is therefore important to consider whether sufficient coaching and mentoring capacities exist in order to ensure the integration while at the same time maintaining the desired differences.

Here again, it may be useful to reinforce the human resources department temporarily with an interim manager who focuses on discovering the required new skills. The existing personnel department then has to deal with the task of how this candidate can fit with the rest of the workforce. This is where it is possible to develop and get ahead together.