Best Practices in Recruiting and Retaining Talented Staff.

A. Retention
Retaining the most talented workers is a multifaceted process, but we’ve broken it down into practical steps in a series of key areas, from orientation to business development.
B. Employee Orientation
These steps can help your firm make a great first impression:
· Let people know what they’re getting into
· Formally welcome new staff to the firm
· Provide a manual
· Assign mentors
· Encourage follow-up questions
· Don’t be a stranger
C. Career Development
These best practices include general guidelines for all employees’ career development.
· Provide education
· Whenever possible, share decision making
· Acknowledge staff
· Let staff show their expertise
· Create detailed job description
· Set clear performance expectations
· Create a compensation plan
· Take advantage of the review process
· Reorient advancing professionals
D. Motivational Programs
· Offer professional compensations and benefits
· Allow staff to have client contact
· Treat employees like family
· Keep the door open
· Find out what employees want
· Involve relatively new hires in the recruiting process
· Create a pleasant office environment
· Pay for professionalism
· Keep your technology up to date
· Open up management meeting
· Be flexible
· Celebrate success
· Find the fun in the busy season
· Recognize important milestones or accomplishments’
· Set standards for the staff treatment
· Be aware of the need for change



Source: White paper from AICPA

Office Management - PIPRO Model

Several Ideas, models and framework are available in books and on web for effective and efficient work and task management. A colleague of mine recently discussed the PIPRO model for task management. PIPRO stands for:

P – Plan
I – Implementation
P – Process
R – Review
O – Orientation

Plan – Plan and prioritise the task in hand, Identify the critical, very urgent and urgent work to be completed and schedule the task accordingly. For example, Plan the task and resource requirement before executing the task.

Implementation – Perform the task as per the priority and schedule prepared earlier. For example, perform the task/job on time to complete it before deadline.

Process – Understand the process involved in performing the task, Identify and improve on the process of doing the task to reduce time, cost or work. For example, a task can be done using new technology, new practices or advance skills set. Collaborate and revisit the process.

Review – Review the task after completion and incorporate the learning, changes when the task is repeated. For example, many a times we repeat the old mistakes and hence keep a record of the learning and refresh yourself.

Orientation – Orient yourself to carry out the task in a way that improves work productivity. For example, practice and review time management, office etiquettes and job delegation skills.

Evolution of KM

Knowledge management has a long and distinguished history. It was as long ago as the 1960s, when Peter Drucker first coined the term “knowledge worker”.

Some of the significant events were:
1986 – publication by Swedish knowledge management pioneer Karl-Erik Sveiby of The Know-How Company (with Tom Lloyd).
1987 – ‘Managing the Knowledge Assets into the 21st Century’ round table (between US academia, business and government) – one of the first nationwide efforts to harness intellectual capital.
1991 – appointment of Leif Edvinsson as Vice President of intellectual capital for Skandia, arguably the first formal board level appointment related to knowledge management
1991 – publication of seminal Harvard Business Review article by Ikujiro Nonaka on the ‘knowledge-creating company’, later expanded and published as a book with Hirotaka Takeuchi (1995)
1993 – ‘Intellectual capital: your company’s most valuable asset’ – article by Tom Stewart in Fortune that helped raise awareness of knowledge management in the world of business
1995 – first business seminars and conferences in the USA e.g. Knowledge For Strategic Advantage – co-sponsored by Arthur Andersen and the American Productivity and Quality Center, held in Houston.
1996 – first business conferences in Europe
1998 – The World Bank chooses the theme Knowledge for Development as the topic for its annual world development report.
1999 - Blog was introduced.
2000 - podcast considered as an “audio blog.” started becoming popular. Although Internet-based audio has been around since the early 1990s when they were known as “Internet radio” or “Web radio.

Character traits of the team members

Greater emphasis is given to the essential character traits of the team leader to be successful. These are:

trustworthiness,

objectivity,

motivational,

analytical

and self assured.

But the characters of the team members equally contribute to the success of the team. The essential character traits of the team members could be:

tolerance,

flexible,

eager to learn and explore,

genuine and honest,

adaptable to change

and team player.

The team leader has to essentially educate the team members on the above character traits to bring about change in the team members as these traits may not be conscripted.