Double your workforce without recruiting one new employee?
‘Ok, so I brought this one key skill to your business, the one that you employed me for, but I have a lot more to offer, ask me’!
YOUR EMPLOYEES HAVE A LOT MORE TO OFFER THAN YOU THINK!
When the value of any asset in a business is assessed, its valuation is based on its life span,
what it can contribute to the organisation within that time frame, all the areas it can add value to, and its positive impact on the bottom line. Right?
Ok, so imagine if we valued our people in the same way, and by doing so, increased their life span of working with us, their overall value to our organisation, and as a result of this enhancing their profiles and their motivation? and finally, the ultimate pay back of overcoming the most common (and the most expensive) operational issues an organisation encounters!
Sounds a bit like workplace ‘Nirvana’ doesn’t it?
People are the most expensive cost to you, depending on your organisational type it could be anywhere between 40% and 60% of your business costs; therefore it is the biggest overhead to your business, should it not therefore be the greatest asset, and treated accordingly?
When change happens
Add to your payroll the costs associated with re-training and recruiting when change occurs, and new skills are suddenly required, or when the multitude of business challenges materialise; implementing new software, new strategy, holidays, sickness, general staff shortages, IT and equipment failures, or when we have to talk to another organisation in a different language, and whilst doing so, considering their business cultures, oh, that reminds me - Brexit!
Au revoir, Adios, Auf Wiedersehen the EU, hello India, China and Turkey.
So imagine, if you had the knowledge of all the skills of your workforce at your fingertips, not just the skills you employed them for, but expertise that they possess from previous roles, or studies, learning’s, experiences and general knowledge, possibly from different cultures, and what if you where then able to utilise them quickly, as and when you required?
A problem, challenge or change is defined as something we may have not experienced before as a business, and our automatic default in this situation is to recruit, train or consult. However the chances are that some individuals in your organisation may already have the answers and/or the skills required, so the solutions could be sitting in the heads of Mary in accounts, John in logistics, Beth in sales, Craig in HR or Lucy in production, all just waiting to be asked!
You could of course just send out an internal email asking; ‘Does anybody have X skill?’ But the chances of it being picked up by the RIGHT person and acted upon, or an individual being motivated enough to respond to it are pretty slim. And of course you would need to assess their level of ability in that skill, all very time consuming and pretty hit and miss!
So how could you have the right information instantly available at the click of a keyboard?
Introducing ‘Bank Your Skills’© (BYS)
Bank Your Skills is a unique database (DB) tool that enables businesses to identify and maximise the skills of its workforce and use them instantly when and where the situation arises, whilst also building a culture of cross departmental support and improving communications, critically, saving the organisation money in terms of recruitment, training and downtime. And all this can be linked to your existing financial and non-financial rewards schemes (or when creating a new one).
Sounds good? Then read on…
What is its main function and how is it designed?
The Bank Your Skills© database has been developed to capture all the ancillary skills of your employees. It has been designed to look and feel just like a normal high street bank (see mock up of main page above), with individual current accounts, utilising ATM’s, statements, pin numbers, credits, debits, withdrawals and loans, so as not to be alien to the majority of users.
Is BYS just for supporting re-active business needs?
The most important element of the tool is when a new challenge arises and a solution is needed within a short time scale, but pro-actively it goes much further than this, for example, individuals may want to learn new skills for their own personal development or for role changes that they or their organisation are considering.
Once the system is in place it should encourage employees to look forward (pro-actively) to assess where there will be skill gaps and not waiting until the last moment. Education is key!
It can also be used to build sports and social clubs/groups, and to put hobby groups together (as BYS captures all this information).
Another example of its flexibility is when a company is considering a new strategy, utilising the Bank Your Skills database to see whether any new skills required are available before they commit to a particular strategic path. It can support your mergers and acquisitions, and identify potential talent. Finally, it can be used for identifying general training and development needs.
These are just some of the examples of how BYS can support your business.
How is BYS implemented, and is employee participation compulsory?
The initial implementation of Bank Your Skills and how it is communicated is critical to its success. Our recommendation is that it is done on a non-compulsory basis, i.e. employees do not have to give their skills or expertise, however once the benefits are explained and the rewards programme is implemented, its benefits to individuals and to the business are easily recognised and people will buy in and support it.
Other considerations are the workloads of individuals and therefore their availability to support others.
Our implementation and support options:
If required, BYS can support the implementation of the BYS database; this support can consist of communicating BYS to your workforce, explaining and demonstrating how it functions and its benefits to the employees and the organisation alike. We can also support the department-by-department implementation, monitoring numbers and ensuring employee skills input are on track, sending reminders and finally giving updated management reports.
Please contact philip@bankyourskills.com for further information on this service.
It has over 9,000 key word searches covering:
Over 6,000 job roles in over 60 sectors, plus:
All education qualifications (from secondary through to university +)
Apprenticeships
Teaching or training roles
Skills training
IT skills including; programming, development, design, software, maintenance, social media skills, internet security, etc (over 1,000)
Languages (over 150)
Hobbies and interests (more than 140)
Sports (all sports)
How is the information captured?
Existing and new employees enter their individual skills information once they have ‘opened’ their accounts and received their pin numbers. The system then prompts the users throughout, to help them recall skills in the following areas (they can go back at anytime to update):
Part time – full time roles that I have held (however short)
Educational and other qualifications that I have been awarded
IT skills that I have (backend, front-end, support, software, security etc)
Training I have received
Languages I speak
Hobbies, interests and sports I engage in
Further work related experiences
Anything else not listed above
There is a ‘Pull up a list’ button in each area to help them to identify skills
Individuals define their expertise level for each skill:
Basic knowledge
Work with supervision
Self sufficient in the skill
Can coach the skill
How is the information requested, searched and implemented?
When a skill or experience is required the person/s identifying the need have an after initial consultation with their line manager, to see firstly whether there is a solution within the department, if that is not the case they then send a request (via the DB landing page) outlining the need and its background, the skill/s required, the level of expertise required, the time frames and the level of urgency. This is all set in a SMART objective template.
The request is received by the BYS database administrator/s, who then searches the DB to identify potential employees with the requisite skills; once they have been identified the administrator contacts the individual/s and their line-manager/s to arrange a discussion with all parties.
If there are no individuals identified for the task, there is also a ‘Shout Out’ area on the landing page of the BYS DB, the administrator uploads the skill/s and this links to the SMART objective set.
How does it work with your rewards schemes?
Credits and debits are given for training/coaching/support given (credits) and those received (debits). Both elements are positive, with credits being given to the person/s sharing the skills and debits for the person, team or department receiving the skills (as this is also a positive development).
We suggest that the levels of credits given are higher than debits received.
Each month, the site can show the employees of the month (those that have contributed the most). The site will also generate ‘Statements’ where the employees can see their ‘balances’, as and when they require and automatically on a quarterly basis.
The rewards (either financial or non-financial) can be given quarterly, every six-months or annually.
Some elements, for example outside interests and hobbies won’t necessary receive debits or credits as this is for personal gain, although it brings colleagues together.
Skills development for future roles or changes can be assessed giving a different level of credits and debits. We can discuss these different formats and their benefits with you.
Bank Your Skills will be released towards the end of 2016 on a subscription basis and may be used from our servers or downloaded onto your own servers.
Other add-ons to the BYS database tool:
Finally, there will be four further add-ons to the Bank Your Skills database, these are:
Bank Your Ideas© this is for employees to register new ideas that can potentially improve areas of the business or organisation.
Bank Your Best Practice© where employees can deposit their
recommendations, suggesting ways to improve existing working practices.
Bank Your Contacts© where employees can capture all their business contacts (only used with their express permission and input).
Bank Your Profile© this area works alongside our on-line PRISM Brainmapping© tool which captures your employees positive work place behaviours, work preferences, core traits and aptitudes to deliver.
All these areas can be used as part of your financial and non-financial rewards programmes.
To further discuss how Bank Your Skills can work for your organisation, please contact: philip@bankyourskills.com or telephone: +44 (0) 7966 570421
Copyright Philip Peters - Bank Your Skills 2016©
