Most organizations feel like they have a reasonable handle on their workforce.
Positions are filled.
People are showing up.
The operation is moving.
At a glance, things look fine. But over time, it’s not uncommon to notice some other patterns. Some employees become strong contributors but others never quite get there.
Turnover remains higher than expected.
Supervisors spend more time reacting than leading.
It’s easy to see these attributes as part of the game. Some of the new people are “good”, some are not.
At that point, it can be helpful to ask: What is actually shaping the workgroup over time?
Something is doing the shaping. Every day, supervisors make small assumptions about who will stay, who is improving, and might need to be replaced.
Those decisions don’t feel significant in the moment, but repeated over time, they define the group.
If there isn’t a clear, consistent approach, the workgroup is still evolving – just not always intentionally.
Expectations begin to form based on what’s tolerated and what’s rewarded.
And that can show up as:
- uneven accountability
- inconsistent performance
- ongoing frustration
Over time, this also shows up in the numbers. Every new hire starts as an investment. Payroll is expensive. Is each employee investment returning a value to the company? Only when the employee becomes a consistent contributor.
When that happens reliably, the workgroup strengthens. When it doesn’t, negative impacts build quietly over time. And that becomes extremely expensive.
At some point, the question begins to change. It’s no longer just about filling positions. It’s about how to create the kind of workgroup that builds more leaders, scales quickly and properly, creates production efficiency, and limits turnover.
Because filling positions is only the starting point. What happens next plays a large role in the business’s ability to meet revenue and profitability goals.
The Human Resources professionals can and should be a fundamental part of creating an exceptional company. Intentional shaping of the early employee experience is the single most important piece of that recipe for HR.
Steve Pluim is the president of TalentTeam, a Salt Lake City based staffing and recruiting firm.
Steve can be reached by email at steve.pluim@talentteam.com
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