Bench Strength

Any thriving business is cognizant of the fact that their achievement hinges significantly upon the services and loyalty of key personnel department, as well as the ability to attract, retain and incite qualified staff. Of course it does not stop with hiring and retention, the most important aspect of human resources is to be capable to recognize potential leaders and train them accordingly so as to prepare them for more responsibilities and leading roles as they grow with the companion. The term bench strength refers to the depth of any given clubs pool of qualified and potential executives and managers.These short-listed people are being prepare to go up the corporeal ladder, in a seamless succession of leadership that entrust bring stability and increased harvest-home for the company. To make sure that the potential leaders impart be up to the task, of all timey company must(prenominal) invest in the training and development of their personnel. This training and devel opment chopine is so designed in such a flair that will harness the skills and strengths of these people, in the hopes that they will be able to jazz the company through rough waters and towards higher grounds.Potential leaders must be identified, mentored, and exposed to for each one levels of the companys operations. This way, these people are able to gain a broader and deeper insight of how the business functions, and as such, be able to contribute in all the levels of operation of the business. According to Conger (2004), Succession attention must be a flexible system that is oriented toward developmental activities, and not just a rigid list of high-potential employees and the slots they might possibly fill. An effective bench strength strategy is to farm a program that sure-firely marries succession planning and leadership training and development. This way, the company necks the skills required for leadership positions, and training will be aligned in such a way tha t these skills are successfully developed. Conger (2004) further maintains that the companies that have the most success in bench strengthening programs are those that unify succession planning and leadership development in order to create a long-term butt for managing the talent roster across their organizations. Of course a company cannot develop a succession program if its fails to institute a hiring and retention program that would ensure the appropriate fit of employees to their respective job responsibilities. humane resources must be able to attract and hire the right people the introductory time. If a company fails in this regard, staffing will eat into the companys resources, and cause disruption in the business because there is frequent change in personnel, leaving the business without any real awareness of succession. (Burkholder, 2003, p. 150) In such cases, some companies are forced to hire outsiders for leadership roles.While this is not necessarily bad, personne l who have been groomed for sensitive and executive positions are will require less adjustment both from subordinates and higher-ups alike. Companies must first look within and find potential leaders among the ranks. The sense of opportunity and career growth will inspire people and motivate them to work harder and give their exceed performance in every endeavor. Employees who know that their efforts are noticed and recognized have no reason to leave in search of greener pastures and burst opportunities.A company with loyal and hard- working(a) personnel will also have the pool of leaders that they need for a seamless succession of leaders. This internal development program not only saves on cots in name of cost in time and additional compensation to attract and hiring outside people, but more importantly, boosts the esprit de corps of the personnel and ensures the stability of the company in terms of human resources. on that pointfore before any successful succession and leader ship development can be designed, an effective staffing program must first be put in place.Burkholder (2003, 151) maintains that staffing must be aligned with the rest of the organization. This means that staffing must constitute a proactive role in the company, and not just act on a need basis. There are many techniques to ensure an effective staffing program. One method is called the Baldridge process. This program requires a company to take self-assessment. This self-assessment is designed to help companies align their business processes and operations with fluctuating business needs and with the passing erratic labor market. By so doing, this recognizes the strategic role of the staffing host in the business.(Burkholder, 2003, 152) The main advantage of victimisation the Baldridge process is that it empowers the staffing grouping and acknowledges their value in the business. Knowing that they have full support of the company, an empowered staffing group is thus able to cr eate better and more efficient hiring and recruitment programs that will ensure the best matching of people to their spheres of responsibility. The entire business must operate as a single entity, with each department geared towards forwarding the business core values and achieving financial success for the company.When designing or implementing any type of staffing and retention programs, it is important to involve all the employees. It is a good idea to hook their ideas and feedback. A cross-section of all departments must give their suggestions, this is to ensure that staffing and retention practices will be highly aligned with the needs of the company. After the programs have been implemented, there must be a system that will regularly monitor and evaluate the programs.Such a system allows dfor continued improvement buttressing the good points and working on the not-so-good aspects of the program. (Harris & Brannick, 1999, p. 206) Every organization, regardless of its size will benefit from competent people. The issue that every company must address is how to invite these people and keep them one time they have been hired. The next step once you have retained these leaders, is to provide them with growth opportunities that would harness their skills and competencies to the benefit of the entire business.As the company grows, your key personnel should be made capable to handle decision-making responsibilities. To achieve this, your staffing group must be explicitly mired in the planning and implementation of the companys business plan. By being aware of the objectives of the company, the staffing group has a framework by which to design its own hiring and retention procedures and programs in such a way that contributes to the realization of these goals. (Becker, 2001, p.29) Indeed when a department knows what is expected of them and how they can help the organization, all their energies will be focused towards the attainment of that common goal. Every co mpany must endeavor to encourage a sense of community and participation across all levels of the organization. Only then can a business ever have a chance at carving a niche for itself in the highly rivalrous world of the free market. References Becker, B. E. , Huselid, M. A. (2001). The HR Scorecard Linking People, Strategy, and Performance.Harvard Business School Press. Brannick, J. & Harris, J (1999). Finding & Keeping neat Employees. NJ AMACOM Div American Management Association. Burkholder, N. C. , Edwards, P. J. , Sartain, L. (2003). On Staffing Advice and Perspectives from HR Leaders. NJ John Wiley and Sons. Conger, J. A. & Fulmer, R. M. , (2003). Bench Strength prepare Your Next CEO. Developing Your Leadership Pipeline. Harvard Business Review. Vol. 81, No. 12. Retrieved on August 5, 2007 from http//hbswk. hbs. edu/archive/3855. html