One Weird Fact About 80% of Your Workforce

 

Previously in the Eye, we have covered the importance of carefully managing your best workers - the high performers. Recent research tells us that doing so may be more important than we thought. There is good news and bad news as a result of the study summarized in this National Public Radio story (listen or read, or check out the research abstract if you want more detail).

The Good News:  Many more people than expected are outstanding performers. Instead of what you would expect from a statistically normal distribution - a small percentage that is outstanding and most people simply average - perhaps 20% could be high performers. This was found across a variety of disciplines.

The Bad News:  Once we know that there are many more people far above average, that means more people must be below average. So there are many more people below average in your project than you previously thought possible. Or maybe you have already realized this must be true as you

• wait through delay after delay
• manage rework in project deliverables
• deal with poor team performance
• struggle with turnover due to individuals just not being able to work successfully in the project

More Good News:  You have more excellent workers than you perhaps thought and there are more out there that you can hire. Get past the belief that there are only a few gems waiting for your discovery. Search broadly to find the better selection of candidates who will be productive in your project.

More Bad News:  The performance appraisal system used by your organization may be forcing a normal distribution on its workforce, de-motivating some of your best people and even causing them to leave. Look for these diamonds in the rough and be their supporter. You may be able to turn their performance around - and eliminate their bitter influence on the rest of your workers.

How you deal with your own frustration is beyond the scope of this blog.

In any case, look for restrictions or constraints on the performance of the outstanding workers in your project. Not sure what these restrictions and constraints are? Guess who you should ask.